Kingdom Hearts: The Girl Who Stole the Star Chapter 49: The Other Side of the Sediment of Oblivi, a kingdom hearts fanfic

CHAPTER 48:

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEDIMENT OF OBLIVION

Author's Notes: The music for this Chapter is, in order of scene: 'Decisive Battle,' from the LUNAR 2: ETERNAL BLUE: COMPLETE GameRip; and after it 'Windward Birds,' from the WILD ARMS: ALTER CODE: F Original Score, Disc Four; and after it 'Dead Sea – Ruined Tower,' from the CHRONO CROSS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two; and afterwards 'Another Side – Battle Version,' from the KINGDOM HEARTS: BIRTH BY SLEEP AND THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS OVER TWO Original Soundtrack, Disc Three. The first, second, and fourth, MP3s can be found in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section, and the third piece can be found on Zophar's Domain.

Xion ran as fast as she could afford to risk, with her wrists broken and needing to be jostled as little as possible, out of the portal from the Lane Between to discover the terrain before her consisted of solid white clouds she remembered dimly from her time fading in and out of awareness inside Sora at Symphony of Sorcery.

All of them were arranged in a slowly revolving, very wide, level vortex of concentric hoops of clouds of the same substance that whirled around a volcano of sable obsidian rock. As many of the clouds were black as there were pearl clouds, though, and none of the rings were attached to each other, but connected by bridges of rainbow intermingled like the links of a chain.

Xion looked around to behold similar coagulated and turning concentric hoops of cloud were hovering at haphazardly strewn locations, and heights, in every direction around them; these ones orbiting the hovering terraced burgs of Scala ad Caelum.

However, what Xion knew to be the core district drifted a good distance above them, the upside down ruins of the clock tower she'd seen the minority of times she'd visited the real Scala ad Caelum extending to their tip roughly above the pinnacle of the volcano.

A labyrinthine latticework of rainbow bridges were arrayed between the inside edge of the innermost ring and the edge of the volcano rim to connect them, weaving and looping around and betwixt and below and aside and curling and above each other, and one another.

As Ephemer walked out of the Lane Between after Goofy, the second to last one out of the group that also included Isa, the globe of white drifting above the Kingdom Key Starlight with arcing and moving bands of light gray similar to those around an Ultima he'd fashioned to hold away the darkness dissipating, his eyes went wide.

"The Foretellers brought Symphony of Sorcery to Scala ad Caelum itself," he uttered.

Xion clenched her teeth a little, but she didn't strain herself that much.

Ephemer cast his gaze about for a number of seconds.

"The good report is, our target is in the crater at the bottom of the volcano, and since no one left a coded pattern in the eddies of this cloud, it's very likely Strelitzia, and none of the others, have run into any trouble..

"The flip side to that is, even though Strelitzia and I are reasonably sure they haven't figured out the specifics; the Foretellers clearly know enough about Strelitzia's and my plan to have set up a trap to defend against it."

This time, Xion did clench her teeth a good amount more, ignoring the throbbing lances in her wrists from doing so.

"Otherwise Symphony of Sorcery wouldn't be here, and the place I wanted us to strike out from wouldn't be so close to Chernabog's old roost."

Wariness caused all of Xion's registry of her aches to flee as her guard shot up far more.

"Can we also be reasonably sure that nest is currently vacant?" Axel queried, not masking any of the worry in his words.

"Unless the Foretellers are concealing Chernabog's presence, yes," Ephemer answered.

That didn't reassure Xion at all.

As much because, if they were correct and a recompleted Chernabog was a member of Maleficent's Summation Organization Thirteen, Maleficent could send the recompleted Chernabog back to its home turf at any time, as because of the major likelihood the Foretellers were doing specifically that.

"And yes, I'm still not going to disclose what we're here for," Ephemer went on.

Xion suppressed the urge to clench her teeth this time.

Then Aqua started violently.

"Because that's Alicia, and Silmeria, who are guarding it," she stated, turning slightly to face Mare in what Xion knew was a position that could segue into a strike with a Keyblade at any time.

"Alicia is part of the astral tapestry of reality now. The only way someone could conceivably set her free is if Kingdom Hearts itself were obliterated."

"Then I'll do that."

"Get a grip, kid! Kairi's father and an entity that had separated from him tried that. It can't be done, and even if it could, if you did, you'd take everyone and everything else save for Gaes and Domain of Tales down with you past salvation, and you and Alicia would be the sole hearts left in our astral tapestry."

"That's the idea."

"If Kingdom Hearts itself vanishes, all of the laws that govern reality will unravel, and the abjuration of the cosmos will be so terrible that it won't just imprison the realm of light in darkness.

"All hearts and existence will vanish along with Kingdom Hearts, murdering everyone in all of the realms of reality and reality itself.

"And with the laws of nature in disarray, I will be able to temporarily arrest many of the vanished hearts in The Final World before they finish their journey of disappearance, and hook them up from there to the true Kingdom Hearts, thus corrupting it as too many dark hearts did and killing the true Kingdom Hearts, which alone will survive the death of all hearts and the World.

"Total death through vanishing will then become as much of an intrinsic component of a heart as light or darkness, and one that hearts can achieve without even breaking the laws of the cosmos.

"When this happens, I will be able to trace my connections and heart and die at the same time as all other hearts conclude their deaths; as I should have at Data-Sora's and Mickey's hands, or by sundering Jiminy's first Journal's datascape and dying along with it."

Axel went entirely stiff.

Namine's visage swept any evidence of what was inside her away.

Xion could barely register her wrists were aching now.

If Lezard and Mare weren't referring to the precise same thing with different language, Mare would be ravaged even more to discover there was a second, perhaps far more effective, road she could choose for how to die, along with almost everyone, and everything, else in most of starry history.

But Xion knew just how much worse it would hurt Mare if the first friends she'd had in her life weren't honest with her about this, and it turned out she wasn't referring to the same thing.

"You want us to somehow travel through the astral tapestry itself to ambush the Gazing Eye."

Terra wasn't asking a question of his own, this time.

Xion knew better than to give Aqua a challenging look, so she merely walked between Mare and Aqua and turned to give Mare a reassuring, understanding smile.

Mare blinked, and started violently herself.

But then she gave Xion a grateful, relieved smile of her own, in return.

Aqua's face shifted, but she said nothing.

"I'll confirm that much," Ephemer told them.

That was correct.

She'd given up, and abandoned Roxas, and Axel, and Riku, and Namine, and Isa.

But she hadn't abandoned Mare.

That was the greatest proof of all she could destroy the Gazing Eye herself, and protect them all, and everyone, and everything, this time.

Xion began walking in the direction of the nearest rainbow bridge before anyone said anything else.

She could do this.

Even if she needed to run until her legs were so weary this time her legs crumbled to powder, she wasn't going to second guess this time, and give up.

All she needed to do was let the past go, and focus on what came next.

The past is in the past.

I'm never looking back once again.

Here I stride forward, and here I dive.

Roxas slid in front of Anna and positioned Oathkeeper and Oblivion in an x shape in front of her, unleashing another roaring Zettaflare column that incinerated the throng of Dark Infernos swooping down at them out through the window of one of the spires of the Castle That Never Was.

When the flames vanished, leaving light red hearts to shimmer up into the air, Roxas staggered a little in place, but remained standing.

"How are your reserves of magic?" Elsa asked Roxas with tense worry, continuing to raise the minaret of ice, her forehead furrowed in a slight amount of pain, but with the rate of their ascent unshifted.

"How about we have a race to see who runs out of arcane reserves first?" Roxas said back, a challenging smirk Anna knew he didn't feel on his face.

"It shouldn't be too hard for an archmage capable of casting an eternal winter to make it to the finish line, should it?"

Elsa's eyes went wide, and for the first time Anna could remember outside of the scattered fragments of remembrance she'd dredged up as much of as she could over the past over a year and a month, genuine spirited joy and shocked effervescent glee manifested on Elsa's face.

Anna barely kept new tears from pushing into her eyes, throwing all of her heart and mind and essence and self into basking in the unrestrained fun filled joy on Elsa's face.

"How much do you remember from Sora's memories, about how long I kept the single enchantment that composed the ice palace going?" Elsa replied with a challenging smirk of her own.

"Enough to know you slammed your balcony doors shut when you were done," Roxas responded with easy confidence.

"That tells me you must have needed to redefine the concept of snooze and lose afte–"

Roxas staggered violently as Elsa shifted her left foot, and a thin open line appeared in the surface of the ice to slide away beneath his own feet in the shape of two parting doors.

To his credit, though, Roxas corrected himself on the lower layer of surface just inches beneath himself with practiced ease.

"Like I couldn't see that one co–"

As Roxas was talking, a thin arm of ice with a hand at the end rose up behind him to then arc down and ruffle his hair.

Anna realized her mouth was hanging.

Roxas stepped free with a mock scowl.

"Point made," Elsa's knight protector partially grumped, partially moaned in a whiny way, all of the inflections in his voice overdone, as he also gave Elsa an exaggerated pout.

Elsa hadn't actually touched Roxas, but that she was even willing to ruffle his hair spoke volumes about how far Elsa was willing to go to attempt to be there for Roxas.

And vice versa.

Then the crystalline clarity rippled with such breath stealing potency it almost disappeared.

Because Anna could think of a very precise group of reasons not just a Foreteller, but his servants, were here, while Sora was being set up for something so horrific this time he wasn't willing to face it.

Is this it?

Is it time for that prophecy to come true?

Is this when I lose Elsa for good?

Or she's forced to lose me for good, in every way?

That was how it worked in the classical tragedies Master Yozora had taken inspiration from, or the other way around, or both.

Destiny was merciless, and struck with undiluted cruelty; sweeping the rug right out from under you after letting you gain happiness so you'd know in the most indelibly vital ways possible how brutally inescapable it was, and how much everything you strove for, no matter how long, or how hard, you did it, was all for less than zero in remorseless existence.

It let you become happy first, and then broke you to shards.

Just as Master Yozora, and Luxu, and the Foretellers had let Sora, and his other loved ones, and companions, defeat Xehanort; to let them become as happy as possible before they tore everything out from under them to show them all their effort had led to solely one unrelenting thing.

And even if this was the destined hour for Anna to choose, and she did get Elsa out of this without becoming lost to even Elsa's memory in the process, Anna knew she still couldn't let her guard down until the Foretellers were defeated past every and any most infinitesimal uncertainty.

That was the other snare.

Luring people into becoming overconfident because they believed they'd successfully fled their fate, so destiny, and reality, could better demonstrate how pointless all was wasn't through those methods.

Sora refused to reject anyone, even his foes.

But could Anna risk that, herself, in these conditions?

Perhaps the sole way to ensure Elsa was safe, and didn't need to lose her memories of Anna to attain that safety, was to ensure Master Yozora, every single Foreteller, and every single person the most distantly working with them, willingly or as a puppet, puppet weapon or peaceful marionette, died, whether they sought to return to the light, or n

"Y"

The uncertainty left entirely.

If Elsa was in danger, of life or laughter, it was nothing less or beyond immeasurably even more important Anna not falter now.

A legion of gigantic mechanical creatures roughly similar to insects, around twice her height and a large number of times that measurement in length and girth, with dark carapaces and other colors Anna couldn't make out from this distance, sprang from over the railing of the top of one of the towers and rocketed at them.

Roxas twisted to aim, but Vanitas shook his head once, sharply, and turned to face them.

A night black miasma gusted out from his back and spread outwards and upwards like spreading wings, into a shifting curtain of eddies and whorls. Then shapes surged forwards out of them as though they were rushing ink and congealed all around them into a small battalion of huge knights wearing helmets with wickedly curved horns and wielding gigantic hammers shaped similar to cages.

They soared forwards through the air, flames rushing into being around their hammers, and whirled like careening tops at the vast insects.

The insects halted and pulled up, in preparation to lunge.

"Those are Cy-Bug Darklings," Vanitas informed them.

"The Iron Imprisoner Fours most likely won't be able to beat more than a small number of them, if even that, or one. But they should be able to weaken them enough I'll be able to apply my memories of who I used to be to assimilate what's left.

"If I'm forced to task even a single Lingering Spirit Unversed of myself to fend off one of their cyberwyrm buddies, though; the strain of doing that, and maybe the same to the wyrm, or wyrms, is going to hurt.

"Or, if one of those other fine and upstanding Darklings show up, maybe that will be a good time to see what a little pet of mine I tried to raise back then to grow up all sprightly with a wagging tail; a teensy Darkling I'd like to call an insecurity wyrm, that Ven, and Empyreal, kept me from locating the essential components to complete; can do, even in its incomplete stage."

"I believe we can do without cantrips that may have unpredictable effects," Elsa put in firmly.

Vanitas shrugged.

Then he started with stiff rage.

"I wasn't asking for your opinion, Ira," he named the Foreteller who Vanitas must be able to tell was commanding the Darklings.

Elsa pressed her lips together as tightly as possible at the memory of the Foreteller who had revealed to her many of her worst nightmares about her powers had come true.

Anna gave Elsa as assuring and loving and awed and reassuring and admiring and forgiving a smile as she could muster, wishing she could pull Elsa close, but knowing Anna couldn't lower her guard any more than Elsa could.

Elsa returned the smile with a wan, but firm, one.

"Hearing about the insecurity wyrm I was once researching infuriated Ira enough a swarm of those very same wyrm Darklings, hidden in the window of the tower we're about to pass and meant to ambush us after we're beyond it to catch us in a pincer with a much larger legion of run of the mill Demon Tides, situated in the window just below the Altar of Naught."

Elsa pressed her lips together once more.

Anna gave Elsa a second smile, alike to her first one.

Vanitas set his own lips, and this time, a group of doubles of Vanitas, clad in black and gray with similar light colored Void Gears, rushed out of the miasma, followed by Iron Imprisoner Four after Iron Imprisoner Four in unrelenting succession.

The duplicate Vanitases soared up and rushed into the window hiding the wyrm Darklings, and the brigade of Iron Imprisoner Fours rocketed up at the higher window like an arcing spray of liquid.

"Darkness exterminator adroit, at your service, Milady," Roxas shifted into a formal military posture.

Elsa gave him a pleased, amused smile that Anna could tell wasn't forced any bit.

Vanitas stiffened, and scowled in a mixture of fury and jealousy.

"I'm saying this because you're the one doing all the work," Roxas said with quick reassurance.

"Teammates are allowed to contribute to a Mission.

"You know that."

Vanitas crossed his arms with another black scowl, and Anna couldn't tell if he felt better, offended Roxas was calling him a teammate, or both.

"It's a shame Ira also isn't in a position for me to defenestrate him," Vanitas commented, his inflections dismissively irritated.

Roxas then looked up at the rim of the Altar of Naught, beyond which Anna could see nothing.

But they were almost there.

Anna tensed at the ready.

"And now, Your Majesty," Roxas said in a grandiose tone, "We are about to Return To Castle."

Sora had no idea how much effort he needed to utilize to remove what wasn't, and can't have been, now within him from what was him.

All he knew was that the destroyer of the civilization of a whole planet, and the murderer of Jiminy Cricket, was standing before him once more at the center of the Altar of Naught's dais; with Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka nearby.

And that he was in the realm of darkness, with very little time left to fulfill his vow.

Sora had no instants for any misgivings, now.

Sora didn't even point Childhood's Laughter, and he just drew on his reminiscence of the connections he'd been immersed in in Mickey's to say one word.

"Stopza!"

A massive, clear whirling globule inscribed with the archaic runes of a clock swelled around all five of them, and then around the roof of the Castle That Never Was, to halt with everything suspended within it in light gray.

Sora clenched his teeth tightly at the sight of Christopher's mildly amused smirk, the boy obviously making it to show the Stopza wasn't affecting him.

So Sora aimed the Kye-Blade, clasped in his other hand, at Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, wishing with all his heart he didn't even reminisce he'd returned home, and to the play island, beyond conveying less that he'd let them come with him, or given them permission to.

Sora wasted no time.

He shifted Childhood's Laughter, and drew open a rip in space and time that danced and shifted with black and sapphire rapids.

"Wait!" Tidus called with desperately drawn terror, already sprinting down the bridge in his direction with Wakka and Selphie behind him.

"This will play into the stodgy coot's hands even more, but, partially for reasons I can't tell you, I can't leave Xion alone, all by herself, now!"

Wakka's and Selphie's faces shifted, but they didn't alter in any other way.

Yet Sora could still see them through the undeniable shimmering in his eyes.

"The Torch Wards should still be active, so I'm sending you to Xion!" Sora cried.

Sora traced his connection to Xion, and then another dark and blue and indigo portal opened where the three last closest friends of Kairi, Riku, and himself stood who hadn't truly begun to drown in this maelstrom of castaways and darkness and toil and hurt.

Then it shut.

Sora faced Christopher, ignoring both the thin dark acrid thing that rose into his throat at the memory Christopher had murdered Jiminy, and the desperate blinding terror clearing at him jet pearl to run as far away from Christopher as possible, find Kairi, and let her hold him where he was safe and warm and all the aching exhausting broken tears were kept any away from him.

Christopher rolled his eyes.

"Your refusal to give up, and clue in, will never cease to just get older and older.

"Now it's promises, is it?

"Or, put the sensible way, those fluffy platitudes most hearts break left and right, as soon as they become the smallest amount bothersome. Just so you know, most of the ordinary people you've met on all your journeys have a little something known as a price.

"For most hearts, all someone like Ursula"

"You are what all life, all existence, all reality, all of the World, all of the cosmos, all stars, all worlds, all people, all hearts, of light and darkness, most yearn and reach and fight brutally and ruthlessly and remorselessly and cruelly and strive and dream and long for.

"You are the Kye-Blade."

Kairi.

Riku.

Goofy.

Donald.

Tidus.

Selphie.

Wakka.

Roxas.

Anna.

Elsa.

Jiminy.

Pleasepleaspleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease

please

Please. Please.

please please.

Please please please please

Please.

Keep him away from me.

"or Jafar needs to do is figure out what another heart wants, a lot, or a little.

"Then Ursula, or Jafar, or Hades, or Hans, just needs to make an upfront offer, or an indirect one that is just implied, of one, or more, of those things to that heart, and the heart offered the present, or reward, will say, do, not do, and not say, whatever it takes to seize what's offered.

"Including break a promise.

"While plenty of the hearts who don't have a price will break a promise if it weighs that person down even a little.

"To say nothing of all the hearts who break one if they're blackmailed sufficiently.

"You have promises left to hold on to?

"Just how much wool can you stuff in your ears, to keep them from hearing the truth?"

Kairi

I'm begging you, with all my heart

please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please pleasepleasepleaseplease

get him away from me

"Yet you honestly trust you can protect someone as treacherous as Xion while keeping a promise?

"Particularly given what her destiny is.

"What was it that was her prophecy?"

Christopher snapped two of his fingers.

"That was it.

"'The hand glove shall mime her pets and herself, and they shall join their hands and pantomime her in turn, and they shall cavort and prance and leap and amble and clamber the dusk and night and day and aurora and eclipse in glee until they drop bereft of bones beneath a sanguine sackcloth.'

"Because no darkness can wholly lack light, the lowest fathoms of darkness aren't shades of death or pain from selfish dreams or trusts. Not even dark dreams of living by the law of the jungle, or survival, where hearts believe themselves, and reality, to be nothing more than haphazard components; living through escaping pain merely to flee from it without even wishing for happiness, and giving up all painful hurt by throwing away all giggling grins; or a life clasping despair, not because you see it as a contorted shape of happiness, but because you have no hope in happiness or escape from it, so you're resigned to it.

"The sole way hearts can be true to themselves is to accept that, whether you lie to yourself about it or not, murdering, or hurting, other people; causes hearts an incredible amount of torment than being hurt for others, or dying for others; himself, herself, or itself.

"As mad as it is, a lot of people look up to even someone who has betrayed others, and reality, as many times as Xion to show them a trail of laughter and joy.

"Her destiny is to betray someone she loves the most of all in the worst way possible, thus casting enough darkness within her heart to finish the Keyblade of Hearts, and also harness her energy siphoning abilities to transition her into something known as a hollow rift, one capable of affecting all of dimensional space and time.

"In order to accomplish this, she must cross the last horizon all hearts can traverse, do what even Roxas didn't.

"She must murder at least one of the people she loves most from even legacy, intentionally, and with entire knowledge of what she will bring about."

"Yet you honestly trust you can protect someone as treacherous as Xion while keeping a promise?

"Particularly given what her destiny is.

"What was it that was her prophecy?"

Roxas heard two fingers snap.

"That was it.

"As mad as it is, a lot of people look up to even someone who has betrayed others, and reality, as many times as Xion to show them a trail of laughter and joy.

"In order to accomplish this, she must cross the last horizon all hearts can traverse, do what even Roxas didn't.

"She must murder at least one of the people she loves most from even legacy, intentionally, and with entire knowledge of what she will bring about."

"Xion! Thank you."

"Roxas… I'm out of time. Even if I'm not ready… I have to make this choice. You have poured so many memories into me… given me so much… that I feel like I'm about to overflow. Look at me, Roxas. Who do you see? If you see somebody else's face… a boy's face… then that means I'm almost ready. This puppet will have to play her part. Roxas… This is him. It's Sora. You're next, Roxas. I have to make you a part of me, too. Don't you see? This is why I was created."

"Now you'll see!"

"Is that all you've got? Stop holding back! Get ready, Roxas!"

"Who are you… again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important."

"You'll be… better off now… Roxas.

"Am I… the one who did this to you?"

"No… It was my choice… to go away now. Better that, than to do nothing… and let Xemnas have his way. I belong with Sora. And now, I am going back… to be with him. Roxas… I need you… to do me a favor. All those hearts that I've captured… Kingdom Hearts… Set them free."

"Kingdom Hearts… Free them?"

"It's too late… for me to undo my mistakes. But you can't let Xemnas… have Kingdom Hearts. You can't. Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."

"Roxas, don't be sad. I came from you and Sora. I am you… the same way that I am Sora. You'll forget me, but the memories themselves will never go away. Memories of you and me will always be together… forever, inside him."

"Now you'll see!"

"Who are you… again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important."

"You'll be… better off now… Roxas.

"Am I… the one who did this to you?"

"Kingdom Hearts… Free them?"

"Who are you… again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important."

"You'll be… better off now… Roxas.

"Am I… the one who did this to you?"

"Kingdom Hearts… Free them?"

"Now you'll see!"

"Roxas… I'm out of time."

"Now you'll see!"

"Roxas… I'm out of time."

"Xion! Thank you."

"Now you'll see!"

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jumpeddownontothemarbledaiswheretheguidinglightoncehadknownsolelyfaithwouldbringXionAxelhimnothingbutdistilledhappyhearthhadoncehovered

couldn'tshriekvocalcordscouldn'temitanythingbutabrokenlabyrinthofruinedcracks

Just as Axel had once done in Betwixt and Between,

called any shred of

essentialenergyto

hurleditallout

"All right. Let me ask again. What more do I need to learn to fulfill my destiny?"-Jacen Solo

"This is your final trial, Jacen. You've sacrificed a great deal – the approval of all those who meant most to you. You've taken extreme measures to deal with those who deny justice. Now you must consider the third prophecy."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

'He will immortalize his love.'-Jacen Solo

"It means, Jacen, that sacrificing your own feelings and reputation isn't enough."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

'I did my own dirty work. I faced what Grandfather faced – but I did it for the galaxy, not for my own selfish love of a woman.' "What, then?"-Jacen Solo

"You have to kill what you love."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

'Tenel Ka. Allana.' "You'll have to explain that."-Jacen Solo

"I can't teach you any more skills. You now have to pass through the final barrier and do what no ordinary man can – kill someone whose death will cause terrible suffering to those who love them, someone close to you."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

"Who?"-Jacen Solo

"I can't tell you, because I don't know."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

"Someone I love?"-Jacen Solo

"Do you love someone?"-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

"I allow myself to love many people." 'Careful… careful. You're on the knife-edge.' "How will I know who to kill?"-Jacen Solo

"It'll become clear when the time is right. You'll know."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

"And why is it the ultimate test?"-Jacen Solo

"Because taking the life of an innocent is always harder even than taking your own, if you're sincere. This is the ultimate test of selflessness – whether you're ready to face unending emotional pain, true agony, to gain the power to create peace and order for billions of total strangers. That is the sacrifice. To be vilified by others, by people you know and care for, and for your personal sacrifice to be totally unknown to those billions you save, to do your duty as a Sith. To do your duty for the good of the galaxy. It's easy to be a clean-cut hero slaying monsters. There's always a little bit of vanity in it. There can be no room for vanity or pride in being despised."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

'Oh no. Oh no.'-Jacen Solo

"Now… imagine that will be nothing compared to what you'll feel when you confront the ultimate challenge. The ultimate challenge."-Shira Brie/Darth Lumiya

'Is it me? Is it really my burden? Yes, Grandfather. It's me.'-Jacen Solo

STAR WARS:

LEGACY OF THE FORCE: Book Two:

BLOODLINES