LOTF: Resurgence/Chapter 6

Yula Ardinn looked out the window of the Fortune Destroyer's cockpit, gazing at the reddish-pinkish planet of Dathomir below. Yula had hoped she would never need to come to Dathomir. She'd had more than enough trouble with the Nightsisters already, and it was really Mother Talzin's fault that everything since Umbara had taken place. Yula felt the darkness of the planet already creeping towards her, whispering to her from far away, doing its best to bring back pains and fears Yula had buried long ago. Ganner had wrote about this place in his journals, his own wariness of the place mirroring what she felt now. However, Ganner had also written that the Nightsisters who served Talzin recognized him as a survivor of the Binding through some sort of imprint in the Force. He had gone to Talzin in a time of need to find an enemy, and now Yula's needs were the same. Still, she didn't like it.

Yula hadn't been surprised either to learn that Ganner's journals had been left untouched on Carlac since his burial. From what she'd been told and what she'd seen of the Death Watch that had attacked his village, Ganner had fallen far since his times as a Jedi. He wasn't quite as stable as he seemed. Though he had always fought for good, he had less resistance to the sway of the Dark Side than he was willing to admit. Galen had been concerned that the contents of his journal might hide dark secrets the group was better off not knowing, and they ultimately decided to leave it alone in the now-hidden cave Ganner and Galen had lived in. Upon returning they hadn't read the whole thing, just what Ganner had experienced on Dathomir, which had been the beginning of the journal. The journal carried on with warnings and visions for some time (premonitions of the duels with Xux and Massikus, of a sun being eclipsed, and a man cloaked in shadow sitting on a throne), but Ganner had mentioned something different of great importance- he had learned the Binding from Talzin.

"We're just about ready," Cade spoke in the pilot's seat beside Yula, breaking her off from her train of thought. He turned to her. "Do you sense something wrong? I can't shake this notion that I'm not meant to be here."

"Yes, I do." She responded. "The Nightsisters are among the most corrupt forces that exist in our Galaxy. You must be careful not to give into their influence. It will cloud your judgment, and destroy that which you love."

"The dark side..." He thought for a moment. "Is that what I feel?"

The possibility intrigued Yula. Could Cade be Force Sensitive?

"It is. Fight it."

He met her eyes with his own, the light of the ship reflecting on the blue in his irises. "I will," he vowed.

Yula felt the bump of the ship landing on the ground, and got up from her seat. She quickly double checked that she had her lightsaber on her, and that the comlink she had hid under her ear was there and active. As she walked out towards the exit ramp, she whispered. "Ranulph, I'm going."

"Understood."

She walked past Hans, Praxon, and Asura, who were all looking at her nervously. Yula suspected the darkness of the planet was also affecting them slightly. She looked through a doorway at Qorbin; DX-245 was still monitoring him, and he was recovering, but he had not regained consciousness yet. "Yula, are you sure about this?" Hans asked.

"What other choice do we have?"

The ramp opened and she descended it, pulling the hood of her brown robe over her head. As Yula's feet touched the ground of Dathomir, the ramp immediately raised back up behind her, leaving her alone to find Talzin. She walked forward into the deep fog, which glowed with the red ambiance of the planet's sky. Immediately she felt herself overtaken by a chilly wind, the breeze of which reverberated in the silent mists.

She reached out in the Force, but the dark side clouded everything here; she could barely make out the direction in which a familiar presence called to her: Talzin. Yula drew her lightsaber but did not ignite it as she made her way into the dark red fog, silhouettes of vines and rocks cropping up every so often to remind her that she was indeed still on Dathomir and not lost in an infinite void.

Yula felt herself getting lost in time as she approached closer to Talzin's looming presence, until suddenly she felt the ripple of an oncoming danger. Instinctively, she ducked, and a pink Nightsister's arrow flew over her head. Yula activated her bright yellow lightsaber and continued to dive deeper into her connection to the Force, preparing for the battle ahead. She sensed two more arrows coming from her behind, which she jumped over as a figure dashed out towards her. Pale and dressed in dark red robes, a Nightsister lunged towards Yula with a gleaming scimitar drawn. Their blades clashed and, surprisingly, the Nightsister's sword stayed intact. The Nightsister continued to press the attack as more opened fire with their arrows, putting Yula on the defensive. Their eyes met, and Yula saw nothing but hatred in them.

They danced this dance for a good while, her dodging attacks and avoiding death with every single movement of her body while the Nightsister unleashed a seemingly unending barrage. The Nightsisters only increased in intensity; when Yula finally had killed her first assailant, three more took her place. Time pressed on, and she felt herself slowing down, felt more of the impact from blocked strikes. At last, her defense was broken. She fell to the ground as a dozen arrows and Nightsisters all converged on her. A fraction of a second before impact, everything stopped. Yula felt a wave of dread pass over her.

In front of her, she saw arrows and witches slowly drift out of the way weightlessly, hanging in the air as though gravity itself had been removed from the planet. Pushing them out of the way was an elder Nightsister dressed in more grandiose and ceremonial robes, much like Talzin, but this was one Yula had never met before. Her pale face had dark gray tattoos in the forms of large ovals over her yellow eyes, which were connected by two thick, straight lines shooting out of the bottom corner of each and converging on the center of her nose, and four more thin, edged lines resembling blades running down each cheek, leaving eight in total. She brushed the final Nightsister out of her way, looming over Yula and gazing down at her, her intentions imperceptible. Yula, stunned, did not react, and simply watched the Nightsister for a moment before she stood up again and thrust her hands out to her sides. The floating Nightsisters fell to the ground; the arrows that had been interfered with veered off in random directions; those that had not been touched merely dissipated before they could reach Yula. The woman opened her mouth to speak in a slow, raspy voice. "You bear the mark."

Yula quickly jumped to her feet and raised her lightsaber, pointing it at the witch's neck. "The mark?" She asked.

"I see it in your eyes. In your heart. In your soul. Not long ago, it would have been generations since one has borne the mark of the Binding and lived to tell of it."

Yula felt the witch's presence encasing hers, preventing her from seeing anything outside herself, leaving her blind. "You're not Talzin. Who are you?"

At the mention of Talzin, the witch's face saddened a bit, her eyes widening as she looked downwards. Yula instinctively didn't trust the witch, but couldn't tell whether or not the emotion was real. "The Separatists came for us in the war," she started. "It was a slaughter. They killed every last one of hers, but that meant no one was there to restrain us anymore. But Talzin's presence still lingered, waiting. She appeared for the man, too-- the one who was marked."

"I need to speak to her."

The witch chuckled. "Don't we all?" She extended her hand towards Yula to shake, but Yula kept her blade steady.

"Come with me, Jedi." The Nightsister offered. "I am Ghenste. I will bring you to Talzin."

Yula deactivated her lightsaber. "I am Yula."

Ghenste lead Yula through the mists until they finally reached the Temple, ancient and imposing, with Nightsisters scattered about watching the two. Yula could feel Talzin reaching out toward her, but she could also feel a much greater darkness here, a concentration unlike anything she'd experienced, coming in part from Ghenste. As they walked into the rustic, orange building, Yula regarded the witch again. What was she? Yula had assumed Talzin was the only one in charge.

"A good question, Yula." Talzin's voice suddenly whispered, coming from nowhere but yet everywhere at the same time. Yula turned around to find the source of the sound, but behind her there was nothing but pitch black darkness. She turned again to see that the rest of the temple had also transformed, leaving Yula with no clue where she was. She reached for her lightsaber, only to feel nothing but her robes.

"You could ask that of many, many people, could you not? You think you have accomplished so much, but you see so little. The Shadow Assassins- do you even know who they were? Why they were there?"

"They had to be stopped, no matter the reason," Yula replied. She spoke loudly into the void as she walked along; her voice seemed to extend on into the nothingness forever, a stark contrast to the reverberation of Talzin's.

Talzin laughed, her mockery echoing indefinitely around Yula. "Ganner would be proud to hear that. He saw more than you have, but even he never came close to the truth."

Yula stopped. "And what is that truth?"

The shadows folded on themselves in front of Yula, giving way to a brick enclave, somewhere deep inside the Temple. Orange cauldrons of fire provided illumination from behind Yula, her shadow stretching across the room until it reached the body of Talzin. Talzin was facing the other way, but there was no doubt. Her robes were the same, and Yula could tell it was her in the Force. "I know why you've come here." Talzin told her. "You will find your answers, but there are other things you must see. The Prophecy of Three must come to pass."

The ground suddenly began to crack, then split itself apart beneath Yula, and she fell, fell, fell, until she finally landed on her feet, at the bridge of a space station. At the helm stood Hans, looking down onto a white planet covered by the station's shadow; an artificial eclipse. "Hans?" Yula called out to him. He didn't respond, and Yula ran towards him, reaching out her arm to grab him by his left shoulder. She felt it and pulled, but when Hans turned around, he was someone else.

Yula remembered this woman. Her medium-length, red hair was neatly parted down the middle of her forehead and brushed back. Her face bore two scars, perpendicular lines that intersected along the woman's right eye, which seemed to still be intact. Fear reflected off the woman's light blue eyes as she drew a blaster pistol from the depths of the black coat she wore and aimed it past Yula. Yula followed the weapon towards its target, someone she didn't recognize at all. He was dressed in an Imperial officer's uniform, but had messy brown hair and a goatee to match. He raised a rifle at the woman with the same fear reflecting off of his light-brown eyes. Looking around, Yula now found herself in a ship's inner workings; the woman stood at the end of a balcony in front of a glowing purple reactor core, while the man stood on the other end of the balcony, a closed blast door behind him.

"A war is coming," Talzin's voice interjected once more. "You cannot avert it or outrun it. A great evil will rise. This I have foreseen. And I have seen more."

The world swirled, all colors becoming one, and then adjusted itself into clarity once more. Yula was again somewhere new, a large room lit by purple flames, a throne on the end. A shadowy man sat in it, his hands folded in front of him as he watched another figure, bent over, picking something up off the ground.

"Destiny runs in his blood. He must defeat an ancient evil and save the galaxy from destruction."

The figure stood up as they activated a deep blue lightsaber. Its illumination revealed its wielder to be none other than Cade, breathing heavily and injured from battle, gripping the weapon with both hands in front of him as he prepared to attack.

"But he is note alone. Another must complete the trio, complete the Prophecy."

Talzin suddenly manifested herself from shadows alongside Yula, watching the now-frozen scene in the throne room.

"You want me to bring Ganner back." Yula stated. It was only really a half-surprise; of course Talzin would want her great weapon back.

"This is beyond a mere desire. You, must succeed me as a Keeper of the Binding. You must learn it to save the Galaxy."

"A Keeper of the Binding?"

"The Keepers of the Binding bear the curse of knowing the ritual. It inevitably corrupts and consumes even the purest souls who discover it. Should you live long enough, it will consume you."

She weighed her options, then turned to face Talzin squarely, meeting the witch in her silver eyes. "Show me."

Talzin laughed as the world warped itself again, twisting and turning until it finally Yula found herself standing with Talzin in the same enclave as before, but changed. There was another pale Nightsister with short white hair now bound to a slab in front of Yula. Her mask had been removed, and she looked at Yula with fear in her yellow eyes.

"Talzin, what is this?" She yelled.

"To transfer life is one task. It is so much simpler of a process and a less strenuous one. When you learn to return life, you will understand how to transfer it too, for it is in truth an expedited version of the same process." Talzin suddenly reached into her robe and pulled out a small, gleaming dagger. In her right hand, Yula could feel the cold metal of a blade's handle.

"The Binding requires the victim to be close to death itself, to present an entry point for those on the other side." Talzin approached the Nightsister. Yula tried to move towards her to stop her, but found herself frozen. She spoke, screamed at Talzin to stop, but she was now powerless, nothing more than an observer to the horror. Talzin readied the blade, then plunged it into the Nightsister's chest. The Nightsister gasped for air, spitting blood onto Talzin. Yula was washed with dread as her hand run warm with the blood of the Nightsister, even though she couldn't have been the one who stabbed her. Yula understood now what was happening-- she was being possessed, and was at Talzin's mercy.

"Of course, one must also create their own connection to death, to let the spirit through." Talzin turned around to face Yula again and for the briefest moment Yula found herself looking at into her own eyes, at her own self raising the blade to her left palm as her heart froze. Then, once more, it was Talzin calmly, almost smugly carrying out the ritual. And yet, when the blade first touched her palm, it was Yula that felt the poke while Talzin smiled. The poke become more than that as Talzin drove the blade deeper, drawing blood, and dragged it slowly across her hand. Yula felt every ounce of pain, felt the wet blood coming out of her hand and the cold steel inside her hand where it shouldn't have been. Yula struggled as hard as she could but it made no difference.

"Once the connection is open, you must open yourself up to the dead as you search for the one you seek to return to life. Fortunately for you, you have no need to search for me, but you should know what the search entails regardless."

Yula felt herself pushed into the Force, and at the same time, felt the Force push back at her. Her mind was suddenly crammed by a mass infinitely larger, barraged by the voices of the dead. She heard the callings of lords and emperors, the lamentations of servants and felt the pain of each times a thousand; as they were all dead, she now felt every death. The souls of the dead assaulted Yula, each one trying to use her link to their advantage, trying to get into the body of the Nightsister, but Yula felt Talzin's presence driving them off, and she then felt Talzin enter her spiritual link. For the first time, Yula felt what Talzin really was, saw her soul through a clear lens, and she felt the purest link to the Dark Side she had ever known. Talzin was sinful beyond sin, corrupt in a manner the Jedi Code had once taught Yula was impossible-- beyond any hope of redemption. And to her horror, Yula felt Talzin looking back, observing her.

She felt Talzin carry on through her into the Nightsister, and then Yula felt the soul of the Nightsister-- her name was Rheni-- pass through into the other side, corrupt but afraid. She felt the Rheni's screams and felt the agonizing pain of the death her spirit embraced as she slowly faded away beyond contact. Slowly, all the spirits faded away, as did the external pain Yula felt, though what she had just experienced left her with more than enough to herself. Able to see once more, Yula saw herself floating in the air, connected with the body of the Nightsister by chains of purple lightning. She watched the blood of the Nightsister slowly return to her, feeling it leave her skin and enter her body again.

"Once and once only may a soul take another body, for the healing process leaves it damaged forever. Try a second time, and the soul will be unsustainable, falling into a condition worse than death."

The lightning stopped, and Yula fell to the ground, in control of her body once more but feeling significantly weakened and wounded in her left hand.

It didn't matter. Talzin was too dangerous. Too evil. She had to die. Had to. Desperate, she felt the full extent of the pain, using it to drive her to her feet, grabbing, activating, and raising her lightsaber as she quickly attacked Rheni's body, now possessed by Talzin. However, before she could destroy the Nightsister once and for all, she felt herself frozen once more by Ghenste's power.

"There is no need for such mercy," Ghenste told her calmly from behind. "This is her second return."

Talzin let out her final laugh, a demented cackle reverberating through Rheni's body as it suddenly accelerated through time, growing and wearing out lines on the body within an instant before she let out one final pained gasp and fell apart, dissolving into little more than dust on the floor, which itself quickly disappeared.

Ghenste let Yula go, and she fell to the ground again, her mind finally catching up to everything that had just happened. What had she done? She looked at her hands for the blood she knew should be on them but wasn't. The mere thought of the murder disgusted her, but she couldn't escape herself, and she remained there looking in shock, not understanding what to do. Suddenly, a cold hand placed itself upon her shoulder. She turned to see Ghenste, appearing somber.

"She... she made me break the Code," she whispered.

"This is the nature of becoming a Keeper," Ghenste told her. "None of us choose our fate."

"What about Ganner?" Yula asked. She suddenly realized that he must have gone through the same thing-- how could he take that?

"I don't know," Ghenste admitted. "No one would have wanted to get close enough to spy on him."

Of course. But Yula was different. Her they could manipulate. That's all the Talzin, Massikus, and Ghenste had ever done. Yula was nothing more than the means to an end- to bringing back Massikus, to forcing Ganner to die, to becoming another Keeper of the Binding, and almost certainly to another goal of Ghenste's or Talzin's. No more, she decided.

Suddenly, the entire temple began to rumble. "What was that?" Yula asked. But even as she asked the question, she reached out into the Force and found her answer. The Inquisitor had found her.

"That is destiny approaching." Ghenste replied.