The speeder I’m on raced forward, barely a metre above the stream I’m using as a path through the jungle I’m now in as I follow the rough directions I took from Aayla’s mind before I departed Deadend towards her master: Volfe Karkko. With me, a few dozen metres back, are HK and Simvyl; the pair having chosen to accompany me instead of staying with Quinlan as he watched over a slumbering Aayla.

  After securing the settlement, I’d headed to the cantina and spoken with Quinlan about her. He had wanted to wake her immediately so they could talk as he retained the belief he could get through to her without combat. I was less confident about that approach, and after debating his idea for about an hour that evening with him, I’d managed to convince him to wait.

  Using supplies that I’d brought with me, I’d injected Aayla with a sedative that was meant to work even on those strong in the Force and left instructions with Quinlan to keep giving her regular doses to keep her under. In theory, he could do that for about two weeks based on the amount of the drug I’d left behind, but I felt I’d be back at Deadend within a few days.

  As I needed intelligence on who I was facing and where they were located, I’d reached into Aayla’s mind via the Force and, as gently as I could, extracted that information. Her mind was to be blunt, more jumbled than the most insane puzzle I’d ever imagined, which was no doubt a side effect of daily doses of glitteryll that her uncle had pumped into her in an attempt to keep her docile. The fact he had needed to do that, while Quinlan had seemingly only needed a single dose to forget everything about the last two decades suggested that the lekku of Twi’leks offered some protection against the worst effects of glitteryll. However, until either I or members of the Order spent time with Aayla to help her, I couldn’t be certain if my idea had any validity to it.

  Still, even with her mind being a jumbled mess, I’d managed to gather enough intelligence that I could set out the following morning – it was now approaching midday – to hunt my prey. While the exacts of where the exact location of the base wasn’t given over – it seemed even sedated that Aayla was resisting, or that I wasn’t as skilled as I needed to be at using the Force in such a way – I had gained a name and species of who I was now hunting.

  Volfe Karkko was an Anzati fallen Jedi who had been imprisoned on Kiffex centuries, if not millennia ago, by the Order. It wasn’t clear when exactly he had been imprisoned, and with Aayla’s mind a chaotic muddle she couldn’t confirm dates to offer any help, but I was leaning towards either not long after the Russan Reformation or before the New Sith Wars.

  For the former, if it was any more recently, then I suspected I’d recall reading about an Anzati Jedi Master during my time in the Temple. Yes, it was possible the story of Karkko wasn’t taught to Initiates and Padawans, but that was unlikely as the names of others who had fallen were mentioned in passing when various Jedi spoke of the dangers of the Dark Side. Dangers that while valid if one let the Dark Side overwhelm you, weren’t entirely true once one learnt to take control of yourself and the Force around you.

  As for the earlier date, if Karkko had fallen during the nearly one-thousand-year period known as the New Sith Wars, the odds were good that the Jedi would’ve hunted him down and killed him as they did for countless other Dark Jedi and Sith. What also added strength to that idea was that the prison complex created to house Karkko had, from the images I’d pulled from Aayla’s mind, been overgrown by a tree that wouldn’t look out of place on Kashyyyk. A tree that, even now possibly hundreds of miles from it, I could already see rising above the rest of the jungle and wondered if anyone had ever travelled there before Aayla freed Karkko as it would be something akin to a landmark on the otherwise barren planet.

  My thoughts on when he was imprisoned were unlikely to be useful to me when I faced Karkko, but they’d help pass the time as we’d raced towards him on the speeders we’d taken from Deadend. What was, and what explained the presence of so many devolving Anzati, was that Karkko was an Anzati himself. From what I could pierce together from the memories I’d drawn from Aayla; he had resisted the urge to feed on the soup of others until one day deciding that a single drink wouldn’t hurt and that he could resist further temptation.

  To say that failed was a massive understatement as, from one of the more concise memories I’d drawn from Aayla’s mind, he claimed it had taken most of the Jedi Council at that time to defeat him. Yet instead of killing him, or placing him in a secure prison designed for Force users – assuming those existed whenever all this took place – they had chosen to imprison him in secret on Kiffex.

  That was, given the fact the planet was probably inhabited at the time, an insanely stupid idea, but it did prove that it wasn’t just the Council of this era that made mistakes that they probably shouldn’t be making. It also explained the presence of the other Anzati, all in stages of mental regression to more primitive states, on the world. They had been drawn over the years by his presence in the Force, and after becoming trapped on a planet with few sentients to feed upon, de-evolved into savage beasts. Those that had attacked the Guardian fortress must’ve been recent arrivals, drawn by Karkko’s more powerful call once he was awoken by Aayla, with them attacking in their need to feed.

  “Observation: The creatures continue to watch from a distance, Master. I believe they are ensuring we head towards their master so he might attempt to kill us.”

  I smirked under my helmet at HK’s remark as he moved behind and to my left. The HUD was tracking the movements of dozens of feral Anzati as they tried to remain hidden in the jungle around us. As HK said, they were keeping their distance, but not all of that might be by design. I wasn’t reigning in my Force presence as much as I normally would, and those who had been involved in the attack on Deadend would recall that presence and choose, regardless of what their master commanded them to do, to stay back. Animals they might be, but they weren’t mindless automatons.

  If I wasn’t concerned about the mass of beasts that might remain under Karkko’s sway, I would’ve left Simvyl and HK with Quinlan to retain command of Deadend until I dealt with Karkko. Hells, I had initially asked them to remain behind anyway, however, neither had accepted the instruction. HK because he knew I was heading into battle and wanted to participate, and Simvyl because he understood that I’d need others to deal with the Anzati while I fought Karkko. Throw in the objective to kill as many of the de-evolved Anzati I as I could, and taking them along had been an easy decision.

  “They know that coming any closer means their death,” Simvyl commented, giving words to my earlier thoughts about why the beasts were staying back. “After what we… well, you really did in Deadend, those that remain understand not to challenge you.”

  I grinned at the comment. “What can I say? I was inspired to take out the trash,” I replied with a chuckle. The final count of dead Anzati in the settlement had been a touch over five hundred, with me personally being responsible for about half of that number. HK had taken care of about fifteen per cent of them while Simvyl took out another ten per cent.

  “Evaluation: Your performance last night master was worthy of myself. The way you carved a path of carnage would have drawn the Creator’s praise.”

  “Why thank you, HK,” I responded with a smirk even if I knew he meant Revan when he had been a Sith Lord and not the man who’d married Bastila Shan. Or at least, that was what I assumed. “However, I think the beasts are also staying back because Karkko wants them to. He wants me to come to challenge him; seeing like I do as a test of his might. He thinks he can defeat me, and then feast on my Force potential to finally have the power to take his army of Anzati to Kiffu. It’s all bantha-poodoo mind you, but it’s what’s guiding his logic.”

  “You’re sure that’s his goal?”

  I grunted at Simvyl’s question. “He hasn’t struck me as anything more than your typical Dark Jedi. He wants power and expects to use force to get it. For that, however, he needs to be stronger and that’s why the Anzati that attacked Deadend took victims instead of feeding on them there and then as they tried to do with the outpost.

  “That attack was designed to take out the Guardians: The only threat to him on the planet. Deadend was expected to be a feast for him to regain his power. However, we kriffed up that plan and so now he’s turning his focus to me. If he escapes Kiffu the Guardians can’t stop his army of beasts, to say nothing of one as strong in the Force as him.”

  I looked forward, my gaze drawn to the tree that marked the location of Karkko’s command centre. That he had turned his prison into his base made sense as it was located deep in the jungle, surrounded by Anzati he’d easily bent to his will even while imprisoned, and hard to approach from almost every angle.

  Closing my eyes for a moment, I reached out into the Force, checking that I could still sense Karkko ahead of me. He was there, and as had been the case since this morning, seemingly growing stronger with each passing minute. No doubt that was because he was feeding on anyone his army of creatures had brought him in preparation for facing off against me. I suspected that if not for my approaching presence he might’ve held off on feeding on every sentient he had imprisoned, but there was little I could do to help those poor souls, even with a Quest objective to try and save as many as I could. Even if I hid my Force presence as fully as I could, he would know that I’d be coming for him and feast on the life force of those he held in his command centre. The sooner I reached him, the more chance there was that some of the prisoners might survive, but I wasn’t expecting to find any alive once we…

  I frowned as, unexpectedly, I sensed a subtle shift in the Force. One so slight that if I’d not been reaching into the Force to confirm Karkko’s presence was still where it should be, I’d have likely missed it. I slowed my speeder and gently reached out into the Force, but not towards where Karkko was but to my sides seeking to find the source of the odd shift in the Force. It was just about familiar, yet at the same time it was clear that whoever was here was trying to hide their presence; seemingly wanting to approach Karkko without him or the beasts under his command being aware of what was happening. If only I could…

  There.

  My head snapped to my right as I felt another faint shift in the Force; enough that now I was looking for it, I not only had the rough location of the source, but I could determine it was someone I’d met before long enough to become familiar with their Force signature. “Shab.”

  “What?” Simvyl asked, suggesting my curse carried over the Battlenet. Or he was just wondering why I’d slowed down.

  “We’ve got company,” I replied as I used the HUD to mark the rough location of the person I’d sensed on a map for others to see. “There. A Jedi,” I explained as a mark about fifty kilometres to our right appeared.

  “Isn’t that a good thing? I mean, someone else to help with facing this fallen Jedi.”

  “Contemplative: Based on how the Master has fought so far, the powers he has displayed and might need to use against this Dark Jedi, I speculate that the Master is reluctant to have a Jedi nearby to observe his actions.”

  “About covers it,” I responded to HK’s answer to Simvyl’s question. “That’s T'ra Saa,” I explain as I track her movements through the Force cautiously, not wanting to draw her towards me. Through the HUD I can spot a few dozen feral Anzati near her rough location, but none seem to be aware of her which is an indication of how well she’s masking her presence, and how lucky I was to be able to be at the right moment to sense her presence without giving away mine.

  T’ra Saa stopped and I felt the faintest of probes reach into the Force from her. I pulled back fully, locking down my Force connection to the best of my ability so that, if all went well, she’d be unable to sense me. For a moment I wondered how, if she felt my presence, she didn’t know it was me but then I remembered that when I’d met her around eight years ago, the Interface had been filtering my Force signature, making me appear distant and weaker than I truly was. While I’d changed dramatically with my training since Naboo, it would be the loss of the Interface filtering the Force that would be causing her the greatest difficulty in determining who I was. However, I knew that wouldn’t last, particularly if she was nearby while I fought Karkko. If that happened, and as HK said, I was forced to use everything I knew to defeat the Anzati, then she’d know I was drawing on the Dark Side and report it to the Order. That would cause all sorts of problems that I’d rather avoid for the time being, so I needed a way to…

  “HK, I need you to divert and delay her,” I said as I realised I had the perfect method to, if not kill, then at least hamper a Jedi. Now, I didn’t want T'ra Saa dead, not unless I had no other choice, but I understood that if she were there when I fought Karkko then as soon as he was defeated she would turn against me. While I was powerful, I wasn’t ready to take on a Jedi Master; particularly not one with centuries of experience who could probably fight to a standstill, if not defeat, many of those who sat on the Council. “Don’t try and kill her, or get close to her. I don’t want to risk losing you for that. Just… do whatever you have to, from a distance, to ensure she doesn’t get to Karkko’s location until after I kill him and Simvyl and I leave.”

  “Assurance: She will not cause you a problem, Master. Addendum: I am looking forward to testing a Jedi of this era to see what their capabilities are.”

  “T'ra Saa is one of the best in the Order, so if most things don’t work don’t take it personally.”

  HK scoffed. “Indignation: I am a droid, Master, not a weak meatbag. If my methods are ineffectual, I will simply be forced to craft more ingenious solutions to countering Force users.” With that, he angled his speeder and moved off. Not directly toward Saa, but on a vector that would ensure he could cut her off without actively engaging her.

  As I watched him vanish into the jungle, I looked back at Simvyl. “Are you okay with this?” I asked him. Yes, he had sworn himself to me, but the Antarian Rangers worked with the Jedi, and with this action, I was making it clear to him that my path wasn’t going to remain linked to the Order’s for much longer.

  He was slow to respond, the conflict inside him easy to read after so many years travelling together. Loyalty to the ideal of the Rangers warred with the oath he’d sworn to me. “I… I understand why you’re doing it,” He eventually said slowly. “You’ve never been what one would expect of a good Jedi,” I chuckled in my helmet at hearing that again, “and I’ve long since understood you don’t intend to stay with the Order for much longer. I don’t regret swearing my claws to your side, it’s just… this feels like actively working against the Jedi and the Republic and that this point is coming sooner than I expected.”

  “I’m the same, and by having HK delay her, we might be able to keep our goals aligned with the Order’s for a short while longer. However, I think I’ve known deep inside, perhaps since before we ever met, that my path wasn’t the one the Order currently walks. I’ve never been able to be the sort of Jedi the Council and others wish me to be. For a time, I had hoped to just become something of a rogue or grey Jedi – as in one who, while still a Jedi, follows the will of the Force or their own path instead of the orders of the Council. Yet after Naboo, I knew that wasn’t possible.” I turned back and grasped the accelerator of my speeder. “I’d just hoped that the separation wouldn’t come this soon,” I finished as I twisted the accelerator, causing my vehicle to rush forward as fast as it could. “And that it didn’t have to happen like this.”

  … …

  … …

  As the former prison but now command centre for Volfe Karkko came into view, buried as it was under the massive roots of the tree that had overgrown it, I whistled. “That’s older than I expected.”

  The HUD was scanning the structure, and while an exact date wasn’t forthcoming as it couldn’t be certain of the effects of ageing and weather erosion that had afflicted the building, its rough estimate was a little over two thousand years old. That certainly aligned with the sight of a tree overgrowing a multi-storey building with its roots while the rest of the tree stretched up far above the jungle and confirmed my feeling that Karkko predated the New Sith Wars was accurate. Why the Jedi Council of the era hadn’t chosen to kill Karkko, or at least lock him in a proper prison designed for Force users, I couldn’t say, but it seemed I was now forced to correct their mistake.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I slowed my speeder as we reached a large open expanse in the swamp; one covered in a muddy bog, cautious that there might be a threat hidden within. Skirting the edge of the bog, we neared the temple, it and the tree that had grown over it looming larger with each passing second.

  “They’re getting closer.”

  I didn’t need to look back at Simvyl to confirm his words, the HUD reporting the same thing as the feral Anzati moved around us, blocking off any chance of escape we’d have without having to fight our way through their ranks. Given the HUD had failed to discover more than a few hundred at any one time, I suspected that if needed I could handle all of them by myself. However, that wasn’t why I was here.

  “Hardly a surprise,” I say as we race around the edge of the bog. “Their master wants us here, and unless I miss my guess, they want us to head up that big, wide-open set of stairs.”

  “You mean the one with no cover, and from which they could swarm us from any angle?”

  “That’s the one,” I say as we finish passing the bog and enter the last few hundred metres to Karkko’s command centre. “Which is why we’re not taking it,” I said as I angled my speeder towards a smaller entrance the HUD had located. “I’m using that one.” That entrance was barely wide enough for more than two people to enter side by side, was a point the feral Anzati seemed to be coming and going from, and for which not much of the inside was known. Either from the HUD or from what I’d pulled from Aayla’s memories about this place.

  “That’s better,” he replied as he followed behind. “Much easier to defend. The only issue is the Anzati gathered around it, and no doubt inside as well. They’re going to want us to head to the main entrance.”

  I chuckled darkly. “They’re welcome to try and stop me going where I want.”

  “Stop us.”

  I slowed my speeder and looked back at Simvyl. “I’ll be facing Karkko alone,” I said slowly but firmly.

  Simvyl laughed. “I know that. I’m not stupid enough to think I can take on a Force user when they go all out. Kriff, I can barely keep up with Anakin at times when he really gets going and sinks into the Force. What I mean is that while you face Karkko I’m not staying outside and dealing with these feral Anzati. I’ve not got a death wish.”

  I grunted as I realised I’d overreacted for a moment. “Fair enough.” Simvyl was a capable warrior, one that had grown stronger over the last few years, but he at least knew his limitations. Oh, asking him to hold a position, even one as seemingly defensible as the cave entrance we were heading for against hundreds of Anzati was going to be a challenge, but it had better odds than him facing someone like Karkko. “Once we’re inside you’ll find a point to bunker down while I push on, hopefully removing any of the beasts that might try and sneak up on you, and take out Karkko.”

  “What about any of those taken from Deadend?”

  “For now, there’s nothing we can do,” I replied as our speeders slowed further. The Anzati around us were growing restless, not liking that we weren’t heading toward the entrance their master wanted us to use. “Karkko’s getting more powerful by the minute, no doubt feeding on any prisoner he has. Once he’s dead, if there’s time, we’ll look for others but I’m not expecting much luck with that. If you find anyone, leave them for now. I don’t want you exposing yourself to attack trying to help them.”

  “Understood.”

  I stopped the speeder and slipped off. The beasts moved closer, massing in a feeble attempt to stop me from entering the complex where I wanted to enter. I smirked under my helmet, as I drew my blade. The faint howl of the lightsaber igniting was accompanied by me releasing some of the hold I kept on my Force signature.

  Many of the beasts shuddered, and a sizable number took a few steps back. Those were the ones who survived Deadend and understood what I was capable of. I’d likely have to remind them and teach the others, to gain entrance to the passageway I wished to enter from, but I knew they’d not be able to stop me, or even really slow me down.

  They weren’t the target, just bugs on the windscreen that needed to be swatted. However, the more I took out now, the less I’d have to try and find afterwards, if time allowed, for the linked objective of the Lost Apprentice quest. Plus, even if as I suspected I couldn’t take them all out, thinning the herd would make them less of a threat to the Guardians once they returned to control the planet and monitor the prisoner population.

  It only took a few minutes, and around another hundred dead feral Anzati, for Simvyl and I to reach and then enter the passageway. I reached out with the Force, wanting to ensure no creatures were hiding inside in an attempt to flank my friend as he held our escape point. A few were found, and those close enough to be dispatched were efficiently taken out with either my blade, the blaster in my gauntlet, or judicial use of the Force.

  With the area cleared, I turned to Simvyl, watching as he pushed crates and boulders together to form a temporary foxhole. I quickly assisted him by moving several larger objects, including sections of the complex that had broken loose over the years because of plant growth or damage done by the Anzati, so that he had a readily defensible position to await my return.

  “Here,” I said to the Cathar as I pulled a pouch from my belt and handed it to him. “Place these around at any weak points you find. I’ll do the same as I move ahead,” I explained, knowing the pouch I’d just given him contained about a dozen thermal detonators. While killing Karkko and as many of the feral Anzati, and then rescuing any prisoners were the goals here, I had no intention of leaving this place standing after we left. It stank of the Dark Side, but not in any way that might be considered natural or healthy. No, this place was a vile corruption of the Force that needed to be expunged.

  Simvyl placed the pouch down beside him as he moved into the created cover, though his focus remained on the entranceway we’d just come through. As I moved deeper into the complex, I heard his blasters open fire, the Battlenet reporting the fall of a trio of the beasts that had tried to assault his position. He would have to work to stay safe, but I had faith in his training and ability to handle the challenge.

  Slipping into the next chamber beyond the one connected to the entranceway, my blade flicked out and bisected two Anzati on either side of me in one elegant, flowing motion. As their bodies fell to the ground, the HUD scanned the array of cocoons in this chamber. Most had the heads exposed, allowing the HUD to link many to faces it had scanned in Deadend; however, none were moving, and I could feel the Force’s revulsion at how they had died. Instead of being allowed to return to the Force, their life force had been drained, preventing them from returning to the cycle of life as it was in this galaxy.

  Moving deeper, I passed through two more chambers, each as full of lifeless cocooned corpses as the first. The handful of creatures that were in the chambers bore my wrath for their part in the abomination that had happened here while I placed explosives as I went, trusting the HUD to mark potential weak points in the structure Perhaps I was using too many detonators, but I had over fifty in my Inventory and wanted no part of the complex to remain after Karkko was dead.

  Eventually, I reached a fork in my path. One route led deeper into the caverns under the complex, with more cocoons inside, the other led upwards into the former prison, and to where I knew Karkko was waiting for me. Reaching into the Force I tried to sense if anyone in the next chamber was alive, but felt nothing. With a sigh, I took a handful of detonators from my Inventory, placed them around the chamber, and then tossed several more into the next chamber.

  With that done, I began my ascend towards the Anzati Dark Jedi above, my mind and body ready for any threat. As I ascended, I felt something twisted brush against the defences around my mind. I growled and enhanced them, ensuring that Karkko couldn’t slip into my mind and learn something he might use against me. However, I didn’t unfurl the entirety of my power. No, that reveal, even if he’d felt it remotely when I’d taken out his horde of feral beasts and freed Aayla from his control, I wanted to wait until I could see his face before I let him understand just how outclassed he was.

  The stairs were in better condition than the chambers I’d just come through, and the signs of degradation and overgrowth by the tree became less prevalent the higher I climbed. It seemed that even while in stasis Karkko had generated enough of a residual twisted presence in the Force that it interrupted with the natural growth of the jungle. As the climb continued, I wondered why the Jedi who had imprisoned Karkko had gone to this extent to create a prison for him. It made even less sense than the decision to imprison him on Kiffex and then forget about him, or at least made things more confusing as the lack of logic involved here was staggering.

  Soon I emerged at a door, and I knew that he awaited me on the other side. The door slid open slowly, the ravages of time causing the system controlling it to take a few seconds longer than ideal to react to my presence. The chamber that greeted me as the door slid open was one filled with smoke, though not enough that it in any way impeded vision even if I wasn’t in my armour.

  Stepping into the large chamber, one that reached at least three stories in height – again, another odd design choice for a prison – I saw large pipes, each easily the thickness of my thigh, running towards a central round platform. On that platform, using a chair that clearly wasn’t part of the original decor, sat my target.

  Volfe Karkko looked like any healthy Anzati should, though the beard he wore was straight out of the handbook for stereotypical villains. Now, perhaps it was fashionable during his era, but to me, it reminded me of those worn in many older action movies from my former life.

  I walked towards him slowly, my hilt in my hand but not yet powered, studying the man through the HUD and with Observe.

  Volfe Karkko

  Race: Anzati

  Level: 37

  Health: 95%

  Age: 132 (2300 linearly)

  Force Potential: High

  Threat Potential: High

  Reputation: None

  Affiliation Loyalty: Volfe Karkko (100%)

  Emotional State: Intrigued/confused.

  Volfe knows you are the one who took Aayla Secura from him, and while that angers him, he is intrigued by the power he senses within you.

  He had expected Quinlan Vos to arrive with other Jedi, yet you fight with the brutal efficiency of a Sith, and he wonders if you might be a better apprentice than Aayla.

  However, he is unsure what to make of your arrival while wearing armour that, while unfamiliar to him, is similar to that worn by Mandalorians in his era.

  ...

  “You are the one who took my apprentice from me,” Karkko commented as he sat on his chair on the platform, leaning forward slightly with a slight frown as he looked me over. The platform was, based on the device in the ceiling, where he had once been imprisoned, and I assumed he was using it as his throne to mock the Jedi who had made the Force-awful decision to imprison and then forget about him millennia ago.

  “She was never yours,” I replied softly, keeping my feelings out of my voice. I could have the HUD modulate my voice, but it wouldn’t matter as any emotion that slipped into my tone would be sensed by him through the Force. I took another few steps toward the platform, cautious as something felt off about this entire encounter. As if I was being allowed to approach far too easily by someone who had to consider me a threat.

  Karkko leaned his head on one hand as his eyes roamed over my frame. “You are the one I felt take her from my control and defeated my legions. You have power child, the likes of which I admit I have not felt before, yet it is clear both by your actions and your choice of attire confirms that you are no Jedi.” His head tilted and I felt him brush up against my mental defences again. “Your armour is of Mandalorian design, is it not?”

  “It is, though I suspect it’s different from what you remember,” I replied calmly even as I reached out as subtlety into the Force as I could, trying to put a finger on what felt off. There was no great warning from the Force or immediate danger, nor a reaction of Danger Sense to an imminent threat, yet I couldn’t escape the feeling that something was amiss.

  Karkko chuckled, the large nose that was semi-common of his species shifting oddly as he did so, and then leaned back in his chair. “Interesting.”

  He stood slowly, moving carefully to not appear a threat even if I knew he most certainly was. “Interesting,” he remarked as he gently leapt down from the platform on my side yet still a good ten metres away from me. “Your power is far beyond that of the Twi’lek,” he continued as he moved closer yet angled to my right as if trying to slowly circle me. I turned with him, keeping my front aimed toward him so it would only take the slightest of shifts to get into a duelling stance. “I can taste the Dark Side within you,” he said as he unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. “Yet you chose to free the Twi’lek from my control instead of simply killing or breaking her as I would expect.” His head tilted to his left. “Who is she to you?”

  “A friend,” I replied honestly.

  Karkko nodded, though he already seemed disinterested in Aayla. I watched as he paused. “Ah, but where are my manners,” He said before giving a very regal-looking bow. “As you are no doubt aware, I am Volfe Karkko. Formerly a member of the Jedi Council until I saw through the lies of the Order, and you find yourself in what was once my prison but is now my inner sanctum.”

  “Cameron Shan,” I replied, not bothering with any more details.

  “Shan?” Karkko repeated slowly before tapping his chin. “Ah yes, I recall that name from the Twi’lek’s thoughts; some that were unbecoming for a Jedi I might add,” he continued with a chuckle. “How deliciously ironic that in freeing her from my control and coming here to confront me, you have denied yourself the chance to see if she might now act on those desires now that the false teachings of the Jedi no longer afflict her thoughts.” He paused and chuckled. “Well, not unless…”

  “Unless what?” I asked, already suspecting where he was going with this. “Not unless I join you and take her as my slave?” I grunted and shook my head. “Sorry, but if I was ever going to learn from a Dark Sider it wouldn’t be some pathetic fallen Jedi such as yourself.”

  Karkko’s lips thinned before I felt a mental probe brush against my mind. “Ah, so the Sith are still active in this era. How interesting.”

  I was glad my helmet was on, masking the momentary shock that he had pulled something from my mind, despite my best efforts to shield it.

  “The Twi’lek was unaware of this, but that is hardly a surprise. The Sith would never show an interest in one destined to be a slave when far more powerful and delicious potential apprentices exist.” His lightsaber ignited with a snap-hiss.

  “Before I drain you, I will pull your knowledge of the Sith and the galaxy from your mind.”

  “If,” I said gently, my blade igniting. The roar of its energy filled the chamber, its colour drawing Karkko’s gaze—and a flicker of surprise.

  “If?” he asked, cautious now as I eased into a Makashi opening stance.

  “If you defeat me,” I clarified with a smirk he couldn’t see, but one I let him feel through the Force. “Which, from what I’ve seen so far, is about as likely as the Jedi welcoming you back to the High Council.”

  Karkko’s lips twitched, his only outward reaction, but I felt a ripple in the Force—and then he was upon me.

  His blade swept in a wide arc toward my arm, a strike meant to test rather than kill. A flick of my wrist guided it past, deflecting with minimal effort. He rotated, his blade flowing seamlessly into another strike, this one faster, aimed at my ribs. I stepped back, letting the tip burn through empty air.

  He was testing me, as I was testing him.

  A third attack came, faster still, a sweeping cut toward my shins. My blade dipped low, catching his and guiding it up and over my head in a controlled arc. He had power, but I had precision. I remained in Makashi, giving no hint of the other forms in my arsenal.

  Another attack came, flowing from the missed stroke before. This one moved even faster; a low sweep designed to bait a reaction. With a flick of my wrist, my blade dipped low again, guiding the attack up and over without allowing him an opening. While his moves were crisp, they lacked the sheer aggression and deadliness of Maul’s strikes, which reassured me. Karkko was powerful, but he was no Sith Lord.

  He leapt over me, flipping midair in a flawless Ataru velocity. I pivoted, blade rising just enough to deflect any errant strike. As he landed, he shifted into Juyo, drawing upon the Force to augment his speed and strength.

  “You’ve been trained well,” he admitted. His stance coiled with barely restrained aggression. “However, I can see the flaws in your stance and know the weaknesses of your style. Which I will use to defeat you and then feast upon your soup.”

  I stayed silent, weight balanced, waiting.

  He lunged. A feint. I sensed it before he moved, remaining still, waiting for the real attack. His blade drove forward, seeking a decisive strike. I turned, one foot sliding back, guiding his blade away with a minimal flick of my wrist.

  His attacks intensified. Strength. Speed. Ferocity. But Makashi was built for this—for control, for counters, for precision. A subtle pivot, a shift in weight, and his strikes found only air.

  Another opening appeared, and I took it, though this time only the edge of his robes were burnt by my blade. Still, another moment of proof that I was the better combatant which only fuelled the desperation that I felt growing within Karkko.

  Sensing he was losing, Karkko roared, infusing the Force into his scream. I braced and was driven back a few meters by the power of his rage, yet even as he sought to use that, I was ready.

  His blade came in, bound for my heart. Guiding it away was easily doable, but in the time that would pass between the beats of a butterfly’s wings, I saw another path.

  Karkko’s eyes widened as my hand first moved towards his blade, and then grasped the heated plasma with ease, stopping his momentum in an instant. His lips shifted, and confusion echoed in the Force but before he could ask how I’d grasped his blade, my lightsaber drove forward, burying a good third of the blade in and through his gut.

  He grunted at the sensation, which turned into a pained moan as, with a flick of my wrist, my lightsaber rose, searing a deadly arc through his chest and then out his side.

  His lightsaber slipped from his grasp, though for a second before it turned off, it remained secure in the grasp of my mechanical hand. As it fell, I stepped forward, catching the hilt in my hand and then igniting the blade.

  Karkko stumbled back, the hand that had been grasping his blade moving to the long, fatal wound on his side. He slumped to a knee, looking at the wound in shock. As his head rose, and his eyes saw me, I moved closer, both his blade and mine ignited and in my hands.

  His lips moved, and the arm came up. Whether in a desperate plea for mercy or some final act of defiance, I didn’t care. My blade flicked around, severing his arm at the elbow before, wanting to ensure he was gone, I used his blade to remove his head.

  The body slumped to the floor in a heap as his skull, shock and fear forever locked on his face, bounced off the ground and rolled away.

  I stepped back, depowering both blades and smiled at the headless body at my feet. He had dared to think he could be my master, that he was in some way more powerful than I. That failing, along with what he did to Aayla, ensured this was the only outcome that befitted him.

  I stood there, the Force shifting and bowing down to me, savouring the moment of victory. Of the proof that all my work since Naboo had been worth it. Yes, I wasn’t ready to take on most Jedi Masters, to say nothing of the Council or the Banite Sith, but I had my proof that the path I had chosen and the choices I’d made had been the right ones.

  As the moment of relishing my victory passed, I knelt, wanting to see if Karkko kept anything of value in his robes. At the same time, I sent a signal to Simvyl that Karkko was defeated, and that we’d soon be moving out.

  Finding nothing of worth on Karkko’s corpse I stood and moved what the HUD suggested might still be working computers in the chamber. The process that the Jedi of that ancient era had used to imprison Karkko while old might hold some value, and there might well be files there that could be of use. I’d also be making sure the systems were purged so that, if T’ra Saa arrived and had time to examine the complex before it exploded, she’d not find any recordings or sensor readings of anything I’d done since I’d come into range of the complex.

  As I walked away, and after clipping both lightsabers to my belt, I called upon my training with the Shapers, and then the fury that burnt within my soul. Pushing one hand back to Karkko’s body, the HUD reported it being engulfed in flames fuelled by the Force which would again, if she arrived with time to spare, further prevent T’ra Saa from knowing what had happened here. The flames shifted to the Anzati’s head and then arm, reducing everything to ash.

  As I used my gauntlet’s system to access the complex’s ancient computer systems, I reached out with the Force, hoping to sense anyone who was not an Anzati still alive in the place. However, I felt nothing beyond the faint hints of the various Anzati that had served Karkko, in all their stages of de-evolution, ambling around unsure of what to do. The more bestial one of them had become, the harder it was to sense them within the Force, even when drawing on the darker elements of it for help.

  It was as I pulled back from that search, the minimap of my Interface marking as many of the feral Anzati as I could locate, that a signal came in from HK through the Battlenet. He had been forced to pull back from delaying T’ra Saa. The Neti Jedi Master had finally slipped through whatever delays and distractions HK had deployed to keep her from my current location and she was now moving at great speed towards the complex.

  Understanding time was of the essence, I ordered Simvyl to get to the speeders and then, with the Force surging through me, raced around the chamber and elsewhere in the complex, deploying thermal detonators at points the Force felt would ensure the maximum amount of destruction.

  By the time we left, this complex would have but seconds of existence left, and the threat it had created to the prisoners on Kiffex, and to the Guardians who monitored said prisoners, would be gone. Along with, I hoped, most of the Anzati that had been drawn to Karkko’s prison and service.

  The threat he posed was over. It was now time to check on Aayla and Quinlan, contact the Guardians then leave this planet. Hopefully forever.

  … …

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