Abattoir/Part 15

Alecto was ready for anything except what she found.

The rock sealed above her, and she advanced through a muggy, misty tunnel. She could sense It was here, waiting for her; somehow It had gotten ahead of her and come to challenge her, or lay in wait for her to challenge It. Alecto pressed on without fear; Vandak had survived whatever was coming, and nothing the Abattoir could throw at her would be worse than what she had endured.

She staggered around a corner into a cavern and came face-to-face with Tirien Kal-Di.

He stood a few meters away, hands clasped in front of his body, watching her with that look of mingled frustration and regret that was as haunting as it was maddening. Alecto shifted her feet into a combat stance, drawing the lightsaber she found on her belt and dropping back into an automatic guard position. The Pantoran Knight studied her with narrowed eyes, shaking his head.

"Can you do nothing but kill?" he demanded.

"You have no idea what I've done!" Alecto spat. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Oh, but I do, Alecto," he said, and he sounded as though he mourned the knowledge.

Alecto leapt for him, but he drew the curved-hilt lightsaber from his belt and his green blade snap-hissed to life to meet her attacks. She used the terrain to her advantage, skipping side-to-side and coming at him from a variety of angles. He spun to meet her every attack one-handed, shaking his head still.

"Stop that!" she snapped, cutting at his throat.

He dodged back out of reach. "You don't need to do this, Alecto."

"Darth Alecto."

"Are you? Are you really?"

Alecto stared, but Tirien did not capitalize on her moment of distraction. Instead he retreated and deactivated his blade. Alecto advanced, but his indifference made her wary. "You're going to need more than words to beat me, Consular."

"I don't have to defeat you, Alecto," he said, gesturing with his off hand. "She'll do that."

Alecto turned in time to see a second hooded Jedi emerge from behind a rock; how had this escaped her notice? Alecto reoriented her guard as the Jedi advanced. She had a slimmer, more feminine build. "Narasi?" How long had she been down in the Abattoir? "Little Padawan all grown up?"

As if in answer, the female Jedi drew a blue blade. Its plasma light didn't touch her face, and soon she was attacking so quickly that Alecto had no time to worry about it. They danced around one another, slashing and cutting, springing around the terrain and buying every meter of ground with a dozen attacks and blocks. Her style was fast and disturbingly familiar, and Alecto found herself stymied in an entirely different way.

"Strike her down," Tirien urged. "Kill her and be done with it."

Which one of them was he talking to? Alecto had the strangest impression it was her. They fought on as sweat poured down Alecto's face and her enemy came on implacably, responding to her every attack, working around her every defense, anticipating her with eerie certainty. Alecto threw herself back, exhausted.

The hooded female Jedi waited, blade held in a mirror of Alecto's guard, and Tirien came to her side. He whispered in her ear but looked at Alecto as he said, "How long will you keep fighting like this? One of you has to win eventually; or do you want me to settle this?"

Alecto was hard-pressed against either of them; she couldn't take them both at once. With a scream she charged, and Tirien skipped back at the female Jedi met her attack. They clashed once, twice, thrice…anger drove Alecto on, refusal to let this nameless Jedi defeat her, refusal to back down when she had come this far and sacrificed this much…

The Jedi raised her blade for a killing stroke and Alecto stabbed her through the chest. Behind her, Tirien closed his eyes, clutching his chest too. As the dead woman fell, Alecto strode toward Kal-Di to strike him down before he could resume his defense, but the female Jedi hit the ground and her hood was knocked back from her red hair. Alecto glanced down and saw the dull reflection in her violet eyes, the three black arrowheads tattooed into her green flesh…

She blinked and the body was gone. Kal-Di was gone. Alecto's hand held no lightsaber. Her ankle shook and her finger was swollen and her lower back was a blaze of ache. There was only the dark of the cave.

And It spoke to her and called her by name.

It did not call her Alecto. It called the name of a scared little girl from Mirial, the name Alecto had killed nineteen years before along with the friend she had trusted. Alecto's eyes widened.

Why are you here?

Alecto swallowed the lump out of her throat. "I seek mastery of the Brotherhood of Shadows."

''Worthless one. You can not even master yourself.''

"I've come this far!" Alecto snarled. "I've done what even Azeroth couldn't do."

''As if that creature could command my loyalty. He was unfit to even come before me.''

"Vandak passed your test. I can too."

''Darth Vandak was of a single mind and purpose, utter commitment. You are weak and vulnerable to temptation.''

"Lies. I was weak when I was that girl, not now.  Not ever again."

What is the Brotherhood to you then, mighty one? It mocked her.

"A tool, as everything else is," Alecto replied. She drew the vibroblade from her belt. "The knife I'll drive into the heart of the Republic."

''Government. Meaningless. The empty trappings of civilization in which lesser beings cloak themselves because they fear me—they fear what waits beyond the glow of their false Light.''

"The Republic is the shield of the Jedi," Alecto answered. "Destroy the Republic and orphan the Jedi."

The Jedi existed before the Republic, and their fire will burn when the ashes of the Republic have been extinguished to the last ember.

"Unless I snuff it out."

The cave rang with laughter that had no voice from a presence that had no soul. ''Arrogant one. You alone will destroy the Jedi Order?''

"No—I'll do it with the Brotherhood."

Alecto felt It watching her, analyzing her. ''Would you dare this final trial then, bold one? Would you see my Heart for yourself? The drumbeat of destruction that rang when the Rakata first crawled from their swamps and made the galaxy mine? The blaze that turned heroes into conquerors and burned worlds and civilizations in its flame? That whisper to a little girl that her friend forever stood between her and the destiny that was hers by right? I am always and forever; my thirst is not slaked, my hunger not sated, my need never satisfied. Will you be as I am, bold one? Will your Heart beat with mine?''

Alecto spread her feet, ignoring the pain in her ankle, bracing herself. "Show me."

She saw It, and It saw every part of her.

She had never been so terrified; she had never been so inspired.

She had never been so violated; she had never been so empowered.

She had never been so repulsed; she had never been so enamored.

She saw and she saw and she saw. Her chest ached and she felt It burning her, reaching into her, invading her and making her strong…

And the door opened.

Alecto walked through into the Temple of Shadows, and a terrific pain flashed through the back of her head.