CHAPTER TWELVE
The Renegade
Toah could already tell that the trip from Arkania to Darkknell was going to be a long one. Not just because of the physical distance between the two planets (although Kyla happened to know an obscure hyperspace route that would take them there in half the time as regular routes), but also because of the passengers they were bringing with them.
Kalon Sendor, the vessel of Darth Vorath’s spirit, was sitting in the main hold of the ship along with the boy’s parents, Varon and Lysira. Surrounding them were Toah and the Renegades, save for Kyla and Ace who were in the cockpit. Pretty much everyone had their hand on a weapon, be it blaster or lightsaber, in case any of them made a move. Toah wasn’t expecting Varon or Lysira to lash out, but he knew that Vorath was capable of possessing their bodies just as he had Kalon’s.
As it was, Vorath was clearly toying with them all as he seemed to have relinquished control of Kalon’s body for the time being. Either that or he was just really good at acting like a child.
“Mommy,” the boy said as he leaned into Lysira’s body. “What’s going on? Where are we?”
Lysira looked down at her son with a look that betrayed her warring emotions. She looked torn between comforting her son and shunning him for the spirit that resided within him. All she could do was place a hand on the top of his head, touching him as if she were taming a wild animal.
Wiskin watched this exchange before snorting and shaking his head. “This is messed up.”
“I’ll say,” muttered Bedo.
Varon swallowed hard as he looked to Toah, his eyes haggard and sunken from lack of sleep. “I am sorry,” the young man said. “For everything.”
Toah regarded him evenly. He knew that Varon had once been the self-declared Dark Lord Taral and had been the one behind the Sith insurgency that afflicted the galaxy two years ago, culminating in the attacks on Ossus and Mandalore. Under normal circumstances, Toah would have had him arrested so he could be tried for his crimes… but given the state of the Galactic Alliance and the galaxy overall, he figured there were more pressing matters to address. Besides, the Alliance probably would have pardoned him anyway like it had Girdun. Or potentially used him as a scapegoat to cover for its own transgressions.
Lysira, as far as he knew, had not been involved in Varon’s plot, despite now being married to him. While she had declared herself a Sith, she had attempted to build a Sith Order that could coexist peacefully with the Jedi, only for Varon and his fellow apprentices to ruin those plans. Apparently she and Varon had settled matters if they had been living peacefully on Damosus prior to Vorath and the First Order’s interference. Toah knew that he certainly wasn’t one to judge the love lives of others.
After a moment, he decided to ask the question still pressing on his mind. “How much was Snoke involved in your plan?”
Varon shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His arm was wrapped around a bandaged wound in his abdomen from where one of Snoke’s Praetorian Guards had stabbed him with their vibro-voulge. Toah guessed that either Snoke or Kylo Ren had decided to keep him and Lysira alive, although as to why he could not ascertain. He also wondered if Vorath was keeping them alive somehow through his connection to them.
“He was the one who set me on my path,” Varon eventually said. “He approached me three years ago, telling me that he used to be a Sith Lord from Vorath’s Order. He told me about my intended purpose of serving as Vorath’s vessel and I had been desperate for my father’s approval. So I had agreed to do what he said… even if it meant betraying the woman I loved.”
He glanced at Lysira as he said this. She simply closed her eyes and avoided his gaze.
Toah leaned back in his seat as he considered what Varon had said. At this point, it did not surprise him that Snoke had been heavily involved in the events of the past two to three years, although it was nice to have confirmation from Varon himself. It also did not surprise him that Snoke was tied to Vorath, based on what Luke had told him what he had overheard from their confrontation back on Naboo.
He glanced over at Kalon, wondering if Vorath would take over again to pipe in. But the boy simply looked back at him with scared eyes.
Suddenly, an image flashed in Toah’s mind. It lasted only for a second, but its afterimage burned in his mind’s eye long after it had passed. He saw Rey standing in the middle of some sort of plaza, surrounded by scared citizens. Her lightsaber burned in her hand as she stood over the body of a man—a man whom Toah instantly recognized as Zarin Kal. Rey stood over his body, anger etched onto her face as fury burned in her eyes.
After the vision passed, he looked at Kalon.
The boy was now smiling.
Without a word of explanation to the questioning looks of Cera and the others, Toah got up from his seat and hurried over to the cockpit. He stepped into the cabin and walked over to Kyla, placing a hand on her shoulder. The Mirialan captain jumped with a start before cursing.
“For kark’s sake, don’t sneak up on me like—”
“How long before we get to Darkknell?”
“Half an hour at best,” said Ace.
“No way we can get their quicker?”
“This is the shortest route between the Colonies and the Grumani sector,” Kyla said. “If you know of a shorter one, I’d love to hear about it.” She then looked up at him with a smirk. “What’s wrong? Sith Lord’s got you bothered already?”
“You could say that,” Toah muttered, looking back in the direction of the main hold. When he closed his eyes, he could still see the afterimage of Rey’s face burned into his retinas.
He could only hope that the vision was only a warning and not a premonition of things to come.
Darkknell
Aurra Sing had missed this.
It had been many, many years since she had last been hired to hunt down a Jedi. The Empire had pretty much taken all of the pickings for themselves during the Dark Times, and after her near-fatal encounter with Jax Pavan she had decided it would be wise to lay low for a time. Even when the next generation of Jedi came around, Sing had been reluctant to take up any jobs posted by Imperial warlords, knowing their credits probably wouldn’t be worth much and also not wanting to draw the New Republic’s attention to herself.
That changed two years ago when she had been hired to assassinate the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. The plot had been part of a greater insurgency involving all of the major players in the galaxy, from Mandalorians and Black Sun all the way up to the Galactic Alliance itself, focused on removing the heads of state and placing in puppet-heads that would answer to a greater power. As it turned out, the Queen Mother had once been a Jedi herself, taking the throne after her mother had died during the Glorian War. That hadn’t been an issue for Aurra; what had been was the fact that the Queen Mother had taken on a suitor who was also a Jedi—and a very powerful one at that. Having not prepared to take on two Jedi at once, Aurra had been defeated and captured by the Hapans before being extradited to Coruscant where she had languished at the GA Detention Center.
There she had stayed for nearly two years until one day Director Girdun had released her, on the condition that she did as he asked. He had given her coordinates that led her to a desert world called Korriban, where she was to remain there until given further orders. For several days she had been cooped up in a tomb belonging to some long-dead Sith witch, unable to get answers from anybody she asked. It was only when the Kiffar and the Twi’lek showed up that she now had an idea of what she was here for, although why they couldn’t have simply hired her to capture the Jedi girl like normal was beyond her. She also had no idea what awaited her after this job was done.
After breaking in to one of the tall buildings that towered the streets of Xakrea, Aurra made it up to the fifth floor and found a balcony where she could take roost. Setting up her sniper rifle, she looked through the scope and watched as Zarin Kal and Alema Rar continued to engage their target and her friend in lightsaber combat.
Something about her two partners felt awfully familiar. At ninety years old (not that her body showed or felt the years), she was old enough to remember the Clone Wars, and while some of her memories of those days were foggy due to her many, many near-death experiences, there was one pair of Jedi she remembered well. Aayla Secura had been a Rutian Twi’lek Jedi whom had captured Aurra during an assignment on Devaron. Alema was remarkably similar to Secura in terms of appearances, if not necessarily personality or even fighting style. Meanwhile, the Kiffar named Zarin was evocative of Secura’s own Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. While Aurra had never personally encountered Vos during the Clone Wars (at least not to her recollection), she knew of his endeavors and had kept tabs on him during the war at the behest of some of her employers.
The fact that, sixty years after the war’s end, Aurra had found herself paired with two ex-Jedi who were so remarkably similar to foes of the past was… amusing, for lack of a better word. The Jedi liked to say that the Force worked in mysterious ways, and while Aurra had long since abandoned their teachings, she couldn’t help but find some truth in that one platitude from time to time.
She curled a long white finger around the trigger of her rifle. Through her scope, she focused on the man with the double-bladed yellow lightsaber. She had no idea who he was, or whether he was a Jedi or not. But it did not matter. He was not the target, so it was irrelevant whether he lived or died.
It had been so long since she had killed a Jedi. It was going to feel good to scratch that itch again.
She licked her lips in anticipation. All she needed was a clear shot.
* * *
Finn knew as soon as he had heard the lightsabers that things had gone wrong.
He was hiding in the crowds of Xakrea wearing the garb of a Lorrdian pilgrim, waiting for Poe’s signal, when he heard the tell-tale sound of lightsabers igniting. A few seconds before that, he had felt a sense of dread in his stomach, perhaps the Force warning him of the danger. He still found the prospect of him being Force-sensitive hard to believe, but the more things like this happened to him, the more he was forced to accept it.
Still, there was no time to dwell on that. Ducking into an alleyway to avoid the onrush of panicking citizens, Finn radioed Poe through the comm on the headset he was wearing beneath the Lorrdian headdress.
“Commander, I hear lightsabers. What do we do now?”
“Hell if I know,” Poe replied. “Have you been compromised?”
“Not yet…”
“Then we continue with the mission. We’re nearly at the governor’s building. Once Selena slices the door, we’ll sneak in and find the governor. Then we’ll call in for you, Jessika, and Shyra. I’m sure the Jedi can handle themselves.”
Finn frowned as he listened to the sounds of lightsabers clashing. “If you say so.”
“Just stay calm, buddy, and we’ll get through this.”
Finn grimaced as the comm went silent. He poked his head out of the alleyway to scan the chaotic crowds. Through the swarm of scared civilians, he could see Jessika hiding in the shadow of a building, wearing Milvaynian armor to hide her face which was still all over local news. Not far from her was Shyra, geared up as a Zabrak pirate. Both of them looked in his direction and gave him a subtle nod to indicate that they had heard Poe’s orders as well.
However, something else took his attention and he cast his gaze towards one of the high buildings, which was close to where the lightsaber sounds were coming from. Perched on a balcony on the fifth floor was a chalk-skinned humanoid woman wearing a tight orange jumpsuit. She had a sniper rifle situated on the railing and was aiming her weapon in the direction of whom Finn could only assume were Rey and Kalen, as well as whoever they were fighting.
Finn’s mind raced. He looked to Jessika and Shyra, and thought about alerting them to the woman’s presence. But he already knew they would tell him to stand by and await Poe’s signal. The Jedi would be able to handle it, they would say. But could they?
The Force was alerting him for a reason, wasn’t it? Why would it warn him of the danger if it didn’t want him to do something about it?
He did not really have to think twice about it. Gripping the electo-staff he had been given as a weapon, Finn dashed into the crowds and headed for the building. He did not stop for a second to see if Jessika and Shyra had noticed him leave.
* * *
“Why?! Why are you doing this?!”
Zarin gritted his teeth as Rey’s lightsaber blade clashed against his. The force of the blow nearly knocked him off his feet. “I can’t explain,” he said over the crackling sounds of their locked blades. “They sent us to—”
“Who sent you?!” Rey broke the saberlock before swinging her blade at Zarin’s head, which the Kiffar deftly blocked.
“It was the Sith,” Zarin replied, breathing heavily. “They have returned on Korriban and want you—”
Rey swung her blade again, forcing Zarin to block the attack. He wasn’t even sure if the girl was listening to him anymore. He glanced over at Alema Rar, who was keeping the other Jedi—whom Zarin recognized as Kalen Rusher—preoccupied with her wild attacks and moves. He also sensed Aurra Sing waiting on one of the balconies, no doubt taking aim with her blaster rifle.
Taking a deep breath, Zarin moved in to clash blades with Rey once more. He still wasn’t sure what the outcome of this duel was going to be. If he won, would he go through with his orders to capture Rey? Would he kill her to prevent them from getting their hands on her? Or would he simply let her win and perhaps even kill him so that he would not have to be faced with that decision?
He almost hated himself for even considering that last option, let alone the others. He knew that he had failed everyone he had ever known; he had failed Master Kil, his parents, Nasoth and Sladru, Master Viron, Natia…. He had been given so many opportunities to turn away from the path he was on now and yet he had rejected them at every turn.
This was it, he realized. This was his fate. This was his final destiny.
He closed his eyes and allowed the Force to move his body, blocking all of Rey’s attacks as if he were on autopilot. Images flashed in his mind, all of them baring the faces of everyone he had ever loved and betrayed. The last one, however, was one he did not recognize. He saw a dark figure seated upon a throne on a bleak and stormy world. White eyes burned beneath the rim of their hood as lightning flashed around them. A harsh voice spoke in Zarin’s mind, uttering a single word.
“Mine.”
Zarin jolted out of the vision and the face of the dark figure melted away, replaced by Rey’s. Her hazel eyes blazed yellow for the briefest of seconds, her face contorted in fury as her gaze burned into him.
It was only then he realized that her lightsaber blade had impaled him straight through the chest.
All Zarin Kal could do as the world faded away was stare into those frightening eyes as he sent a warning through the Force, to whoever may hear it.
They had been blind to the darkness that had been right in front of them.
Rey pulled her blade out and Zarin allowed himself to fall to the floor, closing his eyes as he embraced the eternal sleep that awaited him.
* * *
“No!”
Aurra heard the cry come from behind her the moment the Kiffar fell and whirled around to see a figure clad in Lorrdian garbs standing there with an electro-staff, having climbed the stairs behind her. However, they did not seem to be focused on her and was instead reacting to something else. Regardless, it gave her the opening she needed and she pulled the trigger of her rifle, firing a shot at the Lorrdian.
The red-garbed figure dashed aside and quickly doffed their disguise, revealing the appearance of a dark-skinned man. Charging up his electro-staff, he lunged at Aurra and jabbed the crackling end of his staff at her abdomen, only for her to expertly bend her body away to avoid the attack.
Dropping and rolling to the side, she took aim again and fired another shot, this time managing to graze his shoulder. The man winced in pain and staggered, allowing Aurra to run back down the stairs she had climbed. Sliding down the bannister and pushing past scared occupants, she made it back out into the streets and found a pathway that led back to the Jedi, who now only had Alema Rar to deal with. Realizing the odds were against her, the Twi’lek shut off her lightsaber and dashed into a nearby alleyway.
Aurra gritted her teeth, cursing the girl for her cowardice. Bringing out her rifle again, she started firing at the Jedi before they could take pursuit of Alema. They spun their blades to deflect her shots before the human girl—the target named Rey—charged towards her, releasing a primal cry as she raised her blade high. Aurra grinned as she dodged the anticipated attack before pulling out a knife and stabbing it into Rey’s midsection.
The Jedi girl staggered and started to move as if to attack her again only to start swaying on her feet, suddenly feeling drowsy.
“Delphidian toxin,” Aurra said by way of explanation. “It should keep you asleep long enough for me to deliver you to my employers.”
Rey did not seem to hear her as she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. As Aurra bent down to pick up her dropped lightsaber, the man from earlier suddenly dropped down from the balcony, electro-staff still active in his hand.
Aurra stood up and looked at the man with mild surprise. No ordinary human could have survived a jump like that. At least not without sustaining major injuries.
“Are you a Jedi as well, boy?” she asked.
The man responded by summoning Rey’s lightsaber to his hand, igniting its blue blade. Snarling, Aurra raised her blaster rifle and started firing. It did not matter where she aimed as every shot was deflected with the lightsaber. The other Jedi—the one with the double-bladed lightsaber—was now moving in to join the younger man, having given up on pursuing Alema.
Two against one. Just like Hapes. Aurra weighed her options. Then she shifted and pointed her blaster at the unconscious Rey.
“One more step and I kill the girl,” she warned.
“You wouldn’t,” said the Jedi with the double-blade. “You need her alive.”
“Correction: They need her alive. I don’t. And I can get the credits elsewhere.”
“Credits aren’t what’s at stake though, is it? It’s your life.”
Aurra glared at him. “What do you know, Jedi scum?”
“I am no Jedi.” The bearded man shut off his double-bladed lightsaber, earning him a look from the younger dark-skinned man. “My name is Kalen Rusher. I left the Jedi many years ago… just as I know you have, Aurra Sing.”
“You’ve heard of me, then?”
“Your reputation precedes you.”
Aurra smiled thinly. “Then you should know just what it is I am capable of. And that I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger if you so much as move an inch.”
Kalen bowed his head. “I am fully aware. Which is why I won’t be moving.”
Aurra narrowed her green eyes, suspecting a trap. Too late she noticed Kalen’s right hand twitching as she felt an invisible grip tug at her arm. She pressed down on the trigger but the blaster bolt narrowly missed Rey’s head as Kalen used the Force to pull the rifle straight out of her grip. Snarling in rage, Aurra unsheathed her toxin-laced knife and charged towards the Jedi. The younger man moved quickly and thrust the end of his electro-staff straight into her abdomen. Energy crackled through her body as she felt consciousness start to slip away from her, the ground giving way beneath her feet.
This, she decided, was not something she had missed.
* * *
Finn knelt down to check Rey’s pulse. “She’s alive,” he breathed in relief. “Just unconscious.”
“For now,” Kalen said grimly. “Delphidian toxin is slow acting but deadly if not treated in time. I will have to take her to a medical facility.”
Finn glanced over at the Palliduvan bounty hunter, also unconscious. “What about her?”
“I will deal with her as well.” Kalen looked at him. “You had best join Commander Dameron and the others to ensure that the plan is successful.”
“What if that Twi’lek returns?”
“I’ll be able to handle that situation should it arise.”
Finn didn’t doubt it. But it also wasn’t Kalen that he was worried about. Rising to his feet, he glanced over at where Zarin laid. Grimacing, he quickly averted his gaze and hooked Rey’s lightsaber to his belt. Gripping his electrostaff, he hurried back in the direction of the governor’s building, praying that things had not gone awry for the others.
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