A/N: SWTOR is an amazing game that I have come to love very much! I have made many toons and developed their stories the more I played the game.

This is the first part of a three-shot project! I hope you enjoy it.

This fic takes place during Knights of the Fallen Empire, so spoiler warnings ahead for those who have yet to play it.

Cover image was created by flora-tea! You can find her on Tumblr and Twitter! Also thanks for being my beta!

Happy Reading OWO

Unforetold Consequences

Part 1

Ininarei felt it in her chest, a sickening feeling that ate at her worse than any burden. Of all the horrific things she had done as Sith, the people she killed, the lives she ruined; this was worse. Something was wrong, very wrong in the Force and she caused it.

Even back on Odessen, she could still feel the tremors from Kaliyo pressing the trigger, engulfing the Spire in flames. Ininarei felt euphoric then, the heat of the engulfing fires, smelling the smoke, hearing the Zukuulan people's screams. The relief of knowing, finally, her efforts of getting back at Arcann for ripping five years from her life was making a dent. The price of those lives lost were worth it, back then.

A "strategic opportunity" was Ininarei's justification when Koth demanded to know why she did it. A part of her wanted to believe that was part of her true reasoning, yet Ininarei knew herself better and judging by Koth's sour expression, he knew her better as well. By then, the thrill of what happened was long gone and replaced with this sinking feeling. Ininarei didn't sleep that night.

Things only got worse from there.

The next day, Ininarei received intel of how Arcann bombarded five planets as a way to bait the Alliance. Koth fled with some of his crew members and almost took the Gravestone with him. With these sequential events mixed with the presence in the Force she could hardly understand, the Zabrak could hardly breathe.

So, she walked the dirt paths of the Odessen wilderness, making sure to avoid the creatures that roamed its dense woods, maneuvering mountainous terrain. The large branches overhead covered most of the sunlight that blared down on her.

Ininarei took a deep breath of the afternoon air, it doing little to clear her cluttered mind. She noticed a mossy hill that looked like a potential resting place. Before she could sit, however, a few strands of her reddish brown hair slipped from her pin and made her face itch. She took the bronze pin out of her hair to redo it but paused. She stared at the old pin, the only thing left of her past. Its longing best left forgotten.

If only she could forget those sweet moments, her mom's stories, dancing with her sisters, her daughters' smiling faces. She might have been poor back then in the rusted depths of Nar Shaddaa, insignificant. But at least she was happy. Ininarei gripped the metal pin, fighting the impulse to throw it. Those days were decades gone, leaving only chips and scratches in her heart like on her pin. She repined it instead.

She shifted into a meditative stance, thinking that searching within herself would help her find answers. She closed her eyes and straightened her back before beginning the usual pattern of deep breathing.

There was so much to shift through, too much. Aside from the usual rage and self-contempt, she felt the anomaly and Valkorion being his usual overwhelmingly broody self. The sense was weaker thanks to him, seemingly in a slight scuffle to mute its presence. She didn't sense it as a danger though, it only desperately reached out to her. Something about it felt familiar. With her curiosity getting the better of her, she used the Force to push Valkorion away and reach out to it.

The closer she felt to it, the faster her memories flashed in her mind's eyes like her ship going into hyperspace. She could hardly see their faces, only the vibrant red hair of one and the light green lekku of the other. The rest were blurred movements filled with jumbled cries and laughter.

She felt a sudden pull once she grabbed onto it and lurched forward.

Ininarei's eyes shot open with a gasp. She looked around and saw she was no longer on that mossy hill but at the entrance of a small cave. The walls were littered with small crystals with the pleasant scent of petrichor surrounding her. She stood up and wiped the dirt off of her dark green garments and cape.

"Look at what you have done. With so much to do in the fight against my son, you decide to go on an adventure," Valkorion's deep voice blared inside her mind, making her head throb. "Despicable."

Ininarei grit her teeth and tensed into an offensive stance.

"What did you want me to do? Deal with it like I deal with you?" Ininarei muttered as she assessed her surroundings for potential dangers, finding nothing.

She ignited her double-bladed lightsaber and entered the cave. Ininarei's black blades emitted a pink hue that reflected off her bronze armor and lit up her surroundings. The feral creatures wandering the cave were oddly docile, merely growling when she passed by.

"Do you at least have any idea of what brought us here?" she asked, touching the cold stone with a gloved hand.

Ininarei was met with silence.

"Figures,"

She continued walking along the dirt path; her footsteps and the dripping stalactites that littered the place echoed through the rocky corridor. Eventually, she reached the cave's end. The scenery was peaceful, much too serene for comfort. Sunlight peered into the cave through small holes in the ceiling and a waterfall trinkled into a small stream. There sitting at its banks was a young Twi'lek fiddling with the red ribbon wrapped around her fern-green lekku. Judging by her rustic brown clothes and the lightsaber strapped to her waist, Ininarei could tell that she was a Jedi, one who frequently traveled. Despite that, she looked much too petite to be much of a threat. Even so, in Ininarei's line of work, looks were almost always deceiving.

Ininarei tensed when the Jedi looked up at her, lilac eyes gazing into her own yellow-green.

Most people, especially Jedi, cowered or grit their teeth at the sight of her. With the harsh black markings that swirled on her fiery face and sharp horns on her head, she would understand. Never in her decades of being Sith would she expect the young Twi'lek to squeal nor to leap with what seemed like joy.

"It worked! It worked!" she cheered, her voice high and airy. "It's really you!"

She rushed over to Ininarei, her arms outstretched. The startled Sith thrusted her saber towards the girl's face, it crackling dangerously close to her neck.

"Enough!" Ininarei snapped, causing the Twi'lek to stumble back. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't gut you with my lightsaber?"

The Jedi raised her hands in surrender and glanced down at Ininarei's weapon.

"Oh…" she breathed, blinking away tears. "I was afraid this would happen. It's been so long, too long,"

She fell to her knees, shaking her head.

"No! No, this can't be. I searched for so long. You have to remember!" the Twi'lek cried.

Ininarei stood there baffled, too confused to respond to her pleas. Suddenly, something washed over her like a wave, a memory. She pulled her saber away from the Jedi's face as she realized who she was. Streams of memories of a little Twi'lek no taller than her hip, her light brown markings on her lekku just coming in. She remembered how she laughed when she tickled her, her often demands to be held with open arms and her little hops, her snuggling in her arms. Her youngest daughter, her baby Oyigresi.

"Mommy, please!" Oyigresi cried, patting her chest. "It's me…"

Ininarei deactivated her weapon and knelt to her daughter's eye level.

"Oyi?" she asked, tearing up.

"Yes," Oyigresi murmured, smiling through her tears. "I missed you,"

Ininarei threw her arms around her daughter to embrace her yet grasped only air.

"Wha—" She slowly reached her hand towards her daughter's body, finding it only phasing through her. Her stomach churned.

Oyigresi looked down at herself, mirroring her mother's shocked expression. Ininarei finally noticed that her daughter emitted a blue hue. Her body went cold.

Oyigresi frowned. "I-I only did this half right...".

"What do you mean 'half right?!'" Ininarei shouted, shakily rising and motioning to her daughter's discretely transparent form. She could feel the despair rising in her chest; the reality of what stood before her was sinking in. She could not embrace her daughter; she could not embrace a ghost.

"You're dead…"

"There is no death, only the Force," Oyigresi said comfortingly. "I am not completely gone. A part of my spirit is still attached. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't,"

"Don't give me that!" Ininarei snapped, hardly able to contain the rage bubbling inside her.

She struck a nearby rock with lightning, seething. Her mind was filled with ways of how to rip the perpetrator apart, take away all that they hold dear.

"What happened? Who killed you?! Tell me!" Ininarei demanded, activating her lightsaber. She would seek them out and end them right there.

"No one killed me. It was…bad luck," Oyigresi replied. "So please, don't seek revenge for me. You will be engulfed by the Dark Side. There's nothing you can do."

"Yes, there is!" Ininarei cried. "There is always something."

She began to pace. She could feel it, Oyigresi's spirit fading into the Force. She couldn't let it end like this; she couldn't let her daughter slip away.

"Please, Mommy," Oyi begged, following after her. "This… is enough. We can make it enough,"

Ininarei stared at her daughter. She thought of the years they could have spent together now lost. Her failures, her successes, all of what made her who she was today; she missed it all. All of it was taken along with her sister.

"This will never be enough," Ininarei continued to pace. "You and your sister were ripped from my arms. I can't live with myself not knowing what happened to you!"

She watched as Oyigresi turned to the waterfall and took a shaky breath.

"I was on Zakuul when Arcann announced your arrival. I could hardly believe my eyes. You, their Outlander. After all those years of searching with so little to go by, dead end after dead end. Seeing your face on the holo made me so happy. It gave me hope that I didn't know I'd lost,"

Oyigresi sighed, hugging herself.

"We were so close yet so far. I was always one step behind you. As quickly as you were there, you were gone,"

Ininarei reached out to her daughter but stopped herself, knowing that her hand would only go through her. All those years of trying to survive as a slave and then Sith, she wished she had time to look for her as well.

"And what of Ipi? Was she with you?" she asked.

"Ipimnu and I went our separate ways shortly after you were taken. We send each other messages annually to show that we are still alive. She joined the Imperials like Aunty Tuiw while I joined the Jedi like Aunty Tubanii,"

Ininarei's breath caught in her throat. "Tubanii's…alive?"

Oyigresi nodded.

"Yes, Tuiw found her not long after finding out that I was Force Sensitive. She was the one who was able to reach out to the Alliance. We were to go there together once I finished my mission on Zakuul. Before we could leave, I saw you running past with a Rattataki. I had to follow. I couldn't let you slip away again, but I did. I should have been more patient,"

Oyigresi paused and hung her head.

"As quickly as I saw you, I lost you again. So… I traveled the Spire to pinpoint you better. I still couldn't find you… I wasn't fast enough,"

Ininarei covered her mouth, muffling a sob. The power she felt from her rage drained, leaving only a gaping void. She knew where this was going.

"Explosions surrounded me. Fire. Smoke. I tried to avoid the debris, but it was too much. I used the rest of my energy to reach you through the Force, and here we are."

Ininarei's body felt heavy. Kaliyo might have been the one to pull the trigger, but she let it happen. She caused this.

"It was me," she breathed, her knees buckling. "I killed you,"

Ininarei gripped her chest. She couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

Oyigresi rushed to her side. "No…no one killed me. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. An accident,"

"I could have prevented that explosion," Ininarei sobbed. "I let it happen. Let you die along with…what have I done?"

"You were not yourself," said Oyigresi. "You might be Sith but there is still light in you."

"I am not some Sith. I am Darth Nox," Ininarei replied. "I am nothing but darkness,"

"Mommy, listen to me," Oyigresi said. "I might not look it, but I am the Barsen'thor, and I earn this title by curing my fellow Jedi from a plague driving them mad with darkness. I sense something similar in you,"

Ininarei thought of Valkorion who had been eerily quiet, yet she sensed he was still there, festering inside her head, watching.

She laughed almost into hysterics.

She wouldn't be surprised if she was already mad with all the spirits that infected her mind in the past, but to have been unconsciously influencing her? Impossible. She would have sensed it if that were the case, right?

Ininarei balled her hands into fists and cursed in Zabraki at all of the possibilities blind to her before.

"No. No one can drive him out," Ininarei concluded, looking away from her daughter in shame.

Oyigresi hovered her hands over Ininarei's.

"Let me try,"

She closed her eyes and put her hands together, energy accumulating in them. Ininarei felt an energy engulf her body; it felt so pure and safe. It was driving Valkorion out. Her daughter was winning.

"I have had enough of this nonsense," Valkorion said, his voice deep with rage.

Ininarei felt the familiar sense of time stopping; the already dark cave dimmed purple with Valkorion's presence. His translucent form appeared before Ininarei, replacing Oyigresi.

"What did you do?! Where is my baby?" Ininarei demanded.

"One with the force, I presume. Long overdue if you ask me." he deadpanned.

"How could you?" Ininarei shouted, preparing to strike. "How could you?!"

She slashed at him, only for him to deflect her with ease, He used the Force to push her away from him. Ininarei slammed against the wall, the impact taking the air out of her. She tasted blood. Disoriented, she looked up and saw a few stalactites fall. She dodged them before any of them could pierce her, but barely. One of them cut her shoulder.

"No, how dare you? I have offered you power to stop my son and forged you into the perfect Empress." Valkorion scolded as he walked toward her fallen form. "And you refused me. Not only that, you collude with some pet,"

Valkorion stopped before her, looking more disappointed than angry.

"Look at you, sniveling over collateral damage. You did not even share the same blood,"

Ininarei spat at Valkorion's feet.

"You will never understand. My tears don't make me weak," Ininarei said, staggering to her feet. "Arcann might be a common obstacle, but you are my true enemy. I am going to take you down even if it kills me,"

"I will have respect!" he shouted.

Ininarei extended her hands and her eyes glowed purple, smoke emitting from her fingers. Valkorion's eyes glowed the same color as her smoke surrounded him, causing him to float into the air.

"What are you doing?!" Valkorion demanded, struggling against his bounds. "I am your ally!"

Ininarei scoffed.

"Something I should have done from the get-go. I now know the truth. We are not one. You are just a parasite. The power that you have against me isn't even yours. It's mine,"

And so began their battle of wills. Valkorion was powerful, desperate to be freed. Ininarei heard echoes of the Sith Lord Ergus describing the Force Walk technique as she felt Valkorion try to overpower her. She would be destroyed if he broke free, her very being shattered.

To strengthen herself, Ininarei thought of those who depended on her and what she lost. The Alliance, her family, Lana. She closed her eyes, feeling the energy coursing out of her from the emotions it evoked. She stabled her bearings.

Ininarei felt someone touch her shoulder and she saw a familiar armored figure.

"Kallig…"

"My legacy will not be enslaved again, Vitiate," her ancestor sconed, channeling his energy into hers.

Valkorion cried out, his power slipping.

"I will not be your puppet!" Lightning erupted from his fading form into her.

"You will not speak, you will not fight. If you can't work with me, you are nothing,"

His form exploded, releasing Ininarei from that stagnant reality. The ritual might have been a success, but there was no time for celebration. The power Valkorion released caused the ground to shake, making the cave's ceiling to collapse and crumble onto her. Ininarei dodged as much of the debris as she could, but she was trapped. She howled in pain as the rocks crushed her lower half, the back of her head throbbing from hitting something sharp on the way down. Once the onslaught subsided, the cave was pitch black. She could only hear the constant dripping of water that echoed in the depthless dark.

Ininarei laughed humorlessly at her situation. Out of all who tried to kill her, from Darth Thanaton to Valkorion, a pile of rocks was what would end her.

The cave was then illuminated in blue light. A light ring came from her comm, luckily merely scratched. Unable to lift her arm, she dragged it to her belt. It took almost all her remaining strength to take out the thing and place it on her chest, answering it.

"Tell me where you are!" Lana demanded, her eyes moving frantically as she assessed Ininarei.

Ininarei blinked away a few tears. She had never heard Lana sound so fearful, her disposition usually exuding restraint even in the most strenuous of situations. She must have looked worse than she thought. Ininarei tried to say something, anything, but only coughed up blood. Valkorian's mental blocks were in place. She could hardly move her mouth to form a sentence.

"SCROPIO, pinpoint Ininarei's holocomm. Theron. Senya. Come with me. Ininarei's in trouble," Lana ordered in a biting tone.

Ininarei heard the shuffling of Lana transferring their call to her personal holo and running out of the Alliance Headquarters, giving herself little time to take a breath. Ininarei could hardly think, her vision blurring.

"Ininarei, can you hear me?" Lana's voice was frantic. "Say something! Please!"

Silence stretched between them. Ininarei coughed some more, and her vision slowly darkened. She focused on Lana with what little strength she had left. Her heart ached as she remembered all the small moments they had together, those fleeting kisses and light touches. Ininarei yearned for more, to have had time to get to know her truly.

"Stay with me!" Lana begged.

All she could do was reach out to her but her body fell limp. Ininarei's eyes were so heavy. Her life flashed through her mind's eye, she could see the bright Odessen sun rising into the morning air. She could feel the crisp air in her lungs, she could hear waterfall in the distance. When this was all over, she wanted to take Lana there. To hold her, kiss her. To tell her all she held in her heart for her.

But she was tired, too tired to resist the darkness that was engulfing her, beckoning her to rest.