There was no time to react. The improbable situation that had presented itself before him needed to be clarified before any further action could be taken. Oryon immediately snapped into his senses and incapacitated the girl with a sharp blow to the side and an injection of a sedative from his wrist gauntlet. The girl slumped to the floor unceremoniously, and Oryon wasted no time drawing a blood sample. She was the right age, and there was certainly a physical resemblance between them. But could it really be? Could she truly have kept this secret from him for so long?

A monstrous roar echoed through the walls of the Academy. They were under attack by the deadliest of all possible enemies. Asmodeus Halcyon, robbed of his free will and unburdened by restraint, now set upon the students he was teaching only moments ago with every intention of tearing them apart. The students stumbled backwards, faced with an enemy none could contend with.

It was Zhejari who decided to try. Adopting an aggressive stance, Zhejari drew upon the power within himself and began to charge with electricity. He threw out his hands in front of him and blasted his advancing opponent with every ounce of power that he could call upon. The blast struck Asmodeus across his face, forcing him to stumble sideways, losing his foothold. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhejari sent a second blast to Asmodeus' shoulder, hoping to use the larger man's momentum against him.

The now-feral Asmodeus was only momentarily stunned, however, and quickly dodged the second blast with surprising speed. He rolled to his side and roared again, focusing his rage into a kinetic blast that sent Zhejari flying backwards. The sound was deafening, echoing through the jungle. But it was the sound that followed shortly after that called the jungle itself into action.

Fiachra, startled by the roar and fearing for her life, lost her composure and screamed.

Asmodeus, drawn to her scream like a hungry predator descending on a wounded animal, turned and descended upon her. He reached out a large, meaty hand, intending to clasp her entire head and pop it like a grape.

He would never get the chance.

The ground beneath his feet shifted and roared to life. Roots and vines from the mighty trees around them rose from the dirt and enveloped him, wrapping around his limbs and torso, lifting him off the group and binding him. A voice from behind called to the students, "Run!"

Fiachra recognized it immediately. Bersk.

As the students fled back into the inner sanctums of the academy temples, Bersk squared off against Asmodeus, riding the branch of a tree as it swung around to bring them face to face. He held his staff in front of him, planted it in the ground as he looked up at his foe, suspended in the air and fuming with rage. Bersk eyed him carefully, raising his eyebrow. Something was obviously terribly wrong.

"Hey...Asmodeus. You in there?"

The large sith lurched forward and roared, mere inches from Bersk's face.

"Right. Okay then. You can hang out there and dry out for a bit, until we figure out..."

At this, Asmodeus' skin began to illuminate a sharp orange-red color, and the vines that bound him began to smolder. Bersk could feel the temperature around them rising. "Okay, scratch that. Plan B." He raised the staff he carried and struck Asmodeus across the face, causing him to lose his focus, temporarily ceasing the burning effect. "Hope you forgive me for this later, pal." Bersk thrust his staff forward, focusing his efforts on the power of nature around him. The vines that bound Asmodeus whipped backwards and released, flinging Asmodeus backwards over the cliffside mesa that housed the Academy. Bersk could hear him crashing through the trees and brush a hundred feet below.

Hopefully that will slow him down a bit.

Bersk turned back towards the Academy, planning to check in on Fiachra and her friends. He never saw the shadow until it was too late. Having scaled the height of the cliff in only a handful of might leaps, Asmodeus came crashing down behind Bersk, grabbing him by the torso and throwing him with all his rage into ground. He stomped Bersk into the mossy earth several times, and then threw him off to the side, broken but breathing. He charged towards the temple after the students, occasionally running on all fours, his knuckles to the ground like an enraged primate, his mind encompassed with only a single word.

Kill

Oryon fell backwards into his seat. The test was conclusive. There could be no further doubt. This young woman who had pledged herself to the clan he had sworn to eliminate, was his daughter.

He dropped his head into his hands. Luca-Om, how could you have kept this from me?

His mind swelled with the thought of this young girl, so obviously an outsider, having been raised in a culture that distrusted outsiders so. She would have been an outcast from her first breaths, spurned, even with a Voss mother. To have come so far, to have that fire in her eyes, she must have been strong, indeed. Oryon looked over at her, unconscious on the floor of his lab, breathing slowly. Even with her Chiss features, she looked so much like her mother. He felt a stab of guilt. She could have died in their assault. In fact, under the plan that Oryon had devised, she very likely would have been killed. He knew the future that Zahavi had shown him. He believed it to be true. To prevent the lives of billions in the future, the Halcyons had to die in the present. After everything that had happened, he bore no ill will towards them, not even Asmodeus. But his emotions had always held a distant second place to his logic, and the lives of a few were nothing when compared to the lives of so many. He even intended to allow Zahavi to end his own life once the others were put away. It seemed so small a price to pay, for he had nothing left to live for.

But now, could he really apply that same cold logic to the murder of his own daughter?

"Shhh, quiet!" Sesna had led the group of students along a hidden path around the outside of the temple. They moved with their backs to the wall, looking down at a hundred foot drop to the jungle below. Around the corner, they were able to grab a solid footing and climb to the top of the temple, where they could wait out the emergency until help could arrive. The center of the roof was a metal grate that peered down into the main hall, letting in the sunlight. From here they could spy downwards for any signs of danger.

"What the hell is going on?" Khalon hissed. "Who were those guys? Why is Asmo trying to kill us?"

"I'm more worried about Nila. Did you see the way she jumped after that guy? And what happened to the other one? The one that dropped the bomb? Is he still around?" Kaikorero was running a scan as quietly as she could of the surrounding area.

Zhejari had taken off his helmet, exposing his face. He was sitting on the roof, exhausted. The smell from the helmet was that of burning hair and ionization. Sesna kneeled in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, that was an incredibly brave thing you did."

Zhejari looked up at her, his eyes wide as though seeing her for the first time. He tried to put on a brave face. "Yeah, well...someone had to do something." He felt his jaw tremble. For all his boasting, he had never faced a true opponent before. Not like this.

Sesna wrapped an arm around his neck and hugged him. "You probably saved our lives, Z. Thank you."

Zhejari placed a hand on her back, softly returning the hug. He felt his jaw tremble again, and he could not be brave any longer. He buried his face into her shoulder and gently sobbed. She held him tightly until he was able to break away again. He quickly donned his mask again to hide the puffiness around his eyes. "Right, okay. We need to-"

A giant red hand rose over the side of the wall and slammed into the roof, his fingers digging into the stone. He had found them.

Nila-Om slowly regained consciousness, lying on her back, staring up at the clay ceiling of a strange room. It took her a moment to remember where she was, and for a few seconds, she centered herself by counting the stones that made up the wall next to her. Right around stone number nineteen, her mind cleared and she sat up with a jolt.

Oryon was sitting at his desk deep in thought, his back to her. He seemed unaware that she was awake. She quietly rose to her feet and pulled a shoto from her belt. She had no desire to kill her father, but she was ready to defend herself against him. The evidence all suggested that he had betrayed the Halcyons, and she still had questions that needed answers.

She crouched behind him, take step after cautious step towards him. She raised herself slowly to peer over his shoulder, unsure of what to do next. Should she strike him? Attempt to knock him into unconsciousness? What then? She had no idea where they were. Would she even be able to escape this place on her own, much less with him draped over her shoulder?

The question was answered for her, however, as Oryon turned in his chair bringing them face to face. Nila quickly hopped backwards and activated her shoto lightsaber, a thin blue beam. She rose it to a defensive stance, ready to engage him if necessary.

"I'm sorry."

The remark caught her off guard.

Oryon bowed his head, looking down at his hands. "I've said those words before, but I've never really meant them." He looked up at her. "My whole life, I've always known exactly what was the correct course of action. Sometimes that didn't set well with others, and I've apologized for my actions. But inside? I always knew that I was right, that I was justified in my actions."

Nila deactivated her saber, but did not put it away. She listened to him cautiously.

He continued. "It was never about what was right or what was wrong. Only what was correct. The course of action that best served the whole, even if it meant bringing suffering to a few. I had resigned myself to my life of imprisonment, because I felt that the actions I took that led me there were justified, and even though I had failed, I was doing nobody any harm by being contained far away from civilization." He buried his head in his hands. "Even now, I planned to do terrible things, because I believed it to be for the greater good."

He looked up at her. "And that is what vexes me still. Even now, faced with my own flesh and blood, the potential for a family that I never thought possible, I still know my actions to be correct. I still believe that the Halcyons must be eliminated to serve the greater good of future generations. And for the first time in my life, I don't know that the correct thing to do is the right one."

Nila felt her heart leap into her throat, but suppressed the urge to embrace her father. She knew he was a monster, a man who had done terrible things in the name of his own vision for the greater good. A man who had abandoned her and her mother before she was even born and never returned. She knew there was no tearful reunion to take place here. And yet...

Oryon fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around her knees. "I am so sorry that I brought you into this universe. Please forgive me."

She was taken aback, and felt a tear in her eye and a lump in her throat. She wanted to speak, but kept silent, fearing she could do no more than croak.

Her father stood and embraced her. She resisted at first, but only at first. Father and daughter hugged for the first time, and both felt hot tears on their cheeks. "My daughter, I don't know what to do now."

Nila looked him in the face and spoke for the first time in this interaction. "I don't care what you've done, or what you think you need to do. I don't know what future you speak of, but I know that all that matters is what you do now. Your actions moving forward are the only things you have control over." She looked into his one good eye. "Make it right."

It was the end for the first class of the Halcyon Academy. Asmodeus bore down on them on the roof of the main hall, his arms outstretched, ready to strike them down. His eyes burned with that eerie fire, and his face was contorted with rage. The students clung to each other in fear, all of their training never prepared them for terror such as this.

And yet...

Fiachra stepped forward, between the students and the nightmare that sought to devour them. Her knees buckled as Asmodeus crossed the metal grating that looked down upon the hall, casting a shadow over them all. She swallowed her fear, looked up at him, and lied.

"I'm not afraid of you."

Asmodeus raised his arms over his head and brought them down in a mighty smash that would have flattened her completely. She closed her eyes and flinched away.

KA-BAMM!

The temple shook as the ceiling grate split open, throwing Asmodeus onto his back before the blow could land. He growled with rage and rose to his feet to find Michael Halcyon standing between him and his prey. He bore no weapon, but glared at Asmodeus with grim determination.

"You will not lay a hand on my students."

With a forward thrust of his hand, Asmodeus flew backwards off the temple roof and onto the stones below, landing on bridge that connected the two cliffside mesas together. The impact of his landed displaced several of the stones that made up the walkway, and he struggled to catch his breath.

The headmaster turned back to the students. "Flee into the jungle. It is not safe here." He turned and leapt off the roof of the temple to face his opponent below.

"Come on!" Kaikorero called to them, leading them down the side of the temple. With the headmaster distracting Asmodeus, they could climb down the cliffside and escape into the jungles where Haran'buir had been training them.

Fiachra took a final look back at the Headmaster as he faced off against the much larger Asmodeus, and then followed the others.

Two ancient enemies and friends squared off against one another. "I don't know what has happened to you, Asmodeus. But I will not allow you to bring harm to our wards."

The feral Asmodeus let loose a primal roar, incapable of speech. At this, Michael unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and tossed it aside. "I will not kill you, Asmodeus. We will find a way to return you to your natural self." He raised his fists. "But for now, I have to put you down."

Asmodeus charged him, howling and flailing his arms. A sharp punch to the bottom of his chin laid him out flat on his back again. He felt warmth in his mouth, and quickly spit out a bloody tooth. The taste of his own blood drove him into a frenzy. He tackled Michael by the waist and pinned him down, bringing his fists down upon him again and again, driving him further into the stone with each blow. Michael raised his hands to defend himself, but Asmodeus slapped them away and pummeled him again and again. The bridge buckled under the impact of their battle, and bits of dirt and stone trickled down into the waterfall below.

Asmodeus wretched a stone from the walkway and raised it over his head. Michael, his face bruised and broken, looked up at him. "I forgive you."

The stone came down with a sickening crunch, and it was over.

When Zahavi approached the scene of the battle several hours later, he found Asmodeus clutching the mangled body before him, sobbing loudly. He cradled the smaller man's bloody head and wept, broken-hearted.

Zahavi wanted to speak, to tell him that everything would be okay. That he would be joining his friend soon enough. But for now, he had need of such a warrior, and there was but one way he could give peace to the mourning.

He stepped up behind Asmodeus and placed his hand on the Sith's face. There was a flash of energy, and Asmodeus' eyes glowed with a golden light.

Immediately, Asmodeus ceased his sobbing and stood, his face devoid of emotion. He turned and faced his master, ready to accept his commands.

Zahavi bowed his head in respect, and behind him, the legion of Dawnbreakers followed suit, golden energy glowing behind their visors.

It would all be over soon.