Nara’s head was pounding through the strain, diverting every last ounce of the concentrated energies within to keep the small tan cubes from the effects of Ahsoka’s wrath. She ground her teeth as she grunted through the effort, the cubes themselves vibrating with a piercing hum despite the bellicose shouts thundering from the Togrutan, ululations that bounded echoes of unrestrained power throughout the vast chamber. Nara could feel them strain in her invisible grasp, the entities within pushing against the prison’s cell walls as the cubes fought to keep themselves together, fulfilling their purpose and design.
“You understand what must take place…” Zannah whispered lightly so as not to provide distraction.
‘I do….but…’ Nara was hesitant to concede to the scope of her knowledge.
“It must be done Nara, there is no other way.” Zannah responded sullenly, the voice distant in Nara’s estimation.
‘I do not fear death Zannah….’ Nara’s reply was sincere.
“….there are far worse things than death young one.” Zannah took her time in response.
Nara was almost absent the vision of the final push that took Sidious from his feet and sent him reeling into the landing bays far wall with a tremendous splinter of fracturing metals. The dark robes whisked through her peripheral as she maintained her focus with as much acuity as was possible on containing the cubes that were beginning their own dramatic push against her will. Each of them twisted and shook with their own internal fury, willing themselves closer to one another as they sought out the greater powers within the confines of their immediate area, “Ahsoka!” Nara shouted after a quick glance toward the fallen Sith Lord, “I can’t...contain them!” She only hoped the dire nature of the shouted admission was enough to settle the rage she could sense within the Togrutan, calm the storm of aggressive rage that was looking for its next target. “AHSOKA!” She tried one last time as she felt her own power dwindling, despite the previous surge and the mysteries surrounding it. The power of the cubes in tandem was becoming far too much for her to handle.
The twilling cries caught her attention despite the storm of her own fury blinding Ahsoka to all but the thirst for vengeance that would not be slaked. A distant whisper grew in the haziness of her mind, promising a calming wave of independence from the cloud of rage she had become. Twisting whispers that folded in upon themselves, that were in fact indistinguishable, sounded familiar to her, brought with them the resolve and confidence her will sought to douse the burning flames of wrath and hatred. The cries continued, growing louder with each utterance, portents of an incoming doom that didn’t make sense. ‘The foe is defeated!’ She thought to herself, quickly associating the distant cries with the throes of death that had instigated her fury with the final snap of her sanity. ‘Ani….’ her thoughts shifted suddenly to her fallen friend, pulling her into another tidal pool of indecision, confusion and splintering realities.
“AHSOKA!” Nara’s bellicose shout finally broke through the indecisiveness and disarray, clearing Ahsoka’s mind with instantaneous clarity. ‘The cubes?’
Ahsoka shifted her gaze toward the small items that hovered violently between herself and Nara, unsure what it was that the Mirialan would have her do. ‘Clear your mind woman.’ She told herself, the gleam in Nara’s eyes reflecting the dire nature of what was transpiring. As the clouds of fury receded, calming waves of truth took their place, and with them a commencement within the connection Ambria had established. She felt the tether pull her into it the more cognizant she became of its presence once again, instantly horrified by the proposition she felt within the Mirialan’s mind. “You want me to hold them so you can sacrifice yourself to them?” Ahsoka voiced her understanding as it was, lifting it to compensate for the thrumming hum that beat the air as the cubes fought Nara’s own will to dominate them.
“It is the only way!” Nara shouted in response, blinking through the truth as she saw it.
“There is always another way…” Nara heard the statement at her shoulder, accompanied by a gentle hand upon it. The voice was her own despite where it came from, causing her to turn slightly to look upon the face that was also hers. “I have seen your mind Nara, the presence within will recognize you through me. And the entity within the second will recognize the power in the first. You know this.”
Nara did know, it was exactly what she had intended for herself. ‘Destroy the first to absolve, destroy the second to complete.’
“Exactly.” Her clone said, a light smile pulling at her cheeks that affirmed the honesty in her eyes as they blinked slowly. Nara, not in the least bit surprised that the woman heard her thought, refused to condemn her to the very fate she had felt assured was her own.
“You would have to open yourself to it….” Nara began, her mind rededicating itself to the path her saber would have to take.
“...fully...I know, Nara.” The clone stated, the smile only increasing on the olive-skinned woman, “...in that I can fulfill our design.”
The statement caused Nara pause, an instantaneous moment spent looking deeply within the eyes that were identical to hers, the smile that would mirror her own if she had taken the time to wear one. “We were designed for so much more...” She said without thinking.
“You were Nara, you were.” Her clone responded, “...had you not taken the time to allow understanding, I would already be dead...now do it!” She finished positioning herself beneath the first vibrating cube.
“Strike fast and strike hard Nara, the Skybuile will only succumb to itself.” Zannah intoned, Nara’s sentiment directed down a different, but equally painful, goodbye.
‘Is there no other way?’ Nara thought.
“If there was I would have done this myself eons ago.” Zannah replied, sullen and morose, “but there is always solace to be found when you look within…”
Nara was taken aback with an excited apprehension that defied the immediacy of what was necessary, a pause internally that seemed out of place...or out of time… Something didn’t quite feel right, ‘Zannah...what does that mean?’ Nara forced the thought.
“Ahhhhhhh.” She heard Ahsoka grunting through her efforts to not only maintain what stasis she could within the cubes but also to combat the will they both had manifest to draw upon one another. The concentration required was taking its toll, snapping Nara out of her thoughts.
“Now Ahsoka!” Nara shouted, focusing the sum of herself on the task before her, springing from her stance and igniting a single energy gate within the exceedingly long saber hilt, the sound of which only added harmony to the guttural bellows the Togrutan was letting loose. She twirled the weapon once to balance her grip and focus herself before lacing into the first of the two cubes with precision. She continued through the movement dropping to a knee, keeping her eyes focused on the still unmoving form of Sidious against the far bulkhead, listening for any sign that she had succeeded. The silence was unexpected, broken only by the warbling hum of her own blade not centimeters from her right ear. She needed to know if it had worked, needed to know that the imprisoned spirit was not targeting her despite the plan, but could only hope that her clone was successful as she heaved through rapid breathing.
The clone stood ready, her head lifted high that she may look upon the contents of the desiccated cube the moment Nara’s blade struck true. Her eyes welled with fear the moment a bright flash filled them, reds and whites, pinks, and blues, all swirled together to resemble a small galaxy in the space the cube had occupied before a pair of black piercing eyes found hers through the silence. The clone succumbed to fear instantly, her feet failing her through a tumble downward, bred from shaking knees and muscle failure. She wanted to peel her gaze from the narrowing eyes staring back at her, make herself invisible and hide from the power she knew was far greater than her own. The colors began to swirl faster as the eyes drifted closer, a weightlessness about them that was both intriguing and disturbing. She couldn’t remove her gaze despite trying to, forces beyond hers and those comprehendible, compelled her to remain unmoving, willed her to open herself further and promised defeat above all else. The eyes moved beyond the whirling colors, a face materializing around them, deep scored lines of withered age and the drooping of jowl and chin cut deep or manifest through the pale rawness of flesh that could not be real. The whirling colors became long ribbons of fabric, draped loosely over boney dry skin, any vibrancy evaporating with the clones will as the reds and pinks turned to the color of sickly blood, the whites to ash and the blues to deep violet if not black.
“You have no name!” The old crone whispered through a voice that sounded ancient. The clone froze, unable to think as her mind had betrayed her and withdrawn almost completely. “There is great power here….but you do not possess it….” The whisper echoed within itself, becoming almost indecipherable. The testament of purpose chimed itself loudly as it broke free of the clone’s subconscious, forcing the fear to reroute through other channels and staking the mind for itself. ‘Remember who you are!’ She began to tell herself. Through fears recession she could sense the unleashed spirit beginning to assess its agenda, pausing as it did from entering her immediately. “I am Lunara, your captor….and you are Abeloth, eater of worlds. Your time has come honored mother, and I am your vessel!” The clone shouted, yet not a word came forth. The black-eyed gaze renewed its penetrating stare, sending forth a spectral hand that whisked with aethereal translucence, reaching out to stroke the skin at the clone’s flesh. “You are she that would contain who I am, I am who that I will be. You willingly give of yourself to become that I will.”
“I do, mother!” The clone shouted.
“Then so be it child.” The spirit thundered through her mind, the clone instantly regretting the decision as a smile spread from ear to ear below the cold black eyes, one that featured abnormally large spikes for teeth in a mouth to large. The moment the eyes disappeared, the clone felt her perspective shift, one that featured the knowledge of infinite generations whirling through her mind before she could inhale her next breath. Her mind began to fold in upon itself creating an instant chaos she felt helpless to reverse. What was limitless power through solitary thought caused nothing but incomprehensible doubt and questions by the millions that she would never have the answers for. Thoughts became meaningless, insignificant, ungrounded and with them any hope of containing the presence that had redefined everything she had been grown to understand with concepts too broad to interpret or comprehend. She fell to the ground, prone, on her back, staring up through the haziness of lazy smoke and steams, through the magnetic shielding of the landing bay’s topside access and into the firestorm that had become of the station’s central command deck.
Everything was meaningless through her new perspective. The facility that had bred her, the station to which it was attached. The planet they orbited, its own systems sun at its center. The galaxy itself and those closest to it. Her perspective now began where her discarded perspective had ceased comprehension as she continued pulling back internally, looking for something credible with which to plant new foundations. Only the concept of the universe made any sense to her now. As difficult as it was for the clone, it was even more so for the inhabiting spirit. One that had only known the concept of the universe now contained within a vessel that had known only the concept of herself trapped in the confines of this very facility. ‘This cannot be the one who forced me into my prison…’ The spark that was Abeloth thought, ‘it has not left this place… this meager dwelling.’
“Welcome home.” Zannah declared, “your final home….”
‘This voice is familiar, hair of spun golden silk and mind that comprehends.’ Abeloth identified with a renewed interest. ‘Ahhh, we will conquer in our quest to undermine the very fabric of what is known…’
“Unfortunately, I have other plans…” Zannah said with a sneer.
“The other Nara!!” Ahsoka shouted, straining to hold the final cube stationary and not at all sure what to do about Nara’s clone lying on her back.
“Get it closer to her!” Nara shouted back, whirling on her knee, and preparing her next strike.
The spirit within the final cube resisted everything Ahsoka had intended for it, vibrating with forces that would sunder fleet Capital ships or tear through solid stone. She could feel the strength weaning from her leg muscles as they strained to hold her upright, her arms feeling like Wroshyr trunks and her back threatening to cascade into incendiary fires as the muscles within pulled tighter and tighter. She closed her eyes, willing the final meter of descent it would take to place the cube just over the wide-open eyes of the prone woman with a final grunt that shook the straining hull panels of the landing bay around them all, “AHHHHHHH!” She shouted from the bowels of her lungs, her diaphragm ailing in distress and cramping quickly. The cube wavered slightly but descended nonetheless, Nara whisking the single blade in an arc parallel to the floor cleaved it quickly and rolled to her side. She bolted to her knees and pushed to her feet, coming to stand directly at Ahsoka’s side, “we need to contain her...and them!” She shouted loudly, contending with the raucousness their actions had just created.
Metal splintered. It peeled, snapped, broke, and thundered through the chamber, neither Ahsoka nor Nara comprehending its source as they both focused on erecting then maintaining an impenetrable sphere of Force energies around the prone woman, the forces within instantly pushing against their concerted efforts, unwilling to trade one prison for another so quickly. As one sought to undermine the will of the vessel, another would test the resolve of the shield outward, yet neither finding a breach with which to exploit.
“There is no going back….for either of you.” Zannah stated with a laugh.
“You!” Bane thundered within the clone’s mind, “you have done this?”
“What it is that I seek to be preyed upon by the rabble of insignificance?” Abeloth stated a question that seemed out of place.
“Mortality cannot contain us Zannah...I taught you better than that…” Bane continued to thunder his genuine wrath.
“Yet neither of you can escape, can you.” Zannah countered, willing the spiritual ancient to test that truth for herself, “it seems the lessons...master, are far from over.”
✦
“Gentle...gentle…” Rex offered lightly, placing a hand beneath Kowani’s damaged shoulder, trying not to look at the garish wound that offered views internally he would have rather not described.
“I’ve got her Rex..” Sabine said softly as she lifted the limp body from the cold flooring of the tarmac, Rex supporting Kowani’s head to prevent any further damage as they both walked briskly up the Morai’s aft ramp and directly down the narrow hall beyond into the small medical bay aboard.
“CZ!” Sabine shouted quickly after lying Kowani on the narrow cot, Rex already strapping her down where he could without displacing what was left of her right torso.
“CZ is not aboard.” They both heard over the comms.
“Where is N’dali?” They both asked together.
“I am Chams….mother is currently removing the life pods from the clones below our position.”
Rex turned quickly to Sabine, “mother?” He whispered into her equally confused expression.
“I do have basic abilities to sedate and monitor if you would be so kind as to apply the necessary equipment to her. Kowani Y’mmat is...special.”
The mutual gaze did not part as both Sabine and Rex continued staring at one another.
“If you would apply the equipment please.” Chams repeated quickly.
“Yes...yes.” Rex stammered slightly but went straight to work attaching various monitors to Kowani’s fingers and forehead. The moment he pulled his hands back, a single green scanning beam shot forth that swept the Mirialan from head to toe and back again. “Her status is quite critical, I have notified CZ, but we will have to rendezvous at his position.”
“Understood, we need to get the rest of our party aboard first.” Sabine offered backpedaling from the small medical bay and back into the aft cargo hold.
“Her status is deteriorating rapidly. Kowani Y’mmat will take priority. I will need to leave the vicinity in forty-three seconds to provide her with my desired outcome.”
“Forty seconds Sabine!” Rex shouted after the departing Mandalorian.
‘Forty seconds….forty seconds…’ Sabine raced the thought through her mind as she reached the lip of the access ramp, “Ahsoka, we need to leave...now!” She shouted despite the Togrutan standing less than five meters away.
Ahsoka heard the call but refused to tear her gaze from her objective, unsure if she could move at all through the growing aches and pains, finding the immediate predicament growing in both complexity and severity by the second.
“The process must conclude before we can release her Ahsoka….can we do this aboard the ship?” Nara shouted the question over the increasing hum of their conjoined efforts.
“We risk everyone aboard if we do…” Ahsoka shouted her response.
“Better than him getting what he wants…” Nara replied quickly, nodding toward Sidious who was beginning to stir.
‘...by the Force…’ Ahsoka thought absently, wondering what else could possibly manifest itself into the situation.
Loud bangs shot through the facility, followed quickly by enormous lurches that almost caused them both to lose focus. ‘...and that’s what I get…’ Ahsoka thought again, regaining her balance and focus enough to stabilize her projection. They both began shuffling closer to the boarding ramp, Sabine willing them both faster with waving hands and a frantic expression. Ahsoka looked up to see the man that had drawn her ire shifting a limp body from his own, and then toward the inward bulging of the hull panels above his head, palm size rivets pulling themselves free of the durasteel framework of the facility. She quickly shot her gaze toward the shielded woman both she and Nara were slowly migrating behind them, ‘we are depressurizing the facility…’ The thought would have made her roll her eyes if she had the time to do it, “Nara, now!” Ahsoka shouted, surging her own internal power into the shield and her actions.
Nara felt the lip of the ramp at her heel, Sabine offering a hand atop her left shoulder for guidance and support and Ahsoka quickly behind a step. The whole of the landing area grunted through another lurch below them just after both of them had feet on the ramp, the tarmac breaching a half meter gap between the ship and itself with the lurch as the sounds of cracking metal peeled through the static laced air around them all.
“NO!” Everyone looked up, then quickly back down, as tendrils of blue lightning seared through the space between them and Sidious and slammed into the shielding around the clone, ricocheting off with surprising force in all directions, some fingers finding the Morai’s hull plating, diffusing quickly into the quickly erected aft shielding, while most slammed into the buckling panels or split cracks into the tarmac’s duracreet and steel mesh, further destabilizing the facility that seemed to be falling apart around them.
Sabine ushered both Nara and Ahsoka back far enough to allow Chams to close the aft ramp, bypassing the regulatory pneumatics as it shut with a tremendous clang and final hiss. Rex was quickly beside Ahsoka, helping her to brace against the quick change of inertia and ridiculous angles necessary to get them up and out of the magnetic shield above them. Sabine strained through similar efforts before Chams reversed the artificial gravity aboard the ship, recognizing the conundrum in the aft hold. The shift was felt by all, but more gratefully by both Ahsoka and Nara who adapted immediately to the shift, giving them the means to focus entirely on their objective. Rex found a guide rail and vaulted himself into the ship’s upper bay from the cargo hold, grabbing at railings wherever he could find them to angle himself toward the cockpit. Sabine did likewise, but straight back to the small med bay to check on Kowani.
Rex was able to get to the pilot’s seat quickly as the Morai guided itself through the magnetic shield and quickly down parallel with the facility, his mouth falling open as his mind began to understand the countless lurches, pinging and banging that was tearing the facility apart. Seams had erupted through multiple levels of the enormous cylinder, sectioning it off at intervals, from which a chaotic stream of the green pods emerged and quickly descended. Their terminus seemed to be the Morai’s own as Rex stared through the canopy and at the starboard side of Star Destroyer. He instinctively grabbed for the ships yoke, unwilling to let the ship guide itself into further danger.
“It is not what it appears to be, do not deviate from this course.” Chams intervened quickly.
“That’s N’dali isn’t it….” The question died in the air just beyond the old clones’ lips.
“It is...mother.”
“What did she do with the….” Rex was going to ask the moment he saw white armor twisting through space amidst countless six-sided objects. Focusing his old eyes, he saw officer’s uniforms and dozens of other troopers floating freely amid the debris of the decaying facility. “...crew?”
“I think that is obvious.” Chams stated.
“Quite.” Rex replied, refocusing on their trajectory, and that of the constant stream of angling green pods.
“Our terminus will surprise you.” Rex took the moment to comm through the ship, “but well in hand…”
Sabine heard the comm but remained unmoving as she stood beside her fallen sister, inserting a breathing tube into the Mirialan’s mouth at Chams suggestion and shifting her gaze to the constant beep of the monitors she couldn’t comprehend. Feeling helpless, she placed a hand on Kowani’s right wrist, willing to feel the warmth that had always been there, the soft and gentle skin already pulling tight in places and losing its suppleness. She forced their fingers to intertwine, inserting her own body heat into the digits that were far too cold for her liking, far too stiff to be alive. Sabine brushed the purple strands of long hair out of Kowani’s face, placing them back around the back of the olive ears that began shifting to shades of yellow and mottled black. She kept staring at the Mirialans chest, hoping to see a gentle rise and fall but realizing it was only her imagination willing her to see what was not there.
✦
Again, Sidious fired the wrath of his anger through his finger tips, wild snaking branches of his fury as they slammed into the closing ramp, tarmac, and wall alike. Reason erased itself as he watched the ricochets slam into the groaning hull panels, knowing any one of them could render him a quick death but proceeding anyway. He barked his madness into the balmy air as he watched his premonitions and manipulations leaving him, just out of arms reach and into the distant blackness of space to be lost forever. Incensed by the nuances of forces unseen, unpredictable, unreasonable, and outright impossible, he willed his last attempt to stall the departing vessel, to wrap the lethal tendrils around the ships engine clusters and tear them from the craft altogether, but, just as quickly, the ship was free of the magnetic shielding that was wavering dangerously close to failure and lost to the burning chaos above him. How had he not seen this, how had he missed its portents, its signs, when everything had been so clear? What had he missed that hadn’t been meticulously studied and analyzed over the last three years? The knowledge and power that would provide him the tools to take his own agenda, his own research and initiatives so quickly toward his goals had just been ripped from his grasp without any explanation.
“Ahsoka Tano….” Sidious said to himself slowly and meticulously, his own voice now a distant ember in the rapid decline of banging and ripping, rending, and tearing as metal began to peel from metal, each agonizing strain rending harsh, ear-piercing echoes through what remained of the tortured facility and equally devasted station above. “You truly are a mystery.” He whispered into the depleting air, noting the slight shift within the crumpled body at his feet and almost inaudible groan. Without sufficient target for his fury, he allowed his anger to recede, dropping to a knee beside the abused and broken body of his assassin, ‘how is it that you live?’ He asked himself, quite curious indeed. He shifted Jade’s shoulder slightly to mild protest to find the woman clutching a case within her broken, defiled arms, elbows pinching together to keep the small item locked before her chest in a most uncomfortable fashion. Sidious felt the woman whisper, her face planted firmly in the top of the small case as he dropped his head closer to hear her.
“All...is not...lost...Master…” Jade whispered again through intense pain as she parted her elbows enough for the case to clatter to the fracturing tarmac.
Sidious left the woman to her pain and decline as his eyes fell on the case that would contain at least a portion of completed agenda. He lifted the case from the ground and slipped into the folds of his robes, as he returned his attention to the woman completely.
“You have done well...Jade.” His adulation was sincere as he flexed his fingers, “now...this is going to hurt….a lot.”
“AAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Jade screamed at the top of her lungs, the dry air leaving them until she couldn’t feel anything at all.
✦
“Get us somewhere...quickly!” Nara shouted, happy to be free of Sidious’ attempts but beginning to sense the powers within their protective shield willing more concerted efforts of their own to push forth, “I am losing control of this….”
“Likewise!” Ahsoka stated through her gritting teeth, glad that artificial gravity had been established as her own power began to wane.
“Ten seconds.” A voice neither of them had heard before broadcast for their benefit through the ship’s comms. They both shared a quick glance through trembling neck muscles, each understanding that the tether they shared was coming dangerously close to draining them completely. The skipping thud under her feet quickly proceeded the hiss of the aft ramp cracking its seal before it dropped in the blink of an eye before them both, clanging with deafening report and cascading distant echoes of the vast space they now occupied. Shining black durasteel panels reflected the illumination of bright concentrated lighting above, an expansive blue field of a magnetic shield standing before them. With another nod toward one another, they pushed their efforts outward, extending the shielded woman beyond them and through the pulsing blue field.
“Steady yourselves, making our jump now.” N’dali echoed through the whole of the massive hangar, both Ahsoka and Nara avoiding the impulse to look around firmed their footing for a final push outward. They could both feel the tenuous lurch that threatened to steal eithers stance but saw the immediate rush of streaming blues and whites of stars giving up their positions through space and time alike, both of them ceasing their projections with the same internal thought and releasing the clone altogether to the unknown of her own sacrifice.
Nara was the first to collapse, heaving a deep exhale she fell without mercy into the durasteel flooring, unconscious and ready for whatever hell her actions may have earned her. Ahsoka fell to her knees, her palms splayed wide before her face could find those same panels, her arms wobbling through the extreme cost of the limit of her strength. Rex was the first to reach either of them, placing a hand on Nara’s back, only satisfied when he felt it rise and fall slowly under his fingertips. He rolled the woman onto her back and began wiping the blood away from the nose that had been crushed in the fall with his hand before fumbling in his pouch for anything else that could be applied to halt the flow. Finding a stripped piece of rag cloth, he held the implement gently but firmly under her nose as he turned to Ahsoka. “Are you hurt?” He asked her directly, willing the woman to look him in the face as to assess her condition.
“Hurt...no. So...tired though.” She said through a labored breath. She took another breath before lifting her head to face him. “Ani?” Ahsoka asked, her eyes already conveying what she felt through the Force.
Rex didn’t reply as his eyes welled with tears.