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Chapter Text

On the Mantis, Cal sat on his cot as he watched over Jayna as she slept. After the Shyyyo Bird had dropped them off as close to the refinery as she could manage, Cal had called Cere and Greez to apprise them of the situation. Cere had put in a call to the guerrillas nearby who had turned up to help Cal bring Jayna safely back to the ship from there.

Once onboard, Cere had diagnosed a minor contusion of the skull and a mild concussion before smothering the wound with salve and leaving it to do its work while Jayna fell into a natural sleep. It had been twenty-four hours since then, but Cere had assured him the salve would keep her asleep while her body healed, and nothing more sinister. She would wake up soon enough.

Once she did, they would need to have a difficult conversation, Cal knew.

Sitting by her bedside, watching her rest, Cal had come to the conclusion that they should not, could not continue what they’d started on Kashyyyk. Doing so, allowing their… attachment to grow unchecked would only hamper them in the long run, and make them vulnerable to the Dark Side. And that, they couldn’t afford.

No, it would be best for both of them if he retreated… emotionally at least. By the tenets of the Order he had vowed to uphold, and Jayna by extension when she announced her intention to fight by his side as a Jedi, they had to practice what they preached. They had allowed themselves to grow too comfortable and get carried away by what was probably no more than an unfortunate side effect of the Force bond.

Or so Cal told himself, as the hours ticked by and Jayna remained asleep. He tried to meditate, but his mind refused to calm, either endlessly replaying the moment he had watched Jayna fly across the clearing at the Ninth Sister’s hand, or reliving the feel of her lips against his even as he tried to purge it from his mind.

After informing Greez and Cere of their discovery, the Latero had plotted a course to the Outer Rim. Dathomir was on the outermost edge of the known galaxy, so it would take them at least three days to reach it from the Mytaranor Sector.

Cal hadn’t said much else after his brief report, just retreated to the aft compartment to watch over Jayna. Other than Cere coming in to tend to Jayna, they had let them be until now, as Cal looked up from his futile attempts to meditate at the sound of cutlery jangling against a tray as Cere came in, balancing one across her forearms.

On the tray was a less than appetizing mulch of pulses beside a chunk of veg-meat, and a canteen of water as Cere proffered it. “It’s been some time… I thought you might be hungry,” she explained, before placing the tray down beside Cal on his cot.

“Thanks, but… I’m not hungry,” Cal replied curtly, looking away from the former Jedi as he stared at a fleck of dirt on Jayna’s forehead.

“Cal…,” Cere sighed, heavy-heartedly. “You need to eat, to keep your strength up. Jayna is safe and recovering, and she’ll give you hell if she wakes up to find you hovering over her.”

“You’re probably right,” Cal huffed, but he made no move to take the plate of food.

Cere sighed again, her hands fluttering awkwardly like she wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Finally, she folded her arms as she hesitantly, uncomfortably began to speak. “Cal… when I was captured by the Empire, I resisted. I swore to myself that I would die before I would talk,” she affirmed, before a note of self-loathing and remembered terror tinged her voice. “but then this… dark shadow came… and he was worse than any nightmare I could have imagined. And I still fought!”

In silence, Cal listened, his eyes still riveted on Jayna. Taking his silence as encouragement, Cere’s voice strengthened as her eyes gazed unseeingly at the cold metal of the bulkhead.

“But in the end, I came apart,” she admitted. “And I gave them Trilla. And I know there’s nothing I can do to make that right… but Cal, there’s still a chance we can save the others on the holocron!”

Unable to bear the self-loathing and revulsion and desperate, desperate hope in Cere’s voice any longer, Cal held up a silencing hand. “Okay, look… the Ninth Sister said something about becoming an Inquisitor like… like it’s inevitable. But you went through the same thing she did, and you didn’t join them.”

“Cal…,” Cere tried to speak again, but he cut across her firmly.

“It’s okay, Cere,” he told her tersely. “We’ll find Cordova’s holocron.”

From the galley, they could hear as Greez yelled in indignation. “HEY! Get your lasers off my lunch!” he bellowed, as Cere sighed resignedly.

“You’d better go and make sure Greez isn’t trying to boil BD in one of his pots,” Cal finished, turning back to Jayna. Feeling her stand and silently leave the room, he closed his eyes as he leaned his forehead on his fingertips as he took a steadying breath.

BD scurried into the room, booping irately as Cal opened his eyes. “You know he hates you scanning his food, BD,” he told the droid pointedly. Ever since they’d returned to the Mantis, BD and Greez had been irritating each other more than usual. He wondered if it was their way of showing their concern for the girl lying on the cot in front of him.

And if he but knew it, for himself as well. Greez and Cere watched Cal with worried eyes while BD-1 simply knew that not all was well with its master and mistress, as it designated Cal and Jayna in its private logs.

Another thirty-eight hours later, Cal felt it as the bond burst back into flame, simmering like a newly lit ember beneath his skin as Jayna stirred, groaning on the bed.

“Ow,” she grumbled, opening her eyes gingerly as Cal’s head shot up and he shifted round from where he’d been sitting cross-legged on his cot, cleaning their sabers for want of something to do. Since he couldn’t focus enough to meditate, or relax enough to sleep, it kept his hands busy while his mind raced.

But now she was awake.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a rancor,” she groaned, sitting up as Cal fetched a canteen of water for her.

“Not far from it,” he heard himself say, jokingly. “Finally, the unstoppable force meets the immovable object.”

Jayna groaned at the joke. “That was in poor taste,” she demurred, sitting up and taking the canteen from him. Recalling his resolution to keep his distance, Cal jerked back from the feel of her fingers against his, prompting a frown as she took a drink. “What’s the matter?” she asked, the colour returning to her face as her features grew angrier. “Cal, what…?”

He could sense her trying to learn more from the bond, as he clamped down on it firmly, shutting it off at his end even as she gasped and he winced, the action paining them both. But it was for the best.

Standing up, he moved away as she tried to reach out. “I think, in light of what happened on Kashyyyk, we need to remember we are Jedi,” he began, as coldly as he could manage as he sensed her rising incredulity and anger. “You said it yourself that it was a distraction we can’t afford on this journey.”

“Yes, I did,” Jayna admitted, her voice growing as cold as his. “But that was before. Somehow, I’m guessing this is about more than just ‘distraction’. We’ve been managing pretty well so far.”

“What happened on Kashyyyk was a mistake I made in the heat of the moment,” Cal replied, turning his back on her as indifferently as he could manage. “It won’t happen again. We should move on from it, as quickly as possible.”

“And I say this is bantha shit!” Jayna snarled angrily. “You’re allowing the precepts of ghosts to dictate your future as if you owe anything to them.”

“I owe it to their memory, as do you, Jayna,” Cal replied icily. “I will not be my father, and you should strive not to emulate your mother.”

He felt it as the comment hit home, the sting of rejection and the hurt of the implied insult almost too much to bear. He hated himself in that moment, but he forced it aside. He had to do this.

“And have you considered that the reason they’re nothing more than a memory is precisely because of that?” she retorted, her voice turning as frigid and unyielding as stone. “But fine, whatever. I can take no for an answer. I’m not about to force myself on anyone,” she declared proudly, her chin tilted at a haughty angle as Cal turned to face her.

“Good, that’s settled then,” he said, as casually as if they’d just been debating their next move. “We arrive on Dathomir in ten hours. If you’re feeling up to it, I suggest you prepare yourself.”

“I promised I’d help, didn’t I?” Jayna demanded, curtly. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

The look she speared him with burned him, making his hands twitch as he teetered on the precipice of yet another reckless decision, before he mastered himself and walked away, leaving her staring after him, angry tears held back with ruthless determination.

Ten hours later, Jayna stared at herself in the ‘fresher mirror, critically examining the newly healed wound on her temple as she prodded it gingerly. Wincing, she stopped as she sighed.

It would be tender for a couple of days, but she would be alright. Emotionally, was another matter.

Inwardly, freely now Cal had seemingly shut the bond against her, she berated herself for allowing her heart to rule her head. She’d been speaking the truth when she said it was a bad idea to follow through on their mutual attraction, and now Cal was proving her right. Despite how close they’d become; he would never be able to move past his Jedi dogma. She was asking for more heartbreak if she persisted.

‘If only he could see what a load of dogmatic, repressive, narrow-minded Hutt slime it all is!’ she thought to herself. ‘Maybe if the Jedi cared a bit more about what was actually going on in the galaxy, instead of their precious code and politics, then the Emperor wouldn’t have got rid of them so easily.’

Tearing her eyes away from her tired, worn reflection, Jayna splashed her face with water before resolutely facing her mirror image once more. ‘Enough!’ she told herself. ‘I’m no glutton for punishment. If Cal wants a purely professional relationship, then that’s what I’ll give him. If he can just shut off his emotions… he’s about to meet the master.’

At her core, she was a survivalist. She’d been forcing her emotions aside for years in her fight to survive. Her newly discovered morality aside, she wouldn’t let one iota of feeling show more than necessary.

She hadn’t seen Cal since their little… discussion. She’d caught glimpses of him, sat up front in the cockpit as she had grabbed food from the galley, enduring Cere and Greez’s concerned questions about her wellbeing, but that was all. He was avoiding her, and she had no desire to see him right now.

Once she’d showered, feeling more human, she’d walked out to find BD waiting on her cot beside her empty plate. The little droid had kept her friendly, if silently, company until she had succumbed to the urge for more sleep, making sure her body was fully rested and recovered from the beating it took on Kashyyyk.

Now, it waited outside as she dressed herself for the coming expedition, girding herself for knew how many long hours spent in Cal’s company once more. Rather than bother with a braid, she tied her hair back in a tight ponytail, leaving the fading, ombre waves of hair to tumble over her shoulder. With a firm nod for her reflection, she turned and left the ‘fresher.

BD followed behind her as she strode for the cockpit, the small compartment lit by the silvery luminescence of hyperspace. Jayna sat in her chair, listening absentmindedly to Cere and Greez’s banter as the Latero complained about their destination.

“Why oh why did it have to be Dathomir?” the Latero pilot bemoaned.

“I’m surprised Cordova went there. He must have had good reason,” Cere admitted, staring down at her instruments as she made a few adjustments.

“I’m staying put on the Mantis once we arrive. Red sunlight cannot be good for your skin!” Greez announced, as Jayna rolled her eyes. Instinctively, she went to share her amusement with Greez’s antics with Cal, but he was resolutely ignoring her as BD hopped up on the station beside him. Her heart aching but stubbornly refusing to show it, Jayna looked away.

“What’s so bad about the place?” she asked, desperate for distraction. She only hoped it wasn’t Cal who would answer. Thankfully, Cere came to the unwitting rescue.

“Dathomir used to be home to a powerful cabal of Force wielders known as the Nightsisters,” she explained, lightly.

“They used the Force?” Greez asked, incredulously as Jayna raised a brow. “What, like Jedi?”

“No. These witches served only themselves,” Cere baulked, shaking her head as her voice turned oddly bleak. “Their powers focussed on deception, illusion, manipulation…”

Greez chuckled gruffly. “Sounds like someone I used to know,” he joked.

“During the Clone Wars, the Nightsisters made a deal with a Sith Lord who betrayed their trust,” Cere continued to explain, meeting Jayna’s curious gaze with a grim smile. “In the end, they were nearly wiped out in a massacre… Dathomir is a deadly place. We must be careful.”

“Tough break,” Jayna breathed, unable to help glancing at Cal as he turned round to ask Cere something. Their eyes met, and her heart stuttered then raced treacherously as Cal gazed at her. Pointedly, she looked away as Greez went to announce their arrival.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” the Latero joked weakly, before gesturing to the two young Jedi in the cockpit. “These two could use it tattooed on their foreheads, ha!”

When the joke elicited no reply, or laughter, just stony, uncomfortable silence, Greez muttered to himself. “Tough crowd,” he grumbled. “Coming up on our creepy destination. Grab some seat if you don’t already have it!”

Jayna rolled her eyes as she buckled herself in, ignoring the weight of Cal’s gaze as he glanced over his shoulder at her, almost as if he couldn’t help himself. But after their bruising discussion, she wouldn’t let herself care.

The ship reverted to realspace near a planet drenched in the red light of its distant star. Everything about it seemed to be tinged red, even the clouds as Greez piloted the Mantis into the atmosphere.

As they descended, a barren, bleak landscape revealed itself, consisting of tumbled, broken mountain ranges, shadowy swamps, and the ruinous remnants of settlements. Looking down at the land as they sped towards a large, flattened outcropping, Jayna couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in her heart as the Force seemed to whisper a warning in her head.

She had a very bad feeling about this.

As the Mantis landed with a jolt, Jayna was the first up and out of her seat. Since they really had no idea of what they might face or how long it would take to locate the Tomb, and with no backup this far out from any trade routes or inhabited systems, Cere had packed them both some basic survival supplies in their satchels.

Jayna hefted hers onto her back, securing the straps before she checked her saber was fitted to her belt. Behind her, she could hear Greez muttering nervously to himself as he unlocked the landing ramp door seals.

“On the ship… indoors… I got walls, I got Jedi… I’m fine. Yeah,” he sighed, as Jayna turned to face him.

“You okay there, Greez?” she asked, with a quirk of her lips.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” the Latero shrugged casually, but his façade wasn’t convincing. Jayna could sense his discomfort and fear like a noxious perfume.

“So, looks like Sorc Tormo really wants a piece of you,” she continued, conversationally to take the Latero’s mind off their location.

It worked as he smirked and chuckled gruffly. “Huh… you don’t know the half of it, kid,” he replied.

“How’d you get mixed up with him?” she asked, curiously as she bent over to tighten her bootlaces.

“Look, I didn’t grow up with much. I mean, I had my great-grandmother to lean on but… that’s it,” Greez explained, uncomfortably as he scratched his chin.

“Come on, Greez. Nothing ever ends well with gangsters like the Brood,” Jayna scoffed, as she straightened. “You had to know that.”

“Jay, we ain’t all Jedi. Most of us gotta scrape by and occasionally, make some bets we wish we hadn’t. Would’ve thought you’d appreciate that more, considerin’ everything,” the Latero retorted, irritably.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she conceded quietly. “I do understand, more than you know. I think it’s easy to let all this Jedi stuff go to your head and forget what it’s like for everyone else. You know you can count on me if the Brood comes after you again.”

“Yeah? Thanks, Jay,” Greez said, smiling a little as his frown eased. “Oh, hey Cal!”

Just then, Jayna felt Cal brush against her as he reached for his bag and stiffened, despite herself. Without another word, she turned away and left the ship, feeling Cal’s eyes on her back. She wondered if he’d overhead what she’d said to Greez, then decided she didn’t care.

Once out on the ramp, she stopped and took a deep breath, trying to centre herself as she closed her eyes and reached out to the Force. Immediately she was swamped by feelings of darkness, oppression and dread as her awareness flared and then ebbed, as she instinctively recoiled from the darkness as her eyes snapped open.

The view wasn’t much better. She looked out on a nightmarish landscape, of red-hued rocks and bloody skies, a broken, desolate vista stretching out before them. In the far distance, she could see two towering structures that reminded her of the Vault on Bogano, as she zipped her jacket up against the cold.

Despite the aridness of the surrounding landscape, it was chilly as an icy wind blew from the east, carrying with it a rancid smell that reminded Jayna of rotting flesh. Behind her, she could hear Cal and Greez talking as she found herself listening in.

“Hey, Cal!” the Latero called. “You and her… is everything alright?”

Jayna stiffened as she wondered if the Latero was about to ask Cal about their relationship, or lack thereof in the past few days. “It’s… better,” Cal admitted. “Speaking of which, have you seen Cere?”

Relaxing as she realised Greez wasn’t asking about her, she only smiled and shook her head fondly as Greez replied sarcastically. “What? Is this a trick question? You want me to go outside and find her for you?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll find her,” Cal assured him, as she heard footsteps coming towards the landing ramp. Moving away, she just heard Greez’s final parting shot.

“You gotta quite messin’ with me, Cal. I’m tough but fragile!”

She snorted to herself as she stepped off the ramp, cognisant of the fact that only days ago, she’d have made some witty quip and shared her amusement over Greez’s oxymoronic self-assessment with Cal. For a moment, sadness flared as she looked out again on Dathomir’s bleak landscape, hearing Cal’s footsteps behind her. For the first time since Bracca, she felt truly alone.

“Jayna, Cal! Do you have a moment?” Cere called over, as Jayna glanced up to see the older woman stood at the other end of the ship, gazing out over the cliffs nearby. Jayna heard Cal’s footsteps behind her as she strode over to Cere, stopping and waiting curiously for whatever she had to say. The former Jedi smiled warmly, if a little hesitantly, as she told them, “You’ve both come a long way since Bracca. But the path is far from over. I want you to know the difficult challenges ahead…”

“We can handle it,” Cal said firmly.

“I know what you can do, I’m not denying that,” Cere sighed, shaking her head.

“And I know what has to be done,” Cal replied sternly. “I’ve… we’ve done it before.”

Jayna felt Cal’s sideways glance at her, but she refused to acknowledge it as she nodded to Cere. “We’ll get the job done,” she added coolly, before turning to walk away. Behind her, Cere wasn’t ready to stop talking.

“Cal, even the strongest of Jedi…” Cere trailed off, painedly.

“I’m not Trilla, I’ll be fine,” Cal rebutted firmly, as he moved past her.

“I know you’re not, I didn’t say that,” Cere interjected tersely as Jayna paused, waiting for Cal at the start of a rocky path that led towards the cliffs. Watching the pair, she took a deep breath as the wind seemed to howl around them.

“I’m not asking you to say anything. It’s okay, Cere, really…” he trailed off awkwardly, before glancing in Jayna’s direction. Determinedly, she looked away, turning her back but she could still hear every word as Cere continued.

“Just… be safe, Cal. Both of you,” she breathed, as Jayna heard Cal’s footsteps as he joined her at the top of the path.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, as she glanced at him shortly before stepping out.

“We have a job to do, don’t we? Let’s go,” she muttered, striding ahead as she felt Cal sigh before he followed in her wake.

As they carefully made their way down the rocky path from their landing pad, Jayna felt the darkness of Dathomir sink its claws into her, not helping her poor mood as she walked along beside Cal. By unspoken consensus, they made their way up the cliffs and onto the plateau beyond.

More cliffs leapt up from this foundation, and to Jayna’s surprise, some were formed into roughly hewn steps and buildings, as they cautiously moved deeper into the ruins, one hand on their sabers at all times.

Everywhere, strange, spiked bulbous plants sprang up, growing wormlike between fissures in the rock. They were as inelegant and ugly as they were resilient, if they flourished in such a dry, arid environment, Jayna reflected as they passed a cluster of them as they steadily climbed upwards and inwards, cutting in deeper into the rocky cliffs and away from the Mantis. All around them, strange, rounded sacks, bound with twine, hung swaying in the wind, and though she didn’t know why, the sight of them made Jayna shiver and recoil.

The wind whistled past them as they climbed, like a funereal dirge but the land was silent. And yet, there was a watchfulness to it, as if the stones themselves watched and waited with bated breath at these interlopers in this midst, as Jayna felt her mood only souring further. She was hyper-aware of every scrape of their boots against rock, the howl of the wind, BD’s antennae whirring, and the forlorn flapping of rotting fabric hanging from long-abandoned doorways as they passed.

“Cere did say that Dathomir was abandoned, right?” she asked quietly, forcing herself to break the frosty silence between her and Cal.

“Yeah. No one lives here after the Nightsister Clans were massacred during the Clone Wars,” Cal replied, frowning slightly as he glanced at her.

“Then why do I get the feeling we’re being watched?” she hissed, as he nodded.

“Keep your guard up,” he told her, as she rolled her eyes derisively.

“You keep your guard up,” she snapped back, quickening her pace until she marched ahead. She felt his long-suffering sigh, but absolutely did not let herself smile a little at causing it.

Suddenly, the smell of woodsmoke wafted towards them as Cal and Jayna glanced at one another. Simultaneously, they reached for their sabers, not activating them but holding ready as they slowly advanced. As they passed a shadowed doorway, they glimpsed the leaping flames of a small fire, neatly arranged in a fire pit.

As they cautiously ducked under the trailing curtain covering the arched door, they glanced around for any sign of life, but the dwelling was seemingly abandoned but for the clear signs of someone having been there earlier. Opposite the fire, from a sheltered nook, it was possible to see the whole clifftops from the overlook, including the small plateau where the Mantis sat.

Jayna paused as Cal knelt, pressing a hand to a small clay pot, sitting next to a pestle and mortar beside the fire pit. He closed his eyes as he reached out with his psychometry. Even as muffled as the bond now was, Jayna could sense the surge of power in Cal, as he winced and shuddered.

“A Nightsister survived a great massacre… she was alone… afraid. Her sisters were gone,” Cal breathed, his voice strained as his eyes snapped open. “You were right. We’re not alone here.”

“Best get a move on then?” Jayna replied curtly, turning on her heel as Cal scrambled up to follow. She knew she wasn’t exactly being particularly helpful right now, but it was the only way she was finding the strength to keep going. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to run back to the Mantis, and it was only getting worse the further they went. For the first time in her life, she was struggling to push aside her emotional turmoil and it was affecting her ability to focus. And she needed all the focus she could get, as the darkness of Dathomir infected her with cold dread in every breath, until every step became an agony of loathing.

Glancing at Cal, she could see no sign he was similarly affected though she guessed he must be, from his psychometry alone if the history of this place was any clue. But he wasn’t showing it, and so Jayna grit her teeth and pressed on, determined not to show any weakness either.

Eventually, they passed through the abandoned village and came to a towering wall of rock as it stretched into the sky. Carved into the rock was a looming archway, joined to the clifftops by a natural arch, as they crossed quickly and ducked inside.

Inside, it was dimly lit, the shadows stretching deeply into every crevice except for the eerie light cast by wrought metal braziers, heaped high with burning wood. Against one wall stood a rectangular pillar, one BD booped excitedly when the droid spotted it, leaping from Cal’s back and scurrying over to it.

In the dimness of the chamber, the pillar just looked as rough-hewn and plain as the dwellings they’d passed on the way in, but BD’s scan revealed a cartouche of square-bordered hieroglyphics as Cal and Jayna crouched down beside the droid.

“Looks like the Zeffo were here,” Cal said, glancing at Jayna.

“Clearly,” Jayna replied wryly as BD booped.

Cal glanced at the braziers as he stood up, glancing around him suspiciously. “Strange,” he commented. “This place seems abandoned but…”

“But most likely not,” Jayna finished, recalling their discovery on the cliffs.

Both stiffened as they sensed the surge in the Force, as a hushed sound as if of a rushing breeze had them turning on their heels, lightsabers ready.

Striding towards them out of a cascade of green flames was a young woman, garbed in blood-red robes and hood as she stared at them with unfriendly eyes. “You trespass, Jedi!” she stated coldly, stepping into the light.

Her skin was unnaturally pale, nearly stark white, traced over by silvery-grey tattoos. An ornate headdress rested against her forehead, under the draped red hood, and her grey lips quirked up into a sneer of contempt and anger.

“You must be a Nightsister,” Cal began, stepping forward with his hands raised in a show of non-aggression. “We’d heard you were all dead.”

“Not all,” the Nightsister remarked contemptuously, making a snapping flick of her right hand as more green flames were conjured behind her. From the flames stepped two rangy, muscled Zabrak half-clad in rough breeches, their bodies covered in tattoos, brandishing wicked looking spiked maces as they stepped forward with bared teeth. “Dathomir is forbidden to you. Leave at once!” she demanded, raising one pale hand to point threateningly at Cal and Jayna.

“Trust me, we’d like to but we can’t,” Jayna said sarcastically, but her mind was racing. In the Force, she could sense the energy of the Dark Side surrounding the Nightsister, but it was different from the energies she’d sensed emanating from the Inquisitors. She could feel her rage and her anguish at the loss of her people, but it didn’t consume her to the point of total abandon as it did Trilla and the Ninth Sister.

“Perhaps we could help each other?” Cal offered, with a repressive glance at Jayna. “You see, we…”

As Cal went to take a step forward, the two Zabrak raised their weapons threateningly. “Easy! We’re not your enemy!” Cal declared.

“Your actions say otherwise,” the Nightsister retorted, green fire sparking in the palms of her hands as she raised them.

“Wait, hold on! I’m not here to…” Cal tried to explain, but the Nightsister made another gesture with her flame-filled hands, as her Zabrak guardians were suddenly consumed by it, the green flame travelling unchecked across their convulsing bodies until it reached their mouths and eyes.

“Vasha!” the Nightsister barked, disappearing in a flare of green fire as the two Zabrak advanced, their eyes glowing that same eerie green, lethal weapons raised high.

Jayna immediately activated her saber, flipping it into guard as she felt Cal do the same beside her. She parried the first hit from the Zabrak closest to her, mildly shocked to realise their weapons were lightsaber-resistant, her arm shaking from the strength of the blow. Centring herself, she let the Force flow through her as she spun on her heels and slashed the Zabrak across his midsection, felling him as he collapsed with a pained grunt.

Standing upright, she recovered just in time to witness Cal strike down his own attacker, ducking under his guard to sweep his feet out from under him, before spinning and bringing his saber down in a vertical thrust into the Zabrak’s chest.

Meeting her eyes, he nodded. “Come on, before she comes back!” he hissed, turning, and jogging away as Jayna followed. They quickly passed out of the chamber and onto a wide stone ledge overlooking a broken stairway, leading up into shadow in the lee of a cliff. As they jumped down and cautiously rounded the corner, Jayna saw that the two towers she’d spotted from the Mantis were actually one, two-pronged structure, looming over the landscape ahead as one of Dathomir’s moons appeared framed between them.

“Guess we’ve got a good idea where to start looking for the Tomb then,” she said quietly, as Cal nodded shortly.

“Looks like our best bet,” he agreed, before glancing at BD-1. “What about you, bud? Look familiar?”

At the droid’s affirmative whistle, they set off once more, senses primed for the slightest sign of ambush as they steadily made their way up the cracked, ruined stairway and towards the Tomb.

The Force whispered a warning, as Jayna suddenly found herself grasped by the shoulders and flung against the rocky wall, her back aching from the mistreatment as she felt Cal’s arms caging her in, pressing her back against the wall. She heard the zing as something sped past, hitting the stone where she’d been stood only seconds before and then toppling over the edge of the cliff. In the Force, she felt the rush of power as Cal lifted his hand and pulled, an accompanying cry of pain and fear echoing as its source fell into the chasm below.

“What was that?” she demanded fiercely.

“Some kind of archer… with an energy bow,” Cal replied, a brow quirking as he huffed disbelievingly. “I’m guessing the Nightsister’s friends are the Nightbrothers.”

“Wonderful,” Jayna sighed sardonically. “That’s all we bloody need: bloodthirsty maniacs with energy bows.”

She felt Cal’s low chuckle, likely unconscious and accidental, like a shudder rippling through her body as they were pressed together so tightly. Hauling in a breath, she shoved him away with a pointed look before turning and leading the way.

Emerging from the shadow of the cliffs, Jayna, Cal and BD-1 looked out onto a broken stone bridge, leading over a gaping ravine to the ruins on the other side. This close, the two-pronged tower reared proudly above their heads, cruelly hewn black stone gleaming in the red sunlight. Through the gap, they could see the scarlet-dyed shadow of one of Dathomir’s moons.

Jayna caught her breath looking at it, something about the sight sending a chill to her very bones. She felt Cal glance at her as he quietly admitted. “I feel it too. The ruins are drenched in the Dark Side.”

“What happened to them that the Zeffo went from the wisdom of Eilram to…this?” she whispered, thinking back to the serenity of the first Tomb, the tangible feeling of corruption in the second and now the decay and malevolence she sensed from the third Tomb.

“I don’t know,” Cal breathed, taking a step forward tentatively. United in a kind of dread fascination for the monolithic structure ahead, Cal and Jayna began to make their careful way towards the Tomb across the broken bridge.

There were deep rents cutting the bridge in many places, as they were forced to climb up the twisted, barbed vines that covered the stone, wincing as they cut into their hands, or were forced to leap over the fractures in the rock, calling on the Force to make the gaps.

Perhaps that was why they didn’t notice him until they were nearly stood beside him: a robed figure in black, leaning against the broken stone parapet of the bridge as he called out to them.

“Oh, fellow wanderers!” he greeted them, voice pleasant and kind as Cal and Jayna started, turning on their heels to face him as their hands strayed to their sabers. “I see you met the resident Nightsister but… uh… unlike most, you’re alive!” he said, almost incredulously.

“Who are you?” Jayna demanded, as she felt his eyes wander over the pair of them. Despite his friendliness, there was something about him that made her skin crawl with unease, as she felt his eyes alight on the sabers clipped to their belts. Instinctively, she tilted her body away from him to hide it, Cal mirroring her as he held up his hands placatingly.

“Ooh, lightsabers! No, no don’t hide it,” he implored them, straightening up from his perch against the bridge wall. She still couldn’t make out much of his physical appearance, except that he was tall and broad in the shoulder, while intelligent, piercing eyes looked out from under his ragged hood. What she’d initially thought was a black robe was in fact a heavily stained, tattered brown robe. “That would explain your survival.”

“But your apparent deafness doesn’t explain yours,” Jayna replied curtly, as Cal shot her a quelling look before he stepped forward, drawing the stranger’s gaze.

“Who are you?” he asked, repeating Jayna’s question.

“You don’t… no one to fear. No,” he chuckled, raising his hands in a gesture of non-aggression. “Just a traveller… studying the nature of extinct cultures and dead philosophies.”

“Not quite extinct, if your Nightsister friend is any indication,” Jayna retorted coolly. “Are you studying them?”

“Oh, I study many things,” the stranger declared mysteriously. “But yes, that Nightsister…oh… she was only a child when the war came to this world. She had to watch her whole family perish,” he continued, as if confiding a great secret to them. He leant in close to them, as Jayna couldn’t help but recoil, something about him repulsing her as she smelt a coppery tang in the air, like freshly spilt blood.

“What do you know about those ruins?” Cal asked, sensing her discomfort.

“Oh!?” the stranger laughed, turning to look avidly at Cal as he gestured dismissively. “Ancient beyond belief. The Nightsister and her warrior kin... were seduced by the power that lurks within.”

They glanced towards the ruins, impatient to leave this encounter and the stranger behind as he reached out to them, warningly. “A-avoid the ruin,” he cautioned them. “Or suffer the same fate.”

Jayna could sense Cal’s disbelief as he walked away, towards the next section of the bridge but she found herself lingering, unable to pull herself away despite how much she wanted to as the stranger looked to her. There was something oddly hypnotic about him, as she found herself asking, “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough,” he chuckled bleakly. “This world provided a sanctum when I was in need… shelter when I was weak… enlightenment when I was lost in the dark…”

His dry chuckles sent a shiver down her spine as she found herself swallowing around a hard lump in her throat. “Be wary of this world,” he cautioned her, after his laughter subsided, his voice oddly compelling and insistent as she backed away. “For who knows what enlightenment it has to offer you?”

“Riiiighttt,” she drawled, uncomfortably. “I’ll be going now,” she announced, already turning on her heel and hurrying to catch up with Cal, sensing the stranger’s eyes on her retreating back the whole way.

As she caught up with the other two, Cal glanced at her curiously. “What was that about?” he asked, from where he stood staring up at the ruins ahead.

“Nothing just… this planet clearly makes people coo-koo,” Jayna remarked. “Let’s get on with this so we don’t end up the same way.”

For a moment, an uncomfortable silence grew between them as Jayna unconsciously waited for some joke about how she was already a little crazy from Cal, but there was none forthcoming as Cal nodded and leapt to the next section. Sighing, she forced aside the renewed sting of their distance as she followed, leaping from section to fractured section until they came up against a new obstacle.

The final section of the bridge was directly ahead, but the ledge was too high to reach, even with the Force. The rock was pitted and worn, parts of it too smooth to climb while others looked like sturdy footholds as they inspected it closely.

“Looks climbable, but not without equipment,” Cal declared, with a sigh as Jayna’s eyes widened as she looked up.

“Look out!” she shouted, as a Nightbrother appeared at the ledge, a massive boulder held above his head.

“Die, Jedi!” he yelled as he threw the boulder towards them. Jayna and Cal threw themselves against the rock face, as the boulder hit the weakened stone at their feet. It cracked and splintered beneath them, as they found themselves falling as both cried out.

They came to an abrupt stop as they slammed into a rocky slope from some long ago landslide, tumbling down it uncontrollably until they managed to get their legs under them, using the Force to anchor themselves to the stone as they surfed down the slope and into the gloomy mists below.

Up ahead, surrounded by thorny, twisted roots and the spiked bulbs of those plants they’d encountered on the clifftops earlier, Jayna spotted a break in the slope. With a shout, she pointed it out to Cal, gathering herself for the jump as they leapt through the air.

Landing hard, she sprinted forward a few metres until she was able to regain control of her momentum, stopping against the base of a cliff as she turned and let herself drop to the floor, panting hard from adrenaline and fear.

Cal and BD-1 landed safely, as Cal breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew! Can’t believe we made it,” he breathed, as BD burbled excitedly from his shoulder.

“Bee-beep boo beep!” the droid declared, as it drew a reluctant smile from Jayna as Cal shot the droid a disbelieving look.

“You sure know how to have fun,” he remarked dryly, before looking down at Jayna. “Are you okay?” he asked, brow furrowed in concern.

“I’m fine,” she replied shortly, ignoring his proffered hand as she pulled herself upright. She could sense his discomfort and annoyance as he sighed her name.

“Jayna…”

“I’m not having this conversation, Cal,” she cut him off, coldly. “You wanted this, remember?”

“I didn’t mean-?” he tried to protest but she was having none of it.

“You can’t have it all your own way, Cal,” she replied, with a proud tilt of her head. “If attachments are a weakness, then that means all attachments make you weak. You don’t get to push me away one minute, then decide you give a damn the next. Now, shall we?”

Turning her back on him, she hauled herself up and began to climb the cliff face, feeling him follow a tense minute later, sensing his disquiet but unable to bring herself to regret what she’d said. It was hardly the time but… it needed to be said.

Once they’d reached the top of the cliff, they found themselves in what appeared to be a ruined, collapsed settlement, perhaps a small village that had clustered around the ruins millennia ago, but had fallen in the same landslide that had created the slope that saved their lives.

It was clearly still inhabited, as they found newly placed guide ropes for climbing and lit torches relieving some of the gloom as they continued to climb up through the ruins, senses alert for any sign of attack.

They were accosted several times by some less than friendly fauna, misshapen arachnoid creatures that made Kashyyyk’s wildlife look cute and cuddly, spitting poison as they slashed and cut their way through. Climbing up through a set of ruined, partially collapsed doors, they found themselves inside a sunken dwelling, as Jayna’s boot nudged against something dry and old as she forced herself to keep in her instinctive shriek of alarm.

All around them were desiccated corpses, clad in ragged scarlet robes, decaying jaws open wide in anguished, horrific death-screams.

Hauling in a tight breath, Jayna moved away as Cal knelt beside one, hand reaching out to just graze a blunted, broken spear in one of the corpse’s wizened hands.

“These were Nightsisters…” he breathed, as the psychometry took hold. “They were attacked by the Separatists…they never got a proper burial… so many Nightsisters died here… they never even stood a chance…”

“We’re walking in a graveyard,” Jayna finished for him, as he forcibly pulled himself away from the spear, breaking the connection as he inhaled raggedly. Their eyes met and despite their disagreement, Jayna found herself asking concernedly. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” he replied, standing upright as he gestured towards a doorway. “We need to keep moving.”

The chamber beyond was blocked, but for a small gap between the masonry, held up only by wooden scaffolding as they pulled themselves through. Clambering out the other side, they found themselves in a larger chamber, the floor half-covered in compacted earth where a landslide had collapsed one wall.

On the upper level, they could see a window leading out, but in front of the ledge were three of the strange cloth bundles hanging from the rafters. Cal and Jayna stared up at them with a sickening kind of dread, as they heard the same crackling sound as green flames swirled up from the floor, parting to reveal the Nightsister as they looked down on them with cold, angry eyes.

“You will go no further!” she demanded, as Cal and Jayna immediately activated their sabers, settling back into guard.

“Stand aside!” Cal barked commandingly, striding forward as he eyed the Nightsister narrowly.

“No!” she hissed, disdainfully. “He was right about you.”

Confusion dawned, as Cal and Jayna glanced at each other before staring up at her in bemusement.

“Who?” Cal asked.

“What?” Jayna added, as the Nightsister scoffed.

“Jedi are nothing but thieves and selfish liars who bring nothing but death!” she snarled angrily. Through the Force, Jayna could feel Cal’s anger as he lost patience, growling up at the Nightsister.

“Back off! If you attack us again, I’ll strike you down!” he declared.

“Cal!” Jayna hissed reprovingly. She felt his swift glance before the Nightsister sneered derisively as she replied.

“Oh, I won’t do a thing,” she said, raising green-flame-tipped hands as she pointed them towards the hanging cloth sacks. “But my murdered sisters… they will have their revenge!”

The sacks cracked open as three of the same desiccated corpses fell to the floor as Cal and Jayna stared in horror. They barely noticed as the Nightsister disappeared once more, as the corpses twitched and flailed, strange, cracking, growling sounds coming from their paralysed mouths as they shakily stood, the same green flames that the Nightsister commanded glowing in their empty eye sockets.

“This planet is so messed up,” Jayna breathed, bringing her saber to bear as the three reanimated Nightsisters roared and attacked. Spinning to evade the clumsily lunging grasp of the closest Nightsister, Jayna impaled her through the back with a reverse-thrust of her blade, before Force pushing the other into the wall with enough momentum to break bone. On her other side, Cal decapitated his attacker with a swing of his blade, wincing as the Nightsister’s nails just grazed his cheek.

“What in seven Corellian hells was that!?” she demanded, panting as Cal shook his head.

“No time, now let’s go before more come,” he hissed, already sprinting for the ledge. Jayna followed, pulling herself up as they heard the sound of rending fabric and those strange dry, creaking growls as more Nightsisters were rudely awakened from their death-sleep.

As they sprinted through the ruins, more of the undead creatures leapt from the shadows, papery-thin skin stretched over rictus-grimaces of pain and hatred as they growled and lunged for the intruders. And all the time, the Nightsister’s ominous promises echoed around them, disembodied but inescapable as they fought their way through the hordes.

“Leave this place!” she demanded, as Jayna flipped over an attacking undead, letting its clumsy momentum send it plummeting over the edge of a cliff.

“You will pay for their deaths!”

“D’you think telling her we had nothing to do with the massacre here would help?” Jayna asked, only partially serious, as she slashed another Nightsister in two, ducking under the grasping arms of another as she shouldered it to the ground. Stabbing it through the skull, she glanced up at Cal as he despatched another, diagonally bisecting its torso with a graceful arc of his saber.

“I doubt it,” he admitted, panting. “She seems pretty sure the Jedi were responsible. And who’s this ‘he’ she referred to?”

“Could it be the stranger we met? Or one of the Nightbrothers who survived the massacre and misunderstood what happened?” Jayna offered, as Cal shrugged.

“No way of knowing for sure,” he said, nodding towards a passageway up ahead. “Let’s see if we can find a way out through there.”

Jogging down the passageway, they encountered no more undead, but it ended in a dead end as they found themselves looking up at an impassable stone wall, covered in those strange, barbed vines they’d seen earlier. Hearing more shrieks echoing up the passageway behind them, Cal and Jayna exchanged commiserating, resigned looks before they started to climb.

Their gloves absorbed the worst of the barbs, but their hands still stung with each grip, as they slowly made their way up the wall to a rocky ledge far above. “How does that Nightsister keep following us?” Cal asked, trying to distract them both from the discomfort in their hands.

“Beep-boop?” BD-1 replied.

“She feels… different from the Inquisitors we’ve faced,” Jayna replied, breathing hard as she pulled herself up behind him.

“Cere called them Force wielders, but I’ve never seen it used this way before,” Cal admitted, as he pulled himself up over the ledge. “We’d better stay on our toes…”

BD booped in agreement as Jayna pulled herself up next, as Cal glanced at the droid.

“Wait, do you… have toes?” he asked, jokingly as BD chirped in fond exasperation. Down below, they could hear more undead shrieks and howls, as they stood up and hurried away from that vulnerable place, glad to leave the creeping terror of that ruined settlement behind.

Following the tunnel round, they emerged onto a rocky overlook. Looking out over Dathomir’s bleak horizon, they spotted a gargantuan beast in the distance, great, leathery wings flapping as it soared through the rocky mountaintops.

It reminded Jayna a little of the Shyyyo Bird but looking at it made her shudder with dread. Thinking of that gentle beast made her sad, as unwanted memories welled up in her mind’s eye but she firmly shoved them aside. No use dwelling on might-have-beens, she told herself firmly.

Beside her, Cal was muttering uneasily, his eyes fixed on the creature flying off into the distance. “Any idea what that flying creature is?” he asked BD.

“Bo-beep!” BD replied, as Jayna and Cal glanced back at him.

“A chirodactyl? Is it hostile?” Jayna asked, glancing at the droid.

“Let’s hope we don’t find out,” Cal remarked, looking away from the creature as he looked around for their next step. Ahead was a wooden platform constructed of planks, lashed together haphazardly, and suspended by a primitive pulley system. “Guess that’s our only option,” he sighed, leading the way as the trio crowded onto the makeshift lift and descended even further into the gloom.

After fighting their way through a cavern full of Nightbrothers and domesticated versions of those arachnoid creatures they’d faced on the cliff tops earlier, the trio emerged into a vast, foggy swamp. A yellowish fog hung over the place as they tentatively stepped out into the mists, senses primed for any sign of attack.

In the far distance, they could hear shouting as several Nightbrothers attempted to fend off an attack from above, firing their energy bolts and throwing spears uselessly as one was snatched up and borne away by that same massive, bat-like creature they’d spotted from the outlook.

“That thing looks like trouble!” Cal breathed, as Jayna spotted a path leading away from that outcropping and into a tunnel.

“We might be able to find a path back up through there,” she suggested, as Cal nodded.

“We don’t have many other options,” he admitted. They had no map and BD’s logs were still encrypted. They were blindly stumbling around in the dark until they could find a way back up the ruins. “Hope you’re ready for a fight,” he added, glancing at the group of Nightbrothers waiting atop the cliff.

Jayna, Cal and BD carefully made their way across the swampy ground to the cliff’s base, testing every step to ensure they didn’t step into a deep puddle or sinking fields. The twisted, mutated forms of Dathomiri plant life loomed at them out of the fog as they hurried past, alert for the strangled shrieks of undead Nightsisters or the clicking squeals of those arachnoid creatures but they made it unmolested until they neared the base of the cliff.

A crumpled shape materialised out of the gloom, vaguely avian in form, but oddly rounded as Jayna and Cal paused. Reaching out, he let his hand graze its wing as his eyes blindly trailed over the dead, tarnished dome of a deactivated astromech.

“A ship crashed… they were fleeing from something…” he breathed, mind full of rage, pain and betrayal, gasped sobbing echoing in his ears. “How could anyone survive here?”

“Cal…it was a Republic ship,” Jayna gasped, pointing towards the crashed ship’s partially intact wing, where the scored, partially defaced symbol of the Jedi Order and Republic military was emblazoned in orange paint. “What does this mean?” she asked.

“That we’re not alone here,” he replied, tearing himself away. “Whether this ship belongs to that stranger we met or…”

He trailed off as the air began to echo with the familiar shrieks and screams of the undead, as Jayna spun, her hand on her saber. “We need to go!” he hissed, grabbing her arm, and pulling her round as they sprinted for the cliffs.

They didn’t stop to look back until they were halfway up the cliffs, where they could see the shambling, lurching shapes of the undead Nightsisters following in their wake in the swamps. That Nightsister was intent on their deaths, it seemed, as Jayna and Cal pulled themselves up the rest of the way, until they were atop the cliffs.

But of course, then they had another problem.

Several Nightbrothers surrounded them, weapons brandished as they grinned bestially at the intruders.

“You will fall before us!” one shouted, as he aimed his bow at the trio.

“Try me, Jedi!” his fellow yelled with anticipation, raising his mace high as he charged.

Jayna cocked her head to one side as she cockily replied. “Okay, I will,” she retorted, stepping sideways, and flipping round as the Nightbrother’s momentum took him past her, reaching out with the Force and pushing him over the cliff edge. His cry echoed in the air as she turned and deflected an energy bolt fired from one of the bows, as Cal leapt towards their attackers, striking another archer down before he could take a shot.

Spotting another taking aim at Cal’s back as he engaged with another of the mace wielding Nightbrothers, Jayna reached out and pulled his arm with the Force, pulling his aim off so the energy bolt fired into the back of another warrior, taking him down. Capitalising on his confusion, Jayna leapt across the cliff top, her blade shearing through sinew and flesh as she decapitated the Nightbrother, before whirling and deflecting another energy bolt back at its source.

Feeling the surge in the Force, she turned as Cal reached out and Force-pulled the last Nightbrother into the path of his blade, as they paused, glancing around for any more attackers before deactivating their lightsabers.

“We’d better hurry,” Cal said, nodding towards the cliff’s edge where they could hear the oncoming horde of undead drawing nearer. Glancing down at her last kill, Jayna frowned as she noticed the strange devices they wore on their hands. “Jayna…”

Ignoring Cal, Jayna crouched down and liberated the devices from the hands of her last attacker, looking at them curiously. They were a strap of tanned, reinforced leather with buckles for tightening, on which was attached wickedly sharp metal claws. Putting one on experimentally, Jayna partly closed her fist, as the claws extended forward with a snap. “These must be how the Nightbrothers get around these cliffs,” she mused, glancing up at Cal. “Could come in handy.”

Nodding, he turned and took his own from another Nightbrother, slipping them on and tightening them so they fitted across his knuckles securely. They startled as they heard a ghastly shriek echo below them, too close for comfort as they turned and hurried away from the cliff tops and the horror of the swamps.

Following the Nightbrothers’ path led them into a cavernous tunnel, pitch-black but for occasionally patches of bioluminescent vegetation. Their footing was treacherous as deep crevices stretched out below them, so the going was slow and cautious as they threaded a route through the narrow passageway.

Just as they came to an outcropping overlooking a vast, echoing cave, the Nightsister’s voice reverberated around them once more, ominous and threatening as Cal and Jayna glanced at one another.

“Only death awaits you here!”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Jayna asked, as Cal rolled his eyes.

“You and your bad feelings. It’ll be fine,” he asserted, jumping down. After a moment, Jayna joined him as they spotted a wall on the opposite side of the cavern, pitted, and roughened, offering plenty of handholds and footholds for them to use.

Against the base of the wall, was slumped an unmoving body as Jayna slowed and gasped. “About that bad feeling,” she muttered, as Cal stopped, eyes wide as he recognised the Nightbrother they’d seen taken by that chirodactyl.

But that meant…

A squawking growl filled the air as Jayna, Cal and BD-1 looked up to see the chirodactyl looking down at them from the rocks where it hung. With a coiling of its powerful muscles, it sprang down, landing with a booming thud as it hit the ground, the barbed claws at the tip of its wings digging into the stony floor.

Up close, it was even more monstrous. Avaricious grey eyes peered at them through the darkness of the cavern, while its pointed beak opened wide to furiously screech at them for their trespass into its domain. Its leathery brown wings were at least at wide as they were tall, and its feet were tipped with dagger-like talons as it leapt at them.

Cal and Jayna threw themselves sideways to avoid those talons and that snapping beak, summoning their sabers to hand as their blades sprang forth. Instinctively, they reached for the bond, muffled as it was.

And realised something was wrong.

Jayna winced as she felt Cal’s attempt to connect with her, once, twice then again with increasing desperation until she felt like she was being battered and beaten by the force of his urgency. “Cal! Stop it!” she screamed, while trying to avoid yet more of the creature’s attacks.

“It’s not working!” he shouted back, dodging as the creature lunged for him with its wing.

Inwardly, Jayna tested the Force bond as even as she dodged yet another swipe of the beast’s talons, but she was repelled again, as if coming up against a tangibly solid barrier separating her from Cal. Her mouth filled with the taste of burned iron as Cal tried again, sending her stumbling.

“Stop, Cal! It’s hurting me,” she shouted, painfully. Her head was ringing as she met Cal’s eyes across the cavern. “It’s like you’re attacking me.”

She could still sense Cal’s shock and anguish as he realised the implications: the bond would be no help to them now. They would have to fight separately.

“Go for the wings, I’ll hit the talons,” he shouted desperately, throwing himself sideways as the creature’s clawed wing smashed into the rock above his head, showering him with stony splinters. Jayna watched as he threw himself forward, under its attacking wings as his blade flared, slicing towards the beast’s feet. Seizing her chance as the chirodactyl roared in agony, as Cal’s blade sheared off one of its talons, Jayna lunged for its right wing, scoring a deep gash through its outer wing membrane as it reeled and stumbled backwards.

The chirodactyl had reigned supreme and unchallenged for centuries, Jayna sensed, and now it felt a twinge of fear at the shining weapons of these intruders, so different to the pinpricks of the Nightbrothers it usually feasted on. With a great leap, it sprang away, grasping onto the rocky walls of the cavern as it climbed up towards a gap in the rock where light filtered in, obviously the entrance to its nest as it screeched defiantly one last time, then disappeared.

“I…I think it’s gone,” Cal asserted, panting as he deactivated his lightsaber. Jayna felt the weight of his eyes as he turned towards her. “Are you alright?”

“A little worse for wear,” she admitted, straightening up and staring towards where the chirodactyl had dragged itself away. “Why do I get the feeling that isn’t the last we’ve seen of that thing?”

“Knowing our luck, probably,” Cal admitted, as he turned to inspect the rock above where the dead Nightbrother was slumped. “We should get moving before it comes back, or that Nightsister finds us again.”

“I think she’s knows exactly where we are,” Jayna demurred, shaking her head. “She was driving us here, the whole time.”

“Maybe,” Cal shrugged, as he put a hand to the rock experimentally, the claws on his knuckles springing forth and digging deep into the rock. “Only thing for it! Come on.”

Jayna nodded, reaching up and finding her own handhold as the trio slowly, laboriously made their way up the rockface, hearts still pounding from the fight. As they climbed, Jayna frowned as she wondered what had gone wrong. Why couldn’t they connect, as they had done so many others time before?

As they cleared the top of the wall, looking back over the cavern, Jayna had a sinking feeling she knew exactly why they couldn’t touch the Force bond, why it had repelled them both and why it’d felt like Cal was attacking her every time he tried.

But now wasn’t the time. They still had to get out of these caverns, at the very least. Pushing it aside, she followed Cal as they left that cavern behind.

Passing into a narrow corridor, they were surrounded by archaic cave paintings in white pigment, seeming to depict the creature they had just faced. Beside an altar lit by candles and covered with the dilapidated remnants of offerings, was one large cave painting depicting the creature and what appeared to be a Nightbrother brandishing their weapon with triumph.

Jayna sensed Cal’s psychometry as he grazed the offerings, frowning with distaste as he explained, “The strongest Nightbrothers faced a rite of passage by venturing into the lair of this creature,” he said, yanking his hand back as if burned. “Those who survived were deemed worthy.”

“Worthy of what?” Jayna asked, glancing back down the corridor nervously.

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Cal admitted, turning away from the altar as he led the way. Squeezing through a tight gap in the rock, they pulled themselves through onto a wide, exposed outcropping on the side of the cliffs that made up the exterior walls of the caverns they’d just trekked through.

Glancing around at the open, currently-chirodactyl-free skies, Jayna spotted a path up another cliff nearby, one that would bring them out atop the cliffs where she could see a ruined building. “We’re too exposed out here,” she breathed, heading for it determinedly. “That creature could come back at any moment. We need to hurry.”

“No argument from me,” Cal agreed, following in her wake as she paused by the cliff. It was separated from their outcropping by a gaping chasm, but it was jumpable as Jayna took a moment to judge the distance, then leapt it with a little help from the Force as her climbing claws caught hold of the rock and anchored her there.

Gritting her teeth as her muscles burned, Jayna pulled herself up and began the climb. It would have been a nearly impossible task without the claws, she realised. Her fingers would have been raw and bloody by now, as she made steady progress up the cliff, Cal and BD only a few metres behind her.

They were halfway up when they heard a sound like cracking stone, then a horribly familiar screech as the trio stopped and looked down the way they’d come.

It was the chirodactyl.

The creature had emerged from a crevice in the rock further down, in the depths of the ravine they had jumped, and now it was climbing the rock after them as agilely as a Bracca scrap rat climbed a ventilation duct.

“Move!” Cal shouted, as Jayna immediately began to climb faster, calling on all her strength and the Force to help her as she frantically tried to reach the top of the cliff. “Move, Jayna! Faster!”

All she could hear was the ragged sound of her own breaths, her heart pounding in her ears, as the air was rent by the sound of crushed rock, BD’s panicked whistles and beeps and Cal’s own agitated breaths as he scrambled up the cliff face behind her. Jayna didn’t dare look down but she knew the creature was gaining on them; with its monstrous wings, it climbed ten metres for their two.

Hopelessness bloomed in Jayna’s heart as a part of her whispered it would be too late, there was no escape and it would just be better to give up now and accept death graciously.

Up ahead, the cliff face began to buckle under the weight and force of the chirodactyl’s climb, as Jayna had to duck her head to avoid rockfall several times. Her vision blurred by rock dust, she blinked stinging eyes as she realised, with a dreadful surge of hope, that they were nearly at the top.

With one last surge of the Force and all her remaining, dwindling strength, Jayna leapt upwards, catching hold of the cliff’s edge and hauling herself over. She didn’t stop to rest, immediately twisting onto her side and readying her saber as she reached out one hand for Cal as he neared the top.

But the chirodactyl had no intention of letting its prey escape.

“Beep boo beep!” BD-1 screamed warningly, as Jayna cried out wordlessly.

“We’re gonna die!” Cal shouted in anguish, as the chirodactyl grasped the pair in its talons, leaping away from the cliff face as Jayna scrambled to attack it, its wings unfurling as it flapped upwards into the Dathomiri sky.

“CAL!?” she screamed, as she heard his voice one last time, weakly echoing as the chirodactyl climbed out of sight and hearing.

“GO, JAYNA! FIND THE TOMB! GO!”

“CAL!?” she screamed again, her heart torn in two as her eyes desperately scanned the blood-hued skies, searching for any sign of the chirodactyl or Cal and BD.

She heard a roaring scream, then Cal’s voice shouting wordlessly, then nothing as an awful, echoing silence fell, so only her own heartbeat seemed to fill it. Helplessness gnawed at her, as her strangled breathing threatened to spiral out of control, as she realised for the first time she was truly alone, on a hostile, unfamiliar planet, pursued by undead zombies, Nightbrothers and who knew what else.

For a moment, every cell in her body yearned to simply turn tail and run, to hide until it was safe to return to the Mantis, and then get as far away from Dathomir as possible. What chance did she stand now, with Cal gone, with BD gone?

But then common sense, and the courage she had discovered deep within herself the moment she had watched Cal fall from a Dowutin Inquisitor’s clawed hand awoke, as she took a deep breath and reached within.

Muffled, blocked as the Force bond was, she could still sense it and with it… she could still sense Cal. He wasn’t dead yet. Considering all they had done, all they had survived since they met on Bracca so many long months ago, she wouldn’t lose hope he would survive this. Not yet…

Drawing herself up, she took one last lingering look at the skies before turning and striding away, mind sternly turned to the task Cal had given her, shouted in desperate tones, before he and BD disappeared into the skies.

She would find the Tomb, and she would hope Cal would join her there. There could be no other outcome, and so she refused to contemplate any other. Cal would survive, and they would find each other again. She just knew it.

Jayna followed a narrow path leading away from the cliff edge. Thankfully, she encountered no more Nightbrothers or unfriendly wildlife, but her urgency was growing, replacing her resolve as fear began to spike once more in her blood. Stubbornly, she put her head down and forged on, refusing to let her fears get the better of her as she followed the rocky, uneven path deeper into the cliffs.

Finally, she came to a fork in the path, one path veering to the left, the other to the right as she stumbled to a halt, eyes wide as she looked between the two paths. ‘Which one do I take?’ she wondered, startling as she heard the sound of breaking rock somewhere far away. Above her head, a few pebbles fell from a ridge, tumbling to the dusty ground by her feet as she spun, activating her saber as she summoned it to hand.

Panting harshly, she scanned her surroundings for any signs of attack, but she was alone on that dusty, windswept path as she lowered her saber but didn’t deactivate it. Eyes flicking between the two paths, she eventually took the left one as impatience and the pounding urgency in her blood spurred her on. ‘No point dawdling about all day. I need to hurry and get out of these forsaken cliffs before more Nightbrothers find me, or worse… that Nightsister.’

Or that creepy stranger, another part of her mind whispered. Something about him disturbed her, whether it was the avaricious, intrigued looks he had sent both her and Cal’s way, or the stench of corruption and deceit coming off him, she didn’t know but she didn’t like it. She could only hope he wouldn’t find her, alone and far from help.

But as she walked on, the feeling of being watched started to return, like a creeping, slithering thing over her skin, patches of gooseflesh breaking out down her spine. Her grip tightened on her saber as, for the first time in weeks, she heard that cursed voice from her dreams once more.

“Jayna… Jayna….”

As she rounded a corner in the path, she emerged into a deep gorge, widening at a single point before narrowing again as it cut a downward path into the maze of the cliffs, as she stopped and hissed in a frustrated breath.

“Jayna…”

“Whoever you are, show yourself! I’m getting tired of these games,” she snarled, her voice carrying over the gorge and the high headlands either side as she turned and looked frantically. Once again, that feeling of being watched intensified as did an instinct of being pursued. Like a prey animal that knows it’s being tracked, her heart pounded as her muscles readied themselves to flee, even as she snarled and raised her saber high in preparation for an attack.

She was no one’s prey.

When the attack came, it came from above and behind, as Jayna suddenly found herself shoved forward by the impact of something large and heavy against her back as a guttural battle cry echoed around her.

She was thrown to her hands and knees, blinking away stars as she struggled to breathe, winded by the impact. Her saber had been knocked from her hand as she found herself yanked onto her back, staring up at the bared teeth of a Nightbrother as he raised his mace high above his head. Behind him, two more stood watching, with bloodthirsty smiles as they waited for the killing blow.

Jayna flung her hand out, reaching desperately through the Force for her saber when the Nightbrother cried out in agony, his chest punctured by the shining blue tip of a lightsaber. For one wild moment, Jayna thought Cal had found her as the hilt of her saber slapped into her waiting palm, but as the Nightbrother collapsed and his fellows lunged forward with enraged growls, she saw her rescuer was a cloaked figure in dark grey, wielding a blue lightsaber.

They were barely taller than Jayna, and obviously slender and agile as they evaded the furious Nightbrothers’ attacks. Their shining blue blade snapped round in a wide arc as a gloved hand flung out to push an attacking Nightbrother into the gorge wall. A moment later, the last Nightbrother collapsed, dead with a burning gash in his chest as Jayna forced herself upright, panting hard as she backed up a few paces as the cloaked stranger paused to study their work.

As if pleased, they nodded to themselves, their saber deactivating even as Jayna unsheathed hers, her green blade flaring to life as she called demandingly, “Don’t think I’m not grateful but… who are you?!”

Then she heard it again, as that voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar echoed in her head as the cloaked stranger turned, their hood falling from their face as aging features, black hair tightly held in a grey-streaked bun and flashing grey eyes revealed themselves.

“Jayna… Jayna…”

“C-Commander Torone…?” Jayna gasped, as her former commander and mentor smiled tightly.

“Hello, Jayna. It’s good to see you again,” she replied, genuinely it seemed as Jayna’s mind raced. Questions flooded her mind but the most pertinent fell uncertainly from her lips.

“You… know my name,” she gasped. “You know who I am?”

Torone huffed a laugh, smiling indulgently as she glanced at Jayna’s lightsaber. “Even if I did not, your name and face is plastered on every ‘wanted’ list from Tatooine to Coruscant. But yes, I always knew who you really were…”

“But wha-? Why? I-I don’t understand,” Jayna trailed off, as realisation dawned. She knew that voice in her head, she knew it because… “You’re the voice in my head. You have the Force, you’re a Jedi…”

“Very good, Jayna,” Torone nodded, clipping her saber back to her belt. “Incidentally, I mean you no harm. You can put away your saber.”

Jayna scoffed, and didn’t move. “I don’t think so,” she breathed coolly, regaining a little of her composure as she shifted into a ready stance. “I find out my former mentor knew who I was all this time and is a Force Sensitive… forgive me if I’m a little on edge.”

Torone’s smile turned sad and wistful, as she gazed at Jayna. “You remind me so much of her… you have her spirit.”

“Whose spirit? Who are you!?” Jayna demanded, losing her patience as she stepped threateningly toward Torone. Her smile soured as she sighed and shook her head.

“And your father’s arrogance. I had hoped… but that doesn’t matter now,” the older woman shook her head, before looking back at Jayna. “You are correct, Jayna. I am, or I was a Jedi. But I was no survivor of the Purge… I left the Order over a decade before the advent of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire.”

“How have you evaded the Empire for so long?” Jayna asked, frowningly. Even former Jedi had been tracked down and arrested by the Empire as enemies of the state.

“Because I long left my true name behind me when I left the Order,” Torone replied scornfully. “I didn’t need my brother’s antics dogging me wherever I went, not once I realised what I needed to do.”

“Your brother’s antics…?” Jayna breathed, as realisation dawned. It was tricky to see the likeness from a hologram but now she stood so close to her, she could see it. “You’re Cordova’s sister,” she guessed as Torone laughed and clapped.

“I’m glad to see you inherited your mother’s intuition as well,” she chuckled delightedly. “Indeed, I am the twin sister of Eno Cordova, the man whose path you’ve been following so devotedly since leaving Bracca. My birth name is Malavai Cordova.”

Jayna’s face contorted as her mind whirled, unable to focus on one point long enough. “You keep speaking of my mother as if you know her,” she forced herself to focus. “You also claim to know my father if that previous comment was any clue, and you’ve been shadowing my steps since I arrived on Bracca. Why?”

“I will gladly answer all your questions, Jayna,” Malavai replied patiently, before glancing around at their surroundings. “But not here. We must find Cal and your droid friend and get you back on track.”

“NO!” Jayna shouted, uncaring of the danger as she stepped back from Malavai’s outreached hand. “You will tell me now. I am… tired of all the secrecy, the lies. You’ve been manipulating me since I arrived on Bracca,” she realised, with a gasp. “You put me together with Cal, you knew somehow…you knew about the accident, that the Inquisitors would come…”

“I did,” Malavai sighed, lowering her hand as she watched Jayna appraisingly. “When I was a Jedi Knight, I was a Seer. My gift has always lain in prophecy and the realms of the mind. I foresaw your meeting with Cal, I foresaw the accident. I might have nudged it along a bit by corroborating the probe droid’s report with my own, anonymous tip-off to the Inquisitorius…”

“You what?” Jayna gasped, as anger began to grow in her heart. “You…you brought them down on our heads? You’re the reason Prauf-?”

“A necessary sacrifice,” Malavai replied dismissively. “It accomplished what it needed to. I knew, if I appealed to that deeply buried honourable streak of yours, you would be compelled to help Kestis. I was right.”

In a daze, Jayna recalled the way Torone… Malavai had been on hand after Cal had been thrown from that mud bank, rescuing her from the Stormtroopers and giving her the opening that she needed to escape and go after Cal… she had used a mind trick, she realised, to get rid of the Stormtrooper intent on taking her in for questioning and then… she remembered the callous way Malavai had dismissed Prauf’s death and her warnings, so genuine at the time, took on a sinister light as Jayna stared, wide-eyed and winded at her old mentor.

“Yes, Jayna,” Malavai smiled sadly. “I told you once that manipulation in the pursuit of a noble goal was necessary. I knew my reaction to the Abednedo’s demise would be enough to awaken that noble streak in you… in that at least, you are your mother’s daughter.”

“Why? How do you know my parents? What does any of this have to do with me?” Jayna gasped, her heart racing. Her head was pounding, aching as something seemed to push and tug at the barrier in her mind, trying to break through.

“To answer that, I will need to start at the beginning,” Malavai sighed, with an arch look at Jayna. “Before I left the Order, I was a respected Seer. Our powers as a group had dwindled over the millennia but we still provided valuable insight. I trained a number of Padawans to Knighthood, all shining exemplars of the Order,” she explained, with a sneer of contempt. “But my greatest triumph, and my greatest failure, was a young woman named Dreya Shan.”

Jayna jerked at the sound of her mother’s name, but stayed silent as Malavai continued, seemingly lost in her own recollections.

“Your mother was skilled in the healing arts, and as selfless and devoted as they came. I loved her like a daughter… I couldn’t have been prouder the day she took the Trials and attained Knighthood. But trouble came when she was assigned to a viral outbreak on Pasaana,” the older woman paused at this, shaking her head. “I would never have thought it but… afterwards, I was not so shocked. Your mother had a vein of defiance and stubbornness running through her more powerfully than any dedication to the Order. Within months of arriving on Pasaana, she gave a report to the Council that she had encountered a powerful Force sensitive Human male on the planet, one she wished to take as a Padawan and train. She claimed it was the will of the Force that they met, and she requested that the Council set aside their restrictions on age to allow her to train him. The Council refused. Within twenty-four hours, Dreya resigned her commission and left the Order…” at this, Malavai paused and shook her head. “She claimed that finding this man was the will of the Force and that she could do more good outside the Order than within. The man she left the Order for, the man who tempted her away from her duty… was your father, Kos Raiden.”

Jayna inhaled sharply, as she unconsciously raised a hand to clutch her mother’s pendant where it lay hidden beneath her clothes.

“I travelled to Pasaana to try and convince your mother to return, but she would have none of it. She did, however, ask me for advice,” Malavai continued, a haunted look overtaking her features as she looked to Jayna sorrowfully. “The moment I met Kos, it was obvious darkness had tainted him. He reeked of power even as he clung desperately to the Light. He claimed he only wanted to care for the people of Pasaana but… Dreya confessed his true origins to me.”

“That night,” Malavai paused at this, swallowing hard as if the words pained her. “I dreamt of the Order’s demise. I watched the shadow of the Empire spreading across the galaxy, I saw the destruction of the Order and I realised… there was no stopping it. The Order was doomed.”

“Your brother saw the same thing,” Jayna replied, in a strangled gasp. Malavai merely shook her head disdainfully.

“Eno saw nothing of what I did. If he had, he might not have wasted his time with this futile quest to rebuild the Order,” she spat, almost angrily before she seemed to master herself, calmly continuing with her explanations. “The Order had become complacent, arrogant, corrupted by power and politics, but also by dogma. It could not see beyond the end of its own nose…but I digress. In short, I realised there was no saving the Order, not then. But the Force didn’t only show me war, death and destruction: it showed me you.”

“Me?” Jayna gasped.

“Yes, Jayna. I saw you, and I saw Kestis,” the older woman admitted. “After I left your parents on Pasaana, I too left the Order. The Force had called me to a high purpose and there was much to be done. I travelled far and wide, desperate to find answers to my questions, some wisdom to guide my path and eventually, I found it. The Jedi Order is not the only Light Side-aligned organisation in the Galaxy, although it was the foremost. In the Temple of the Whills on Jedha that I found what I sought.”

“The Temple houses many strange and beautiful things, but it also houses an archive to rival even the Jed Archives on Coruscant. The Jedi have always been dismissive of any wisdom that originates from outside their control,” she continued solemnly. “There, deep in a forgotten scroll, I found a prophecy recorded by some an ancient seer signed only with a ‘K’. It read thus:

‘From a world of broken things, they shall come,

Hunted they shall be, without home or family;

Necessity will push them together, feelings forbidden by ancient antiquity will bind them,

The child of an Order, doomed by blindness, and the lost child born of a forbidden love,

Son of the light and Daughter of darkness, with the power of aeons flowing through her veins,

They will seek the Three Sages of a forgotten people and the rebirth of the Light.

Children of two fathers, they will seek the wisdom of Eilram, the revelations of the Tree of Origin, the warning of Miktrull and the lessons of Kujet,

Wielding ancient power and forgotten knowledge, mark these signs well!

For with their union, the seeds of the downfall of darkness will be sown.

Rest not with the triumph of the Chosen One and the downfall of the Sith,

For it will be but a false dawn, doomed to die.

As the shadows spread again,

Two more forth will stand,

The daughter of the dyad, and the son of the Force.

Two by two, they will stand side by side before the throne of darkness,

the dyad born from harmony, the dyad born from conflict,

the bonds forged by giving, the bonds forged by taking,

The last sacrifice to give, the Jedi will run their final course.

Sacrifice will beget the rebirth of the Force and the return of the balance.’

“Not the most obvious set of instructions, but when I compared it with my dreams…,” Malavai trailed off, as Jayna stared at her, dumbstruck. “I certain it was you and Kestis foretold in the prophecy.”

“But that’s…? That’s insanity,” Jayna hissed, wincing as her headache seemed to grow, the pressure in her mind growing with every word from Malavai’s mouth.

“Is it?” the older woman demanded, an almost manic glint in her eyes as she advanced on Jayna. “Kestis is the son of Kenobi, you are the daughter of Dreya Shan, the descendant of Bastila Shan and Lord Revan, two of only a handful of Jedi to have fallen to the Dark side and returned to the Light. You have her gift of battle meditation, while Kestis wields the power of psychometry. Ancient power and forgotten knowledge.”

“How do you know so much about Cal?” Jayna demanded, as Malavai drew herself up proudly.

“It wasn’t easy but… after I had found the prophecy, I watched and waited. My dreams had indicated that the son of Kenobi would be your match in the prophecy, and it had also indicated that he would be born of our ancient enemies, the Mandalorians. I knew, from an old friendship with Kenobi’s master, Qui-Gon Jinn, that Kenobi had very nearly strayed from the path of the Jedi for the love of a woman: Satine Kryze, Duchess of Mandalore. I knew my opportunity would come, and so I waited. When news came of Qui-Gon’s death, I made my move,” she explained, a pleased smile on her lips. “I went to Mandalore, under an assumed name, and applied for a position in the Duchess’s household only to be informed she was away at a summit on Coruscant. I knew what would happen; I knew Kenobi’s grief over his master’s death, his own elevation to Knighthood so young, and the pressure of his vow to his Master to train the child believed to be the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy would break him… and it did, sending him into the arms of his love. He returned from that interlude stronger and more focussed than ever, but his task had been accomplished. The Duchess returned to Mandalore pregnant, and I was waiting for her when she returned.”

“But how did you stop her from reaching out to Kenobi when she discovered her pregnancy?” Jayna asked, pretending curiosity yet all the while, her heart was aching with anger and anguish for Cal’s sake.

“It was easy enough,” Malavai shrugged. “I have always had a talent for manipulation and the mind, aided by the Force or not. After months of making myself indispensable to her, becoming her confidant, I convinced Satine that to inform Kenobi of the child would only push him into a decision he would regret, and he would ultimately come to resent her and the child for it. I convinced her to go into seclusion until the birth, and then after the child was born, I persuaded her to give me the child to care for.”

“But how could she do that…?” Jayna asked, tremulously.

Malavai shrugged. “The toll of seclusion, keeping her secret and her belief in Kenobi’s resentment if the truth was ever known made her an easy target to manipulate,” she replied dismissively. “After the birth, I do believe she was even a little depressed. It made it easy to plant the suggestion in her mind until she gave into it. I knew it would wear off soon enough, Satine was too strong-willed not to recover from it eventually, so I took my chance and left Mandalore with the child. I gave him to the Jedi, telling them nothing of his origins but I knew Master Yoda would suspect the truth. I also knew he wouldn’t interfere but to ensure the child’s wellbeing and training as a Jedi, and that Kenobi and Kestis remained ignorant of one another. And when the war started, he and his master would be assigned to Bracca in time for the Purge.”

“And then I sensed your birth,” Malavai continued, turning to look at her with a loving gaze that bordered on fanatical. “The coming of the final piece of the puzzle. I left you in peace while I made my preparations for the next step…”

“What next step?” Jayna demanded, as the pressure in her head reached breaking point. She heard again the anguished cries of her mother’s name by a man’s… her father’s voice. Cries of pain, anguish, grief…the pain grew too much until she collapsed to her knees, cradling her head in her hands. She felt Torone’s… Malavai’s motherly hands on her hair and arm, trying to calm her but it was too late.

The barrier in her mind fell, and madness descended.

Because what she saw couldn’t be true.

Memory after memory of love and family and happiness, on that barren desert planet… and then… when she was ten standard years old… a stranger came to their homestead. Cloaked in grey and brown… she was powerful enough, even then, to sense it…

An argument…

“His agents are searching for her! He knows she exists! You must let me take her away!”

“We will protect her!” her father protested firmly.

“You?” Malavai Cordova’s scornful sneer was frightening from where she stood, half-hidden by the curtain that shielded her sleeping alcove from the main living room. “You’re only one step removed from the darkness. You will draw him to her like flies to honey!”

“Master, what you propose… it’s madness!” Her mother’s voice, calm and reasonable but troubled, cut through the growing tension between her father and Malavai. “To leave a child…to turn our backs on her and walk away…”

“It is the only way to ensure the darkness will not take root inside her. You must let me take her!” Malavai spat frantically.

“No! You’re not taking our daughter anywhere!” her father cried, as a bright blue blade burst forth from Malavai’s hand. Her mother, her beautiful, bright burning mother with the radiant smile and gentle eyes, lunged between the pair as the blade stabbed through her stomach. “DREYA! NO!”

Her father’s anguished cries as he held the dead body of his wife in her arms, Jayna’s horrified eyes staring helplessly as Malavai raised her blade.

“I always knew you would be the death of her,” she pronounced sadly, before she struck him down. “But with your death, you will begin to make things right.”

Jayna screamed as she watched the light go out in her father’s eyes, as he fell to the ground, still clutching his wife’s unmoving body, as Malavai turned towards her with tears trailing down her face…

Jayna was thrown from her memories, kneeling shaking in the dust and the cold stone of the cliff paths, panting as she tasted blood in her mouth from where she had bitten her own tongue. Malavai knelt beside her, her arms holding her as she hushed her, her voice a terrible, soothing counterpoint to the grief and rage building in Jayna’s heart.

“I had to, sweet girl. They would only have held you back, prevented you from becoming what you needed to be, drawn his agents to you,” she tried to justify her actions. “After the trauma of your parents’ deaths, I was able to place a block in your memories, shielding you from the pain. I also placed a Force bond in your head, like that of a master and padawan, so I could keep track of you until it was time for you to come to Bracca. You must understand, Jayna… despite the abomination that was your father, it was the will of the Force that you were born, that Kenobi broke his vows and Kestis was born, that you were both separated from your parents to walk your own paths. Your mother lost sight of that, blinded by love and motherly instinct to recognise it. I had no choice.”

“Why? Because my father wasn’t trained?” Jayna demanded, angrily, pushing the older woman away as she staggered upright.

“No,” Malavai breathed, reluctantly. “Because of how he came to be…”

“What are you talking about?” Jayna snarled, itching for her saber as the anger inside her took root, as corrosive, bitter hatred began to swirl in her veins, whispering terrible things as she imagined taking Malavai’s head for what she had done.

Malavai looked hesitant to answer, and Jayna, tired of waiting for answers and being the target of her manipulations, reached out through the Force. Her anger and hatred flooded her with power as she held the now struggling woman tight, paralysed and hovering in mid-air as Jayna reached into her mind.

“WHAT. ARE. YOU. TALKING. ABOUT!?” she demanded again, her voice taking on a colder, lower timbre as her eyes flashed with rage and power. She could feel the Force swirling around her, the dark energies of Dathomir responding to her call, but she couldn’t bring herself to break free, not yet. Not until she finally understood why. “What did you mean, his agents? Who was hunting me?”

“Your true father…” Malavai choked out, as surprise loosened Jayna’s grip on her, and she breathed a little easier. “Kos might have conceived you with Dreya, but he was never truly alive… he was but a shadow, a puppet of a great evil…”

“No, he was my father. He loved me!” Jayna screamed, as all her newly restored memories crowded into the forefront of her mind. Her father had been a gentle, kind man with floppy auburn hair that never behaved, a toothy grin and laughing eyes that yet seemed strangely ancient.

“Maybe,” Malavai reluctantly conceded, no longer fighting Jayna’s hold as she looked down on her former charge’s trembling, anguished form. “It is better that you do not know…”

“No, I’ve had enough. Ever since I was a child, you’ve manipulated me, you manipulated Cal, you tore us from our families and tried to make us your pawns, and for what? Some god-forsaken prophecy cooked up by some quack thousands of years ago!?” Jayna snarled. “Now tell me! Why did you hate my father? Why did you kill him?”

“Because of his creator,” Malavai shouted out, the words seemingly pulled from her by force, as Jayna stopped and stared, an awful pressure of dread and anticipation building in her chest. “He was created in an unnatural experiment by the Sith Lord who instigated the Clone Wars, who destroyed the Republic and decimated the Jedi Order: Darth Sidious, now the Emperor”

“What?” Jayna breathed, a final gasp of sorrow, agony and turmoil as her fevered, overwhelmed brain refused to understand.

“I did not know it until after the Purge, but it was Sidious, in his guise as Chancellor Palpatine, who manipulated the galaxy into turning against the Jedi.  It was Palpatine who corrupted the Republic into the Empire, it was Palpatine who instigated Order 66, and… it was Palpatine who ordered experiments to find a way to preserve his consciousness after death.”

“No,” Jayna gasped, shaking her head in denial as she stumbled back.

“Yes, Jayna,” Malavai sighed, her voice strained and hoarse by the paralysing forces holding her prisoner. “Kos Raiden was nothing more than a shadow of Palpatine, cloned from his own DNA to further his plans for immortality. In biological terms, in the only way that matters… the Emperor is your biological father. You are the daughter of the Emperor.”

Jayna’s breath stuttered and faltered in her chest, as that focus of pressure hardened into a vortex of pain, disbelief, and rage as Malavai tilted her head back as if in resignation of her fate.

“Look into my mind, see my sincerity. I speak the truth,” she whispered huskily, as Jayna did just that. She was ungentle and rough, unschooled in the technique but Malavai bore it without a wince, as she sifted through the older woman’s memories. Everything she knew became Jayna’s as her mind took the information from hers, unfamiliar memories slotting into place deep in her overloaded mind as Jayna staggered back. “Now you know… the choice is yours, Jayna Shan. It is the will of the Force, and by the will of the Force, you will bring about your father’s destruction.”

In her confrontation with Malavai, Jayna had circled around until she now stood with her back to the path, she had come down from the cliff tops where she’d been separated from Cal and BD. She was only barely cognisant of that fact as all her repressed rage, terror, grief, and anguish at everything that had been revealed built inside her, feeding that vortex until it had no choice but to burst forth.

As if in sympathy for the uncontrolled tremors shaking her exhausted body, the land around them began to shake too, pebbles falling to the ground in sporadic showers, followed by larger boulders as Malavai shouted in alarm.

“JAYNA!”

An insidious, venomous voice spoke in her mind… “Kill her… she deserves it… she took everything from you…KILL HER!”

At the very edges of her hands, running along her palm and fingertips, silver-white lightning gathered as the power in Jayna’s veins coalesced, fed by her rage and despair, and the darkness of Dathomir.

“That’s it… give in… claim the power that is your right! Kill her!”

An anguished scream ripped its way out of Jayna’s throat as she flung her hands out… and blasted the gorge wall with Force lightning, ripping away great chunks as she brought it down between her and Malavai as, with barely a nudge of her mind, she sent the former Jedi Master flying back and away from the landslide as the gorge walls collapsed, burying the corpses of the dead Nightbrothers and the gorge in rock.

Deep within her mind, she found the source of the Force bond between her and Malavai, and ripped it away, hearing the former Jedi Master’s cry of pain at her rough severing of the bond, but it was nothing to the pain in her heart and mind.

An eerie silence fell, punctuated only by the tumbling pitter-pat of stray loose rocks as they fell in the aftershocks as Jayna stumbled back from the carnage she’d wrought and collapsed to her knees.

As she cradled her head in her hands, a terrible, aching scream ripped from her throat, as she poured six years’ worth of confusion, anguish, turmoil, loneliness and heartache into that one drawn-out cry, uncaring of and blind to the danger as her voice echoed around the mountains and in the Force itself.

The creatures of Dathomir heard the cry, and all instinctively knew to flee from it. Dathomir recognised only strength, and only the strong survived: the creatures of Dathomir knew the cry of a wounded predator when they heard it, and they knew such predators were at their most dangerous when they were alone, desperate and in pain.

Jayna screamed until she could scream no more, her voice petering off to a pained moan as she pressed her face into her dirty hands, shaking and cold. But then something began to pierce the fog of her misery and horror, as she felt the Force bond in her head, her tears drying cold on her cheeks.

Cal…

She felt his anguish and grief welling up, the Force bond blazing in her mind even as muffled as it now was due to their forced emotional distance. He was alive but… something had happened.

In that moment, Jayna knew she faced a choice. She could allow her misery to consume her or…she could get up. The world hadn’t ended, she was still alive and…

‘This changes nothing…’ she told herself, sternly trying to convince herself. ‘It means nothing… I am the daughter of Dreya Shan and Kos Raiden… the parents who died to protect me from the machinations of madmen and madwomen. That is who I am.’

At that moment, it felt like nothing more than a comforting lie, but how often did people lie to themselves just to find the strength to put one foot in front of the other? It was a start.

Forcing herself upright, Jayna turned her back on the ruined gorge where her world had been torn in two and backtracked to the fork in the path. With barely a glance or a thought spared for the woman she had left behind, potentially buried under tonnes of rock, Jayna took the right path and pushed her aching, tired body towards the source of the light in her mind.

Cal. She needed to find Cal.

And then… she would find a way to deal with the rest.

To be continued…