With a final jarring lurch, the Morai decanted into Botajef space canting awkwardly but correcting quickly. Kowani rubbing the brightness out of her eyes with the full view beyond the canopy of the vessel encompassing the vast array of tiny lights on display throughout the ecumenopolis umbra exhibition. Without the terminator visible, she knew they would be operating in darkness, ‘seems appropriate.’ She thought to herself.
“As it should be my little dragon…” Bane whispered lightly, echoes she could not rid herself of.
‘Don’t call me that.’ She thought in response, willing the beast to retain control, at least for the time being.
“Heavy ping Ani, Ahsoka and Rex are close!” Sabine offered with an eye on the signals relay.
“Aboard the station….” N’dali said through the ship’s comms, we will be there momentarily.
‘Ani...Koko...Sidious is here. He must have a shuttle of some sort above our position on the central shaft to the station.’ Nara’s voice was unmistakable as it rattled Bane’s echo free from her thoughts.
‘Lulu..we are here...we are coming.’ Kowani responded through the mental bond that only grew stronger with proximity.
‘Be careful of Sidious Ani...I feel your anger and your rage...he will feel it too.’ Nara paused for a moment, ‘Ani, he will not be alone.’
‘I can feel someone else Lulu...I do not know who it is.’
‘Proceed with caution then, do not underestimate anyone.’ Nara said calmly and with precision.
“We are seventy-five thousand kliks out, approaching at full sub light.” N’dali kept them all informed after righting the canting vessel.
‘Lulu...you need to answer the question. I need to know.’ Kowani said following the brief pause that had ensued, both Kowani and Sabine looking for their first visual indication that there was in fact a station they were heading toward.
‘Yes Koko...you did.’ Nara’s answer was short following an even longer pause on her end.
‘Derha?’
‘Why are you asking this Koko, what has happened?’ Nara was becoming frantic, displayed vividly through her wavering thoughts.
‘Derha?’ Kowani thought again, refusing to let the matter rest.
‘Yes…’ Nara responded sullenly, ‘do not ask Koko...do not ask…’
‘Nerha too...I don’t need to ask it…’ Kowani thought, almost severing the bond with a sudden wave of revulsion. She could feel her heart begin to slow inexplicably, thundering vast waves of nourishing blood to every internal organ as it began to harden, constricting with a tightness that rocked her chest with unimaginable pain. Each pulsing wave of life-giving blood feeling as if it were crystalizing in her veins, freezing in place with an icy glaze that chilled her instantly. Time stopped as she blinked through the intense pain rocketing through her body, taking her gaze from her lap to the canopy and beyond. As quickly as the stasis set itself upon its own frozen agenda the fires of forgotten fury and ancient rage rekindled her core with a resolve that vibrated through her bones. Each vein that had betrayed her shattered from its frozen sleep as her heart began to thunder anew with a pounding in her ears that stole the sounds from them entirely with each concussive burst of her wrath filled heart. Each beat pounding with increasing regularity as the veins began to burn hot with her welling outrage. Kowani burst from her harness with a strength unknown to her, gritting her teeth with a seething madness and grinding her jaws with insatiable insanity.
The laugh was not her own, yet she embraced it fully as it relayed a sourced awe and wonder cackling with its own madness and wrath, “there’s my dragon!” Bane sounded out, the voice booming but only in contention with the slamming of her own heartbeat.
“RRRAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Kowani shouted with everything she could.
✦
“Oh shit!” Nara blurted through the chamber, raising a hand to her temple to assure herself the shout wasn’t imagined. “Ahsoka! Get up!”
“What is it Nara?” Rex asked, lightly slapping the face of the clone he had tried to protect, “wake up will you already?” He gave the face another light whack as the eyes began to blink wildly.
“Ani!” Nara tried to convey more but found her breath failing her.
“She’s pulling us all in Nara!” Ahsoka shouted in return, pushing herself up from the chamber floor.
“Nara...that is not Bane’s doing...he does not have the power to influence so strongly.” Zannah was almost frantic, clearly understanding what was happening.
“Ani has awoken...she’s learned her truth….and she is….impassioned.” Nara worked to relay what she was feeling.
Ahsoka could already feel it, the void that had encapsulated her very soul in Sidious’ presence, that accompanied Vader through both encounters, was magnified infinitely in her own mind as Kowani broadcast her arrival. “Rex we have to get her on her feet. Sidious is still here which means Ani will pin him, and whomever is with him between herself and us in some capacity.”
Rex turned to Ahsoka as Nara fell to a knee, ready to strike the woman again.
“Stop hitting me!” The clone shouted before Rex could swat at her cheek again.
“Good, get up.” Rex fired off quickly.
“Nara what can you see?” Ahsoka turned her attention to the Mirialan for some form of guidance.
“The bond is clouded Ahsoka, I am not sure what she will do.”
“Then we group together against Hedala’s pod. If the landing pad is above us we can hope to at least stand clear through Ani’s initial attack.” Ahsoka couldn’t think of anything else to do until there was more information, intuition taking command. She fired a glance quickly toward the closed doors to the corridor, deciding the unknown to be less than ideal. They all quickly pinned themselves together before the Thebaskens blue pod, Nara’s clone, to the surprise of everyone, seemed quite willing to adapt to the situation in the same manner they were.
✦
“Ani, sit down...we’re almost there.” Sabine almost shouted over the fuming rage that echoed through the howling Mirialans mouth. Kowani only fired her a glance before righting her gaze to the targeting array and grabbing the ships yoke with a jolt. She depressed the bottom lever, activating the ships armament foils, the smooth mechanical whirring and successful locking thump raced through the cabin, heard by everyone but Kowani.
“Is there anything you can do N’dali?” Sabine asked through the cacophony, CZ already redoubling his tether to the ship’s starboard hull with projected cables and internal winch.
“Sabine. There is nothing that I will do.” N’dali responded quickly, although Sabine did recognize a certain hesitation in the response.
“ETA in three minutes Ani...there is a ship attempting to exit the landing area of the facility. Would you like to prevent it or allow it passage?” N’dali voiced a little louder to overpower the constant shouts that only seemed to enrage the Mirialan further.
Kowani thought it through, knowing there could be only one reason for the departing ship, and despite Nara’s warnings, she would see him pay for the years he had stolen from her. For the torment caused thousands if not tens of thousands, he would stand before her and answer for his crimes. She would obliterate the man internally, crush his very will before she stamped the life from his body, and any that came with him.
“Prevent!” Kowani shouted her reply, ready to pull the trigger that would unleash hell.
✦
“Admiral, incoming, mark six two seven point four, sector seventeen. It wasn’t there a minute ago!”
“Jrryce, how much longer on the ‘Invicture’ and where is ‘Trest’?” Cain whirled on his tech.
“’Trest’ has almost reached her hyper lane, ‘Invicture’ is ninety two percent.’ A stoic voice responded with her immediate reply.
“Station point defense cover operations on ‘Invicture.’ Secure passage for ‘Trest.’ And prepare for separation.”
“Sir?” The tech asked, suddenly minus the stoicism, “that does leave us exposed.”
“Affirmative Jrryce, we have our orders, and you have yours.” Cain boomed through the sparsely populated control room while walking swiftly toward his own station. He sat down quickly and began tapping away at the keys set within the console.
“Copy Sir.” The tech replied, a voice distant in Cain’s mind as he coded his message for Lord Vader, relinquishing operational command of the massive project. The moment his small monitor indicated full encryption and confirmation of receipt, he removed his command cylinder from his breast pocket, planting it firmly into a small access terminal below a recessed panel. With a twist of the device the panel cracked open, lifting upward slowly to expose another access terminal recessed with it as well. Cain reached into his uniform jacket, retrieving a fifth cylinder, its case a dull muted black, and inserted it into the new terminal.
‘Here we go…’ Cain thought to himself as he twisted the cylinder within the port a quarter turn counterclockwise, the green blinking light above the housing affirming that the galaxy had indeed gone dark.
✦
“The station is secondary Ani, the facility is a separate entity below it.” N’dali informed the crazed Mirialan, “the landing area is between the control center for the station and top side of the facility...do you see it?”
“This entire thing is an atrocity, it will all suffer…” Kowani returned, stowing the information in the twisting nether of her thoughts as she pulled back on the triggers. A loud buzz sounded through the cabin briefly before a deep concerted whirl began building in both depth and volume. As the whirl came to a crescendo, the ship slowed in its path suddenly as bright green beams shot forth from the three armed foils of their gunship, each converging on the target of Kowani’s choice with a thunderous boom through the whole of the ship. Sabine sat stunned as she watched the volley manifest through the canopy, shades of green reflection mirrored in her eyes just before the conglomeration met the central panels of the station’s control room hub in a blinding white flash.
Sabine’s mouth fell open the moment the initial blast cascaded into fuming fireballs of red, orange, and yellows, hints of purple and blue that conceded the magnitude of incinerating heat, peeling away the protective durasteel panels like dry skin and old paint. Secondary explosions drew her attention from the initial blast as they began to erupt concentrically through the central hub of the massive station. Before she could react, multiple packets of green return fire began heading their way, yet not directly.
“Sporadic incoming…” N’dali informed them.
“Yeah, I see that.” Sabine stated watching with a growing curiosity as the return fire was random, chaotic at best. “Cover fire…” She said, stretching to see beyond the starboard side of the canopy, “for that Star Destroyer!”
“It will burn as all this must!” Kowani shouted, willing the ships yoke to deliver another lethal burst from the Morai’s foils.
“No Ani.” N’dali stated, arresting the ships directional control from the Mirialan’s grip, “focus on the facility, if you are unwilling to operate beyond your own anger, then at least focus it on the appropriate task.”
“If your own information is accurate N’dali, that ship represents hundreds of systems!” Kowani fired back, “they don’t mean less than this facility!”
“In fact, they don’t Ani, but your focus needs to remain on that facility, nonetheless, let me concern myself with the station…....” N’dali was calm yet firm in her reply, yet hesitant, unwilling to conceded that she suddenly had no plan for that particular agenda without access to any embedded network. What was free and available for use only seconds before was suddenly nonexistent. Improvising quickly, she relayed a simple message to CZ who confirmed the silent digital signal well beyond the knowledge of the two women aboard, ‘there are limited life signs aboard that station, can you make your way to the Star Destroyer before they finish operations?’ N’dali asked the small hovering med droid.
‘And do what if I can?’ CZ responded quickly.
‘You have this ships signal and relay data CZ, I need you to access the internal network aboard that ship.’ N’dali asked stated.
‘Life signs do not mean any path will be unobstructed, you know what they are doing here, but, yes, I can do that.’
‘You may need to EVA to get there quickly enough CZ, my final readings on the operations themselves have that ship close to capacity.’ N’dali finalized the relaying message with the sum of her knowledge, all transpiring before Kowani could reply.
“Then take us down N’dali!’ Kowani shouted into the cockpit, pushing herself up to her feet.
“Ani, we need a plan.” Sabine mirrored the action as she rose to her own feet while trying to inject sanity into the raving woman.
“What plan? Eradication is a plan!” Kowani turned quickly to fire the statement before turning to move herself quickly from the cabin, the ship already moving to approach the magnetic shielding of the facilities landing platform, Sabine assured that N’dali had the intent all along. ‘This is going well...’ she thought to herself, grabbing her helmet, and smacking it down on her head before following Kowani through the doorway.
The woman was already descending the starboard stair case when Sabine passed through the hatchway, taking long strides, two steps at a time. ‘This is going so very very well…’ Sabine thought again as she rushed to catch up, shaking her head through the internal sarcasm.
The aft loading ramp hissed its acquiescence as Kowani stepped forward, twisting her body, and shaking her hands, doing her best to focus as was suggested on the matter at hand. Before she could see her surroundings, a quick burst from the Morai’s aft laser cannons struck something with authority, Kowani freezing in place to allow the sounds beyond the descending ramp give her the intel she needed. The failing thunder of repulsors severely damaged and thumping descent of what had been a finely tuned whine, let her know N’dali had most certainly ‘prevented’ the escaping vessel from doing just that. She braced herself with the immediate knowledge then that the man whom she had focused her inner rage would be just beyond her ramp. She could wait no longer.
The sights provided a precise account of the images the sounds had planted, her mind a tapestry of destructive options as she viewed the smoldering remains of a small gunships sub light array, smoke billowing from its repulsor generator. Immediate incoming blaster fire chimed through the vacuous landing area, echoes firing that presented a chorus of a dozen or more sources, but Kowani needed only one. Avoiding the red burst of energy with a deft tuck and roll, she reached for both saber hilts simultaneously, igniting them both from a planted knee with aggressive report, even the energy gates within them feeding off the rage that drove the woman toward her quarry with a satisfying thrum beset in each of her palms. Sabine, following closely, had both Westars pulled from their holsters, her helmet locking in on the blast’s source. Kowani rose slowly as she surveyed the scene, accounted for the damage, and assured herself that their ship would be the only salvation from the carnage she intended. Sabine, locking on, fired both blasters over either of Kowani’s shoulders, one orange bolt finding purchase with an audible yelp of pain and the commencement of clattering and banging as the offender’s blaster fell to the reinforced steel of the landing pad.
Kowani surged forth with her rage, pushing within the Force to locate the man that deserved to die, finding something else entirely in the form of a red-haired woman that had stepped out from behind the wreckage some forty meters distant. Almost to a frothing point and needing an outlet lest the fury consume her entirely, Kowani began to pace forward closing the distance between them, Sabine following carefully behind, her own focus on the helmet’s targeting array.
“And who might you be?” The red-haired woman said, her voice dripping with condescension and vile disregard.
The alert came quick in her helmet and Sabine fired the moment the array chimed with a lock, discharging a single bolt into a gray uniformed tech that had tried making a run for one of the sealed exits. The blast taking him from his feet and sending the metallic case he was carrying skittering to the ground. The man’s lifeless head folding backward awkwardly as his knees tucked themselves under his torso.
“Your arbiter.” Kowani said coolly, rushing the remainder of the distance in blinding speed, nothing but a blur of motion between walls of pink and purple. ‘You fool, you move too quickly...she is not your target…’ Bane shamed her instantly, his booming condemnation rocking through her mind as her body came to an abrupt halt five meters from her quarry, her sabers deactivating of their own accord.
“My arbiter?” The woman said, Kowani absent the ability to think straight for the adrenaline coursing through her, the anger driving her and the force that was inexplicably encapsulating her. Bereft of reason, Kowani was certain Bane was right, she had fallen victim to trap eons old.
“Even a dragon can be caged it seems…” The voice was all around her, deep, impassioned, and purposeful. Kowani could sense the tendrils of fear working their way into her soul, yet not of her own creation. She could sense an ensuing probing that would strip away her own identity, one that promised to deprive her of the life she clung to and any hope that yet remained within her. ‘He is powerful…’ Bane echoed in her mind, tearing Kowani from the projected fear and weakness, ripping her from her own driving anger and boiling rage.
“The...fear...is ...not mine….” Kowani forced through clenched teeth, every syllable forcing the encroaching entity to retreat a step from the grip it intended on her own mind. ‘You cannot defeat him.’ Bane whispered again, the culmination of his dark promises withdrawn as she began to sense a welling of pain and hopelessness. ‘He is my equal.’ Bane continued, retracting the tendrils of hate itself in a direction opposing her own will and with it the strength to fight the oppressive entity that purposed her own submission. “I….am….my….strength…..” She continued forward nonetheless, defying the forces that pressed in upon her from all angles, her teeth gnashing into her jaws with force enough to crush the bone itself. Kowani kept the woman within her focus, moving slowly toward her with step after painful step.
“Who is this that would defy her own destruction, this dragon that refuses to die!” The voice echoed again, Kowani pushing through the renewed surge that sought to steal the function from her muscles.
Kowani fought for internal independence through the channels exposed through receding rage. As Bane retreated from her thoughts, she began to sense the tendrils and flows of the Force around her once again, the enormity of which caused her to flare her eyes open in absolute shock. ‘How...from where?’ The questions flooded her mind as her right side began to drag her to the dirty tarmac under her feet, the scoring and discoloration fresh from N’dali’s destructive volleys. Despite the forces that pressed in upon her, she began to direct the flows of Force energy around her without any proper answers to the questions asked, each one but a mote and fragment of the Force itself but manifest in the sheer number of sources to provide a kindling of hope in the face of certain defeat.
“I...am...what...you...created...but...so...much...more!” Kowani felt her reply chatter through her unsteady jaw, revealing the truth in so much as the man needed to know. Despite her own immediate trials, Kowani feared for the woman that had behind her, the sister that certainly would follow her in death. Without the ability to turn around, she could only posit hope within the Force that she began to weave her way meanderingly.
With the infusion of invisible aid, the strength of thousands inexplicably at her side, Kowani as able to abate the pressures that had the will to crush her moments before the black robes were visible in her left peripheral. “I could only hope to know your number then, as a name would be meaningless. What designation befalls you young dragon that would covet her creator’s destruction above all else?” Sidious pressed with more intent, aware that his initial clutch was failing.
Kowani felt the renewed attack immediately, the accumulating flows of her attracted Force energies swirling madly to find an opening within the dark cocoon that would negate them.
“Her name is Kowani Y’mmat and that is all you will ever know!” It was Nara, Kowani was certain of it! Kowani felt the pressures recede immediately as the man’s focus shifted, her body relaxing under the pressures only to have those Force currents slam home, almost taking her from her feet.
She smiled broadly, despite the haziness that began to creep through her field of vision, her eyesight, enhanced by the communal tether she had unwittingly agreed to with the Dark Side, receding as quickly as the Sith Lord’s grasp. In its place were the gentle flows of golden light she had known all her life, supplying her with the sight she could rely upon, as she always had. Her right side ached with a pain that was physical, negating any swift motion from her right hip, a problem she would have to contend with remembering the small cube that had been the center of her attention and focus.
“You will die for your insolence Thana, that is a promise.” Sidious said, cackling a laughter Kowani thought distant and absent, as if the man were trying to convince himself before anyone else.
“And you will face your fear Sidious.” It was Ahsoka this time! Kowani could feel the strength in the woman’s voice, a resolve she had not sensed since Mustafar, although the claim seemed to be far-fetched. After feeling the pressures of his opposing force, she was quite certain there was little, if anything, the man truly feared, although she did sense the shift within him, the understanding he would not be facing anyone of them alone.
“You have crimes to answer for that stretch back decades...Palpatine.” Now Rex! With each familiar voice Kowani could feel her strength renew, her drive to propel her forward and through the barriers that held her in place. Her sight gone once again, the entirety of the vast landing area, more than one hundred fifty meters across in diameter was vividly displayed with overlapping and shimmering fields of gold. Every recess, resident, and constructive feature mapped out in a glimmering display of extreme clarity, magnified by the second with each new wave of the determined flows of the Force. Her mind was becoming her own once again, free of the Dark Lord’s machinations, free of Bane’s incessant presence and whispered manipulations, free to accept the truths gleaned through the connections she had made through her anger and rage, without adhering to the emotions that had delivered them.
“This place is criminal...what you’ve done...deplorable!” Who the hell was that? Kowani was sure it sounded like Nara, like Lulu, but there was no connection to it. The flows of the Force seemed to answer the question for her as they eddied around her feet, releasing the final bonds her own mind had created that kept her from continuing her initial charge. As she gazed downward the answers presented themselves to her, hundreds...no thousands of answers. Each tiny ribbon that manifest in the waves of Force energy had its source from somewhere below her. A massive cylinder looked as a spiders web of golden light that streamed prolifically through its own created network to weave its way upward toward her. Thousands of souls below her, offering assistance in the only way they could, each one in a form of unnatural stasis that seemed all too familiar to her.
“Let’s finish this.” Sabine said behind Kowani, eliciting a smile upon the Mirialan’s face, knowing her focus could not rest solely on the red-haired woman free of Sidious’ grip.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” The woman said, her voice determined but lacking the conviction Kowani felt they should. With renewed strength to complete her newly formed agenda, Kowani approached the woman, lifting both sabers before as she reignited them a final time. Her expressions were genuine as she felt the warmth of the blades close to her cheeks, and despite the increasing heaviness of Bane’s denial, spun each in easy poetic circles before taunting the woman to come forward with a simple hand gesture that could not be confused with any friendly. “I’m not going anywhere.” Kowani voiced through the vocater, the sound of which felt more natural than it had ever been, despite the cracklings of dislocated circuitry and frayed wiring.
The woman approached fast and furious, igniting her own blade with a quickness that surprised Kowani, Sabine wasting no time in firing volley after raucous volley from her Westars’ toward her. Each bolt magnificently sent back toward the Mandalorian with deadly intent, Kowani finding herself immediately on the defensive as she extended to her right with both sabers, ricocheting the bolts again harmlessly in to adjacent walls. Wisely, Sabine stopped firing and holstered her side arms, giving Kowani the opening to focus on the frontal assault she would feign with in order to drop low with a conceived sweeping attack. Kowani smiled inwardly the moment she heard the light saber’s ignition, knowing Sabine wasn’t proficient enough with the weapon itself to focus an attack, but also realizing the red-haired woman had no conceivable way of knowing that. With the woman’s attention now placed upon her own predicament and staring down the potential of two opposing Force users, she immediately adapted a defensive stance, providing Kowani the opening she had hoped for.
✦
Ahsoka provided all the attention she could, sensing the immediacy of the Dark Lord’s attention as it withdrew from Kowani. She would not make any mistake twice, assuring herself that Nara was already working within her own sphere of concentration, she narrowed her eyes, folding her arms across her chest, “her name is Kowani Y’mmat and that is all you will ever know!” She heard Nara give her cue.
“You will die for your insolence Thana, that is a promise.” Sidious responded in his sickly rasp, willing the statement to be true without the actions to support it for the moment.
“You will face your fear Sidious!” Ahsoka shouted, diverting the man’s attention away from the Mirialan and upon her once again. The target she presented was as open as he could have imagined or hoped for, no shred of instinct directing her to recoil from his gaze, her sabers at her waist. He flared his eyes wildly in greedy abandon before his vision was stolen from him entirely, the face of his old master occupying the field of black before him.
“You have crimes to answer for that stretch back decades...Palpatine.” Plagueis rasped into his mind, assailing the only part of his thoughts he had lay bare through the Togrutan’s temptations. “This place is criminal...what you’ve done...deplorable!” Plagueis continued, “you will die Sidious, absent the powers you covet beyond all else, because the Dark Side….the Dark Side my unworthy apprentice, is finished with you….” He finished laughing in a way no Muun could, thunderous baritone that sapped Sidious’ balance with each roaring clap of indescribable agony. Sidious could feel the ravages of time begin to grip him firmly, the skin begin to sag further from aging bone as his memories began to vanish from him, the insight gained from decades of vigilant study, sapped from his thoughts as if never learned. “To be insidious takes the will of constant thought, you wallow in the only fear you had yet to relinquish as the very thought of losing the thing you covet most will propel you to certain doom. You have no power here Palpatine...you have no power at all...the Dark Side abandons your withering soul completely…” Then Plagueis was gone.