Kowani felt as if her body were not her own, skidding and sliding along some angled rock face that only plummeted her further into the dark void below her. She could feel her head jarring with a mildly concussive force against protrusions and irregularities, deformities her feat warned her of without the time to respond to them. Jagged edges of piercing stone sawed at her fingers, tore at her palms, and cut deep swaths of lacerating pain into her elbows, threatening to shred the remaining ounces of her sanity in a trail of flesh and blood behind her. Kowani struggled to raise a foot, an arm, something, to brace her descent, or at the very least, slow it to a manageable speed, finding nothing but the gut-wrenching terror of thin air.
On the precipice of resolving to a fate she had not foreseen, the firmness of the rock at Kowani’s back was gone. What was a bruise laden journey into the darkness of the unknown became a free fall of shredded sanity, her arms and legs kicking and swinging wildly to find some anchor, some form of stability with which to ignite the dwindling hope that seeped effortlessly away from her with each passing second.
“There is no passion without pain, and there is no pain without cause….” The deep baritone returned the moment Kowani had resigned herself to this sudden fate, her arms falling limp to her sides, her legs giving one final kick.
Kowani ceased the outward struggle completely, feeling an ease of her muscles without thought given to her plight. The panic that had taken utter control, that had assured her own mind of the body’s catastrophic demise, tapered to an afterthought without reason.
“What is it that you seek?” Bane seethed into the air, a cacophonous whisper that echoed through her own mind, overlapping itself to almost indistinguishable levels. Her pulling beyond her face, its strands straining the skin at her scalp through the fall, she could only think of a solitary answer.
“The power to save my people!” Kowani shouted into the darkness, a resounding bellow that served to match the source of the question, its own echoing tones rebounding in a chaotic frenzy of unseen surfaces.
With a suddenness that stole the air from her lungs, Kowani’s left foot and right knee where beneath her, firmly planted onto stone that had not been there only seconds earlier. It took her body a moment to convince her mind that the falling had ceased, stretching a hand out to press firmly into the stone that now supported her to aid its own cause. Her hair fell limp over her shoulders as she heaved her breath in massive exhales. Kowani’s eyes even began to pierce the dark shroud, as if a black mist were pulling away, revealing that which it would passionately conceal.
“That power will only surrender to the strength to wield it, a strength born from the passion to embrace it.” Bane replied finally, the echoing menagerie the whispers had been, recast through the simplicity of his own voice. Kowani felt the change immediately as her eyes fought through the veiling darkness further, penetrating the blackness to give form to the voice itself.
“My passion is the only thing I claim as my own. It has been forged through a pain not even the mythical Bane could understand.” Kowani seethed her own reply, her own welling rage finally given the forum to vent itself, “that passion will seek the power that I crave one way or another..the power to claim victory for myself against all that would take my people from me, even you if need be.” The rage spoke for her as it thundered like a distant storm.
A laugh, the likes of which Kowani could not have imagined, assailed her thoughts as it reverberated through her bones, a laugh that conveyed respect however and not of power transcending petulance, “then your chains will be broken Kowani Y’mmat, your potential limitless in your cause!” The laughter had died to the booming proclamation as she slowly rose to her feet, the servos silent within the left ankle as it acquiesced without hesitation to her command.
“My chains…..” Kowani stated, her eyes penetrating further into the darkness, offering a greenish tinge to the blackness that had engulfed her. The stone beneath her feet, presenting a smooth path forward through a vaulted chamber of the same, funneling any forward progress to the mouth of a carved humanoid skull within the rock face only paces removed from her defiant stance, “...my chains...where shattered long ago, Bane.” She continued slowly, thrusting herself forward toward the skull’s mouth, a chaotic tapping erupting behind her, like thousands of tiny rocks glancing off the same smooth stone she walked on. Despite the trepidation she was certain she should have felt, Kowani continued, the decision to do so already made. What lie in the skull’s mouth, although unknown at the moment, was the only thing that mattered.
“My chains were shattered the day the Empire stole my home from me. They were shattered the moment Keno was lost. They were shattered when my sister was murdered. And since...and since, they have rusted away and been kicked to the side.” Kowani stated, again, slowly and articulated. A renewing strength flowing through her with each step forward, despite a portion of her own mind that would not go unheard. ‘Vengeance will only lead to the Dark Side…’ but the thought only fueled the objective, despite the proximity of the tapping behind her, she forged forward as a chittering accompanied the taps that had grown in number. “So be it…” Kowani answered the thought with a startling conviction.
With three wide steps forward Kowani closed the distance to the mouth, resting her eyes on the small cube that lie within. The plain cube, identical in appearance to the one Nara had, only presented itself as a lighter shade of the occupying darkness she could sense with a clarity of vision only the green tinge could penetrate. She had expected the voice to continue, guiding her toward the cube’s salvation but only a silence remained within the chamber, even the tapping and chittering had come to a halt, leaving her heavy breaths the only marker of the passage of time. All she had to do was reach out and remove the object. With a presence of mind that felt transcendent to the situation, she turned in her stance with an instant jerk of her hips and reached down with both hands to fast to stop herself. Arresting both saber hilts within the palms of each hand, she had them raised parallel to each other and ignited. The comfort of the pulsating energy sending rejuvenating waves through her body with each warble that erupted through either blade’s energy gating.
The Pedes were stacked directly behind her, from floor to vaulted ceiling above, tapping the stone floor and the carapaces of those higher with viciously wicked pointed legs. Gaping maws chittering as a liquid dripped from jagged teeth and fell in oozing pools before them. The cacophonous shewing filled the chamber and Kowani’s mind as each one of them clambered in a painful retreat, the light from the pulsing sabers tearing their sight from them and sending them all into a frenzy of hastened tapping. They began to fill the air with raucous shrills and screeching howls that reached decibels and tone beyond mind shattering but Kowani remained vigilant, never lowering the sabers, if only to give herself the second she needed to snatch her left hand back and grab the tiny cube she had seen.
The moment she clamped the cold exotic stone and pinned it between flesh and hilt, a strength jolted through her from head to toe. A physical strength shot straight through groaning muscles, a mental strength instantly removed any doubt, and a moral strength convinced her in seconds that she had done the right thing. “The power to save your people is yours Kowani Y’mmat, however, if you would betray yourself, so will the power betray you.”
‘And it is you, Bane, that will see to that?’ Kowani thought the reply.
“You are no stranger to the effects of habitation.” Bane offered, a light whisper that contrasted all previous communications.
‘There are many things you do not know.’ Kowani thought the reply again, both sabers raised before her as the venomous creatures continued scurrying backward. Carapaces scraping noisily against stone as they began pushing with conjoined efforts with their powerful fore legs. With a quick glance behind her, Kowani noted the opening from which the cube had come, only a small alcove with the face of smooth stone. Whatever skull she had seen earlier was left to the device of imagination or an element of fear that was now an emotion of the past.
✦
“What just happened!” Sabine shouted, rushing forward toward the center of the bloody image on the ground the moment Kowani had vanished outright, “where is she?” She continued, becoming frantic as she looked in all directions.
“Unfolding her destiny.” The odd trooper shouted into the jungles beyond him, a raspiness within the voice that hadn’t been there previous grabbing Sabines direct attention. She locked her gaze on him, ready to force him into offering more than cryptic quips or divergent expressions.
“That answers nothing!” She fired in retort rising to her feet after smearing the wet blood lightly with an investigatory finger. “Where is Kowani!” Her fury demanded the answer.
The man said nothing more, his arms locked in place above his head. Sabine catered to her own anger and rushed forward, ready to ignite her inherited saber at the defiant man’s throat. The moment she placed a hand on the aged plastoid shoulder armor she felt an unexpected lack of substance beneath. The intention to spin the man to face her, only resulting in her crushing the shoulder plate through dry and dusty flesh, flakes of which pushed through the armors cracks and wafted upward into the night sky. Her eyes were drawn the emerging face as her actions carried the man through her intended one eighty, only to retract in horror at the sunken desiccation of a face long since dead, caught in the agony of torment with gaping mouth and rotted teeth. The eyes that had delivered a promise of intrigue earlier were only dark sockets of papery death that wilted in and out of view as the body fell to the ground in a crash.
“What the hell is going on here!” Sabine shouted, positing the subjective question to the silence of the heavy air around her, disturbed only be the crackling of flame within the censors and the whirring of CZ’s small hover repulsor.
“Unknown Lady Wren, that was most...disconcerting.” CZ responded, backing up somewhat as the armor finished its crash downward, “although it does offer impart toward the readings I was receiving.”
Sabine, recoiling through her own involuntary reactions, stumbled backward slightly as she tried turning toward the med droid, “a heads up would have been helpful.”
“There was no prior indication that these events were anything other than normal.” CZ explained.
Sabine surveyed the scene as if it should offer suggestion enough that nothing about the encounter was at all normal, “unless it was associated with the interpreted meaning….” her mouth opened widely as a thought struck her blindly, “...in which case Ani is in extreme danger!”
CZ twisted his head in a renewed effort to seek some form of the Mirialan’s presence, the affirmation of her life signs close, although direction confounded him. “She is near Lady Wren, but her signal is scrambled.”
“Well, that is reassuring…” Sabine sounded out, the statement laced with concern and sarcasm with little room for any other interpretation. She wanted her words to be the wall of her emotions without putting forth any further efforts to erect them, but a sense of some outward forces threatened to press against her, nonetheless. Sabine could only force herself into the shell of stubbornness that defined her, oblivious to any messages beyond that which anger would deliver, sure that whatever could come would only do so out of malice and devious intent.
Sabine refused to acknowledge what the Force was trying to show her, the lengths it was taking born on the determination of the Whills themselves to explain to her that which she was unprepared to accept. The light wind that had been present had suddenly ceased, Sabine noting it with sidelong glances and preparing herself for the inevitability of conflict, only to feel it once more sweep in over her shoulder and whirl around her head. Her hair tousling across her face, whipped into a frenzy that seemed finely localized, Sabine raised a hand outward, feeling nothing at all. Again, as suddenly as it had caressed her, the swirling winds died completely. “Lady Wren…” Sabine heard the steady voice of CZ in the instant stillness around her, “look.”
Sabine looked toward the offered appendage, narrowing her eyes at the image that had been fresh, wet with the glistening of fire’s light, only to see it stained and weathered, as if it had been drawn months if not years ago. Her eyes opening slowly, she could only observe as the media, the blood that had been shared began to leach into the very stone it was painted. She fired glances to either side, noting the same phenomena taking place with the myriad overlapping images of the same dragon folding themselves into the stone beneath them. A final gaze downward found the last of the drying blood vanish completely from view, leaving only the gray stonework to bear the dancing flames surrounding them.
“CZ...N’dali, something is happening….” Sabine called out as she began backing up toward the Morai, gesturing nondescriptly toward the med droid to do the same. A fevered dervish, small but wide, swirled with a menacing howl. Wide enough to envelope the circle of censor’s flame, it whisked the life from them with a depleting gush as the fire’s light extinguished. The darkness of the night swallowed the patio, and ruins themselves, into a shadowy embrace, basking the scene back into an eerie silence devoid of even the trilling insects that had followed the last vestiges of ensuing twilight. Sabine rallied her own thoughts the closer she came to the ships ramp, narrowing her eyes through the frustration that had seemed almost permanent as of late, yet unable to shake the feeling that she was missing something significant.
The thunder of thumping repulsors pulled Sabine’s gaze skyward, her thoughts lost to her within the presence of a new reality. “Get into the Morai Sabine.” N’dali called out over her wrist comm, Sabine picking up and pulling on her helmet with a tap, ran the few steps it took to launch herself up the aft ramp and into the cargo bay. She turned toward the sets of steps bolted into the starboard hull and ran up as fast as she could taking two at once. CZ raced through the cavernous hold, bypassing the steps altogether as the aft ramp closed with a resounding hiss, its actuators closing out in silence as Sabine pounded her way up the metal steps.
“Who is it N’dali?” She called out, reaching the main deck and crew cabin area directly behind the cockpit doorway.
“Sylde….a little ahead of schedule, but not unexpected.” N’dali returned through the ship’s comms, “we only need to stall for a moment.”
Firing herself through the cockpit hatchway, Sabine pulled up short, confusion finding its way into her initial thoughts at the sight through the canopy. “It looks like that Gon heap you had over Trunion, is it even armed?….and what do mean stall...”
“IGV Surveillance Class, and no it is not. He always found weapons of war beneath him.” N’dali commented in turn, a certain element of vehemence in her otherwise steady voice. “Sylde belongs to Ani Sabine, this ends tonight…” N’dali continued, determined to answer the one question she found most important through the exchange.
“Understandable, I suppose, but only to a point…” Sabine said, dropping herself into the pilot’s seat, another series of questions prompting through thought that would definitely require answers. “Defeating him does not defeat his fleet N’dali...unless the inference here is that we wait for that to emerge as well…”
“You are correct on both counts Sabine.” N’dali voiced through the shipboard comms with a hint of excitement embracing the comment.
“And where is Ani? You have both admitted to scrambled readings. She is alive, that is assured, but where is she?” Sabine bypassed the cryptic message in favor of the most immediate detail that she thought needed attention.
“She is….all around us, for lack of a better description….above, below, fore, aft...everywhere.” N’dali tried to convey the truth as mystical as it seemed.
Before Sabine could shake the elusive answer from her mind, the canopy was flooded before her with intense white lights, the visor in her helmet compensating for the change with a quick veil of its own, darkening the intensity to provide substance and shape to the source, something her eyes would not have been able to determine.
“They have landed.” N’dali relayed with simplicity, “and that ship is alone, there are no others on our scopes.”
“Sylde is here with the same determination you are it seems.” Sabine stated flatly, casting a quick glance toward the data relay monitor, confirming the claim, while casting no amount of truth toward the inferred deliverance of some incoming fleet. “How do you know his fleet will respond N’dali?” Sabine had to ask, the data on the screen disproving any notion of possible incoming support.
“Because Sabine, I have called them.” N’dali responded openly.
“Why would you do that? When did you do that?” Sabine stuttered out both questions impossibly fast, N’dali working within syntax parameters to meet out the inquiries individually.
“Why? To bring finality to a game that had begun years ago Sabine. One game that had never known resolution, despite the pieces themselves moved with perfection.” N’dali began an increasingly emotionally laced response that sounded quite unlike anything either Sabine nor CZ had ever experienced on any level with the Thebasken.
“And when did I become a piece in this game of yours N’dali, when did Ani?” Sabine stated with an even tone, free of the anger she felt should have accompanied the question implicitly.
“The game is simply that Sabine, you and CZ will only be spectators as the final move reveals itself through the mechanics of absolution.” N’dali responded quickly, the tone revealing a hidden excitement Sabine felt disguised as pride, again, taken aback by the saturation of raw emotion.
“Ani has always been the game itself Sabine, the one target our mutual enemy had never accounted for nor feared sufficiently. Something that Sylde will learn presently as he watches his precious fleet atomize within orbital striking distance of his own greed and arrogance.” N’dali was becoming a well of emotion, seething with an inner rage one moment and a mocking pride the next, making it noticeably clear to Sabine that whatever was about to take place had been established long ago. She knew that not one of her questions had been answered with any definitive clarity, Sabine withdrew back into her own mind. She needed to explore the overwhelming senses that she had only questioned within herself, never ignoring the feeling that something was changing without the proper context to define it. Sabine looked into the dim lights through her visor, several of which were rotating forward slightly as others diminished entirely, to pronounce a seemingly determined point midway between both grounded vessels.
“Sylde is requesting parley. It would be an honor if you would join me Sabine, CZ.” N’dali said suddenly, Sabine wondering how a silent request had been received and summarily answered without any known intervention on their part.
“What would be the point N’dali, this action has already been predetermined as you have said….I mean, I will join you...gladly, but why was the request even made?” Sabine offered the situation a method of its own explanation.
“It is a matter of pride and ego I am sure, and I will not count Sylde as the sole source of their merit. I want to look him in the eye when he realizes his own system causes his downfall.” CZ turned his head toward Sabine upon hearing the admission, both of them sharing concerned glances. ‘This isn’t you N’dali…’ Sabine thought to herself, quite sure CZ was processing the events in much the same way.
“I will meet you at the lip of the fore access ramp.” N’dali clipped quickly, Sabine taking the moment to reflect through the Thebasken final statements, attaching her wayward concerns to a new string of thoughts, hellbent on piecing together the answers to all in the back of her mind. She exhaled and pushed herself to her feet, “let’s see where this takes us CZ..” Sabine said to the mutually concerned med droid.
“There are infinite ways to phrase that without it sounding of impending doom Lady Wren.” CZ responded, confirming to Sabine that the med droid as also concerned about voicing his findings openly.
“I’m smiling on the inside..” Sabine stated in return, sounding neither joyous or true.
‘With your helmet on I will have to take that at your word.”
“I know…” Sabine returned, reaching the access hatch just outside the cockpit in the main cabin. She rotated the lock mechanism and slipped down the access ladder with both legs wrapped around the ladders frame, CZ descending right after. With a turn, Sabine shuffled in a startled buckle of her knees. Standing before her, facing away, was an almost seamless representation of a young little girl.
“My journey started many years ago Sabine, tying me directly to that of Ashla.” The young child said without turning, the projectors working with silent precision to deliver a very believable image that was difficult to assess.
“Ashla?” Sabine asked quietly.
“Ahsoka.” N’dali replied just as quietly, her head still facing forward and away from the exchange. “It is through connections to those that truly matter to us that the Force works to make itself manifest, to make itself known.” N’dali continued, her voice serene and flowing with a passion Sabine had never known her capable, “and to impart its mysteries…”
The conclusion caused Sabine to approach and turn to the image with the sum of her attention, the message delivered with the voice of a child but through the wisdom only age itself could muster. She stared into the projected eyes that yet to find her own, wanting desperately for N’dali to continue but unsure if it was something she felt she was ready to hear.
“Sometimes, Sabine, the Force will thrust you toward its own agenda and the choice is all you have. Do you listen or do you ignore it.” N’dali said without the newfound emotion Sabine had noted earlier, her eyes still forward as if waiting for something.
Forgetting the coming confrontation for sake of her own curiosity, or more to the point, clarity, Sabine forced herself to her knees directly before the projected child. “Why this, why all this and why now?” She almost shouted, her impatience getting the better of her. “You can feel the Force now?”
The young girl simply smiled into the question posed to it, lighting her tiny lips with a toothy grin and gleeful eyes, “Sabine, I have always had it...and it has always had me.” The young face turned to a point just over the Mandalorians shoulder, “he has shown me that.” She said lightly, returning to face Sabine once more.
“Ani always stated the Empire took it from you?” Sabine wasn’t sure if her confusion was the result of the comment, the ludicrous timing of the conversation or the cryptic ramblings that spoke of fate and destiny.
“For a time, I thought that too Sabine, she was very truthful.” N’dali replied, the smile retreating slightly as her eyes fell to the ground, “but the Force will never abandon those that will themselves to its guidance, and that Sabine, is the admission of my own arrogance through my diligence in life.”
Sabine only stared into the eyes, realizing she was becoming even more confused than she had been, “but how N’dali...I mean, your body…”
“Was shed through that arrogance Sabine, but my consciousness survived. The Force will not abandon those that will themselves to its guidance.” N’dali repeated, offering Sabine truly little by way of answer.
Sabine looked away suddenly, aware that she had heard the same things from Kowani, albeit phrased quite differently. She began to consider the oddities she had ready to discount as either coincidence or unimportant, realizing that the Thebasken had, at the very least, confided that nothing was coincidence, that nothing at all was unimportant.
“He is already defying the terms of parley…” N’dali said quietly, recalling Sabine’s attention immediately.
Sabine turned quickly around, raising herself to her feet, “an escort of his own it seems…” She began tapping the side of her helmet, “and armed…” She added, turning to the child once again, “I thought you said he was beneath the weapons of war?”
“It appears he no longer is.” N’dali said quickly.
“A visual cue to the detriment of arrogance within him then?” Sabine offered, reaching a hand down to take the child’s if in a symbolic gesture if nothing else.
“I like the visual Sabine, good idea.” N’dali responded, reaching up to clasp the offered hand without any form of contact, “Ashla will be proud.”
The comment whipped a quick smile across Sabine’s lips, glad she had the cover of her helmet at the moment.
Vibrations that made no sense to her caused Sabine to pause. Neither ship had repulsors active and both were quite stationary on the ground below them, yet her feet continually sensed slight tremors beneath them at random intervals.
“Defying terms of parley will only get your subordinates killed Mister Sylde.” N’dali shouted loudly, Sabine holding in the laugh she had ready as the voice continued carrying that of a young girl. The complete omission of title let the laugh loose entirely.
“Was that too much?” The young girl asked in a mocking whisper, finding Sabine’s visor for a moment. N’dali accessed the Morai’s targeting interface and lined up sequential volleys into the chests of each subordinate guard that flanked the approaching Captain with the ships forward laser batteries. With targeting control firmly established she began an internal countdown while concentrating on the change she was ready to establish within the ship’s projector control interface.
“A child and a Mandalorian...not quite what I had expected....” Sylde began, quickly cut off by the child once again.
“The terms were explicit Mister Sylde.” She boomed again turning slightly toward Sabine, “can you please stand ten paces to your right?” N’dali continued with a whisper.
Sabine didn’t even respond, her feet complying before the decision to do so was made.
“What terms? My ship, and my crew were delivered to Ciutric, not by choice I assure you.” Sylde responded quickly.
“...and no monologues….it is not to me you will ultimately answer.” N’dali responded, punctuated by roaring salvos of the Morai’s forward laser battery, Sabine plastering herself to the ground and lifting her head to see skillfully placed cannon fire into each of the Captain’s escort, leaving nothing but smoking holes in their wake, Sylde himself falling to his backside from the suddenness of the volley. The echo of the lasers blast rang through their surroundings in a determined roll of thunder that wrought for the horizon in every direction.
“Last to arrive and first to leave, Mister Sylde is in a conundrum…” N’dali shouted into the dying thunders.
Sylde was beside himself, forcibly pushing himself to a seated position, close enough for Sabine to identify the contortions of anger and dumbfounded confusion. She could see him lifting a device to his lips just before another roar ripped her hearing from her completely. Sabine could only watch from her prone position as volley after volley repeated through the Morai’s forward cannons, tearing holes through the IGV with reckless abandon. One shot removed the starboard landing gear completely, taking the ship on a metal crunching journey to its side, large sections of hull plating peeled back to reveal secondary and tertiary explosions within. The sounds thundered through Sabine’s helmet, returning her to a cyclical miasma of hearing and non. Volley after volley pumped through gaping breaches, Sabine certain no one within could survive the resulting inferno, before what was left gave in to the pressures and cascaded the entire area in a rain of metallic shards and smoking components following a white-hot explosion that assured the ships outright destruction.
Dropping his hands from the back of his head, Sylde scrambled to his feet awkwardly, teetering to his left in a definitive display of loss of balance. Parts of his ship still raining down in wide arcs around him, crashing through the short and tall stands of Bamboo and underbrush with vivid finality.
Sabine shook her own head, willing her hearing back into existence, then focused on the disheveled Captain as he tried to focus on the image of the child. Without the use of hearing beyond the incredible ringing in her head, the movement of his lips conveyed the message loud and clear.
“Who are you?” Sylde had said, Sabine turning back toward the image to see the child elongate into a tall bipedal serpent, leaning heavily upon an ornate spear that appeared to be stuck fast in the ground.