TATOOINE
Two shuttles docked atop the gorges of the Jundland Wastes. The revived Sith Lords who had lived between the start of Bane's Rule of Two and the rise of the Empire shoved past one another to exit onto the rocky plains.
The approximately thirty Sith stood surveying the battle landscape, observing the fighters and cruisers doing battle with one another.
"Our enemies are at war with one another," Tenebrous stated, "This will give us a tactical advantage."
Millennial countered, "The Jedi have joined the battle in the city and united with Republic forces. Their guns and ranks will outnumber us."
"Let us not waste time with statistics," Darth Volchor snapped, "We have sheer might on our side."
"I have surveyed the vibrations of the Force that this planet carries," Darth Bane chimed in, "There is a lone Jedi by herself, watching over refuges near here. She is the blood of the Chosen One. The rest of the Jedi are occupied by the gangsters who control this planet. If we strike now, they will be at a disadvantage."
"The Republic is splintered," Tenebrous agreed, "They will hardly be reliable allies when their military is battling itself."
"Let us go forth to war," Bane declared.
The South Ridge Tusken Raider clan encampment was equipped with a row of scanner antennas that lined up in front of about five moisture vaporators, planted about ten meters apart each.
The domed dwellings had been rebuilt as stone and marble structures and expanded in size, making the architecture distinct from the adobe buildings in most of Tatooine's cities.
The herd of bantha lined up to drink from the large water basin as a masked and robed Tusken handler guided them along.
Tahiri and Sam were bound to a large metal pole, which two mounted Tuskens carried between them.
This place has changed since I was here last, Tahiri thought as she weakly cranked her neck around to absorb the sight of her early upbringing as well as her present captivity.
She barely remembered her life before being rescued by Luke Skywalker, really just isolated images. Her earliest clear memory was of her parents leaving her far away from the encampment. She didn't know their faces- they had never taken off their Tusken garbs in her presence.
The bantha-riding Tuskens said nothing as they continued to grip the steel pole that both Sam and Tahiri were tied up to. Tahiri noticed that Sam was beginning to regain consciousness, blinking in confusion as he also took in the sights.
The banthas finally stopped outside the largest structure, a wide and sturdy fortress with two still and silent Tusken guards stationed outside.
The dangling prisoners were marched into the fortress, occupied with more armed Tusken guards.
Tahiri could only mostly see the feet and legs of their Tusken captors, but her Force sensitivity was alerting her to a wide number of familiar presences.
This had been her family once, these were the relatives that had cast her aside. Her birth parents must have been there as well! Tahiri couldn't sense them in particular among the Tuskens.
Finally, the Tuskens stepped aside in either direction to allow Tahiri and Sam to view the chief, seated idly on his simple throne. This chief was not donning any special apparel or clothing to distinguish him from his guards, his posture alone signified his elegance.
The Tusken chief wasted no time in addressing the new arrivals.
"Brothers, I see you have brought one of the Jedi invaders and her Republic lapdog," the chief said in a gravelly, monstrous voice, "The Republic has finally taken its mask off and shown itself as no less a military aggressor than the Empire."
"I am not with the invading army here," Sam replied, still badly bruised but having summoned just enough stamina to address the chief, "And neither are the Jedi. We only seek to free the planet from the criminals that have taken over."
"This is not just any Jedi, Chief Rothlan," one of the Tuskens carrying the pole said, "This girl was the offspring of Brother and Sister Veila. She became corrupted as soon as she embarked in the Jedi ways."
Chief Rothlan peered closer at Tahiri from his chair, his face hidden by the coverages cloaked over his entire body. Tahiri could only see a thorned mask gazing at her.
"So, you have returned to us, Jedi Veila," Rothlan said, "You seek to spread your corruption to the rest of our people?"
"The Jedi are not corrupt!" Tahiri snapped, not caring if her expression of boldness was going to cost her later, "The Coalition is expanding its circle of influence across the galaxy, and its leaders don't care what they destroy. We stand against their reign of terror jut as much as we stand against the Republic's invasion."
"But your friend here is with the Republic," Rothlan pointed out, "Brigadier uniform and all."
"I'm with the true Republic," Sam replied, "not the military power that Omas and his followers have made it. We are part of the movement fighting against all invaders, be they Republic or Coalition."
"You refer to the army under the protection of the Jedi," Rothlan stated, his invisible scowl very plain from his rumbling voice alone, "The moisture farmers were the very first invaders to settle here."
"The Tuskens will fare no better than the settlers if Omas or the crime syndicates have their way," Tahiri argued, "You face a common threat, and you'd do better to recognize it."
Rothlan was silent for a long, painful moment, before standing up from his throne.
"Cut them loose from their restraints," Rothlan commanded the captors.
The Tusken standing about two inches behind Tahiri pulled out a thin dagger.
Tahiri braced herself for an attack, summoning the Force energy to repel the weapon.
However, the Tusken merely obeyed the chief and sliced at the knots binding Tahiri's hands and feet to the pole. Tahiri's back hit the ground with a small impact, and she quickly kicked away the ropes that had bound her.
A moment later, Sam was also freed, and quickly climbed to his feet along with Tahiri.
Tahiri stood to face the chief eye-to-eye, although she was much shorter than him.
"We do not cooperate with the others on this world," Rothlan stated, "We do not believe in your ideals. The resources on Tatooine are limited, and we must care for our own. We cannot help our natural competitors."
"The longer you spend refusing to acknowledge your common goals with the moisture farmers and other dwellers, the more you doom your own people," Tahiri retorted, "This is a fight that needs great numbers to win, and none of us can win without working together."
Rothlan turned away from Tahiri in response, and whispered something to one of his guards.
The guards and one of his compatriots quickly exited the domed building and darted for one of the other dwellings.
Tahiri did not register this sudden turn of events; instead, she was diving into the interweb of the Force, trying to sense any other familiar presences nearby. Her mother and father had to be here somewhere...
"What is your name, companion of the Jedi?" Rothlan asked, turning his attention to Sam.
Sam's initial reply halted in its tracks - he'd only heard his real name for nearly two years now, the one he'd been trying to disassociate with since he was fifteen.
"I'm Fel," he replied, "Just Fel."
"That is false information," one of the other masked Tuskens in the room said, "Our sources tell us differently."
Another voice spoke up from behind the two prisoners.
"Fel is his mother's name" said the bloodied and bruised Hoff Praxium, who had been led in by two Tusken guards, "This is my son, Major Praxium."
The Republic general was shackled at the wrists and ankles, slumped against the brick wall.
Sam turned around in surprise as much as his battered head would allow him before doubling over in pain. Tahiri was still only half paying attention, reading every Force presence that she was picking up and trying to feel any kind of familiar energy.
"They're here somewhere," she muttered to herself, "I just know they are."
Rothlan picked up his long, metal pike and poked Sam's jaw with its dull end.
"So you are with the invaders," Rothlan declared conclusively, "and you attempted to hide your identity from us so we would not know."
"No, I'm not with him!" Sam insisted, his eyes darting towards the metal rod threatening to bash his face in, "I'm with the Jedi and we're trying to stop the invaders, Republic and Coalition."
"He's telling you the truth," General Praxium chimed in, "This boy has wanted nothing to do with me his whole life. He and his Jedi friends have fought against my army on this world." The general sounded almost humble as he addressed the Tusken chief.
"In fact, we were going to have him put on trial for plotting against us. If he says he is on your side, then he is telling the truth."
"We just want to help everyone on Tatooine," Sam said, trying to avoid outright pleading, "The Tuskens included."
Tahiri suddenly broke out of her meditation and reached her hand towards her confiscated lightsaber.
As it soared towards her, a Tusken spear swung towards her head, forcing Tahiri to duck and roll.
Her lightsaber clattered to the floor, and one of the other Tusken guards kicked it out of reach.
Sam was momentarily surprised by the suddenness of Tahiri's actions, but he raised a fist to punch the Tusken who was trying to strike Tahiri down.
Sam felt a hard rod strike him in the back, knocking him to the ground and crashing several times into his spine.
Rothlan had been passive during these events, but suddenly seized the arm of the guard who was pounding at Sam, nonverbally ordering him to stop.
Tahiri Force-jumped over the heads of the rest of the Tusken and sprinted towards the exit of Rothlan's home.
Tahiri followed the Force-beacons that directed her to her parents across the alleyway formed by the adobe dwellings.
She stopped as soon as she saw two robed Tuskens, their coverings distinct from one another based on gender, kneeling before an angry mob, all armed with pikes, spears, and rifles.
The leader of the mob was shouting, "You knew what would happen if that girl showed her face here again! When you swore that you wanted nothing more to do with her and cast her out!"
Frey Veila responded, "We tried to stop her from coming near our tribe! We have no contact with her!"
"Regardless, she has trespassed on our land!" the mob leader yelled, "You must pay."
"Stop!" Tahiri shouted, raising a hand and marching towards the angry mob.
The masked Tuskens all gaped at her, but her two kneeling parents did not dare look at her.
"You are a Jedi and a trespasser," the lead assailant growled, "and your parents must share your responsibility."
Tahiri fought back against a rush of emotion that stemmed from the combination of seeing her parents, hearing them disown her all over again, and seeing their lives threatened. She was a Jedi, and she would deal with this situation like one.
She swallowed a lump in her throat and spoke with conviction.
"I cannot allow you to hurt these innocents regardless," she declared.
"What are you going to do about it with no weapon?" the mob leader asked.
"Please, allow us to kill her ourselves, we can make it right," begged Shalyn Veila, Tahiri's mother, evidently inspired by Tahiri's apparent lack of defenses.
Tahiri betrayed her horror by gaping in shock at what she had just heard. A wave of anger and grief threatened to overcome her, but she once again repressed it. This must be why Jedi of the past didn't have access to seeing their families, she reflected, so that they wouldn't get too involved the way she was, and possibly having their hearts shattered.
"We vowed to have nothing more to do with this girl, and we can fulfill that promise," Frey said, "She stands here unarmed and helpless. Let us atone by ending her life."
The Tusken mob looked at each other and seemed to confer, muttering in unintelligible dialects.
Then the mob leader said, "Very well then, Brother and Sister Veila. If you take responsibility for the shame you created, then we can forgive.
Frey and Shalyn rose to their feet, reaching for a pair of discarded blaster rifles.
Tahiri had frozen with shock and fear, mixed with her desire to burst into sobs.
As the faceless Tusken couple raised their rifles to shoot down their flesh and blood, Tahiri somersaulted sideways, leaping into the air.
Two long-range lasers sailed behind her back and drilled holes into the nearest adobe dwelling.
"She's yours to take care of," the mob leader said.
Frey and Shalyn pursued Tahiri as she sprinted away from them, firing once again. Their daughter zig-zagged her steps as she ran for safety.
The two Tuskens split up at the fork in the path that led through the rows of Tusken houses, positioning themselves on either side of their target.
Tahiri had to drop to the sandy ground to avoid another blast from her mother's weapon.
Her father Frey appeared between two more dome structures, pointing his rifle at the ground to shoot Tahiri. Tahiri wasn't able to get to her feet in time to jump out of the way.
Tahiri then had an idea. As her father aimed for her head to shoot, she used the Force to make contact with the traditional face covering on Frey's head, undoing the harness and pulling it off of him enough so that his chin was just visible below the mask.
Frey stumbled in confusion, shooting a hole into a spot on the ground two feet to the right of Tahiri. He cried out in fear of exposure and desperately reached for his mask to fasten it back over his face. This gave Tahiri time to recover her footing.
As she did, Shalyn aimed another blast at her daughter. Tahiri leapt from the ground onto a nearby rooftop to avoid it, landing on all fours.
She was panting by now, losing breath and energy.
She wanted to shout at her parents to listen to reason, but there was no real purpose in that.
By now, the afternoon sky was beginning to show the first signs of dusk. Tahiri's eyes darted towards Rothlan's building where Sam was still being kept. She saw two Tuskens dragging Sam out, followed by Rothlan and his guards. Two more guards were escorting the battered Hoff Praxium.
Frey and Shalyn fired their weapons at Tahiri, causing a small chunk of the roof she was standing on to crumble inward as the shots whizzed through it.
Tahiri rolled from the top of the adobe home onto the ground, slumped against the wall.
With a groan, the young Jedi climbed to her feet, using the wall for support.
Tahiri's two parents approached her from either side, rifles aimed and ready to fire.
Just as Tahiri was about to summon a wave of Force energy, Rothlan's hoarse, raspy voice shouted, "Halt! Lower your weapons!"
Frey and Shalyn turned to their leader curiously as Rothlan and his entourage approached.
"Tahiri, you all right?" Sam shouted.
Tahiri tilted her head towards him and nodded, finally allowing the tears to flow down her cheeks.
"Chief, allow us to rectify the wrong that is this girl," Shalyn said, "We take responsibility for her transgressions both now and before."
"There will be no need," Rothlan declared, "For now, we have come to a truce with these stragglers and their allies. We will soon reckon with enemies who want to permanently take over our land, and we cannot afford to lose numbers in the struggle. Just this once, we will let these two walk in peace."
"We understand, Chief," Frey said with a nod.
Sam ran forward, unable to control himself.
"You were about to shoot your own daughter dead!" he shouted at Tahiri's parents, "Your own child! For nothing!"
Sam's anger on her behalf both warmed Tahiri's heart and froze her insides at the reminder.
From his captivity, Hoff Praxium listened intently to his son's angry shouts. His eyes widened in surprise as he reflected on his own actions. Sam was truly a fighter for justice, even above the law. More than that, he represented loyalty far more than Hoff ever had despite his vow to serve the Republic.
"That'll be enough of that," Rothlan hissed, "We will handle our own ranks. For now, let us discuss what is to be done about the enemy armies. Jedi, what do you have to say?"
Tahiri stared hard at her parents, whose emotions she could not read and whose faces she could not see behind their face coverings.
Then, she let her emotions slip away and resumed her duties as a guardian of peace and justice.
"We need to start by bringing our own armies together," she stated, "A stronger central unit will be better able to split the Coalition forces apart."
A lone AT-GT trekked through the sand, its cannons pointing at the Tusken village in the distance across the Dunes.
"Colonel, the Tusken encampment is within our radar," the pilot reported.
"Keep the scanners trained on the General," Kargill ordered, "He needs to be extracted before we attack."
"I see him," one of the scouts exclaimed, "The Tuskens have taken him prisoner. One of the Jedi is with them, and Major Praxium. It looks like the Jedi and Major Praxium are cooperating with the Tuskens."
"They're all uniting against us," Kargill realized, "We'll have to contact Omas immediately."
The armada of Republic fighters, shuttles, drone carriers and ground support rallied in the depths of the Dune Sea, around the army of AT-GTs that had fled from the battle scene where the Jedi had come to fight.
Inside the cockpit of his own vehicle, Omas spoke to the hologram of Colonel Kargill.
"We have found the Tusken dwelling where General Praxium is being kept," Kargill reported, "Our intelligence reports that the Jedi have allied with the Tuskens. Praxium's son is with them."
"Some of our own forces have betrayed us as well," Omas mused, "Admiral Calrissian has decided to help his old friend Solo. We cannot afford to take any prisoners. This alliance must end before it begins."
"What are your orders, sir?" Kargill asked.
"Don't bother collecting Praxium, there's no time," Omas said, "Destroy the Tusken encampment as soon as possible."
Kargill hesitated, looking between Omas's hologram and the village in her viewing screen. Her mind seemed to scramble to make a decision.
"It will be done, Supreme Commander," she finally said.
"Madam, we're now picking up on a group of stragglers approaching us," one of the scouts stationed outside the transport reported.
Kargill looked to see a cluster of about a dozen figures slowly advancing on the Brigadier squadron.
They were diverse in age and species, but they were all dressed in black, carrying sheathed lightsabers, and appeared to be in a sort of trance.
"Fire!" the sergeant shouted without pausing to question the situation.
The Brigadiers stationed out in the sand fired their blasters at the approaching Sith.
Several jets of scarlet light sprang from the lightsabers that the undead Sith army wielded.
"Let them taste our might!" hissed the pale-skinned human Darth Zannah. She raised her lightsaber over her cloaked head and led the charge.
The Sith cried out as they attacked, their red blades soaring in every direction; first swatting aside the shots directed their way, then cutting through the bodies of the first wave of Brigadiers.
"Retreat!"
The survivors hurried into the AT-GT, the hatch slamming shut as Darth Erebor hurled his lightsaber with a flick of the wrist. Erebor's red blade caught an unlucky scout through the chest as he failed to enter the military tank. The blade drilled through both the man's body and the wall of the AT-GT.
As soon as Erebor summoned his weapon back to him, the Sith drew upon the AT-GT before it could open fire, cutting it at the legs, the engine, and jumping onto its top hatch.
The Sith's lightsabers slashed at the medium-sized transport until the entire vessel burst into flames, with the Shistavanen Darth Arthorn theatrically decapitating the front cannon..
The personnel inside the AT-GY cried out in terror as the flames rapidly spread into the cockpit and passenger hold, before being silenced and burned to a crisp.
The structure quickly collapsed on itself, reduced to a heap of flaming metal panels and ashes along with the bones of the Republic soldiers and officers inside.
From inside the boundaries of the Tusken clan village, everybody looked towards the column of smoke emerging from the wreckage.
"What did that?" Sam questioned, "That didn't come from an aircraft."
"They found us!" Tahiri exclaimed, "The Sith are here!" She could sense a dark cloud of evil rapidly filling the air, bleaker and more toxic than the smoke billowing from the ruins Colonel Kargill and her squadron's AT-GT. The Sith were approaching, getting rapidly closer now...
"Then we must take up arms," Rothlan declared, "Men, prepare to open fire on the invaders."
"You can't take on a Sith army and live," Tahiri replied, "We need to get out of here now and find the Jedi."
She could sense the collective discomfort from the Tuskens, in spite of their invisible, cloaked faces, but she could also hear the distant hum of more than a dozen Sith lightsaber blades getting louder.
"Do you hear that?" she asked, "Those are the Sith. If you want to ensure that as many of your clan members survives as possible, you'll do the smart thing and come."
Rothlan paused for the tiniest fraction of a second as he strained to listen. He was not so stubborn as to put the entire village in harm's way just for the sake of pride. Or-as much as he hated to admit it- certain death at the hands of these Sith.
"Lead the way then, Jedi," the Tusken Chief conceded.
Two minutes later, the entire Tusken clan was scrambling to pack as many sacks and valuable items as possible on their Bantha mounts.
Mothers were lifting their children onto the high saddles, and families were squeezing together to make room.
Tahiri looked around desperately for a Bantha that was not being mounted, but none seemed available, all filling up with families and warriors fast. She didn't dare ask if she and Sam could climb aboard one.
Tahiri's parents had been among the first to set off on bantha, and Tahiri couldn't bring herself to watch after them now, or even think about them at all.
As the first dozen banthas took off across the dunes, Rothlan finally approached Tahiri and Sam, sitting atop a bantha mount accompanied by seven Tusken guards.
Tahiri involuntarily betrayed her better judgement and opened her mouth in a surprised smile, before Rothlan spoke.
"If the other prisoner is your father, Republic Brigadier, then you may want to take him with you. He is no longer our concern."
Tahiri automatically looked to Sam in deference, but Sam had immediately run back into the perimeter of the village.
WELLSPRING OF LIFE
Within the depths of the Force-enchanted forest, the battle raged on between two Lords of the Sith.
Ultor was furiously attacking Plagueis with his lightsaber, forcing the old Muun to invest all of his concentration in self-defense.
Embers and cinders flew across the glowing landscape amid the shadowy trees as the two dark warriors leapt around one another, repeatedly clashing blades.
At last, as Ultor's red blade locked against Plagueis's yellow one, the young Dark Master removed one hand from the grip on his saber handle and extended it towards his opponent, calling on the power of the dark side.
Plagueis did not take advantage of the young man's change of movement, but rather looked on in confusion. He could feel the midichlorians rebelling against him, calling to Ultor to take their knowledge instead. He looked in horror into Ultor's glowing yellow and red eyes, backing away slowly.
"Yes, old man, your time is long past," Ultor gloated, "The midichlorians that once served you will now pledge allegiance to me. The secret to cheating death is no longer yours alone!"
The taunt from the younger Sith snapped Darth Plagueis out of his temporary stupor. His fury renewed, Plagueis snarled, "No, you will not take what is mine, imposter!"
He raised his hand to hurl a deadly burst of dark energy at Ultor, who reflexively flicked his blade downward to absorb it.
The crackling stream reversed direction upon making contact with Ultor's weapon of plasma, catching onto Plagueis's rejuvenated body and tearing through his bones.
The towering Muun screamed in agony as his own power was directed back at him. He dropped his lightsaber and staggered away from Ultor, who used the Force to summon Damask's dropped weapon.
Ultor waved both his own lightsaber and Plagueis's in his hands, widening his stance in preparation to move in for the kill.
However, Damask suddenly took control of his pain, springing up into the air as Ultor thrusted the two lightsabers forward.
Damask didn't return to the ground, but had grabbed on to a branch one hundred meters above where Ultor was standing.
The young warrior glowered up in his direction.
"Your powers are weak, Plagueis!," he shouted, "You won't get away from me!"
Ultor slashed the tree trunk with his lightsaber, while Damask leapt to another branch on a neighboring tree.
Ultor raised his arm that gripped his curved lightsaber hilt and flicked it forward, hurling his spinning blade up towards the dangling Damask. Damask hopped from one tree to the next, now fully embarking on retreat.
Damask swung to dodge the blade as it sprang upward, and then back down towards Ultor.
Damask continued to hop from one tree branch to the next until he was entirely out of sight, still gripping his activated lightsaber all the while.
Ultor ran in the direction where his enemy had disappeared, frustratedly slashing his lightsaber into the unbruised tree trunks.
Damask had managed to put considerable distance between himself and Ultor, using the Force to glide through the air as he sprang out of the top of the canopies, gliding through the air. Damask wasn't exactly flying, but he was using the Force to glide through the air from one destination to the next.
Although Ultor had begun to drain the midichlorians from Damask's influence, the former Dark Lord still felt the enhancement that the Wellspring of Life granted his abilities through his own ability to manipulate the microorganisms.
Finally, Damask's superhuman abilities, even by Force-sensitive standards had propelled him miles away from the forest, towards a dark, circular cave mouth. None of the cave's interior was visible from the outside, but Damask knew exactly what was inside.
Here, he would be able to regenerate his control over all the midichlorians and have them do his bidding once more.
Damask stepped into the abyss of the cave mouth and entered.
Once he entered, the scenery of the Force planet was replaced by something entirely different, a crystallized cave swam into view, the rocky walls glowing with Kyber crystals.
Looking around and deactivating his yellow blade, the old Muun tossed it aside and let it clatter on the incandescent wall.
"I have allowed myself to be corrupted by my own strength, once again," he said aloud, "Even when I try and resist my darker impulses, I cannot let go of my power."
The Force Priestess Serenity materialized into being before him, gazing through her black, unfeeling eyes.
"All who gain power are afraid to lose it," she stated, "You wanted to become supreme to all others, and you used the midichlorians's desire to channel through the Force to do so."
"I never wanted to rule, not for my own sake," Damask protested, "All I wanted was the power to prevent destruction and tragedy."
"And what of the Sith army you control?" Serenity asked, "Were they means to your altruistic mission as well? Or did they become tools of the dark side and the Sith's everlasting conquest for power?"
Damask paused, and closed his eyes, using the midichlorians within the cave to observe the beings whom he had raised from the dead, the former Dark Lords who were at this moment struggling between his will and their own.
TATOOINE
Hoff Praxium was caught in an embarrassing predicament, lying on his side with the ropes still tied around his arms and ankles.
He looked to find Sam, the son he had almost had possibly sentenced to death, running towards him, wasting no time in tearing open his restraints.
"What is going on?" Hoff asked in confusion.
"We have to leave now," Sam insisted, pulling his father up to his feet, "The Sith are almost here, and..."
Sam was interrupted by a sudden and rapidly growing tightness around his throat. He gasped and fought for breath as his feet lifted off the ground.
Darth Tenebrous stood before the two Praxiums, his lightsaber activated and casting a crimson glow across the buildings of the Tusken village.
"You're no challenge, but you'll have to do for now," the Bith Dark Lord stated dully.
"No!" Tahiri yelled, appearing on the scene in a flash.
She sprang desperately at Tenebrous, forcing the revived Sith Master to forget his two quarry and defend himself from her purple blade's fast Form V attack.
A recently Knighted Jedi was no match for a Dark Lord of the Sith, but Tenebrous's power, like his comrades in arms, was diminished by the alchemical spell cast over his mind as well as his lack of combat practice due to having been dead for roughly one hundred years.
Tahiri was able to fend off Tenebrous with her lightsaber attacks, basing her style on the principle of aggression as a means for defense. She released the brief rush of emotion she had experienced at the sight of Sam in danger, allowing it to convert into meditative calm as she concentrated on the rigorous physical task of taking on a Sith Lord.
However, Tenebrous's power was partially boosted by the already-highly concentrated midichlorians inside him that were being controlled by Plagueis from a long distance.
Tahiri maintained a strong offensive, but quickly changed strategies to a retreating defense as the magnitude of her opponent's strikes increased. Soon, Tenebrous's blade had pushed Tahiri's away from her body and allowed the large Bith to cut her down with his own. Tenebrous saw this and prepared for the kill.
Four more Sith Lords appeared around the crouching Sam and his father, lightsabers casting shadows of light over the two.
Sam desperately drew his blaster, knowing it would do no good.
Suddenly, Tenebrous's downward saber attack halted mid-strike, allowing Tahiri to slice across his broad and muscled stomach.
The large-headed Bith dropped his lightsaber and stabbed back, groaning in pain.
The other Sith who had entered the fray seemed to have forgotten about the two men they had been about to lill, and were looking around the village in confusion instead.
"What is happening to us?" Darth Millennial snapped, "Why do I feel possessed?"
Tahiri stepped away from Tenebrous and moved protectively Sam, who shot the wounded Tenebrous in the head before training his blaster on Millennial.
"No, scum!" Darth Millennial shouted, recognizing what Sam was about to do, but he was Force-pushed away by Tahiri before he could crush the renegade Brigadier's throat.
Sam fired at Millennial, hitting him in the upper third eye.
WELLSPRING OF LIFE
Through the translucent crystal wall that barricaded him from the Tusken camp of Tatooine, Damask glimpsed the death of his former Master Tenebrous, the once-powerful Sith Lord shot by the pistol of a non-Force adept human.
He then watched the young Jedi woman fighting against the three surviving Sith, yelling, "Run!" to the two men.
Tahiri had a gash on her upper arm, and now another on her leg.
The young man was shooting at the Sith now, determined not to leave his friend behind.
He blasted one female human in the neck, and the Jedi plunged her violet blade through Darth Ness.
Tahiri staggered away from her two remaining opponents, wounded and exhausted, before collapsing to the ground.
The two Sith Lords advanced on her, ready for the kill.
At the same time, Damask instinctively concentrated on the three fallen Lords, Millennial, Ness and Tenebrous. He willed their midichlorians to reactivate their vital functions and heal their wounds, feeling his own power run satisfyingly through his veins.
"No!" the old Muun shouted, "This isn't what I wanted!"
He struggled to stop his own power from taking form, but Millennial, Ness and Tenebrous continued to heal, finally rising to their feet.
"Stop!" Damask shouted.
The Sith advanced on the fallen Tahiri, preparing to finish off her and the Praxiums.
Panting with exhaustion, Tahiri held her violet blade above her body to defend herself to the end, while Sam moved in front of her, ready to die first.
In the Force-cave, Damask desparately tried to fight his own power as he continued to influence the midichlorians inside his fellow Sith that were deeply infested with the dark side.