“Yes, My Lord, the asset is within the stronghold.” Sylde said with a dignified pose.
“Another potentiality has made itself known to me; your priorities have now changed Captain. Destroy Tano.”
“My Lord?” Sylde said, doing his best to hide his surprise.
“Destroy Tano Captain, that is as clear as it can be.”
“And what of your agent within the fortress My Lord.”
“She has carried out her task in full devotion to the Empire Captain. Carry out the task and return your fleet to the Ilum system.”
“My Lord.” Sylde said with a low sweeping bow.
“Your priorities are now made clear Captain.” The full-bodied image of the Emperor said and ended the transmission on his side. Captain Sylde huffed in mild exasperation as he leaned over his holotable and disconnected his own transmission. He knew he could still complete the mission in full if given the opportunity, but his Emperor was clear. He brought a hand to his chin in thought for a moment before turning completely and walking from the small room and back onto his command deck.
“Bev, make sure were patched in to the TacNet.” He said with crisp priority.
“All yours sir.”
“Listen up, our directive has changed from extraction to extermination. Hung, Kajg, back up to your respective positions. Group three, turn prone planet side and prepare for orbital bombardment, reference twenty-nine point two one by ninety-nine point seven nine, on my mark.”
“Sir?” Pritcar spoke up immediately.
“I know Kirkland.” Sylde returned.
“Sir, you know none of us would question orders, but...his... fortress.” Pritcar said timidly.
“You have your orders…. we all do.” Sylde commented stoically.
✦
Ahsoka could feel the spine, twisted and broken, within her grasp and knew the target was already dead. Feeling and sensing Kowani spin around she released her grasp on the second target and focused solely on Barriss before her. She ignited her saber before adopting a more solid stance, feeling Kowani roll away from her footing after losing the blaster bolts, finishing the second target, she knew it was just her and Barriss.
“You know this doesn’t end well for you.” Ahsoka said, feeling the truth of every word. She could see Barriss analyzing her, looking for weakness as she narrowed her yellowing eyes. Ahsoka almost let a laugh escape her lips.
“Banter is pointless Barriss, as will be your death. There is another way.” Ahsoka tried for reason.
Barriss had expected the approach. “No Ahsoka, there is no other way. You don’t understand now, nor will you, ever.”
Ahsoka had, in turn, expected as much but would avoid any more bloodshed if she could. “There was a time when I would have.” She admitted openly, crossing her feet over one another to bring herself closer.
Barriss had waited long enough and had retrieved and ignited twin crimson sabers in either hand faster than Ahsoka thought possible, bathing her olive face in a reddish glow. Ahsoka raised her own saber before her, both hands on the hilt, and continued her advance.
“You have no idea what you’re up against Ahsoka, and you’re running out of time.” Barriss said crouching low and coiling her form around her feet and ankles.
A low rumble shook the very foundations of the fortress around them but neither combatant made a response in notice.
Tapping her helmet, Kowani looked up and tagged the targeting attachment, “Ahsoka, Star Destroyer pushing up the well.” She said as casually as she could.
“You see Barriss, you are nothing to them, to him. They leave you here to die.” Ahsoka said, her eyes locked on Barriss,’ attempting another plea for reason.
Kowani looked at Barriss, focused as deeply as she could through the helmet visor, “She’s already glazed over in subjugation Ahsoka, she’s decided her fate.”
Barriss didn’t even bother with a retort as she leaped with ferocity at Ahsoka, extending the twin sabers before her as she spun towards her target.
Ahsoka was momentarily taken aback having never seen a combative move like the one employed by Barriss. There was little to do from a defensive standpoint and she had only a fraction of a second to execute a roll to her left taking her out of the arrowhead path the approaching sabers had presented. She felt her legs ache from the effort, her right knee buckle awkwardly as she sprung back up to her feet and a slight tweak in her lower back. ‘I’m getting too old for this,’ She thought to herself, then just as quickly scolded herself for her lack of attention.
The repositioning of both Barriss and Ahsoka presented a clean shot to Kowani, and she took full advantage, unloading both Westar’s. Barriss adeptly dodged the first three and redirected the fourth up into the ceiling high above and Ahsoka, then, made full use of the misdirected attention.
“Use the saber perhaps?” T’zar asked quickly.
Kowani stifled a laugh despite the situation, ‘I am more likely to kill myself with that thing. No T’zar, I am much better off with the blasters.’
After recovering from the roll, Ahsoka sprung up again right back into the position she held previously. “Why betray one Master just to answer to another Barriss?” She said, making a play to penetrate the former padawan’s mental defenses. “There will always be a choice, you have a chance to make a good one right here and now.”
Kowani didn’t see the sense in even talking but then she didn’t possess the past these two clearly did. Her eyes on both others in the chamber, she was continually looking for opportunities to strike that would aid and not hinder what Ahsoka was doing.
Barriss moved with supernatural speed executing an uppercut strike that would have mortally wounded most. Ahsoka had simply side stepped the blow and redirected Barriss’ blade with a flick of her wrist. She was able to look deep into Barriss’ eyes as their bodies ended the feint in close proximity. She saw hatred. A burning internal rage that she was desperately trying to channel into her actions. Ahsoka could sense her frustration, and how deeply that feeling bled. “End this nonsense Barriss, there is still time.” She said, blocking both of Barriss’ advancing blades with simple wrist movements, keeping her elbow close to her torso. “Why die when you chose to live.” Phrased as a statement, Ahsoka tried pleading to the old padawan within, sensing her presence. Again, Barriss attempted the uppercut maneuver which Ahsoka cast aside, Barriss stumbled over herself exerting the effort, but recovered quickly.
Kowani saw the stumble and fired again, glancing volleys aimed at the durasteel paneling at Barriss’ feet forcing her foe to overextend herself to prevent the redirected bolts from smashing into ankles. Ahsoka took that moment to twirl her blade in her hand, loosening up her wrist before Barriss unleashed a twirling over under attack that forced Ahsoka to flip her body into a horizontal spin, avoiding both blades and finishing with a foot and knee on the ground. Barriss immediately laced into ferocious short strikes, her blades a blur of crimson arcs. Ahsoka bounced the blades with her own saber as the fulcrum between them keeping her wrist low and channeling as much Force energy into maintaining her strength there as she could, each deflection redirected upward and out. Instead of considering a change of tactic, Barriss continued the barrage, Ahsoka, sensing the foolishness of the endeavor, pulled in a quick influx of Force energy, and put all her focus into pushing Barriss back. A silent shock ripped through the chamber as Ahsoka both extended her arm and released the burst of energy, forcing her opponent back four meters. Barriss, already recovering from the Force push, gave Kowani a quick glance and saw the blaster rifle emerging from over her shoulder, knowing full well the woman wouldn’t fire, risking deflection.
Ahsoka took the brief respite to walk in a slow circle, purposefully twisting her feet in her boots to keep her body loose. “Do you not see how foolish this is Barriss? How did you think this was going to end?” She said, taking her eyes off Barriss momentarily and clearing her mind. “You never took the time to develop your saber skills Barriss. There is only one that could have taught you since. Think Barriss.”
“Unduli held me back Ahsoka.” Barriss said, taking the time to catch her breath. “Too arrogant to listen.”
“I wasn’t referring to ‘Master’ Unduli Barriss.” Emphasizing the title Barriss had neglected. “You seem to have inherited an arrogance from someone though.”
Barriss shot forth a cutting laugh, “I did get my say, rest assured.” The words were laced with venom, Ahsoka sure now that Barriss was, at the very least, present during Luminara’s execution.
Barriss glanced again at Kowani and held the stare longer than anticipated, Kowani sensing a change in tactics concentrated on the Force energies being manipulated throughout the room, paying awfully close attention to both Barriss and Ahsoka. Ahsoka, for her part, had remained unchanged, a steady flow of Force energies into and out of her, giving what she was receiving. Barriss on the other hand was letting nothing go, only building the energies within herself.
“She loved you Barriss, like a daughter, like a sister. But you’ve been unfaithful in the past, disloyal. Kowani is right to take insult with your markings.” Ahsoka said, working to regain the fallen Mirialan’s attention. “Is that what this is then? Why you resist the urge within you to run away from your Emperor? Show the galaxy you can be trustworthy?” Ahsoka scoffed, the notion ludicrous enough that it may just be the truth. Aware of the rumbles felt throughout the fortress again, “and where does that trust get you?” She was cutting deep, she knew, but Barriss would not take her eyes off Kowani.
Kowani was certain now that the tactics had shifted as she felt a slight burning inside her skull, the Mirialan maintaining unblinking eye contact.
Ahsoka sensed something had changed as she was beginning to get frustrated in her unsuccessful efforts to regain Barriss’ attention. She had not moved a muscle, but neither had Kowani. She knew she should close the distance between herself and her friend and tried to relocate but found her feet would not move from the duranium floor.
The tinge of burning within Kowani’s head was becoming a painful conflagration, unrealistic thoughts of her insides being slagged like the Mantis, swirling in the miasma between consciousness and subconscious. Thoughts of subcellular flames destroying her from the inside out as they amassed into an explosion of flesh and bones. She thought she needed to put the flames out, scratch the very flesh from her so she could just get at them… ‘Maintain lucidity. Relax your conscience mind and fall back to subconscious action. Appeal to rationality. State if you must where reason begins and ends’…. the raspy voice of an age’s old sergeant, Tomms to be precise, began whispering in her ear.
“What the hell was that?” T’zar dared a whisper of his own.
Kowani said nothing, but felt the flames die down immediately…. “Orders.” She said loudly. And pulled the trigger on the A-180 repeatedly.
Each blast should have ended her life, but Barriss deflected each as they came straight for her upper chest. There was no time to redirect the bolts, Ahsoka’s friend clearly had the weapon set to full charge. She was lucky to even deflect them, the force of which was pushing her backward and breaking the concentration she needed to finalize the incantation. ‘Focus’ Barriss told herself, ‘remember your training.’
Kowani knew she was being subjected to intense suggestion and nothing else, however, the power behind the sorcery was intense, focused, and precise. Her mind kept relating to her that the pain was real, very real. She chanced a glance toward Ahsoka whom had adopted a confused and helpless expression, struggling to move it seemed as she was tugging at her legs. Kowani offered the thought that struck her, ‘leave me T’zar, fulfill this illusion and go to Ahsoka. This Barriss is lost and cannot be saved.’
“But….” T’zar began.
‘Don’t argue, just go!’ she thought as the pain began to intensify.
Ahsoka, dumbfounded momentarily by the mental assault, struggled more with the thought of being immobilized rather than the reality of it when she saw Kowani drop to her knees, the blaster rifle clattering to the ground, bellowing an anguished scream that made her own blood curdle. The scream, coming through the helmet modulator, echoed throughout the chamber, resonating deep within her own chest, and piercing her broken montral in a head splitting, high pitched ringing. Her own eyes wincing from both the pain and anticipated grief for her friend, she wasn’t immediately aware of the presence within her.
“Ahsoka...” T’zar said softly, doing his best not to confuse her, “she told me to come to you. Her pain is real but not as a result of anything this Barriss is doing. We need to use this distraction wisely.”
Ahsoka, startled beyond definition, vaguely understood what had just happened and was already working on a plan.
“Remember what this place is Ahsoka.” T’zar whispered. “Use it.”
Ahsoka had forgotten the discussion upon flying past the structure earlier but their present reality, and the reminder, snapped her attention completely toward the truth of it. With Barriss attention almost utterly upon Kowani, Ahsoka had her window of opportunity and began to accumulate the Force energy around her, focusing deep, seeing in her mind the depth of the structure, going beyond its foundation and through the iris built into the inverted pyramid deep below the surface that provided the focal point for the ley lines of energy flowing through the planet itself and routed that energy directly into herself. She then focused on the upper channel of the structure that served to draw upon the cosmic Force energies, specifically the flows of energy to the planet from the galactic chain of currents and pulled those within her as well. Ahsoka could feel an intense warmth centering in her mid-section and felt her feet break free of the sorcery holding them in place. Kowani’s screams subsided in her mind as her focus intensified, the warmth becoming a fire ready to consume her enemy.
Kowani had no train of thought. The pain from T’zar’s exit brought her to her knees as she fought to overcome its effects, groaning through gritting teeth and soaking tears escaping tightly closed eyes. “You have failed Thana.” She managed with a sharp rasp of barely distinguishable basic. Hearing her own words echo back to her, she brought her left knee up and planted her foot on the floor. “You have failed.” She repeated, more clearly this time, firing her right arm forward to support the action of bringing her other foot to rest on the floor and standing up, snatching the rifle at her feet in the process.
It was only then, at those words, ‘Thana,’ that Barriss finally saw the branding on Kowani’s left forearm and her eyes lost their intense fire as she couldn’t hide her surprised expression. This could not be possible.
“KT-three zero six.” Kowani said with ringing clarity. “The designation should jar your memory.”
It did. Resoundingly. There were only a handful of adepts assigned to Keno that had mastered the effects of Force suggestion and sorceries. Three zero six led that group. “You were reported lost after the insurgents attack...this isn’t possible.”
Kowani removed her helmet and cast it to the ground, her eyes fiercely locked on Barriss.’ “Thana, cravenly denying the name given you. A coward’s play. Barriss is your name, own it. Barriss, traitor to the Republic. Barriss, treasonous Jedi padawan. I know your stories, both of them.”
Barriss, still in the throes of shock, heard the words but avoided their bite. She had never thought the idea of bringing Ahsoka before her Emperor an easy task but the addition of this former Sith trooper severely diminished the odds of even her own survival. She had played a substantial role in the training of three zero six and her squad she thought to herself, disrupting her own concentration fully, stirring the feelings and notions of doubt that began to consume her. Despite those doubts, and associated fears, she maintained a semblance of mental capacity. “If your here, then KS-two three seven is not far.”
Kowani adopted a thin smile that spread from ear to ear. “The Thebasken never is…. It seems your memory is still intact.”
Barriss immediately brought her wrist up to her mouth, “Captain!” She bellowed. Static was her only response.