Dark metal walls encased her on all sides like a coffin. The occasional chirps from the computer panels were the only sounds within these confines. The backlit screens emitted a dull maroon light that irritated her eyes. Cinder could not bear to keep them closed for more than a blink here or there. She felt the descent through her whole body, washing through her bones just as it tightened and twisted her gutropes. The fetal position in which she was locked only served to make her discomfort all the worse. Fatigue, pain, and nausea were her only traveling companions.
Fell had been taken hostage, dragged up to the gantry where HK-47 stood trapped in restraining bolts. The boy shouted threats all the while, but the Mandalorians only laughed. Mandalore and two of his blue-clad guards led Cinder and Bestia out through the way they came, back down that narrow hallway. Another pair of guards dragged Fell the opposite direction. That was where they had parted ways.
They entered a room that she had not noticed, tucked away in a nook near the center of the hall. It was pitch black when they stepped inside. Occasionally, a klaxon would blare and a red light would pulse for a few seconds at a time before shutting back off. In the brief spurts of crimson, Cinder made out the shapes before them: basilisk war droids, standing tall on four legs like great ursine beasts of myth. They stood still as stone and, for but a moment, Cinder wondered if they had gone the way of their namesake's victims.
Another flash revealed the colorful band of soldiers from before had followed them in. The squad wrestled with Bestia, forcing her kicking and screaming toward one of the basilisks. Cinder heard the thud of flesh on metal as she watched them set Bestia atop, her arms flailing madly. Then the red lights faded, and Cinder was left blind once again. There was a hiss, followed shortly by another that gave way to the howling winds of space. With a howl of its own, the droid dropped with Bestia inside.
Mandalore took Cinder by the hand and helped her onto a droid of her own. "I'd kiss your hand, Dark Lady," he had said, "but I'm afraid the helmet would get in the way." As she straddled the droid, he explained its inner workings to her. "You do not wear armor like ours, so you will sit inside. A fair warning: it is cramped, but it's better than having your body turn on itself in the vacuum of space, or burning alive in the atmosphere." As his words trailed off, she felt the saddle open up beneath her and she fell inside in a tangle. Everything was still black when the panels above sealed themselves shut. "Good hunting!", she heard Mandalore call as she felt herself lurch and drop.
She did not know how long ago that had been now. The descent felt like hours – long, miserable hours. The boy did this, she started, but she could not convince herself. No, Lysara, this is your doing. You failed to make a plan; all that time on the way here, and all you did was waste time with the witch. If she had the room, she would have slapped herself. You could have made up for the boy's ineptitude. Now look where you are. She could bear it no longer, and at once everything went even darker.
When she came to, Cinder thought herself aflame.
The computers were squealing and beeping in some maddening squall of frustration. The walls that encased her now glowed deep orange with blistering heat. Atmospheric reentry. She clasped her fingers hard against her chest lest she singe them. Loose strands of her hair clung miserably to her forehead, caked in sweat. She groaned as she felt her tunic all but soak itself through, front and back. Then, there was a thunk. What followed was the hideous, grinding shriek of metal claws digging into bedrock and clay, tearing through soft dirt like paper.
The dim lights grew brighter, and on the central computer screen a series of letters crawled along in Aurebesh. "ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL," they read. The heat dissipated as the saddle door eked open. Cinder straightened herself out as best she could and dragged herself out, the pads of her fingers digging hard into the metal carapace. Just as she brought her foot out of the hole, the droid reared back like a stallion. She desperately clung to its neck, wrapping her arms around it in some fool's embrace. Her eyes went up and she saw its head flailing. If you can even call it a head. It was little more than a melange of gun barrels, missile launchers, and cannon. All of the ordnance fired at once, billowing plumes of caustic black smoke into the sky.
Cinder composed herself and straddled the beast. When it reared again, she clacked her boots against the sides. The droid stamped its forelegs into the dirt with a huff and stood still as stone. Interesting, she thought. The tomes in the Jedi Temple Archives reported rumors of the basilisks being semi-sentient. She was unsure if she was so pleased it was a truth.
Where the smoke didn't sting her nostrils, the thick jungle air irritated her lungs. It hung heavy and damp, a sodden blanket of choking humidity and buzzing pests. It was all green, as if soaked in slime that permeated the very air, except where orange flames danced about from towering tree to towering tree. Ashes flaked from the charred wood, swaying like white wisps in what little breeze there was. She shook her head, sighed, then reached under the nape of the droid's neck to pull on the reins. It reared once more, then bounded off into the thick of the jungle, spewing great clouds of dust and dirt in its wake.
She produced her lightsaber and cut through the gnarled branches that lay in her path. The orange blade crackled and hissed as it made contact with the damp air. Gnats and botflies flew into it in their absentminded desire to cling to her flesh.
"Lady Cinder." Mandalore's static-laced voice came through a series of small, porthole speakers carved into the droid's neck. The basilisk slowed to a canter as she made her way into a clearing.
She shook her head to attempt to loose a particularly annoying strand of hair that clung to her forehead. "If you were trying to get me killed, you've failed."
"I hope you had a happy landing," he said with a hint of whimsy in his voice. He was all too amused by this, she knew. "How are you liking the pet? I can tell he's taken a liking to you if he hasn't thrown you off yet."
"It is an interesting... creature, to be sure." It is a machine, however bestial it may be. "I can see why they are feared."
"I don't need your flattery, Dark Lady. My men are eager to watch your upcoming duel." There were a series of crackles as he paused. "And I'm sure your companions would like to see the fight firsthand."
She grit her teeth. "Yes, I'm sure. You lay a hand on the boy and I will kill you myself."
"Did I mention before I like your fire?" he laughed. "No harm will come to this Lord Fell, I assure you." There was another long pause. "Now, go find Ruin's whelp and put an end to this. I'm rooting for you." The speakers silenced with a crackle.
The basilisk picked up the scent first, dragging its unwilling rider into a thicket of gnarled branches. They hung down from the wall of trees like swords, ready to cleave and stab all who approached. Cinder hacked them all down. She had not spent two decades training with a sword to be outmatched by trees.
The thicket gave way to an open glade, dotted by bubbling pools of thick water the color of sick. The festering carcass of a nexu lay with its head submerged in one pool. Long streaks of scarlet trailed behind it. From a rotted hole in its belly, chunks of entrails formed a trail of rancid meat leading the opposite direction. She was thankful she couldn't smell it over the other odors of the jungle.
Cinder shot a look over her shoulder, up at the sky. It was a wall of solid green, pocked by the occasional greenish-black cloud. She saw the Invictus trawling through space overhead, as close as it could get without gravity sending it crashing down. "If it's a hunt he wants, it's one he'll get," she said aloud.
She smelled the smoke before she saw it, and the basilisk had smelled it long before. She thought she was going to be thrown off when the droid began barreling madly toward the long shaft of black, throwing up dirt as all four of its broad legs pounded into the loose soil. It moved deftly despite its size, clearing mires and fallen trees alike in nimble bounds. One patch of marshland gave way to another, and then another, and then another, until Cinder thought she was going in circles. She gave the droid a kick with her heel. It responded only with a sputtering, mechanical snort, belching smoke from its face of cannon barrels.
After yet another glade, Cinder found herself in another dense thicket of jungle. Great vines hung limp from towering trees. A great tangle of moss would have swallowed her face had she not cut it down quick enough. It clung to her shoulder instead, stubborn and sticky. She was about to sheathe her saber and fling the mess off, but she stopped for a moment. A numbing sensation echoed through her skull. The droid slowed its pace from its blistering gallop to a canter before stopping dead in its tracks. She felt herself lurch forward as the basilisk reared back. She heard the buzzing of her own saber as pestilential fauna continued to investigate its cleansing light, but she could not help but wonder if she at last heard the other.
That would have been so much simpler.
Suddenly she was clinging tightly to her reins with one hand, the other a tight claw around her saber hilt. Her droid was rearing backwards, letting out a cry more animal than machine. Another skulked by, hunched up like a stalking wolf. Its face of guns spurted smoke and fire. She saw Bestia atop it wearing a look of fear on her face.
"Lady Cinder!" she called. Bestia waved at her with her free hand; she didn't even have her lightsaber out. Fool. "The droid has a mind of its own, I cannot control it."
Cinder felt her body ripple as her own droid slammed its front legs back to the ground. "Mine listens well enough," she said, fixing herself upright. "I will not fall prey to this ruse." She kept her saber ignited.
"No ruse," Bestia said. "I implore you, trust me." Her droid was still prowling and belching fire. Without warning, it charged forward, lowering its head to the ground so that the gun barrels dragged through the dirt. The high plate of its skull collided with the chest of Cinder's basilisk. Bestia lost her grip on the reins and went sprawling backwards.
Cinder was able to keep her place for a moment, but then the other basilisk slammed an armored fist into hers. The impact sent her reeling. When her droid reared up again, this time bringing its own fists down atop the other's head, she realized the reins had snapped and she was sent tumbling down. She thumped hard against the wet dirt, her saber driven deep into the earth beside her, creating pulsating streaks of orange. She groaned and tried to sit up, but pain rattled her from the bones out. She felt her eyes droop closed. No, no, no, her brain screamed. Not like this.
"Lady Cinder?"
She forced her eyes open and saw Bestia kneeling over her.
"Your hair..." Cinder wheezed.
"They sheared it," Bestia said. "The jungle would have made a mess of it anyhow." The Mirialan girl stuck out a bony hand. Cinder winced and took it, and once again found herself upright. Her spine was a rod of throbbing pain.
She looked around, though it hurt to turn too much. The basilisks were fighting one another like maddened hounds. One was atop the other, pounding it with beskar-plated fists, smoke leaking out of its face. The other had a solid stream of inky black smoke pouring from its underbelly where it had been brutalized.
"Allow me to speak frankly," Bestia continued. She placed a hand on her own lightsaber, still hanging loose on the loop of her belt. "I was to be sent to retrieve you, to return you to him." She shuddered.
Cinder scoffed. "Lord Kaos said much the same." She let out a pathetic little cough and she thought her ribs were about to tear through her sides.
Bestia's face crinkled in disgust. "I should have realized. Lord Kaos left us some time ago."
"Well, now he's lying dead in a derelict on Nar Shaddaa."
"Good. One less fool in your court." Bestia's expression curdled, sour as the pallor of her face. "But the demented jester still wears his crown. He sent me to treat with these... these creatures." She winced. "They broke me, Lady Cinder."
I already know. Cinder recalled the way Mandalore had thrown Bestia before her, cowering and whimpering in a body bag. "No sense in asking what was done to you. It doesn't matter." Not now, anyway. There would be plenty of time to stoke those fires of hatred later, when they were through with this farce. "There is little time. I have come here to claim Mandalore's head, as a favor to an abominable Hutt. I have been led to believe I need a navigator to reach our missing Lord Ruin, though that was before I found you here. Alive." She reached forward and took Bestia's hand in her own. "Tell me. I won't hurt you."
Bestia shot a glance over her shoulder, as if she was scared someone else was listening. "We went to Rhen Var straight away after all Korriban fell. It was-" silver tears swelled up in her eyes before she could continue - "It was disastrous. He raved for days on end about his regrets for his decision. He lamented leaving you behind. His moods became unpredictable, and we could do nothing. However many you lost defending Korriban from the invaders, we lost at least a tenth of that to his temper."
Then, she cringed and the tears turned to streams. "Did he ever ask you to tend to his 'needs', Lady Cinder? 'The way only a woman can do?' He forced my hand, once. I was giddy when he sent me away. I hoped the Mandalorians would kill me. I prayed they would kill me, so that I would never have to go back to him." She forced herself to laugh. "They only broke me instead, and salted my wounds."
Many times had he tried, but none did he succeed. Cinder let her lightsaber hilt fall to the ground. She said nothing as she wrapped Bestia in a tight embrace, letting her sob against her chest.
"The night after," Bestia said, in between sniffles, "he murdered Darth Hopel."
Because you had gone to him for protection. Cinder could feel the rage building up inside her. Her blood was so hot, she though it had turned to magma. It should have been me in that position, not you child.
She forced herself to change the subject before she could heed the call of frenzy. "Rhen Var is a dead, frozen wasteland, like Ziost," Cinder said at last. "And all too close to Korriban." That's what he was looking at that day. How stupid I was. "What is he looking for on that hellworld?"
Bestia forced out a giggle. "He's following the voice in his head. He's at its mercy, you know." She shook her head and wiped her eyes. "Before I was sent here, I was heading the excavation effort back on Rhen Var. They were digging up a temple. Now, Eradicus has that honor."
Never has the galaxy known a greater fool. Eradicus was the youngest member of Ruin's Dark Council, and offered little to accommodate for his lacking experience. He is kept around only as a fool and a plaything, of that I have no doubts. "And what does the fool say of his lord when he is not shining his boots?"
"The boy hates me," Bestia said. "But he did warn me to stay away while I had the chance. After I left, he contacted me by hologram to discuss the Dark Lord's night terrors – or, what he thought were just night terrors.
"Eradicus told me he chanced upon him entranced in a vision, screaming madness about the Hundred Year Darkness and the First Great Schism. He nearly killed Eradicus when he came to."
One thought stumbled over another as Cinder's mind raced. The Hundred Year Darkness was several thousand years ago, long before even HK-47's time. That was when the first Jedi left the order and became Sith, adopting the ways of the Sith purebloods that called Korriban their home. Something from that troubled speck of history was on Rhen Var and Ruin was hunting for it, just like he and she had done in the past. A holocron, perhaps. That would have explained the voice in his head a bit better, and it was much easier to accept than dismissing her old master as a mere madman.
"And the excavation?"
"As I said, it's a temple." Bestia stared at the ground and chewed a black lip. "Some pyramid tomb, in the style of the ancient Sith. I never got to see what was inside, but Ruin wanted it dug up fast as possible. Eradicus said nothing of it when he contacted me."
"I must get to Rhen Var," Cinder said as she struggled to her feet. When she nearly stumbled, Bestia supported her. "We'll take him together."
"It is impossible to get back, Lady Cinder." Bestia moved beside her and the two stood together. They watched the droids continue to pummel each other, each growing weaker. One was now trapped underneath (they could not tell if either had switched places), now leaking frothy black fluid from in between smashed armor panels. "Rhen Var is shrouded in malignant winds that cloak its presence. It has long been severed from all known hyperspace lanes. Ruin-" she gagged when she said his name - "only made it through because of the voice guiding his path. Even that wasn't perfect, though."
Cinder sighed. I'll be needing the smuggler after all, I suppose. As much as she did not wish to return to the Fat Minister's demesne, she was left little choice. The thought of leaving Marcus Kregg to rot did not sit well with her, anyhow. Am I going soft?
"Then it seems our difficulties are just beginning." Cinder felt her fingers twitch as her lightsaber came barreling up into her palm. The hilt was caked with dirt, but it fell off in clumps as it grazed her flesh.
"You heard what Mandalore said, Lady Bestia: we are of Revan's lineage." Bestia locked eyes with her. "Come, then. Let us finish what Revan started."