Episode X: The Broken Path

 

Location: Space - Dathomir Orbit

Era: 1,000 Years before A New Hope 

One week after the attack on the Kerrington Penthouse...

    

“Wake up, Kira…” A voice echoes in the depths of the unconscious girl’s mind. Kira sits in the center of a small dark room with stone walls created by her psyche. The girl’s hair is tied up into a high pony when she opens her eyes, leaving her meditative state.

    “Get out of my head…” Kira whispers, grabbing onto her temples and sobbing quietly as she tucks her head into her knees. “So many voices… Be quiet…” She cries out softly, looking for a door in the room but it seems that her imagination forgot to create an exit from this nightmare.

    “Kira, you must wake up. They are coming… Your friends are in danger. Wake up.” The voice says as a presence stirs behind Kira causing her to stand up and move away from the presence cautiously. Looking all over the small room, she searches for whatever seems to be speaking to her… watching her… But nothing reveals itself.

    “Who are you…?” Kira whispers before the room dims to darkness. Everything fades away as she drifts into a deeper sleep.

    “How could I have let this happen…?” Caithe asks with tears rolling down her cheeks, clutching Kira’s hand as the padawan lies on the medbay table in SJ’s ship. The vessel floats in Dathomir’s orbit as they wait for an escort to reach them from the surface of the planet.

    “It’s not your fault… Darth Malevolence caused all of this to happen. She’s going to pull through, Caithe. You know how strong she is…” Jake sighs, placing his hand over Caithe and Kira’s. He wraps his other arm around the woman as she sobs in his arms blaming herself for Kira’s most recent development: comatose.

    “It’s just not fair… She didn’t deserve any of this. I spent so much time… So much wasted time trying to prevent this from happening…” Caithe wipes the tears from her swollen eyes.

    “What is she, Caithe?” Jake looks over to the woman with both curiosity and concern balanced on his mug. 

    “I… have no idea… She was created by Malevolence.” Caithe gently places her other hand over Kira’s cheek. “They used to call her a Titan… I sent spies to watch Mal and I was able to get fragments of information about their project…” Caithe places her hand onto her forehead and takes a deep breath.

    “Are you okay?” Jake rubs Caithe’s back before she looks back to him and offers him an unsure nod.

    “A little nauseous but I’ll be okay… I knew that one day her innate abilities would have to be awakened… I just wanted to avoid it. I wanted to give her a somewhat normal life. I did so much wrong, Jake…” She slumps over onto the cot’s edge before the 8’6 Echani woman walks into the room, ducking under the doorframe to avoid hitting her head.

    “You made mistakes, yes.” The Echani leans against the medbay counter where Effie would usually float around. The woman lifts a sandwich to her mouth and takes an abnormally large bite from it. “But don’t we all? I think it’s what gives us our humanity; our values.” The woman explains, looking down at Caithe. “Our mistakes teach us lessons that a perfect life could never teach.” She suggests, her silvery eyes drawn to Kira. “When do you think I’ll get to thank her?” The Echani asks as she takes a swig of liquor from her canteen.

    “Thank you, Keanu…” Caithe solemnly nods at the woman before leaning back into her chair. “I have no idea. Soon, I hope. If Effie was around…” Caithe looks up at the cockpit which has been sealed and locked for days. 

“I feel like somebody should check on her…” Jake looks up at the hatch leading into the cockpit and then shifts his sight to Caithe with a pout on his face.

“We’ve got to give her space. She’s still processing everything that happened. Some of us are getting through it faster than others…” Caithe admits, fixing Kira’s loose strands of hairs.

In the cockpit, SJ sits in the pilot’s seat with Effie’s halved head in her lap. She slowly places the severed droid onto the dash of her ship and walks over to a compartment in the rear of the cockpit. The bounty hunter retrieves an iridescent green and golden cube before sitting back in her seat. After pressing a small button on the top of the box, the cube whirrs open revealing a computer chip of some type. 

“Hey, again…” SJ places the open cube into her lap and wipes the forming tears from her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Effie… This is my fault… I’m going to fix it… I promise.” She whispers quietly as she holds the box close for comfort. The dash begins to blink red as collision warning is displayed on the front window. SJ looks out of the window and fails to see anything obstructing their path. 

    The ship shakes violently as a large turbine collides with SJ’s ship causing it to spin around numerous times. SJ closes the cube and places it on her dash as the ship spins around to reveal a massive ship graveyard. Thousands of vessels are torn apart and floating aimlessly around Dathomir. There is a knocking sound on the locked door to the cockpit before SJ presses a button on her dash, unlocking the hatch before Jake climbs up. 

    “What was that?” He asks before staring out at the graveyard. “That must be thousands of ships… Some of them don’t even look damaged…” He says with curiosity piqued in his tone. “Republic and Empire alike, it seems… What do you think did it?” He asks, glancing over to SJ and then inevitably at Effie’s head.

    “I have no idea… I don’t really want to stick around and find out though.” She admits as the ship begins to turn around completely. Just as she reaches out for the throttle, Jake places a hand on SJ’s shoulder.

    “I’m sorry… I know that she meant a lot to you, SJ…” Jake sighs as the woman freezes, her stone cold stare set on the cube. She gets up from her seat and pushes Jake back. The man stumbles but manages to stand his ground.

    “You have no idea what she meant to me, Jake! You didn’t spend so much of your life completely alone… and abandoned… to the point where all the family you had left was a stupid droid that couldn’t even come back like the rest of us!” SJ shouts, pushing Jake back again. The man shakes his head at her and grabs her arms as she attempts to push him again. He wraps her in a hug as she lets out a week’s worth of pain. “I miss her so much…” SJ sniffles softly as she wipes the tears from her face. 

    “I know… I don’t know exactly what you’re going through but I have lost people, SJ. It’s going to be okay… You have us. Don’t forget that.” He leans back, offering her a comforting smile before the front window lights up with a hologram reading Incoming Transmission.

    “That must be Caithe’s friend. I was starting to think something had gone awry after waiting so long for them to make contact.” SJ remarks before walking over to the console and flipping a switch before an aged woman in a Republic military uniform appears on the window. 

    “If anyone is out there… If anyone is receiving this distress call… The Olympian’s life support is at forty-two percent. I have twenty-three crew members including myself onboard. We are requesting immediate extraction… If anyone is out there… Please help us.” The woman says before the transmission cuts out. 

    “Well… At least we know where to go if we want to die.” SJ suggests, plopping herself back into the pilot’s seat before Jake joins her in the neighboring seat. 

    “We have to help them, SJ. We can’t just leave these people to die.” Jake looks over to the woman who pinches the bridge of her nose with her fingers. She glances over at Jake before shaking her head.

    “No, no, no… Don’t even think about it. That transmission could be years old. Navigating through that graveyard is asking for my ship to be torn to pieces. Not going to happen. We don’t even know if those people are alive.” SJ rests her hand on the throttle, prepared to retreat towards the surface of the planet.

    “SJ, I can feel them. I can feel their presence out there… They’re still alive. We have to help them… Please.” Jake looks over to SJ with pleading eyes.

    “If we don’t find them within an hour… Then we’re turning around.” SJ sighs, slowly removing her hand from the throttle as she begins to turn the ship towards the graveyard. As the ship slowly gravitates towards the graveyard, SJ carefully weaves the vessel between heaps of scrap and junk floating in space. 

    “Fair enough… Do you want to talk about what happened, SJ?” Jake asks, looking over to the woman curiously. She initially seems opposed to the offer but then bites her lip and glances over before returning her attention to the maze of shipwrecks in front of her. “Sure… Probably better to keep my mind off of the impending deathtrap lurking around us.” SJ glances over before letting out a long and drawn out sigh. 

    “I know that my parents are… troubled. But after the attack…” SJ carefully pulls back on the throttle, slowing the ship down as they weave between two massive halves of a battleship. “After everything my mother has done… I somehow still didn’t expect her to try and take Kira from us. I should have seen it coming from a mile away. She’s been like this for as long as I can remember… Power hungry. Obsessed with Force-Sensitives.” SJ sighs as she leans back in her chair as the ship safely passes between the battleship wreckage.

    “Your mother is awful.” Jake says, glancing over to SJ with his arms crossed. “She’s awful to you and your father. But you still seem to have some measure of respect towards her.  Do you mind if I ask why?” He asks with his head tilted ever so curiously.

    “She is pretty awful.” SJ scoffs as she reaches out, retrieving the golden and green cube and placing it into her lap. “I wouldn’t say I respect her. But I guess it’s something in that wheelhouse. She’s done a lot of messed up things but she has never backed down from anyone or anything before. She knows exactly who she is and she has so much confidence in it. It’s something that I’ve always… lacked, I suppose.” SJ shrugs as the ship begins to speed up after entering an open space in the graveyard.

    “The fact that you’re nothing like your mother isn’t anything to be ashamed of. If it helps at all, I like you the way you are. I’m sure the others would completely agree.” He chuckles, placing his hand on the dash as the vessel tips diagonally to the left, wading through the wreckage. Caithe and Keanu stand in the observation deck staring out at the wreckage. 

    “I’ve been meaning to ask you a question but I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.” Caithe glances over to Keanu, holding her bowl of green slime balls out. Keanu takes one of the little snacks and pops it into her mouth  before gesturing for Caithe to continue. “Why did you stick around? You don’t know any of us… Plus you already got killed around us once. It just doesn’t strike me as a desirable group to be a part of lately. Especially for an outsider.” Caithe scoffs, looking down at the wreckage for different sigils and emblems.

    “For starters, Kira brought me back to life after that Twi’lek shoved a lightsaber through my chest. I’m not leaving until I get to thank her for that. Plus I don’t really have anyone else… But you already knew that.” Keanu remarks as she glances down at the wreckage. “My mom used to tell me stories about the war and how it changed everything for our family. Even twenty years after it all ended, our schools taught us to be so… hateful. They tried to shift the perspective and make Echani Command seem like heroes.” Keanu explains as her eyes glue to an Echani cruiser wreck a few clicks away from their ship.

    “Thyrsus shared a lot of that fault. After it all ended, I can only assume that our narrative was scripted to treat Thyrsians as war heroes as well. I never stuck around to find out though. I was a youngling when a Jedi took me to Tython,” Caithe explains.

    “There are two sides to every war.” Keanu nods as she leans against the thick window between the observation deck and outer space. “And they’re both usually in the wrong.” The Echani woman scoffs as the ship slowly turns to reveal a large intact Republican battleship with The Olympian decorating the side of it. 

    “This is it. Suit up with the gear in the cargo bay.” SJ’s voice echoes over the ship’s intercom as the group convenes in the bay. Digging through the third freight container, they begin to equip space-friendly attire with oxygen tanks, radioactivity meters, and magnetized boots. After everyone has their helmets on, SJ presses a small concealed button beneath her helmet. “Alright. We’re docked with the Olympian but I did a full scan and the ship is almost completely out of power. The life support is at five percent and it all seems to be directed to the mess hall in the ship. If we can get there, that’s likely where the survivors will be. This needs to be a very quick in and out trip… Once that life support runs out, the shields are going to drop and the radiation from the graveyard is going to fry everything in the ship.” SJ says as her voice echoes in the helmets of her friends. 

    “You heard her. In and out. Let’s stick together and hope that the survivors are the only people on this ship… Pirates are the last thing I want to worry about.” Caithe admits as the group steps into the airlock while the room depressurizes. As the airlock exit slowly opens, the group is met with the central lobby of The Olympian. The room is pitch black as all of the electricity in the ship has failed. Each of the helmets automatically activates a night vision mode allowing limited vision to each of them. 

    Caithe takes the lead as the group slowly descends the staircase. The ship looks like at one point, it was beautiful. A chandelier made of multicolored stained glass hangs from above and the white lobby is filled with the corpses of once life-filled plantlife. Each of the planters in the room is shaped like a hexagon creating a mesmerizing honeycomb pattern. Glass crunches loudly beneath Keanu’s boots as the entire group freezes in their tracks. All eyes shift to Keanu as the Echani looks up towards the ceiling. 

    “Looks like the power didn’t go out… Someone shot out the lights in here.” Keanu reveals, gesturing up to the light fixtures above covered in blaster marks.

    “Keep your eyes peeled. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Caithe sighs as the group moves down the corridor. Finally arriving at a freight elevator, Jake looks around anxiously as SJ seems to have vanished completely.

    “SJ! Where are you?” Jake asks nervously over the helmet’s communication device. There is a moment of silence before the group walks into the stairwell beside the elevator and begins climbing the flights of stairs up towards the mess hall.

    “I took a detour. Keep going and I’ll meet you guys in the mess hall. I have to grab something from the cockpit here.” SJ replies over the communication device before Caithe rolls her eyes, clearly expressing her anger with a loud grunt before kicking the door open to the hallway outside of the mess hall.

    “I said to stick together, SJ. You can’t go off on your own without telling us. It’s like you want to get nabbed by pirates…” Caithe says as they come to the doors leading into the mess hall. She reaches out and pulls the handles but the doors don’t budge, seeming to be locked from within. Caithe loudly bangs on the door with her fist as voices and weaponry clamor inside.

    “Sounds like that could be trouble.” Keanu remarks, drawing two elegant silver daggers with twisted designs to inflict agony on her enemies. Jake and Caithe ignite their lightsabers as the doors slowly unlock and push open. The elderly woman from the distress signal gasps in shock as Caithe walks up to the woman. 

    “We didn’t think anyone would come for us… But here you are…” She reaches out, taking Caithe’s hands in her own. The woman slowly leads the group into the cafeteria-style mess hall where six crewmates sit at a far table eating bowls of stew. One of the men drops his spoon when he sees the group of friends enter the mess hall. They all run over to greet the newcomers. 

    “We’re saved…” A young woman with brown hair and green eyes tears up as she hugs Keanu tightly. Keanu looks down at the short woman before placing her hand on the brunette’s forehead and pushing her away. 

    “I don’t do hugs.” Keanu remarks plainly before looking to the others with curiosity. “How long have you been here?” She asks, looking around the room which seems to be halved. The left side looks like an area for sleeping while the right looks like where the survivors eat. 

    “It’s been…” The elderly woman taps her chin and looks over to Keanu. “A year… I think. I’m Captain Margareth Theolia.” She extends her arm out to Caithe. After exchanging a handshake, Caithe follows Margareth through the kitchen towards the stockroom. A man is preparing stew with a pile of meat seasoned in a large metal bowl. 

    “How old was that distress signal you made? I remember you said that you had twenty-three people left. I only counted eight though.” Caithe remarks as they enter the stockroom which is filled with different spices and large barrels of water.

    “Seven… Eight months, I think. We’ve suffered quite a few attacks from pirates over the past few months. We lost a lot of people… Good people.” She sighs, gesturing for Caithe to help her pick up one of the barrels. The chef from the kitchen quietly walks up behind Caithe and whacks her in the head with the blunt end of a cleaver. As her body hits the ground with a thud, Margareth gestures to the freezer. 

    “Put her with the others…” The captain remarks before walking back towards the mess hall. SJ puts a red wire against a blue wire from the panel outside of the cockpit before the doors whirr open. The woman looks around cautiously as the lights in the room are on. After making sure that the room is cleared, the woman rushes over to the dash and places the cube onto the  console.

    “Hey! How did you get in here? You-” A female voice asks, echoing in the cockpit and causing SJ to draw her blaster, looking around for a target. “You’re not one of the crewmates… Who are you?” The voice asks curiously before SJ sees that the voice is coming from a speaker on the dash.

    “I’m here to help the survivors get off of this ship… The better question is… Who are you? And where are you…?” SJ looks around for a source of the voice before the console lights up brightly. 

    “I am Athena. I am the artificial intelligence program that has been charged with protecting the Olympian. I must advise you to vacate this vessel.” The voice says before SJ’s eyes glimmer in amazement. 

    “You’re an AI… I’ve never met one before… It’s a pleasure, Athena. I know that life support is critical but I need to get these people out of here…” SJ explains, holding the cube behind her back.

    “That is incorrect. Life Support is fully viable. I have intentionally removed the oxygen from the other levels of the ship to contain the threat to the mess hall.” Athena remarks before a security footage clip appears on the front window depicting the crew members engaging in cannibalistic activities.

    “The crewmates of The Olympian are suffering from severe cases of insanity. Starvation drove them to commit terrible acts. When they attempted to seize control of the bridge, I was forced to contain them.” Athena reveals before live footage shows Keanu and Jake sitting at a table in the mess hall with the crewmates.

    “They… Oh no…” SJ reaches up to her  helmet and begins speaking over the communication channel. “You need to find Caithe and get out of the mess hall. The crewmates are cannibals…” She remarks, looking up at the footage. Jake and Keanu both draw their weapons and jump onto the table before all hell breaks loose. Margareth and the chef begin firing assault rifle blasters from the kitchen while the six crewmates draw their own blasters, firing at the two. Jake uses the Force to fling the crewmates left and right while Keanu leaps up onto the ceiling, activating her mag boots. 

    “Can you turn the lights off in the mess hall?” SJ asks, looking down at Athena’s voicebox. After a long moment, the lights in the mess hall shut off leaving everyone in the dark. Keanu drops from the ceiling before driving one of her daggers upward into the chef’s abdomen and into his chest before slipping back into the shadows. Jake deactivates his saber to give himself the advantage of stealth. He uses the Force with ease to drop the bodies one by one, twisting them by the neck.

    “I know what you have come here for.” Athena remarks as the live footage plays. “You wish to extract my coding and adapt it to your droid’s own.” She says as SJ slowly stops hiding the cube from the AI. “That was before I knew you were artificial intelligence. Your code would destroy Effie…” SJ sighs as she watches Jake and Keanu share Margareth’s slaying.

    “It is possible. The Olympian is no longer a threat and the crew I was responsible for is gone. I no longer have a purpose. If you extract my code and upload my programming to your ship, I can assist you in rewriting my code to suit the needs of your companion.” Athena says as the two bask in a moment of silence. 

    “SJ, we have Caithe. She’s unconscious but she’ll be okay. We’re heading back down to the ship.” Jake’s voice echoes in SJ’s helmet. A circular port opens on the dash and a cube similar to SJ’s but in the colors of white and blue ascends from the port. 

    “Alright… Let’s just make this quick. How long do I have until the ship powers down?” SJ asks before the dashboard panel begins to dim. 

    “You have approximately three minutes and twenty two seconds.” Athena’s voice echoes weakly as her connection to The Olympian is severed. SJ picks the cube up and begins sprinting down the hall towards her ship.

    “Change of plans, haul it back to the ship. We have three minutes until this place gets real toasty.” SJ remarks over the comms through heavy breaths. When she gets to the airlock, she is relieved to see that the rest of the group has already gotten there. 

    After the cabin depressurizes and  the airlock opens from within, SJ runs up to the cockpit to detach the ship from The Olympian. Jake joins SJ in the cockpit while Keanu sits with Caithe in the cargo bay, the woman laid out on a sleeping bag.

    The ship rocks gently as the shockwave from The Olympian’s explosion passes SJ’s vessel. “Alright… Time to get out of here.” SJ remarks before placing both cubes onto the dashboard. She begins to carefully navigate through the graveyard towards Dathomir.

    “What are those?” Jake asks, looking at the cubes curiously. He reaches out for the gold and green one before SJ swats his hand.

    “Effie’s programming. The blue one is what I just got from The Olympian. It’s a new program called Athena. I’m going to use her base code to rebuild Effie.” SJ says, reaching out to grab the blue cube just as the ship exits the graveyard. The bounty hunter places her hand over a palm scanner before a circular hatch opens up on her dashboard and a small cube is lifted from it. She takes the miniature cube and places it in her jacket pocket before placing Athena’s cube onto the platform, watching as it slowly lowers into the port.

    A moment passes by before the lights in the ship flicker and then shut off. Seconds later, the lights power back on and a blue crown emblem is displayed on the front window of the ship. 

    “Hello. I am Athena.” A female voice echoes throughout the entire ship. “I am an advanced artificial intelligence program and I am here to assist in the traverse of your vessel. If you require any further assistance, please just say Athena.” The voice says before the emblem fades from the front window. Jake looks over at SJ curiously before shifting a concerned glance to the cube port. 

    “You sure that was a good idea? I’ve heard things can get pretty out of hand with artificial intelligences.” Jake sighs, looking over to the bounty hunter with concern written on his forehead.

    “I assure you that I pose no threat. My programming allows me to learn and develop different emotions, goals, and desires, but I am unable to act against the commands of the captain of my vessel. SJ, we are nearing a landing zone upon Dathomir but it appears that the Empire has a cruiser landed in this zone. Would you like me to prepare landing procedures or shall I locate another landing pad?” Athena asks curiously. 

    “Take us down. We have no direct quarrel with the Empire.” SJ remarks, picking up Effie’s cube and bringing it back to the storage compartment in the rear of the cockpit. 

    “Understood. ETA is six minutes and thirty-nine seconds.” Athena confirms before the ship prepares landing procedures on its own. SJ scratches her head curiously as the ship begins to do things on its own.

    “This is pretty convenient. I should have gotten an AI awhile ago.” SJ scoffs as Kira begins to toss and turn one floor below.

*        *        *

    Kira sits on an elegantly crafted stone bench under a wooden gazebo in the center of a garden filled to the brim with red roses covered in sharp thorns. The girl stands up and places her hand on the gazebo’s lattice as she looks up at the sunny sky. A feeling of serenity and calmness washes over Kira as Malevolence walks into the gazebo with a rose in her hand. The woman’s hair is brown and her eyes are bright blue. The corruption of the dark side does not seem to exist in this dream.

    “Darth Malevolence… What are you doing here? Is this… a dream?” Kira asks as she watches the woman carefully. Kira takes a step back as her ankle bangs against the stone bench causing her to sit back down, clenching her ankle in pain. 

    “It is not. Yet it is…” Malevolence answers, holding the rose out to Kira. “It is your dream, but I am here. I have projected my mind into your own so that we could speak. I feel you growing nearer. Why have you come to Dathomir? It is not safe here… Even for you.” She explains, as Kira cautiously takes the rose from her, pricking her finger on one of the thorns. Kira places the flower onto the bench and places her bleeding finger against her shirt. 

    “I think I’ve been asleep for awhile. I’ve been dreaming a lot…  I’m not sure why I am where I am. The last thing I remember was…” Kira looks over to the woman before her serenity is replaced with anger. She goes to grab her lightsaber before she is reminded that this is only a dream. “You killed my friends… You killed everyone…” Kira remarks angrily as she rises from the bench. 

    “And you brought them back… I knew that you were powerful, Kira… But you are so much more than I ever could have imagined. I did what I had to do to unlock this power within you. You are so much stronger than you know…” Malevolence attempts to take Kira’s hand before the girl raises her hand, pushing Malevolence through the wooden lattice and through the rosebushes to the opposite end of the gardens. Kira snarls like a wild animal as she leaps over the bushes in search of the woman. When she finally finds Malevolence, the woman is bleeding on the ground, covered in a thousand cuts from the thorns. 

    “That’s right… Use your anger… Your emotions will make you stronger, Kira.” Malevolence reaches out to take Kira’s hand once more before Kira uses the Force to lift Malevolence from the ground by her neck. 

    “Stop… Manipulating me! Everyone is trying to control me…” Kira cries out, as Malevolence begins to cackle madly. The woman looks down at Kira through raspy breaths.

    “I am not capable of controlling you. You know not the power you possess… But you will. Everything that the Jedi Order taught you was a lie, Kira. It was all to deceive you. To have you do their bidding. They lied to you over and over… Not once have I lied to you nor will I ever. You are my daughter, Kira. I love you.” Malevolence reaches out as Kira slowly lets the woman go. After inhaling deeply to catch her breath, Malevolence takes Kira’s hand in her own and pushes the hair out of her eyes. 

    “I don’t know what to do…” Kira whispers as she is pulled into a hug by Malevolence. Unknowingly, Kira heals her mother’s wounds as they are embraced. 

    “Stop pushing your emotions out. You’re only holding yourself back, my sweet girl… Set yourself free.” Malevolence whispers before pulling away from Kira. “And stay safe… I will see you soon, daughter.” The woman smiles as she fades from the dream. Kira walks back to the gazebo and sits down, pushing her hair back. “My emotions…” She whispers as the dream begins to fade from reality.

*        *        *

    “Her name is Rethalia. I spoke to her last week and I know she was headed here for a rescue mission. I was nervous when I hadn’t heard from her but then…” Caithe’s voice trails off as she looks between Jake, Keanu, and SJ. “Reth was one of my closest friends… Someone murdered her… I felt it… Her pain… We need to find whoever did this and get the rest of the survivors out of here.” Caithe remarks as she taps buttons on a datapad.

    “It’s not a far trip, but the Imperials could be a problem if we run into them. Jake and I can both sense Malevolence’s presence nearby. She’s the last person we need to run into while Kira is this vulnerable. Keanu, would you mind staying behind while we scout? I would feel better if someone is here with her while we’re gone.” Caithe gestures to Kira.

    “Of course.” Keanu smirks at Kira before taking a seat across from the med bay cot. 

“Alright, then you two come with me. Tiakia might have pulled a quick one on us, but it wasn’t completely fruitless.” SJ says with a chuckle as the three walk into the cargo bay to the three large black crates provided by Tiakia.

After the three change into their new gear, they descend from the ship one by one. SJ flaunts her new pastel pink and black-accented jumpsuit and utility belt with plenty of fun gadgets dangling from it. All of her old weaponry seems to have received significant upgrades and a matching color scheme to her outfit.

Jake smirks as his new purple and green outfit drapes around his metal chestplate. Lavender accents decorate his attire as the man gives the outfit a small twirl, the cloak flowing outward. His new lightsaber has a clear kyber crystal storage unit displaying his purple gem.

Caithe’s metallic golden outfit shimmers in the red sun of Dathomir. The attire reveals her abdomen, arms, and neck while the chestplate and metallic leggings are a scaled design that shifts with her own movement. Caithe now has one lightsaber on each hip, both containing a golden kyber crystal.

“I’m almost okay with her having murdered me back there. She has exquisite taste.” Jake remarks, looking between the three. SJ scoffs happily as the group descends the ship’s ramp. They trek to the top of the closest hill and Caithe pulls out binoculars to get a closer look at the imperial cruiser. 

“I don’t see her down there… But I do feel her presence. We should make sure that she’s not aware of our presence before we move out into the wastes.” Caithe suggests before a pebble collides against SJ’s boot. The three turn around to see Malevolence happily leaning against a large red pillar of stone. 

“A bit late for that…” Malevolence remarks as she offers a nonchalant wave to the three accompanied by a genuine chuckle. The three draw their weapons before Malevolence clicks her tongue and wags her finger. The Sith woman gestures to SJ’s chest. The bounty hunter looks down and then looks over to Caithe and Jake noticing red laser sights set on them. Jake slowly puts his lightsaber back as the others do the same. 

“Just a precautionary measure, I assure you. Fortunately, I’m not here to kill you this time.” Malevolence gestures for them to follow her as she leads the cautious three back to an imperial shuttle. “I can only assume that you’re here because you felt the disturbance in the Force.” Malevolence stops in her tracks and looks back to Caithe curiously. “Rethalia.” The woman says in an almost remorseful tone. 

“Hey!” Caithe charges up to Malevolence and suckerpunches her in the face using the Force to send the woman flying back against the shuttle. Caithe draws and activates her dual lightsabers, flourishing them as the three snipers begin firing at her. The blaster lasers are deflected into the nearby rocks as SJ walks over to Malevolence as the Sith slowly gets to her feet. The bounty hunter places her hands on the Sith’s shoulders and slams her knee up into Malevolence’s abdomen. Jake lifts his arm up and a small screen flips up from his wrist with a red reticle in the center, focused on a sniper's nest built in the mountains. Flicking his wrist downward after the reticle begins to flash causes three small missiles to fly from his wrist attachment guided towards the nest. When the missiles collide with the rock that the nest hangs from, three large green clouds of smoke cause the Imperial snipers to fall unconscious. 

SJ pushes Malevolence away from the shuttle and into the dirt between herself, Caithe, and Jake. The Sith woman wipes the blood from her broken nose as she looks over to Caithe. “I suppose I deserved that…” The woman remarks as she slowly stands up. 

“You deserve far worse.” Caithe lifts one of her sabers up to the woman’s chin while deactivating the other. “You killed my friends and I. I never thought that you could fall so far, Malevolence.” Caithe remarks with clear disgust in her voice. 

“I did what I had to for my daughter. Kira’s power has only begun to awaken. Now more than ever, she needs to be at her full strength. There is something on this planet that wants to kill her. It’s taken more than half of my men already and I suspect that it’s exactly what killed Rethalia and the other nine Jedi she was with.” Malevolence remarks before lifting up a holographic communicator. She tosses it to Caithe who catches it and activates the device. A hologram depicting Rethalia’s head appears in distress. 

“If you find this message, you need to leave Dathomir. There is an evil force at work here and I have a terrible feeling that we won’t be leaving. With every day that passes I feel like I’m losing more sanity. All of the distress calls that we’ve discovered were fraud. Nobody is here… We’re in search of a village that requested aid but something tells me that we aren’t going to find it. If you find a distress signal from Dathomir, please ignore it. Only death awaits you in this forsaken wasteland.” Rethalia finishes before the device powers off and Caithe tosses it back to Malevolence. 

“You think she was right?” Caithe arches a brow as Malevolence shifts uncomfortably as she cradles the device seemingly getting comfort from the shred of presence that Rethalia left behind. 

“She was rarely wrong. I think that whatever Reth was worried about killed her and the other Jedi. I think it’ll come for us next.” Malevolence admits before SJ takes a step forward, skeptical of the situation. 

“What could possibly kill ten Jedi? Killing just one is incredibly difficult… But ten?” SJ tilts her head as she looks from Malevolence over to her friends. 

“Witches…” Caithe grits her teeth as she spins on her heels. She walks to the cliffside and looks down at the wasteland valley below. “Can you get us into the canyon?” Caithe looks back to Malevolence. The Sith woman seems almost caught off guard by the question but nods at Caithe. 

“I can do you one better. I know where the witches are hiding out. I’ll go with you and we can finish this together,” Malevolence offers. Jake and SJ share an uncomfortable glance as Caithe cautiously nods and trots over to the shuttle. 

“After we get rid of the witches, you’re going to leave us alone, Malevolence. I don’t want you coming after Kira anymore. You’re far too dangerous to be around.” Caithe remarks as she climbs into the shuttle followed by the others. 

“That is my daughter, Caithe… She was already taken from me once. I won’t let you take her away again. I wish to speak with her when she wakes. The least you could do is let her decide who she wants to be with.” Malevolence slams the door to the shuttle shut as the ship lifts off the ground and flies down into the canyon. 

“She doesn’t belong to either one of you. She doesn’t have to choose. Stop treating her like property and she might actually begin to trust you both.” Jake sighs as he leans back into his seat. As the ship lands on the sandy red ground, the group walks out of the ship followed by Tiakia who emerges from the cockpit. 

SJ looks back and immediately tackles the woman pulling a blaster up to her chin in the blink of an eye. “How could you, Tiakia?!” SJ shouts as she pushes the blaster against the woman’s neck. “I thought we were friends… Tell me that your brother didn’t know about this…” SJ says with fury burning in her eyes. 

“He didn’t know, SJ!” Tiakia genuinely looks fearful as SJ pushes the weapon against her. “I promise you that he didn’t know… I’m sorry. Malevolence told us that you would all be okay… I had to trust her.” Tiakia explains as SJ contemplates shooting the woman in the head. 

“You knew Kira would save us…” SJ turns her head to Malevolence and rises to her feet. “How did you know she would do that?” SJ questions the woman with a certain harshness in her tone. 

“Kira wasn’t brought into this galaxy like most others. She was created and her connection to the Force was… enhanced.” Malevolence explains as she leads the group into a large cave. With lightsabers lit, visibility in the cave is fair. SJ watches Malevolence closely as they carefully step over the wet stone floor of the cave. 

“Once we get out of here, I have some more questions…” Jake remarks before flourishing his saber when he hears rustling to his left. 

“You okay?” Caithe tilts her head while looking back at the man with concern. She looks past him in search of any immediate danger. 

“Yeah… Just thought I heard something move.” He remarks before turning to follow the group. The five come to a large metal door with two statues of men in plate armor standing to either side. 

“Strange… Do you guys feel that?” Caithe asks as she takes a few cautious steps forward, placing her hand upon the door. Everyone but SJ seems morbidly uncomfortable with the darkening presence of the Force. 

“What… is that?” Jake asks, dropping to his knees as he holds his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the pain. 

“We need to go… Whatever is here is… It feels like the Force is being tortured… Bent at someone’s will. I can feel it’s pain… So much pain…” Tiakia whispers as the two statues begin to shift. The stone falls from their armor as the two large men lift their hands, pushing the group back with great force. 

SJ activates her jetpack before slamming against the ground. The bounty hunter begins rapidly firing her blasters at the goliath approaching Caithe. The creature lifts it’s sword up and slams it down towards Caithe’s abdomen. Just before the weapon touches her bare skin, the golden scales of her armor crawl down to her abdomen and completely protects her from the attack, shattering the stone sword into a pile of rubble. “Well that’s a neat trick…” Caithe slowly gets to her feet as the scales return to their proper place. Tiakia leaps onto the shoulders of the unarmed goliath and drives her lightsaber down into its skull. 

“Advanced nanotechnology. It’s smarter than most people are.” Tiakia remarks as the goliath falls to the ground. Jake flourishes his purple lightsaber and throws it forward into the second goliath’s abdomen. The creature sprints towards Jake before Malevolence uses the Force to lift his lightsaber upward slicing the goliath vertically. 

“They were force-sensitive…” Malevolence sighs nervously before tossing Jake’s saber back to him. Malevolence presses a button on her forearm attachment before the metal double doors begin to creak open. The haunting shriek of the passage opening is soon replaced with the screeches of the dead. A Jedi with a sword through his chest leaps out of the room drenched in dried blood. He uses the Force to throw Tiakia against a wall before more of the undead begin pouring through the doors. 

“Fire! Fire the weapon!” Malevolence shouts into her wrist attachment before using the Force to fling the dead Jedi into the opposite direction of Tiakia. “Go! Get out of here! I’ll hold them back!” Malevolence shouts before slamming her foot into the ground which sends a shock wave of Force forward knocking both of the doors off of their hinges and throwing the undead back like ragdolls. Hundreds of the dead begin pouring from the room whether leaping, running, or crawling on the roof of the cavern.

“I’m not leaving without you.” Caithe runs to Malevolence’s side as the rest of the group sprints out of the cave. Malevolence reaches over, placing her finger onto Caithe’s temple giving her a false perception of Malevolence running out of the cave. Caithe follows after the illusion of Mal as the Sith woman ignites the cave with a wall of fire. 

Malevolence turns on her heels and sprints towards the exit of the cave with the dead on her tail. The shuttle is lifting into the air when she steps foot outside of the cavern. The Sith woman leaps up into the shuttle with the help of the Force before a large blue orb is launched at Dathomir’s surface. When the orb collides with the planet, it explodes into a wave of vibrant blue energy that covers every inch of the world. As the wave passes over, the dead seem to fall like dominos below. 

“This Drought really doesn’t get better, does it?” Caithe asks as she clenches her ribs, clearly exhausted from the Drought’s presence. 

“It does not.” Malevolence peeks her head out of the ship’s doors to see massive red bone-like vines wrapped around the imperial cruiser. The faint shape of a person stands at the foot of the ship. “What in the world…” Malevolence whispers before the figure on the ground faces the shuttle flying overhead. She lifts her arm with her bone spear in hand. With a mighty throw, the Witch launches her crude weapon upward watching as it impales the engine of the ship. 

“Everybody hold onto something!” Tiakia shouts as the shuttle makes a quick descent towards the ground. Using emergency landing procedures, the shuttle violently slides across the red dirt across from SJ’s ship. As SJ climbs out of the wreckage, she plops herself down into the dirt followed by the rest of the uninjured crew. Tiakia walks around to the engine of the ship and stares at the gaping hole in the vessel. “Whatever that was went clean through…” Tiakia looks back as the others begin walking to SJ’s ship. 

As they begin walking up the ramp, a harrowing presence emerges from behind. Caithe looks back to see the Witch standing in the dirt as the harsh winds of Dathomir flow around her. The tribal woman’s spear digs into the ground as her stare burns upon the group. 

“Who are you? What do you want?” Malevolence asks loudly as SJ slips into the ship and runs up to the cockpit. As the ship hums to life, the ramp begins to close. The Witch takes a step forward with her arm outstretched towards the vessel. She begins to chant quietly before her eyes gloss over with a cloudy texture much like the dead. After she finishes chanting, the ship ascends towards the sky. 

After the ship leaves the atmosphere, the Witch taps her spear against the dirt and explodes into a cloud of red dust, reappearing in the same manner in the caverns of the dead. The Witch begins incanting loudly and the dead rise once more, retreating back into the tomb. The tribal woman lifts her hand up causing the two metal doors to fly back into place. 

*

Kira sits on a staircase outside of the Kerrington Penthouse in this vivid dream. Coruscant’s four moons shine brightly down onto the elegant home. Kira is sitting in a long red dress with lovely golden clasps and a matching gold chain cinching her waist. She looks back as Keanu slowly descends the steps in a flowing white dress with similar golden fixtures. The 8’6 woman slides down to sit beside Kira with two glasses of wine in her hands. She holds one out to Kira accompanied by a darling smile. 

“Well I usually don’t drink but since this is just another dream…” Kira chuckles and takes the drink from Keanu, taking a long sip. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to come back.” Kira bites her lower lip as she looks up at the woman. 

“Told you that I’d be back. Starting to miss me, were you?” The woman winks at Kira before leaning back against the steps. Keanu looks around curiously and then glances to Kira with a frown. “Something bothering you, pumpkin? This place feels a little darker than I remember it.” Keanu asks before placing her hand over Kira’s knee in a comforting manner. 

“Maybe I was starting to miss you. You’re my favorite person to dream about.” Kira chuckles nervously as her cheeks redden. The young woman looks over to the Echani and shrugs. “My mom, I guess. She’s terrible, I know. But I spoke to her in one of my dreams. She was telling me to trust my emotions and embrace what I feel. I just don’t know if I can trust her… But as bad as she is… Malevolence has never lied to me. And just about everyone else in my life has. I just feel confused. Torn between two versions of myself. One that wants to be happy and one that knows sacrificing some of that happiness is going to save more lives. I feel… broken.” Kira sighs as she places her wine glass on the ground. 

“People suck, Kira. They lie and kill and steal. But there is beauty in that fault. It takes awhile to understand it but I promise you that it’s there. People aren’t inherently bad. Can I show you something?” Keanu asks, picking up both wine glasses and pouring the contents into the planters beside the stairs. She gets up and offers a hand to help Kira up. 

“Sure, it couldn’t hurt.” Kira smiles as she gets up to her feet and follows Keanu downstairs. When they reach the platform at the base of the stairs, Keanu throws the glasses onto the floor shattering them into hundreds of little pieces. After a moment, the glass shards float upward and hover in the moonlight reflecting the lunar rays into a stunning symphony of white glimmering and quietly tinkling lights. “It’s beautiful…” Kira looks up at Keanu admiringly. The tall Echani looks down at Kira smirking gladly at her. 

“Broken things are often the most beautiful things to look at.” Keanu leans down and as their lips meet, the dream fades into darkness. 

*

Caithe slaps a pair of Force-nullifying cuffs onto Malevolence and Tiakia before SJ takes them to the lower level of the ship, locking them into a large cell that would ordinarily be used to transport animals. 

“This is hardly necessary…” Malevolence grunts as she sits down on the cold cell floor. SJ does a double take to see if the woman is truly serious. 

“You realize that you just murdered us a week ago, right? Put a sock in it, lady.” SJ rolls her eyes as she walks back up to the cargo bay where Caithe and Jake are whispering indistinctly. 

“Captain, where would you like our course charted?” Athena’s voice echoes through the ship. 

“Captain, huh? I could get used to that…” SJ chuckles as she looks up towards the intercom. “Chart a course to Coruscant.” The apparent captain says before striding up to Jake and Caithe. “What are we whispering about?” SJ asks curiously. Caithe gestures to Keanu who is holding Kira’s hands in her own while seemingly meditating beside her. “Hey, I’m not a doctor but you-“ SJ begins to say before Kira inhales deeply, the two women both sitting up in a sweat. Kira looks around and tears begin to stream down her cheeks. 

“I’m finally… awake.” Kira wipes the tears from her eyes and looks to Keanu who her fingers are still interlocked with. “Thank you…” Kira says giving the Echani’s hand a squeeze. The ship whirrs loudly before jumping into the great dark beyond.