OSSUS

FLYING OVER THE K’TUZIAN STRETCH

Kevv followed the Lady of Hope Ascendant first south, then northward over the Stretch, until he came to a giant crack in the ground far below that looked like a massive sinkhole. Parts of Ossus’s surface were littered with these, and he knew from readings that they could be unstable. “Uh, you sure about this, Threepio?”

“Yes, sir. Mistress Namyr’s signal is coming from in there,” said the droid.

Kevv had only just doused the last of the flames and the Dathomirian Curse was rattling like it was going to fall apart, yet she was holding. She rattled even louder when he cut main thrust, and lowered himself to the edge of the sinkhole on repulsors only. “You circle around up top, keep a lookout for that TIE fighter. If it gets close, see if you can ward it off with a few warning shots. My guess is it won’t do much good, but doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Activating bio-scanner.”

The Curse’s scanners went to work overtime. Ossus actually had a considerable amount of life, despite the deserted look to everything. He was picking small reptiles, a few bulbous flowers that gave off an unusually powerful heat signature, clusters of some fungus that grew along the walls in huge, gorgeous spirals, and a group of white-skinned avian creatures that came flying out of the sinkhole, likely startled by his ship’s engines. Some of the smacked up against the viewport and then banked away.

“I don’t see anything giving off vascular signs big enough to be human or Zabrak,” he said. “Threepio? Anything?”

“The TIE has vanished, sir.”

“He’s not gone. Not that one. He’s likely hiding. Pick up visual scanning, have Arfour look for small silhouettes on the horizon, and check the sun.”

“The sun, sir?”

“Yes. It’s still coming up. It’s an old star pilot trick, hide in the sun.”

“Of course, sir. But I must admit my photoreceptors are not the best at—”

“Hang on! I’ve got something here.” Kevv looked at his main sensor screen, which was chiming. He saw silhouettes outlined on the screen. Three of them. One’s energy signature obviously meant a droid, and the other two were slight and feminine, humanoid in shape. He zoomed in. The unknown persons were about three hundred yards down into the sinkhole. His heart sank, he wondered now if these weren’t his people, if Namyr had been captured and somehow forced to use the duress code to summon him into a trap.

Then, suddenly, his commlink crackled. “Kevv? That you?”

“Hey, hey, Namyr! Yeah, it’s me! You made it?”

“You could say that.”

“Where’s our friend?”

A moment of hesitation from Namyr. “I’m afraid he didn’t make it.”

Kevv’s joy was doused. “Then who’s with you?”

“Couple of friends we found down below, they helped us reach…whatever it was we were supposed to reach. But something tells me Ageless isn’t going to let the Empire get to it. He stayed behind to defend it, and to give us a chance to escape.”

“Dank ferrik!” Kevv said a quick Duros prayer his hatch mother had taught him. “Okay, then. We can mourn later. We need to get outta here. Fast. The Empire’s pulling out of the system, but there’s at least one TIE out here hellbent on making sure we never leave.”

“They’re pulling out? Why?”

“I’ll explain everything once we get you out. Do you need me to lower down to you?”

“Negative. If you scraped the edge of the sinkhole, you could bring the whole thing down on us. We’ve got ascension cables. We’re headed up to you, just sit tight. Won’t take a few minutes.”

“Uh, we may not have a few minutes,” said Kevv, checking his sensors. “Threepio and Arfour brought the Ascendant, and they’re currently patrolling higher up, looking for Imps. This is going to be a hot exit.”

“Is there another kind?”

Kevv chuckled. “Not for us, it seems.”

“Excuse me, Master Kevv?” came Threepio’s voice.

“Hang on, Namyr, I’m patching you in with the Ascendant.” He flipped two switches. “Go ahead, Threepio. I’ve got Namyr on the line, she can hear you. Ageless isn’t with her, but…we’ll take what we can get. He stayed behind.”

“He chose to stay behind,” said Namyr. “For us. He gave us the order to get the blazes out of here, and that’s what we’re going to do. Let’s not waste his sacrifice.”

“That is…unfortunate.” There was a note of sadness in the protocol droid’s voice, and Kevv could hear Arfour give a solemn moan in the background. “As it stands, we found your friend, and he was indeed using the rising sun to hide his silhouette, keeping low to the ground to minimize his radar signature. He’s about thirty seconds from weapons range, but I daresay he’s more skilled at this sort of thing than either myself or Arfour.”

“Uh, Namyr, can you make it here in thirty seconds?”

“We’re trying, Kevv,” she said. And he saw their three silhouettes start to swing around on infrared imaging, their ascension cables firing and pulling them up the sinkhole’s walls, level by level. “We’re doing the best we can!”

“Threepio, you’re gonna have to hold him off on your own. You don’t have to engage him. Let him get close, then put all power to shields and lead him on a chase, take a parabola course around the sinkhole. If it works, he’ll only chase you a few seconds before he turns back to us. He’ll just need to chase you away the sinkhole, then he’ll come back for us, because we’ll look like sitting mynocks—”

“But, sir, you want me to leave you all behind?”

“You and Arfour get clear. Save yourselves if you can. If we make it through this, we’ll find you.”

“Where?”

Kevv quickly thought of a random spot on his homeworld. Duro had been ravaged by toxic waste and centuries of over-industrialization, but his people made homes in gigantic city-stations in orbit above the planet. “Kang’trophi. It’s an orbital shipyard above Duro. Go there and we’ll find you. If you don’t hear from us soon…find some of your old Rebel contacts if you can. Tell them we stopped the Empire from reaching whatever it was they wanted here. Now hurry! Get the blazes out of here!”

“Good luck, sir, ma’am,” said Threepio, and the Ascendant pulled away, flying even higher in a wide arc. “And may the Force be with you both. If you happen to speak to Master Ageless ever again, tell him it was a pleasure. He was a good man, misunderstood, doing the best he could in this confusing galaxy. As we all are.”

Kevv looked at his comms. It was a surprisingly deep and thoughtful response from a droid, not merely a perfunctory goodbye or pleasantry. “Will do, buddy.”

Then, he watched as overhead the TIE came streaking out of nowhere, and chased the Ascendant high into orbit. After only a few seconds, it turned and headed back towards the ground.

“Namyr?”

“Yeah?”

“Better hurry.”

“We’re almost there.”

“I mean it! Hurry!”

“Almost there!”

* * *

BENEATH MOUNT GUJAHHL

A bit of dust fell from the ceiling and splashed across Ageless’s bloodied horns. He glanced again at the human woman, still lying on the ground, still very much unconscious but occasionally muttering something under her breath. Ageless looked back at his former handler. “I’m not interested in stories right now, Ether,” he said, aiming the tips of both his blaster and lightsaber at his enemy. “Right now, I’d settle for a simple way out. But I know you won’t let that happen. And so we both die here. So, let’s get to it, what do you say?”

If Ether felt threatened, he didn’t show it. “You’ll want to hear this story, Ageless, I assure you.”

“Why?”

“Context. I may just change a few things about our situation here.” Ether spun the double-bladed lightsaber casually and paced around Ageless. “The story Palpatine told this Jedi was, on the surface, quite ordinary, quite whimsical and plain. But then I told myself, ‘Nothing Palpatine ever did was without design, without some sort of long-term goal in mind.’ And so, he told this Jedi a story about someone named Darth Plagueis, someone who could create life by manipulating the midi-chlorians. He was apparently looking for a way to cheat death, to prolong his own life, perhaps. ‘Now,’ I said to myself at the time, because I think you’ll agree I’m a very astute and observant fellow, if nothing else, ‘how would Palpatine know the story of a Sith that not even a Jedi Knight had heard of? Was he just lying?’ It didn’t have the sound of a lie, there would be no point to it, even if so. So how did he know this story? And why tell it to Anakin Skywalker?”

Ageless tried to suppress his shock. He wondered if Ether even knew what he’d just said. Anakin Skywalker? He never said the Jedi at the opera was Luke Skywalker’s father. As far as Ageless knew, only he, Yoda, and Luke Skywalker himself knew that Darth Vader was in fact Anakin Skywalker. He kept calm, listening, reaching out to the Force to try and gauge if Ether was making this story up, trying to stall him.

“But then I realized what Palpatine was doing in that opera house,” said Ether. “He was trying to turn Skywalker, who, as far as records show, died sometime during the Jedi Purge, one of thousands simply erased overnight. So, did Palpatine need a disciple? Was Palpatine speaking about something true when he spoke of Darth Plagueis, someone real?”

“I’ll bet you have all sorts of theories,” Ageless said.

“Palpatine wrapped up his story by saying that Plagueis was killed in his sleep by his own apprentice, after he’d taught his apprentice everything he knew. Unfortunately,” he sighed, “the recording had suffered some decay, and much of what was said afterwards is lost. The recording ends with Skywalker asking if it was possible to learn Plagueis’s power of cheating death, to which Palpatine replied, ‘Not from a Jedi.’ Now, how would he know that?”

Ageless shrugged. “I don’t follow.”

“Think, Ageless. I’ve just told you that the Muun named Hego Damask II vanished after mentoring young Sheev Palpatine for many years. Damask Holdings inherited the Faith-index, a method by which a person can forecast future political and social climates, and that the index was given regularly over to the Emperor. Palpatine tells a Jedi about a Sith Lord no one’s ever heard of, and, if he’s any good at sensing one’s emotions, he must’ve known what he was offering to the Jedi. Hope. Hope for life eternal. Or perhaps life for someone Skywalker cared for? Who knows? And, as it happens, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I think Palpatine believed this story.”

“You’re still not making any sense.”

“What is the best kind of lie, Ageless?” posed Ether. “It is a complex lie? A simple one? No. The best lie is the one that is wrapped inside a truth. That’s because if you tell a lie with even an ounce of truth to it, it’s easier to believe it yourself, and the other person will have a harder time sensing the deception within you. You think a master manipulator like Palpatine didn’t know this? You think he was just spinning pure bantha fodder?”

Ageless shook his head, still not getting it. Then, it dawned on him, slowly, and a fountain of understanding cascaded over him. “Wait, are you suggesting…that Palpatine was the apprentice in the story, the one who killed this Plagueis?”

“Yes.”

“You’re saying Darth Plagueis was a Sith who lived in Palpatine’s lifetime?”

“Yes, but think further. Further back. The Sith were supposedly wiped out, destroyed themselves ages ago. Isn’t that what the histories teach?”

Ageless shrugged. “I suppose.”

“So, how would they have survived, and what would it take to keep such a secret, to hide the presence of a host of Sith living in secret, down through the centuries? What would it take? You’ve been tapped into the Force a while now, it seems, you know what sort of power it wields. Imagine masters such as the Jedi Council, each one with power far greater than yours. How could they have not sensed a legion of Sith living in secret for over a millennia, when you and I felt the death of just one, thousands of light-years away? Think carefully, now.”

Ageless couldn’t help but feel intrigued. If Ether was in fact lying, he couldn’t sense it. Though, that might only prove his point about lies hidden within truths. The man could easily been weaving partial truths into his lie. Still, Ageless’s mind reached a conclusion. “They would have been found. Dozens or hundreds of Sith wielding such power for a thousand years…someone would’ve seen them, found their training grounds, sensed them. One of the Sith would’ve slipped up, accidentally exposed their power in public.” He paused. “Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless there weren’t hundreds of them.”

“Because Palpatine said Plagueis was killed by ‘his apprentice.’ Singular. Not ‘apprentices.’ Only one. Just one.”

For a moment, Ageless stretched out with the Force to try and sense any deception. If it was there, he couldn’t feel it, though that sort of power wasn’t exactly what he’d focused on in his Force training.

He used deductive reasoning. Assuming everything Ether was saying was true, assuming none of it was even exaggerated…

“Vader is a Sith. Palpatine is his master. That’s just two. And at Cloud City, I heard Vader tell Skywalker that if they joined forces, they could destroy the Emperor, and take over the Empire together, the two of them ruling the galaxy as…” Father and son. Ageless didn’t tell that part to Ether. If the man hadn’t yet guessed Vader was Anakin Skywalker, let that stay a secret for now. “That means Vader was thinking of killing his master and taking on his own apprentice.” Ageless looked over at Ether. “Just one apprentice.”

“I’d heard the rumors that Vader could be…occasionally stiff with the Emperor,” said Ether. “But I’d never heard of this sort of treachery. Are you sure you heard correctly? Are you certain he offered Skywalker—?”

“One apprentice. One master.” Ageless’s mind had already moved on without Ether’s input. His thoughts moved rapidly, connecting this information. “They didn’t exist by the hundreds, no. Not even the dozens.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“No. I think not.”

“They existed just a few at a time, down through the centuries. Maybe…maybe only one or two at a time. As a rule.”

“Yes.”

“Stars above and below. Plagueis was Palpatine’s master.”

“Yes. An order of two, living their lives in secret for hundreds of years, passing on knowledge, gathering new knowledge on the Dark Side as they went, accruing new skills, making connections with the IGBC and passing them on to their apprentices, who then became the masters, inheriting the Faith-index, and, I imagine, investments, credits and properties, contacts and resources, all to be passed down, bequeathed in wills to the next apprentice in line.”

“Stars above…they could’ve spent centuries gathering resources, funding. Buying favors, connections—”

“Until at last they reached the culmination of all their hard work. Sheev Palpatine, Sith ascendant to the throne that ruled over all the galaxy. A galaxy that the Sith had fought and failed to control, thanks to the Jedi.”

“He undid them. They undid them. They undid the Jedi, slowly and meticulously.” Ageless tried to imagine such a long-lasting conspiracy, the dedication it would take. “Countless Sith, carrying out an operation over dozens of lifetimes, slowly undermining the Jedi.” Gods below! Think of the iron will. Think of the commitment. Think of the sheer tenacity and drive it would take, knowing you wouldn’t see the work done in your lifetime, and passing on the mission to your successor.

“Now think of all that knowledge, Ageless. All those resources. Like the Faith-index, it must be squirrelled away somewhere. Imagine all the knowledge of the Force that they gathered, unfettered by the Jedi Code, unrestrained from any ethics committees or politicians telling them to hold back, to stifle their research—”

“What are you asking me, Ether?”

“Asking?”

“Yes. What is this?”

Ether switched off both ends of his lightsaber, and said, “The Emperor is dead, Ageless. I came here to kill you but now…now things have changed. If he’s dead, then all those centuries of knowledge are stored somewhere. And I believe I know where.”

Ageless lifted an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“There is a vault on Muunlinst, my sources tell me Palpatine kept what is called a Legacy Account there. The Muuns only allow the richest of clients to make such an account, and it is kept in secret. Legacy Accounts are strictly off-the-books, they don’t even admit to it publicly. Credits stored, bonds, possibly jewels, books, historical artifacts, and information. All stored in massive underground safety-deposit boxes. Legacy Accounts can be paid for in advance, millions of credits just to have the luxury of keeping a single Legacy Account. And a Legacy Account is held by the IGBC forever—literally passed down from one generation of IGBC board members to another, like state secrets. That’s where some of Palpatine’s lineage likely kept some of their knowledge stored, objects and information that increased their power over the Dark Side. That’s what he was doing here on Ossus, I think. Looking for yet more Jedi or Sith artifacts. And I sense one such artifact is near—”

“I’m not giving it to you.”

“I didn’t say you had to—”

“And I’m not turning.”

“What? What do you—?”

“Please. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? The Kingdom trained us to finesse people, and to know when we’re the ones being finessed. You’re trying to offer me power, hoping I’ll go with you.”

“The Emperor is dead, Ageless. We both felt it just now. So did she!” He pointed at the woman. “She was the Emperor’s pet, codenamed Jade. I expect he taught her much. Probably their close connection has forced this trauma on her.” He looked back at Ageless hopefully. “It’s a whole new world, Ageless. A new galaxy of opportunity. Men like us can take advantage of the chaos that is about to follow. Let us salvage what we can while there’s confusion, while the continuity of government is in question—”

“You’ll kill me.”

“What?”

“That’s how this ends, Ether. Or haven’t you been listening to your own story? Palpatine killed Plagueis. You said he killed his master in his sleep. And Vader was committed to killing Palpatine and raising up Luke Skywalker to be his apprentice. You see a pattern here? Or do you hope I’m not seeing it?”

“Ageless, I’m talking about wealth and immortality here—”

“Why was there only ever two Sith?” Ageless mused. “If you and I are right, if our theory we’ve worked out here is absolutely correct, then anyone seeking this kind of power in the presence of another will, by definition, and by pure nature, ultimately kill the other. It is inevitable. The Sith didn’t ‘pass on’ anything willingly, you idiot. If this theory is correct then my guess is they murdered each other, and the murdering apprentice thought that he or she was to be the one ruling the galaxy. Then they raised up an apprentice of their own, and was also murdered by an overly ambitious maniac. And they kept doing this until at last Palpatine actually achieved the goal.”

The chamber remained still. The only light now came from Ageless’s blue lightsaber beam.

“Whether you kill me now or after we secured the Legacy Account, it’s all the same, except if I kill you here, if we both die, then there’s no one to seize Palpatine’s legacy.”

“Wrong,” said Ether, taking a slow step forward. “Someone will reach it. Someone, somewhere, will find that Legacy Account and make use of it.”

“Then I reckon I had better get to it first, and destroy the Sith legacy before they can use it.”

“This is your decision? Think carefully, Ageless, because this is your only chance at power inconceivable to all mortal creatures. You and I…we can get the secure the Legacy Account together.”

“I reckon I can do it without you.”

“Not alone.”

“You’d be surprised what I’m capable of now. And,” he added, “I won’t be alone.”

“This is your decision?”

Ageless took a deep breath, and centered himself in the Force. “Yeah. It is.”

The Voice of Ether sneered. “So be it.” The twin red beams flashed back on. “And here I was hoping you would see reason.”

“So happy to disappoint you.”

When Ether leapt at him, Ageless shuffle-stepped sideways, stutter-stepped around him, and blocked the first barrage of attacks. He fired his blaster once at Ether’s left artificial leg, then at the center of his chest. Ether deflected each bolt, and Ageless parried the next several hits, keeping the blaster in his hand, but at this point it was empty and he could only hope that Ether didn’t know that. He kept feinting with the pistol, looking for his openings, getting close to connect their blades and slap Ether’s forearm to move it, but always Ether recovered expertly, deflecting with one blade before spinning the other around to attack.

Ether shot out one hand and used the Force to create a wall of invisible energy that slammed into Ageless’s whole body. The wind left him, he fell over, onto his back, rolled backward, sprang back up, and summoned the stoic flame just in time—the green wave of energy crashed into Ether’s chest with such intensity it ripped open his armor and slashed his flesh.

Roaring, the human came at him, the double-bladed lightsaber spinning like a propeller, slicing up bits of the floor and sending shrapnel into Ageless’s eyes. Ageless shut his eyes, danced away, bumped up against a half-crumbled statue that fell over and dived out of the way, rolling across the floor. Back on his feet, he took another hit from a Force wave, recovered, defended another attack from the enemy’s saber. He flung his blaster into Ether’s face, cracking his nose and surprising him. Ageless head-butted him, front-kicked him to gain some space, and tried to go on the offensive but the enemy’s twin blades spun with dizzying speed. No sooner did he defend the attack from one blade than the other came around to slash at him—

Ageless’s unique style was refined enough to defend against such an onslaught for a short time, but he now saw that there were gaps in his offense that he needed to refine. Too late for that. He had to improvise.

Weaving between Makashi and Ataru techniques, he alternated between heavy defense and elegant, acrobatic moves, trying to confuse his enemy. He was able to maneuver close to the stone slab at the far side of the room. But Ageless was getting tired, getting pushed into a corner, so he blended Echani and Teräs Kasi footwork to create more unpredictable lines of attack, switching hands, even using the simple Udas’mon technique of a well-timed spit into the enemy’s eye.

All this erratic activity gave only temporary reprieve from the storm of attacks, and so he knew this was it. He had no tricks left.

Well, perhaps one.

The loud whine from earlier had signaled that the machine was ready. It was ancient, but it may still work. He maneuvered closer to the stone slab, ducking another spinning attack from Ether, and then Ageless flipped the switch on the side of the slab, to finish the cycle.

Suddenly, the room was filled with cold steam, which hissed out of the vents in thick clouds and swirled around them. Ageless sensed Ether’s mild surprise, but his enemy recovered quickly and gave him no quarter, he just kept coming.

Ageless went for broke. He summoned up another stoic flame, this one in the shape of a large crystal shard, about the size of a dagger. It surprised even him that he could focus the green, roiling energy into such a weapon. It happened instinctively, as if drudged from some ancestral memory. He used the green-glowing blade in his offhand to parry, and circled Ether. The blue blade of his lightsaber and the green light of his stoic blade created a strange glow against the roiling steam.

Ether looked uncertain. Then, he attacked, spinning his blades faster and screaming, trying to break through Ageless’s new defenses. At last, he struck so hard that the stoic blade shattered. Green shards went everywhere, and the green light was doused.

Ageless kept at him. Instead of backpedaling, he launched himself forward, locking blades and using his empty hand to grip Ether’s left wrist, keeping him from being able to spin away to attack again. With their blades locked in the bind, Ageless pressed his shin next to Ether’s lead ankle, performed a shin-press, reaped his foot, and when Ether was off-balance, he shoulder-butted his enemy, then raked the man’s face with his horns—

Ether broke free, screaming, enraged, and swung wildly out at Ageless—

And sliced off Ageless’s left hand at the wrist.

Ageless ground his teeth, focusing, fighting off the fog of shock and disorientation at having just lost a limb—for he still held his saber in his right hand, and found his opening and drove his blade through Ether’s right leg. Sparks shot from the cybernetic appendage, and it came away. Ether teetered on one leg, and Force-pushed Ageless so hard he fell to the floor, knocking his head against stone. Ether fell over, and tried to crawl at him—

And Ageless rose to his knees in time to deflect the first blow, then, before he even knew what he was doing, he instinctively summoned up another stoic blade. Even though he was missing his left hand, the stoic blade materialized there, floating where his hand ought to be, and, in one last desperate move, he drove it through the human’s neck.

Ether stared at him, eyes wide and shocked, like a man who hadn’t seen this coming at all, and was astonished by the turnabout. He glared balefully at Ageless for a time. Then, slowly, Ether’s face slackened. He slumped, fell over onto his back, and dropped his lightsaber. The saber clattered the floor, and the dead-man switch forced the twin blades to turn off.

Ageless knelt there, panting. The only light source was that of his blue blade. The cold steam still came from various ancient vents all around him, making it nearly impossible to see.

He looked over at his left wrist, where his flesh sizzled, where his hand had once been. It was an icy-hot sort of sting, but not terribly painful. The cauterization created a temporary numbing effect. If he got out of here fast—

Just then, a red blade ignited above his head.

He spun, and saw the woman back on her feet, her eyes crazed. She stood over him, mad, envenomed eyes cast down at him. “I don’t know…how you did it…” she mumbled, mouth still foaming. “But this…is your…last…” She began a downward stroke, and moved to behead him.

Suddenly a long, tenebrous object shot out of the coils of steam. The tentacle was serpentine, slithering, and strong. It wrapped around the woman’s neck, lifted her bodily off the ground, and flung her across the room. Ageless quickly forced himself to his feet, and watched as the woman tried to charge him. But she froze, as if hit by an invisible wall or stun weapon, body rigid. Slowly, she was lifted off the ground, higher and higher, simply levitating by an unseen force, then, she was gently lowered back to the floor, where she went unconscious.

Ageless quickly hooked his lightsaber to his belt, then bent to pick up Ether’s lightsaber. He took one last look at the Voice of Ether, his master all this time, then turned and walked over to the woman. She was still breathing. Ageless left her, and followed the long, leathery tentacle that was lying on the floor. He followed it all the way to its host.

“Jedi Master Ooroo,” he said, standing over the Celegian he’d awoken. Moments before Ether and the woman had come down here, Ageless had used the carbonite slab’s controls to prep for de-freezing, all he needed to do was hit the final switch to free the Celegian. It was a contingency plan, a setup for a last-minute backup plan should he need it. It appeared he had. “My name is…Furic,” Ageless said, using a name he’d not used in a long, long time. “I’m sorry to wake you from your slumber, but I’m afraid a lot’s changed since you went inside, and I needed some help to keep your secret, well…secret.”

The large, squid-like entity lay on the ground, his many tentacles spiraling out across the cold stone floor. It had no obvious eyes. Celegians were rare in the galaxy, few of them left anywhere, and so Ageless didn’t know the exact biology or mechanics of their sensory organs. But the Celegian seemed to hear him. In fact, it spoke from an old translator collar fastened to its side, which miraculously still worked, even if it was a little glitchy. “Have we…zznnnzzzzz…won? Have the Jedi…nnnzzzzz…defeated…nnnzzz…the Sith? Is it over yet?”

Ageless knelt by Master Ooroo’s side. Laid a hand on one of its appendages. “You can rest, old fellow. Yes. It would appear it’s over. It’s all over. You finally won the war. Today, in fact. Just moments ago.”

Then Ageless sensed something, a wave of energy running through him, tickling his mind. The Jedi was searching him for any artifice, any deception at all. Then, Ooroo said, “At…nzzzz…last. It is done. It is…nnnnzzzzzz…done. My task…my task…nnnnnzzz…my task is…”

“Yes, Master.” In years past, Ageless would have felt no special connection to this being, but now they shared some sort of bond. A bond in the Force, even if their interpretations of it and uses were probably very different. And the Jedi was a soldier, like him, one meant to perform a mission, and ultimately left to go at it solo, to find his own way to do what was right. So why not refer to him as Master? Give him that much. If this wasn’t a Master, then who was?

Ageless admired and respected the commitment the Celegian had demonstrated. And, if Ether’s theory was correct, and there had indeed been a massive conspiracy by Sith down through the ages, then perhaps it was poetic that this quiet sacrifice, in the bottom of a deep, dark cave, was also a Jedi conspiracy that undid all that evil. Two by two, the Sith had lived, down through the ages. And it had been two Jedi that had just undone them all.

And he did sense through the Force that Skywalker had somehow played a part in Palpatine’s end. Elsewhere, there would be celebrations, the Jedi hailed as a hero. But down here on a forgotten world, in a cold, empty cave, the war between Jedi and Sith had ended where it began, and the victors would be unceremoniously left to rot in darkness.

“Are you…nnnzznnnnzzzz…a Jedi?”

Ageless sat down beside the Celegian, keeping the lightsaber on so that they had some light. “No,” he said, looking at his cauterized wrist. “I’m just a student of the arts.”

“But I saw you…fighting…nnnzzzzz…those bathed in the Dark Side.”

“Dathomiri magick,” Ageless said. “And a bit of the Jedi arts, too, passed down.”

“Where are…the others?”

“There are no others. You’re it. Well, I guess there may be one or two more. But the Jedi and the Sith…both of their orders are gone. You’re the last of what truly was.”

“Then it cannot…nnnnzzzzzz…be the last. It was destiny that we met. We cannot…nnnnzzz…waste it.”

Ageless climbed slowly back to his feet, wincing at a slight tug of pain from his amputated hand. He walked over to the slab, which had a giant, Celegian-shaped hole in it. The carbonite container’s controls were written in strange script, some of it he could read, and it all indicated something bad. “I…I’m sorry. It seems there’s not enough power to re-freeze you. I…I can’t put you back inside. I’m sorry.”

“It is fine. I go now…nnnnzzzz…to the netherworld…if it does indeed exist. But you,” Master Ooroo said, lifting one of his tentacles and pointing, with the very last of his strength. “You cannot die here.”

“I’m afraid I don’t really have any more ways out, Master. I’ve exhausted all my luck.”

The tentacle pointed down a passage. “That chamber. If it is still there. Go down two hundred…nnnnnzzzz…meters. You’ll see a statue of a Bothan Jedi…nnnnzzzzz…Kur’tarbi, the Auger, my old friend. In his study, locked in the vault…nnnnzzzz…you will find it.”

“Find what?”

“The Dark Holocron. Take it.

Ageless shook his head. “Dark Holocron?”

“There is knowledge there…nnnnzzzz…that must not be lost. The works of two Force-users…nnnnzzzzz…one a Sith, and one a Jedi, both alchemists and researchers, and both lovers, working in conjunction behind both their Orders’ backs. If there are truly…nnnnzzzzzzz…no more Jedi left, then I must trust in the Force that you were sent here to preserve what I…nnzz…no longer can.”

“I’m afraid that neither of us are leaving here alive. I have no way out, I’ve told you. There will be Imperials on the way—those are the bad guys these days, since you probably don’t know.” He winced. “And my injuries…it doesn’t bode well. I believe we die here. Two strangers. Two soldiers at the end of our final mission.”

“That…zzznnzzz…may not be so. If you can make it to the Auger’s tomb, and through his vault…nnnzzzz…then you may yet use the passage there, if it hasn’t collapsed.”

“Passage? What passage?”

“The vault is made of cortosis, so your lightsaber will not work. But…nnnnzzzzzzz…I have the code.” With sudden speed and alacrity, the tips of each tentacle began scribbling into the dust that lay on the floor all around him. “Memorize it well…nnnnzzzzzz…and never return here. My spirit will now take up the duty of watch, for what good…nnnzzz…it will do. Tell no one what else I guard down here.”

Ageless chuckled grimly. “I don’t even think I know what else you have down here.”

“Then let us…nnnnzzzz…keep it that way. Goodbye, Furic. And thank you for helping me…nnnzz…complete my…nnnnzzz…mission. May the Force…nnzzzz…be with you.”

“And with—”

Then, something happened that made Ageless believe that he had imagined the entire encounter, that he may in fact be dead or delusional. The Celegian simply vanished. There was the briefest gust of an invisible current, which pushed much of the steam away, revealing more of the numbers the Celegian had etched on the floor. And where the Celegian had been, there was naught but dust.

Still wondering if he was in a dream, he turned to leave, never daring to hope that the Celegian had been right about a way out. Then, he heard mumbling. He turned and saw the human woman lying on the ground. She was still alive, but barely. He considered leaving her behind.

Suddenly, something Ether had said moments ago returned to him: He said she was Palpatine’s “pet.” Several things fell into place in that moment. If everything Ether had said was true, then she might have been Palpatine’s next apprentice in line. He could have been grooming her to become the one to succeed Vader. What did he say her name was…?

“Jade,” Ageless said, kneeling beside her and scooping up her lightsaber, adding it to his belt. “Jade?” He checked her vitals. Very low. She was not doing well.

I could leave her. Taking her with me is dangerous, but…

But she might know if there was any truth to Ether’s story about a Legacy Account. More, she might know how to secure it. If she truly was Palpatine’s “pet,” then why waste this potential intel goldmine?

Knelt beside her, he vacillated between leaving her and taking her. Then, almost hating himself for taking the risk, he awkwardly pulled her over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry, the stump of his left hand protesting all the while.

Then, he turned and headed down the chamber Master Ooroo had indicated. If he hurried, he might just catch a ride out of here.

If the Force was with him.