By the time Cinder and Fell had made it back out of the Viridian Slug, the streets of Nar Shaddaa were deserted. Fell had made a joke of it, though she paid him no mind. It unsettled her not being able to tell the time of day. It reminded her all too much of getting lost in the Uscru District on Coruscant as a young padawan. That was an ordeal she would rather forget than ever relive.

"I say we forget the droid," Fell said as they hit the ramp leading down to the street. The door where everyone had been crowded earlier was now shut, the grounds in front of it empty. "We should turn back around and go straight to the palace."

"With only our paltry Huttese?" Cinder scoffed. "We should have brought the droid to begin with and spared ourselves the trip."

A few market stalls had been set up while they were inside the bar. Each was staffed by a lone salesperson, shouting at any passersby about their wares. Cries of "Wet nerf on a stick! Getcher wet nerf on a stick! and "Droid parts! Parts for all droids, straight from Kuat!" and"Soap! Soap with a prize inside! Get clean and get a li'l somethin' for yer trouble! Soap with a prize inside!" grated on her ears.

Something else gnawed at her insides, enough to give her pause. Where there should have been an arc of pain, she felt only the pangs of nothingness coursing through her. It brought her to a stop in the middle of the thoroughfare. Fell almost knocked her over.

"Why are we stopping?"

Cinder nibbled on her lip. Something moves beyond the pale. "I've felt a great disturbance in the Force." She bid Fell follow her over to the railing, so they would be out of the street and away from onlookers.

"Don't tell me the Dark Lord has fallen already." Fell was almost beaming.

"Nonsense." A single word struck the smile from his face. Were it only so simple, my apprentice. "You have felt death in the Force before, much as I have. It is a different sensation. Different entirely to this." Tendrils of unease swept at her side. She could not place the feeling, nor find the words to describe it. Especially in a way he will understand.

"Then what has happened?"

"Some thing—man, beast, or neither, I know not—has been unleashed." The malaise lingered within her chest for a while before it finally began to pass, as if slabs of duracrete were lifted off of her. "It is far away and yet still so very close." She felt something else within the veil. "There is something closer, too. Something watching." The energies were hazy at best. "Come."

She made her way over to a market stall, Fell close by her side. She pondered over the wares in front of her: a collection of glittering dinnerware made of precious metals and hand-painted, heavy ceramic. Each shined and sparkled in the artificial light. A fat, green-skinned Twi'lek stood behind the stall, one battened lekku wrapped around his neck, the other hanging free from his skull. He talked up his wares in Huttese, but Cinder did not listen. She peered into the center of a freshly shined platter of shorestone, but it was fruitless. Her eyes only caught Fell's and her own.

"That one is one hundred credits," the Twi'lek forced out in stunted Basic. "But for you, I can part with it for eighty."

Cinder looked up at him and forced a half-smile. "Keep your platter." She went on her way with Fell closely behind.

"Are you sure they're close?" Fell whispered. "There's been no one around but those merchants."

"Do not doubt me should you wish to keep on living," Cinder said. She picked up her pace. "Whatever lurks behind us is trying doggedly to obfuscate itself." She had her suspicions, but knew it best to leave Fell in the dark, lest he turn around and rush in swinging.

They passed the landing pad without so much as a second thought and found themselves drawn into the darkness of an unfinished residential district. Countless multistory duracrete structures cropped up all around them, providing housing (temporary and permanent alike) to Nar Shaddaa's ever-growing population. Most of the windows were empty black pits. Others glowed with light, some orange, some teal, and some white. Each structure looked almost exactly the same. It would be easy enough for anyone to get lost among the monotony.

They rounded a corner and for a moment everything was pitch black. The flatheaded lights above flickered, occasionally providing Cinder and Fell a glimpse of their surroundings. The street underneath them bore countless cracks and fissures. The railing stopped suddenly to their left about halfway down the path. As they made their way through, using the flickering lights to stay their path, Cinder heard a soft buzz as she brushed against a holographic tapestry. Construction Zone, she read when an overhead light flickered on again.

"We're running out of ground," Fell said with a laugh. "Surely we've lost 'em by now?"

"No," Cinder said. But I have them where I want them. Whatever obfuscation had clouded the presence before was gone now. It was powerful, like her and the boy. Worse still, it was all-too familiar.

"You're not running from me, are you?" The voice came from behind them. It was thick and frothy, as if it came from a tongue too big for its mouth. The speaker was concealed in the murk, but Cinder knew his voice anywhere.

"Lord Kaos," she called out. She stuck a hand inside her robes, placing it on the end of her lightsaber hilt. "Forgive me. I thought that we were being pursued by a more wretched sort." As if you aren't wretched enough. "What brings you to the realm of the Hutts?"

"Just the Dark Lord's bidding," he said. The lights flickered on again and revealed his form, albeit barely. A broad-shouldered, tentacle-bearded Quarren with mottled purple skin. He was draped head to toe in black robes. His chests and all his joints were plated in dark black armor gone unpolished for so long that it bore no more shine than his linens. Clawed gauntlets covered his three-fingered hands just as claw-toed boots armored his feet. "Lord Ruin has sent me to fetch you. He regrets leaving you for dead on Korriban."

Cinder scoffed. "So he did leave me for dead. Pray tell, what makes you think I would wish to regroup with the likes of him?"

"He yearns for your presence so much so it drives him mad." Kaos' voice dripped with phlegmatic mockery. "Though I believe he is unaware of the boy. Who is he?"

"The boy is my apprentice," Cinder said. She waved a hand at Fell and then back to Kaos. "We are the last survivors of the Fall of Korriban."

"He wants you brought back." Kaos seemed to growl and grumble a bit. "Alone." The Quarren muttered something under his breath.

"How did you find us here, Lord Kaos?" Cinder said. A long way to come, just to get yourself killed. "You must have left with Ruin on his flagship, that would be the only way you survived." He had always been the most boorish and simple of Ruin's Dark Council. Even Ruin himself had told her once he found little use for Lord Kaos. "You would have had no knowledge of my survival, and much less my whereabouts."

"I have my ways," Kaos chuckled. "Spies in the Republic Navy. It was good work you did, blowing up a Hammerhead from the inside." Cinder heard spittle hit the metal ground beneath them as he laughed. "Cunning. Sounds a lot like 'cunny', don't you agree?"

"Tsk, tsk, language, Lord Kaos. I ought to have your tongue for that one."

"You know, Cinder, I realized something on my way here," Kaos said. His footsteps grew louder as he stepped closer, but he never got close enough for Cinder to see him clearly. "I think our code is meaningless. I think Darth Ruin came up with a bunch of nonsense, strung it together, and gathered a bunch of sycophants to stroke his ego to help make him feel like he came up with something meaningful."

"Part of that may be true," Cinder said. Her fingers were practically clawing into her saber hilt.

"Mull it over in that dainty little head of yours." The lights flickered on Kaos again like bolts of white lightning. "A true Sith needs none of his nonsense. I always get to the part of his creed where he speaks of obsession. His obsession, now, seems to be you."

"His obsession has always been himself, as yours should be as well. Have you learned nothing?"

"I have learned all I need to know."

There was a faint thud as Cinder heard him cast off his robes and they flung against the metal. She heard a metallic scrape as his lightsaber brought itself into his hands. The red blades cut through the inky blackness like hellfire as they both sprung to life.

Cinder and Fell did the same, casting aside their robes and drawing their sabers. Her orange blade created a torch. Fell's white one almost blinded them both. Soon enough, the Quarren sprang forward and they danced in a flurry of blows. Silver caught one end of the saberstaff; orange caught the other. Kaos stood between them, both his hands clinging tight to his saberstaff's hilt.

"When I return to Ruin with the news of your death, I will exploit his vulnerability and take his place," Kaos growled. He kicked Cinder in the leg. She tumbled away, and he turned to Fell.

The white blade hammered on red. Fell tried, frantic, to beat his foe back. Kaos stood his ground. Cinder came bounding back over, her lightsaber over her head. She aimed for a deathblow at the back of Kaos' head, but he raised the other end of his saber to parry. He jumped backwards, the light of his blades revealing a chasm between them.

"This mummery only delays the inevitable," he said. His squid face stretched in some hideous approximation of a grin. "The Dark Lord threatens our survival. Someone strong must take his place."

"A pity you're so quick to attack," Cinder said. She sprinted forward and cleared the chasm. Her blade fell down against Kaos'. "Perhaps we agree." Fell jumped into the fray, landing behind the Quarren. Kaos was pinned in their center. With a swift dervish, he spun both of them around, nearly knocking Fell off his feet. The boy recovered quick enough to block a jab aimed at his forehead, batting the scarlet blade away.

"Even if you agree," Kaos panted as he blocked another of their blows. "We play a game of dominance. You must understand it should be a lonely thing to be at the top."

"Have fun fending off the Jedi by yourself," Fell said with a laugh. His saber crashed down against his opponent's, almost landing on the blade emitter. Kaos slipped it further into his grip just in time.

"I grow tired of this," Kaos muttered.

It was all a blur. One moment, he stretched out his hand. The next, Fell shouted as he was thrown into a wall. Cinder looked around, almost missing the flash of red before her eyes. Before she was blinded, she blocked it, her own blade mere millimeters away from searing her flesh. Kaos shut off the other end of his saberstaff. He hacked madly at her, forcing her backwards with every blow. She countered and blade met blade in a war of attrition. The Quarren spun, activating the other end of his saber and meeting her with a new blade. It happened over and over until Cinder found herself with her back to a half-finished wall. Above her was a piece of rebar creating an overhang. Kaos activated the other end of his saberstaff once again. As another of his blows glanced off Cinder's blade, the other end of his own was carving a crimson path through the wall. Cinder jumped up, though not before he grazed her side.

She groaned in pain, but she was safe atop the overhang. She clutched her side. No blood; it was already cauterized, and hardly even deep at that. She looked down. Kaos was staring up at her. She knew at any moment, this surface would fall. He was playing a patient game, like a nexu stalking its prey. He would stab her once she was splayed out on the ground, if she did not first slip through one of the holes below.

However, her eyes caught a gleam of silver as it crashed against the Quarren's blade. Such fury! She looked down at Fell, who screamed and cried and hacked madly against his opponent. Kaos was quick enough to block every heavy slam of the boy's blade, but it was wearing him down.

She jumped down from the overhang and her saber caught one of the Quarren's blades. He reactivated the other end just in time to counter her attack. Suddenly, he drew his saber back and outstretched an arm. Cinder and Fell readied to block. Sweat trickled unevenly down her forehead, down all their heads.

Kaos grimaced and breathed hard. His mouth opened, then closed again, then he was back on the attack. He crashed down upon Fell in a fury, almost ignoring Cinder entirely. She grinned. As he tried the same tactics against Fell as he had against her, Cinder caught one blade of his lightsaber before he could deactivate it. Fell caught the other. Kaos found himself locked in place.

"We are at an impasse," he grumbled through a fanged smile. "What are we, Jedi?"

Then he laughed. He danced forward, stomping an armored foot onto Cinder's. She ignored the pain, but backed off to avoid a slash that would have cut her in half. Kaos turned his saber into a whirlwind. It spun like a cyclone in his hand, but Fell kept it at bay. Cinder ran back into the fray, her blade meeting Kaos in the armor adorning his right shoulder... but it did not cut through. He roared and faced her with his blade, slashing with a fury more akin to a feral animal than a trained warrior. Cinder remained calm, perhaps in spite of the anger flowing through her, perhaps because of it. She glimpsed an opening in Kaos' flurries and took it in haste.

A low gurgle came out of Kaos' throat as his mouth opened and Cinder seized her moment. A single, deft cut took off the Quarren's right hand and his tentacled beard. He rattled low as he fell forward, his dark armor ringing out into the night as he pounded against the ground. She saw at once that Fell had opened his back from waist to clavicle. Green speckles of blood froze still around the cauterized wound.

They stood around the body, panting. Fell was the first to switch off his blade. She followed suit, though not before stooping to retrieve Kaos' hilt as well. She exchanged a look with her apprentice, but no words.