Ravenhold

[Roku]

Randolf had worked for Nisha's private defense for years, and never directly spoke to the woman. He was making his hourly rounds of the exterior of her temple, perusing through some of the darker areas. It was pretty casual stuff. Thule wasn't a core world, and the Jedi had no reason to attack a small temple when there was no proof anyone of importance even lived here. After going around the entire parameter, he shrugged and headed back inside to make some coffee.

A shadow moved swiftly behind him, darting from a control room over to the maintenance area. Clearly a sith based on the darkness emanating off of him, he was here with only one purpose.

As Randolf brought his coffee out into the maintenance area to find some of the boxes of sugar, he was met with the man.

"Where is she!?" a deep voice bellowed.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't know who you're talking about."

"You idiot... if you don't tell me you're already dead..." The man in front of him snarled.

And before he could respond, the beam of a violet lightsaber jutted through his chest. Randolf's coffee toppled over and spilt to the floor as he looked behind him, into the face of his assailant.

"And that's the last of them...now there's only you..." The figure spoke to the only sith left in the room.



Randolf's assailant wasn't wearing black at all. It was Wallace Chandelure, a Panathan General who for many years had served the Dark Lord Danzala.

Aura flipped down his dark hood, before igniting two lightsabers. The first one was the expected shimmering red, but the second one was a deep blue.

"Vice Principal Chandelure... it's fancy meeting you here." he told him.

"So you were a student."

"Indeed... and I'll do what I must."

"That protective of her are you?"

The entire temple was littered with the countless corpses of sith acolytes who had already tried to stop Wallace. He'd killed the exterior guard last, taking out the inside without even being seen.

"What's your stake in this, boy?" he probed, taking a swing at him with his violet blade. A blade he shouldn't rightfully own.

"She's my friend!" he growled, defending with the Jedi blade, and lashing out with the other.

"What's yours?" he asked.

"Well...I already killed Danzala. I didn't want to wait for his allies to come to me..."

"You stole his lightsaber I see..."

"I didn't steal it...I won it...fair and square. That is the sith's way..." he told him with a matter-of-fact tone, as he force pushed Aura's head into a durasteel faucet with enough momentum to knock the boy out. Then he headed for the mistress' anti chambers. Surely she was aware of him by now, despite his stealth.

[Gamov]

The subtle intrusion brushed Nisha's senses at the same moment it settled in with the pet Tuk'ata's milling about her private chamber. The beasts snarled as they bristled up, their claws scraping against the stone floor as they sneered at an invisible threat lurking in the temple.

"Company", Nisha mouthed quietly to herself as she stood from her seat, a hand resting on the saber at her side.

Her sickly yellow eyes focused almost absently on the doors to her chamber, almost as if she were expecting them to fly open at any moment to reveal the intruder. Yet her mind was focused as her thoughts wound their way through the twisting ebb and flow of the Force, leading her forward as she probed this new presence for an identity.

When she finally came up against the being's signature in the Force, she felt a cloud of darkness shrouding them, occluding their thoughts and obscuring their form. Nevertheless, whoever this was must be fairly skilled to have made it this far into her sanctuary without having been detected.

Drawing her thoughts back, Nisha pulled the hood up over her head and made her way to the chamber doors, summoning her Tuk'ata's with a sharp command as she did so.

With a slight nudge from the Force, the heavy durasteel doors creaked open and a pair of guards stationed outside the chamber snapped to attention as Nisha stepped out into the hall, the Tuk'ata's close by on her heels.

"You two," she snapped, sending a visible jolt of fear through the pair of guards, "guard this room with your lives. No one besides me gets in or out."

The guards nodded and moved to secure the door, activating the magnetic locks and sealing the chamber off from the rest of the temple. The men seemed visibly shaken as they armed their rifles and held them at the ready, prepared for whoever they may encounter. Nisha, meanwhile, moved deeper into the temple, following her instincts to lead her to the intruder.

---

Following the trail wasn't difficult for Nisha. Between her own keen senses and those of her Tuk'ata hounds, not to mention the trail of bodies, the path was fairly clear and had led them to a small maintenance room on the outer perimeter of the temple.

Sensing that her assailant was closer now, Nisha felt the weight of her saber in her hand as her fingers glided over its smooth metallic surface, pulling it to the ready. Her eyes searched from beneath the shadow of her cowl as the Tuk'ata's began to aggressively prowl their surroundings, noses drawing big huffs of air to sample the scent of their prey.

"I know you're here. Show yourself," Nisha demanded as she picked her way through the dead bodies of several Sith Acolytes, her gaze flitting from shadow to shadow, corner to corner as she prepared for the inevitable strike.

[Roku]

"Wait..." The voice called, groggy and distant.

"You found the wrong person..." Aura told her.

Aura's hood had fallen back down on him during the assault on him. When he sat up, and looked at her, glowing crimson eyes pierced through the darkness of his veil. When he pulled it down, he noticed that his lightsabers were laying next to him, still ignited.

Aura slowly managed to stand up, calling his lightsabers to his hands. He was still a handsome kid, dashing, charismatic. His sense of humor and general disposition had matured though. As had his body. Aura was muscular, tall, and his face had a stern fortress of a jaw bone. His voice was much deeper than before. And it was clear just how saturated the boy had become in the dark side.

"The years have been kind to you, Nisha." he told her, getting a good look at his former master. he rubbed his sore head for a moment, following up. "You don't look like you've aged a day. But I'm afraid we must skip the pleasantries. Your sith alliance has been betrayed, and Wallace is looking for you."

[Gamov]

Nisha caught her step in mid stride as the voice spoke to her from a distant corner, her Tuk'ata hounds also cutting sneering glances towards the shadows as they closed in. With a calm hand gesture and a gentle voice, Nisha held her pets at bay as Aura collected himself and sat up to look at her, his eyes glowing an incandescent red from beneath his hood.

Nisha took a moment of pause as she got her first glimpse of Aura. He had grow quite a bit since she had last seen him on Byss, his boyish figure and childish mannerism gone. Even his very essence seemed to have changed over the years, having grown darker than before. She had always thought he possessed a fair deal of potential as a Sith, and was somewhat pleased to see that he had chosen that path for himself.

"You don't look like you've aged a day. But I'm afraid we must skip the pleasantries. Your sith alliance has been betrayed, and Wallace is looking for you."

Nisha repressed the thin smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as Aura mentioned Wallace. She had only met him once or twice, but even in the brevity of those meetings she sensed that he was a driven individual with a hidden agenda. Now it seemed he was playing his hand against her.... as she had suspected.

Reaching a finger up to her ear, Nisha activated the small comm device nestled there, "Sigma, activate recovery protocols. Backup and purge sensitive information." The hollow din of the droid's voice came back over the comm to confirm his orders.

"Where is Wallace now?" Nisha asked directly, turning her attention back to Aura.

[Roku]

"Behind you!" He told her, as his focus was lost on something over her shoulder. With precision, he aimed a force bolt over the woman's shoulder. A small chunk of it tickled her skin, it was that close, but he knew what he was doing. Wallace defended with his metal arm, which wasn't the wisest choice for him. Electricity coursed through his body, canceling out through his rubber soled boots, which absorbed a lot of the damage he would have incurred.

It seemed Wallace had listened in on the whole conversation, and had been up on the ceiling of the tall corridors when she walked by. He took a swing at Nisha from behind, but let out a winded groan as he felt his body stop. The pain in his wrist was dramatic. Aura had a hold of him with the force, and he was cutting off the blood flow and making Wallace's lone hand turn purple.

"I let you live, boy... I thought we could be business partners..." he told him.

"I know where my loyalties lie." he told him, as he bent Wallace's hand back, incurring a grotesque cracking sound - as well as a gasp from the man. "This woman showed me my path in life. She let me live even after I was a malevolent immature little bastard who got her in all kinds of shit. She recognized my potential. She must have had a purpose for me, and the only business I have here is finding out what that is..." Aura explained, and he broke the man's wrist with the force. The crunching sounded disgusting, and Aura's smile widened darkly.

Wallace let out a heavy cry as his remaining arm was defeated, and tried to surge forward with the other one. But Aura's training had proved to be quite effective. He held him off, and gestured for Nisha to cut him.

Aura paused, before offering Wallace another smirk. "Besides... I've seen the kind of business you practice. I think Danzala would agree that you're just a con artist. Simple minded...simple goals... a petty criminal as far as sith go. I'm more than you will ever be..."

[Gamov]

Sergeant Barrick adjusted the scan range on his microbinoculars, focusing in on the innocuous cavern entrance on the north facing slope of the mountains. The image faded momentarily as a passing gust of wind swept up a plume of dust from the canyon floor, forcing the Sergeant to adjust his range again to clear the view.

"Well," he said as he fiddled with the range finder on the binoculars, "it doesn't look like anyone's home. Anything in your sights, Kenzy?"

The sniper laying next to him adjusted the turret on his rifle's scope and scanned down range again. "Negative contacts. Are we sure this is even the right place?"

Barrick shrugged as he lowered his binoculars. "The Jedi seem to think so. Just keep your eyes down range and radio if you see anything suspicious."

"Roger that, Sarge." Kenzy said as Barrick gave him a light pat on the shoulder before climbing back down the slope to the encampment.

Barrick checked his chrono as he made his way back into the perimeter of their camp. It had been days since their deployment to Thule, and still no obvious signs of their target. They had scanned every mountain range for miles, crawled through god knows how many caves, scoured the remains of dozens of Sith temples. All for nothing.

Though the battle hardened Sergeant would never admit it aloud, the redundancy of their mission was starting to gnaw on his last nerve. Of course, that was to say nothing of their Jedi consorts that had been put in charge of the mission. Weeks of being hauled all over the planet by their "senses" and "feelings" had yielded about as much success as poking around blindly. The mission had stopped being annoying, verging on outright ridiculous.

Still, Barrick pushed his personal feelings aside for the sake of his men. He was sure that they all shared his sentiments and were just as eager to get back to their homes as he was. It didn't benefit anyone to have their minds clouded by their frustrations.

Making his way into the center of the encampment, Barrick was greeted by the familiar faces of his squadmates as they sat around a smoldering fire.

"Still nada, eh Sarge?" Flint asked, that familiar hint of disappointment lingering in his voice.

Barrick shook his head and took a seat next to the others, propping his rifle up on a nearby boulder before taking his knife out and looking into the cooking pot sitting atop the simmering embers of the camp fire. He took a good whiff of the meat cooking inside and his nose wrinkled as a scowl creased his features.

"Good god. What is this crap?" He asked, skewing a piece of meat with his knife and lifting it out of the pot.

"Womp Rat...." Dom said, chewing on a piece of meat, "at least I think it's Womp Rat. I hope. Do those things live out here?" He paused for a moment, regarding the meat before shrugging and going back to eating.

Flint chuckled lightly at Dom, "well, whatever it is, its better than those MRE's we get."

Barrick flicked the end of his knife, tossing the meat back into the pot with a thick "slopping" sound. "Yeah, well, I'm going to take my chances with the powdered stuff." He said, cleaning the edge of his knife on his pants before slipping it back into its scabbard and pulling out a small folded map from the breast pocket of his vest.

Silence filled the air between the men as Barrick unfolded the map and looked it over. By now the picture was almost completely obscured by red X's that indicated a place they had searched and come up empty. Only a few possible locations remained, each one miles out of their way, and each one just as likely to be empty.

Pulling a pen out of his pocket, the Sergeant was prepared to mark their current site as a bust when another familiar voice spoke up behind him.

"I wouldn't scratch that off just yet, Sergeant." Master Tannis said as she approached the soldiers, her Padawan close behind her.

Barrick turned in his seat to face the Jedi, his men turning their attentions towards them as well. "Oh yeah...."

---

In the time it took for Nisha to spin and face her attacker, his attempt had been halted by Aura's Force powers. Wallace grimaced and wailed in agony as Aura continued to manipulate and crush his body with the Force, snapping his wrists and disarming the hapless man in the process.

When Aura gestured for her to kill Wallace though, Nisha hesitated. Her Tuk'ata hounds began to close in, but were again held back by a gentle command from their Sith master.

As Wallace continued to struggle in vain against Aura's hold over him, Nisha slowly circled the man, her eyes scanning him as she contemplated what to do with him. Killing him would be the simplest course of action, of course. But even a broken tool had its uses.

Circling back around to look Wallace in the eyes, Nisha frowned slightly at his pathetic situation. "I had expected much more from you, you know. But it seems that your ambitions have been tempered by your arrogance."

Glancing over he shoulder towards Aura, she stole a disapproving look at him before shifting back to Wallace, "why would you go to him? Of all the people in the universe, that boy was the one you placed your faith in?"

With a quick snap of her fingers and a sharp command, her Tuk'ata's turned their attentions on Aura, their snarling maws dripping with saliva as the spines on their backs bristled and they began to circle the boy.

"Give me one good reason why I should spare either of you!" She demanded, her eyes flashing with rage as she shifted her gaze from Wallace to Aura, "you especially, boy." She hissed.

[Roku]

"Spare me?" Aura asked, raising an eyebrow. He had a glance down at the creatures at his feet, but animals didn't make him nervous. He glared at them authoritatively, knowing that a stern approach was the best. They could smell fear, and if that was the case, they should be circling Wallace. The boy sat stoic calmly contemplating Lady Nisha's request of a "reason" to be spared. Personally, he'd always been somewhat scared of the woman, but that was back when he was like ten. Standing here now, at least a half a foot taller than her, all he could do was grin at her.

"I'd be disappointed if you took the obvious move without asking such questions." He told her, as he released Wallace. Wallace fell to one knee, unsure what to make of his situation. He could still hold a lightsaber, but he thought it might be better to let these two battle it out. Aura just shook his head though.

"Nisha darling...spare me your foolish intimidation tactics... for the sake of your precious Tuk'atas. I don't enjoy hurting animals... what's wrong Nisha, couldn't find a human trustworthy enough for your side? Had to recruit the power of beasts?" He asked, before crouching down and smiling at them.

Wallace was confused too. He was the one who decimated her base from the inside out. Why wouldn't she kill him right away? But he wasn't going to waste his time watching in writhing agony while Nisha and Aura squabbled. He blasted her with a force push designed to throw her into her old friend. Aura put up a bouncy force bubble to cushion the blow for both of them. Wallace then gripped the animals with a combination of force choke and lightning, zapping and strangling the life out of them.

"I came here to kill you... if you see purpose out of that, that's your problem... Councilor." He told her, making his position pretty clear. Still holding up the animals, he marched toward Nisha. He might leave with a broken arm, but he was going to take her head as well. The lightsaber glowed to full length again, as he stabbed at her back.

Aura stood back and crossed his arms this time. He wasn't going to waste his resources and energy protecting her. And he refused to attack her. The vicious beasts were another story all together though. He liked them. He could see himself keeping one as a companion.

"I'm saddened by your lack of faith..." He told her. He eased the pain of the animals, and unlocked them from Wallace's power. He set them back down. Wallace was not aware of this however. He was too blood thirsty.

"Go get him guys..." He ordered casually. He didn't expect them to listen to him.

[Gamov]

OOC: Roku has given me permission to power play this portion of my post

BIC:

Aura's authoritative display towards the Tuk'ata's had little effect as they held their ground, continuing to slowly circle their prey. When he knelt down to smile at them, they met his gesture with snarling growls and throaty barks, anxiously waiting to be released by their master. The comment about the loyalty of the hounds struck Nisha though and she cut a disapproving glare towards Aura.

"At least these beasts are loyal. They know nothing of betrayal, and unlike some baser creatures they will not bite the hand that feeds them," she punctuated her remarks with a stern gaze on Wallace as he collected himself from the floor.

As he did so though, he unleashed a blast of telekinetic force towards Nisha that threw her off balance and sent her spiraling backwards off her feet. To her unexpected surprise, however, her fall was cushioned by Aura as he countered the attack with a shield of Force energy. Colliding with the invisible field of energy, rather than the hard stone floor of the temple, allowed Nisha to retaliate almost instantly as she regained her composure.

With the distinct snap-hiss of Wallace's lightsaber igniting at her back, Nisha reacted on instinct and spun, dropping to the floor on a knee as the crimson blade of her own lightsaber hissed to life.

To the casual observer, the manner in which she was able to contort her body to meet the surprise of her attacker would seem unnatural. But years of physical training and conditioning had given Nisha the flexibility and grace to execute such moves with minimal effort.

Wallace's blade swung forward, narrowly missing the top of Nisha's head as it hummed by. When his attack failed to connect though, his eyes swiveled downward to the Sith Lady's blade as it spun out towards him. Confronted with the retaliation, Wallace retreated, back stepping out of Nisha's reach and spinning his blade low to parry the attack away, narrowly avoiding disaster as her blade creased the fabric of his pants.

As Wallace retreated into a defensive stance, his saber flourishing with a traditional Makashi defense, Nisha slowly rose back to her feet, her saber twisting in the palm of her hand into the familiar Shien form. Glaring at Wallace from beneath the shadow of her hood, her eyes flared with a sudden glint of rage as she felt the intense suffering of her loyal hounds through the Force.

Few emotions could stir Nisha to act out of selfless desire to save another creature, but Wallace's torture of her beloved pets had gone a step to far.

Tightening her grip on her saber hilt, she dashed forward and lashed out at Wallace with a fierce uppercut, drawing her blade out in an upward diagonal slash designed to split Wallace's chest wide open.

Wallace parried though, using the Makashi form's elegant footwork to step away from the force of the attack while using the tip of his saber to keep his attacker at bay. But Nisha pressed her assault, leaning in on his defenses by raining down blow after blow on him as her form fluidly shifted between the unorthodox Shien and the more aggressive Ataru.

Had he the benefit of his dominant hand, his defenses may have been much stronger. Unfortunately though, Aura had robbed him of that advantage and Wallace was forced to make due with the comparatively sloppy work of his off hand to fend off the Sith's repeated attacks.

Nisha's anger seemed to know no bounds though as her focus narrowed on Wallace's features. She could see the stress playing out on his face, every crease of his brow a telling sign of the worry that was beginning to set in. Naturally she only drew strength from the suffering of her opponent and kept up her assault.

Unexpectedly though, as Wallace's focus had been broken on the Tuk'ata's, Aura had come to their aid by releasing them from Wallace's stranglehold. Of course, his command for them to attack Wallace went unheard by their ears.... but not Nisha's.

A thin smirk tugged at her lips as her blade crashed into Wallace's again, the two sabers locked as they cracked and hissed. With a stern tone, Nisha called out to her pets, commanding them to attack Wallace.

Still reeling from the attack, the Tuk'ata's took a moment to regain their composure, but when the familiar voice of their master spoke out to them, the pair seemed to wear sinister grins as they barked and growled before moving in. Their claws scrapped and dug at the stone floor, heavy puffs of air moving in and out of their nostrils as they charged in on Wallace.

The first hound leapt towards its prey, razor filled maw opening wide to reveal rows of jagged teeth glistening with saliva. The beast's red eyes narrowed and its powerful claws lashed out, catching Wallace in the right arm as he disengaged Nisha's saber and spun to avoid the creature's attack. His jaws snapped shut just inches from Wallace's face, a heavy snort from the hound's nostrils disturbing his hair briefly before it landed on his opposite side.

Almost simultaneously, the second Tuk'ata rushed in and jumped directly into Wallace's chest, its fangs and claws flailing wildly. Wallace's defense was a bit more precise and well timed this time though as he used his free hand to push back with another telekinetic wave, pushing the beast backwards in mid air to go skidding across the floor.

Following on the heels of her hound's failed attempts, Nisha moved in to fill the gap and keep the pressure up. Striking out with her saber, she kept Wallace off his balance by continuing to pester his defenses and keep his focus shifting constantly between the threats swirling around him.

Another lunge from the first Tuk'ata missed, but provided enough of a window of opportunity to allow Nisha to land her first blow on Wallace. Spinning her saber forward to take advantage of the lapse in his defenses, Nisha gracefully disarmed Wallace with a single stroke of her blade by cutting off his mechanical arm.

Wallace felt more stunned than anything as the arm and his saber fell to the floor. Suddenly deprived of his only feasible means of defense though, he was helpless to resist Nisha's advances as the Tuk'ata's charged back in on him, this time succeeding in tackling him and throwing him off of his feet.

Nisha let a wide smile form on her lips as she relaxed her posture and allowed her pets to toy with their victim for a moment, Wallace's screams bringing a certain degree of pleasure with them as Nisha watched his hapless form struggle.

Trying to defend himself against the raw power of the Tuk'atas was nearly impossible as the creatures mauled Wallace, dragging him back and forth across the floor like a chew toy. They exchanged several deep growls and throaty barks as they gnawed on his remaining arm and legs, lacerating him and gouging at his body.

As the attack continued, it became obvious that Wallace's strength was beginning to fail him. Blood was smeared across his face and several deep wounds crossed his torso. His clothing was in tatters, reduced to little more than blood soaked rags before Nisha finally called her pets off.

Approaching the man, Nisha planted a foot firmly in his back as he tried feebly to crawl away, a trail of blood marking his every painful move. Shoving Wallace to the floor, she twisted her face into an ugly sneer as she ground her boot back and forth on his back, feeling his body resist her attempts to crush it before she relented.

As Wallace coughed and gasped for air, sucking in several painful breaths, he felt Nisha's hand around his throat as he was forced back to his feet to face the glaring eyes of the Sith Lady. She thought to insult him, but his defeat was insult enough as she pushed him back to the floor.

Scanning Wallace briefly once more, Nisha gave him over to the cruel mercy of the Tuk'atas with a quick snap of her fingers and a sharp verbal command. Taking her eyes off of Wallace, Nisha moved back towards Aura, Wallace's tortured screams at her back as the Tuk'atas viciously disposed of him.

Staring at Aura, Nisha felt a loss for words for a moment. He was still an unknown, but he had acted to save her life and the lives of her pets. For that he had earned a slightly more civilized response.

"What has brought you back here to me? After all these years, I would have thought you had made your own path."

[Roku]

Aura's expression was sterner; stronger than it had been the last time she saw him. The little boy she knew was gone. Consumed by a darkness only a birth on Byss could provide. The planet went with him where ever he went. In fact, one could say he had enough corruption from Byss to fill two people, for he had inherited Sable's fate from her. He turned to the side, but turned his head toward her. His body relaxed a bit as he heard Wallace's final gasps and breaths. The man's death brought him no joy or sorrow. Wallace wasn't why he had come here. He did however extend a hand toward the man. The royal artifact that rightfully belonged to Danzala, deactivated and flew into his hand. Slowly clipping it to his belt, he nodded.

"I have done my own thing. I've become much more powerful than I was before. I have a new master and everything. But my business here is private..." He told her.

"To update you, after you did your own thing, Savard eventually found me and brought me back to the Jedi. I had some unfinished detective work to do on Coruscant, and found out a great deal about my parents. It turns out I have quite a high affinity for the force..."

When he looked at her this time though, the eyes of the little boy were back. Those loyal unwavering eyes, of a true friend. Aura legitimately meant what he said to Wallace about Nisha. If it wasn't for her, he'd still be eating Jedi chicken feed.

"I came here because your life is in danger. For seven years I have been your eyes and ears at the Jedi temple. Only recently though, did they decide to make a move on you. I hacked their systems. I know just about anything anyone would ever need to know about any Jedi in the order. But the prudent information I have for you, is that our buddy here isn't the only one who's going to sack your temple today... They're on their way right now...And I hope you're not angry at me, but by coming here, I doubled the number of Jedi after us. But I think you'll agree that the knowledge of their arrival, coupled with my new powers as an ally, is worth it."

--

A Togruta with rags and a slave collar approached the two of them with a limp. Apparently Wallace had beat her quite badly during his tantrum inside the temple. She had a clear saber burn on her forearm where it had just barely touched her, as well as electric burns

"Lady Nisha, are you alright?" She asked, walking slowly over to the sith lady, hobbling.

"What's all this?" Aura asked.

The Togruta wasted no time, her glowing hands moving up and down Nisha's body, healing any minor damage she made have incurred in the battle.

[Gamov]

Barrick slowly peered around the corner, reducing his profile by hugging close to the wall as he swung the muzzle of his rifle out to scan the hallway. A quick glance revealed several bodies strewn across the floor. Stepping out into the hall, he gave a silent hand signal to the others, waving them forward.

Flint and Dom were the first around, followed closely by Kenzy and the pair of Jedi. Keeping their weapons at the ready, Flint crouched down to investigate one of the bodies, checking for a pulse first before looking back to the Sergeant and shaking his head.

Curiously, Kenzy poked at one of the bodies with his rifle, slowly turning it over to reveal a large gash cross the torso. "Is that a.... lightsaber wound?"

Barrick leaned in and examined the body for himself. The wound was unmistakable, he had seen them before. "we're not alone in here. Stay alert." He said quietly.

As the group continued down the hall, an unseen presence began to gently nudge Tannis' senses. Something dark was lurking within the halls, something that stood out from the rest of their surroundings. Almost simultaneously, her Padawan felt the same sensation and commented on it.

"Do you feel that? The air is different in here.... Something is waiting for us."

Tannis nodded, "keep your senses sharp, Decon."

Following Barrick's directions, the group wound their way through the temple's corridors until they approached a junction that diverged in two separate directions. Stopping momentarily to collect themselves, Barrick ordered his squad to secure the location before conferring with the Jedi.

"Any ideas?"

Tannis scanned down both hallways, giving them a cursory glance before she calmly centered herself in the Force and entered into a subtle meditative state to help guide her decision.

Extending her senses ever so carefully through the confines of the temple, she sought to trace the source of the disturbance both she and her Padawan had felt. Piercing through the veil of darkness that pervaded the complex was something of a task in and of itself though, as it seemed that every shadow harbored a hidden danger.

Scanning deeper and deeper into this shroud, Tannis could almost sense the disturbance closing in on her as her senses reached out to the very fringes of her ability to maintain them. And on the very cusp of her reach, she found it. The thing responsible for the disturbance. It was closer than she had anticipated.... and much stronger. There was little doubt in her mind now that they were on the right path.

Withdrawing her thoughts back to the comfort of her own mind, Tannis opened her eyes to face Barrick, muttering 'we're close' to herself first before addressing him.

"Sergeant, take your men down the right hall and see if you can find anyway to disrupt the enemy."

"And where are you going?" He asked, quickly glancing down the left hall out of the corner of his eye. Secretly, he knew the reason, he just wanted to hear it for himself.

"Our target is here in this temple. We're going to confront it."

"Then we should come with you." Barrick protested.

Tannis shook her head, "no, I can't risk the lives of your men here. This is something we must do alone."

Barrick gave the Jedi Master a lingering stare mixed with disapproval and worry. He may not have appreciated having been dragged all over the galaxy for the past few months in search of a phantom target, but he didn't think the Jedi deserved to throw themselves on the sword alone either. No soldier should ever have to die alone.

Still, he knew there was little chance of persuading Tannis otherwise and eventually resigned to his orders with a nod before turning and leading his squad away from the Jedi.

As the squad departed, Decon turned a vexed look to his master. "Are you sure that is wise? We could use their help. Besides, we don't know what traps the Sith have laid throughout this temple."

"The Sergeant and his men will be fine." Tannis said with an air of confidence, "they are not trained to handle a Sith, but they are more than trained to handle any tricks the Sith may throw at us."

Decon still did not agree with his master's assessment. Barrick and his men had been with them for months, their skills had proven invaluable on more than one occasion. They deserved to be part of the battle at the end. Remembering his place though, Decon conceded to Tannis' orders and followed his master deeper into the temple.... towards the dark presence situated at its heart.

---

When Aura mentioned the Jedi, Nisha was almost furious with him. It was bad enough that Wallace had managed to attack her sanctuary, now the Jedi were not far behind. Her jaw tightened and her features sharpened as she gave Aura a disapproving glare, her silence speaking more volumes towards her disappointment than words could hope to.

Deep inside though, she always knew it would only be a matter of time before the Jedi found her. She just hoped she would have had more lead time than this.

Reaching a finger up to the comm piece in her ear, Nisha opened the frequency as she turned away from Aura, her eyes briefly glancing towards the shredded remains of Wallace's corpse as the Tuk'atas were still busy fighting over scraps of meat and bone.

"Sigma, begin purification protocols.... We've been compromised."

"Understood."

As the comm went silent, Nisha turned her attention back on Aura. But before she could muster the words to speak, the familiar sound of Tess' meek voice spoke up behind her. Nisha turned slightly to face the slave as she asked if she was alright, using the Force to probe for any wounds that she may have sustained during her duel.

"I'm fine." Nisha snapped harshly before looking back to Aura, "I'll handle you later." Turning her gaze back on Tess, her expression softened somewhat, though her anger was still evident.

"Head back to my chambers and retrieve the holocron. The guards will let you through. After you have done that, report to the evacuation point, Sigma will be waiting for you." Nisha paused for a moment, looking on her slave almost with a sense of concern.

"This is important, I will not tolerate failure. Do you understand?" She quietly regarded the Togruta for a moment, waiting for any hint that she understood the gravity of her task.

[Roku]

Tess wasn't completely defenseless, and she would do anything for Nisha. She nodded, and her hands stopped glowing. Turning to the unfortunate corpse of Randolf - the man Wallace had killed from behind, she pulled the sith lightsaber and blaster up into her hand with the force. Red wasn't her color, but a weapon was a weapon. She was much better with a long range weapon than a lightsaber, due to her lack of training with the latter, and natural hand eye coordination. But she wasn't particularly skilled with either. Tess was in good shape though. When she wasn't doing something for Nisha she trained. Tess was more skilled than any of the acolytes here had been, and was the most loyal too.

"I understand, My Lady. Please stay safe. I sense an ominous destiny approaching..."

"She's right Nisha... this is getting really sketchy. I sense a number of people here, not just Jedi. We need to watch each others backs, or one of us is going to get killed." Aura told her, as he watched Tess heal herself for a few moments, and then take off into a sprint. Tess would only take care of herself if she was sure Nisha was alright.

"You keep slaves?" Aura asked. "I knew you were a bitch, but fuck..."

--

Tess headed into the temple, knowing it off by heart. She had a good idea where the Jedi and other people were, but wasn't looking for a fight. She took side and secret passes to get to her destination, and found herself at the entrance where the guards had been assigned.

"The Jedi are here, go, go!" She ordered, before walking past them, inside to where the holocron was.

(You might want to include a description of exactly what I'm finding, or if it has any significance before she takes it)

[Gamov]

OOC: The holocron is Lord Malum's. It looks red with gold trim etched in Sith incantations and spells. It is enshrined on an altar in front of Nisha's throne in her private chambers (a sort of dimly lit great hall lined with stone pillars and such).

BIC:

Broken glass crunched beneath the soldier's boots as they cautiously worked their way through the destroyed laboratory complex. All around them there was evidence of a fairly obvious struggle. Fresh scoring was still smoldering on the walls when they arrived, the bodies of guards and research scientists strew across the floor, some with fresh wounds from recent blaster shots.

"What the hell happened here?" Dom asked, investigating one of the dead scientists, his body still propped up at his desk as if he never had a chance to run.

"I dunno. Internal power struggle maybe?" Flint commented offhandedly.

"It can't be good whatever it is." Barrick said as he approached a nearby computer, clearing the glass and blood from the screen, "Flint, see what you can pull from these research terminals. Dom, Kenzy, secure the perimeter."

His orders were met with a round of 'yes sir's' from his squad before they moved off to their assigned tasks.

"The network is a mess, sir. Someone scrubbed this thing good before they left." Flint said, his fingers tapping on the keyboard as he tried to gain access to the researcher's notes. "Whoever did this doesn't want anyone finding out."

"Probably a standard purge and burn protocol," Barrick said back as he knelt down to pick up a folder from the hands of one of the scientists.

Thumbing through the contents of the folder, Barrick found little if anything that could be of use to them. That was until he flipped to a page referencing a number of alpha-numeric codes, around 50 in all. They were simple six digit sequences with a random pairing of numbers and letters that didn't seem to repeat or form any kind of obvious pattern.

"Alright, I think I got something." Flint said as the screen in front of him finally flashed to life and a command prompt started blinking in the left hand corner.

Glancing from the folder to the screen, Barrick folded the papers back and slid them in front of Flint, "see if any of those work."

Looking to the papers, Flint's fingers moved with near impeccable precision as he entered the first few sequences. Hitting enter on the keyboard brought up little more than an annoying "denied" message though. Shaking his head, Flint shrugged.

"They don't seem to be passwords."

"Huh." Barrick said curiously as a frown creased his brow and he picked the folder back up. "Well, keep at it. We need to find something useful in this mess." As he rolled the folder up and stuck it inside his vest though, Dom and Kenzy came rushing back into the lab.

"Sir, I think you'll want to take a look at this." Kenzy said.

Collecting his rifle, Barrick ordered Flint to keep working on the computer while he followed Dom and Kenzy to investigate their findings.

---

"Slaves have their uses." Nisha remarked to Aura as she started making her way out of the maintenance room, calling her Tuk'atas to her side with a quick snap of her fingers as she did so.

Obeying their master's command, the hounds began following Nisha out of the room, one of them stopping to give Aura another throaty growl as it pulled itself away from the mangled remains of Wallace's body. After the Tuk'atas had finished with him, there were few distinguishing features left, save for his mechanical arm which was still barely clinging to his body by a few loose strands of chewed flesh and torn muscle.

As she made her way into the hallway, the comm in her ear chirped, "yes?"

"Purge protocols complete." Sigma's familiar dulcid tone said in her ear.

"Good, I'm on my way. Tess should be arriving shortly with the holocron. See to its safety." Nisha said before cutting the comm.

Continuing into a small antechamber adjacent to the maintenance room, Nisha paused momentarily, throwing up a hand to signal Aura to stop as well as a foreign sensation brushed her senses. Her hounds caught the scent at the same time, their postures going rigid as they sunk low to the ground, spines bristling as their noses sniffed at the air.

Palming the hilt of her saber, Nisha scanned her surroundings. There was stillness for several moments, a tense silence pervading the room as a feeling of danger crept up towards the group.

"Show yourselves." Nisha demanded, "there is no use in hiding. I will find you eventually."

For a moment, there was no reply to her words. But slowly, a pair of figures began to materialize out of the shadows in a nearby room. Nisha let a thin smirk slip briefly as the Jedi moved quietly to block her path. As they did so, the Tuk'atas advanced slightly, moving to protect their master as they flanked Nisha and snarled at the intruders.

Calmly, Tannis attempted to temper the beasts' aggression with the Force, causing them to stand upright slightly and regard the Jedi with an almost bemused look on their faces.

Nisha's eyes widened slightly as her hounds relaxed their postures, "impressive." She said, looking back to the Jedi. "But a Tuk'ata's mind is never so easily broken." With a sharp verbal command, she brought the hounds back under her control.

"This does not need to end in bloodshed." Tannis continued, an almost polite ring to her voice as she looked past Nisha toward Aura, addressing both of them.

She could sense Aura's conflicted nature. His mind was addled by the Dark Side, but he still held a feint glimmer of light in him. For him there was hope to return to the order, but for Nisha.... her fate had yet to be decided. Though in her experience, Tannis knew of few Sith who would willingly surrender themselves to the Jedi.

Glancing over her shoulder towards Aura briefly, Nisha gave him a quick glare before turning back to Tannis. "If you've come seeking my surrender, your masters are as foolish as you are." Nisha said as she activated her saber.

With a visible sigh, Tannis slipped her robe off her shoulders and activated her own saber, its sapphire blade gleaming in contrast to the sanguine red of Nisha's. With a moment of hesitation in his own actions, Decon also activated his sabers, the twin green and orange blades that he had trained with since his earliest days with the order.

Activating her comlink, Tannis contacted Master Renne Schylar on a secure operations channel, "Domino."

That was all she said into the comm. It was their prearranged call-sign to spring the second arm of their trap and hopefully force Nisha's surrender.

The Sith Lady's eyes narrowed on Decon and his mentor as Tannis spoke again. "I do not wish to harm you. A stubborn death is never the answer." Her words seemed to nearly implore Nisha to give up, but she knew in the back of her mind that she never would.

[Roku]

"Understood." Renne replied. They had been circling the temple for some time now, originally as a back up rescue team. But should the need arise, which it did, they were ready to take personal action themselves.

--

Aura stepped in front of Nisha and her pets, turning and gesturing her down with both of his hands, and giving her a clear look of "don't screw this up" that the Jedi couldn't see. He winked at her, before walking forward toward the Jedi.

"Blood isn't a common symptom of lightsaber wounds..." he told the Jedi Master before him. "What makes you pigs think you have the right to govern the galaxy, especially all the way out here?" he asked. He stood up close to them, boldly, easily in striking distance of the lightsabers. He even went so far as to poke the master in the chest. But his finger went right through her. He'd used an after image. The real Aura was now behind the Padawan. His lightsaber sprang active with a hum, and he took a full swing at Decon.

"I'll never go back to you dirty liars!" he growled, as he augmented his ferocious swing with a barrage of force lightning designed to make every parry hurt the Padawan.

--

Renne received the message quickly, and nodded to the knight at her side. The Zabrak was only recently knighted, and he cracked his knuckles before steering them in for a landing. He was rough, slamming right into the walls of the temple near the group of Jedi and Sith. The old rotting walls easily caved in against the durasteel hull. Renne still gave Zarbon a glare though.

"That was reckless!" She snapped, as they came out of the entrance of the cruiser, which was now visible through the hole it had made.

Renne charged forward, activating her double-bladed green lightsaber, while Zarbon ran right along beside her with two blue bladed sabers. They surrounded Nisha, forming a square with the other two Jedi.

The sound of a blaster could be heard as a Togruta in rags ran down the main corridor, firing as quickly as she could at the Zabrak's back. He utilized Shii Cho, blasting bolts back at the girl, but she parried them, albeit clumsily, with her own lightsaber. She had Malum's holocron in one of Nisha's backpacks on her back.

"Sigma, help me out!" She called to the droid, as Zarbon turned and went after her. He was reckless, and was sensing the area for more organic life. He had no idea Sigma was a droid.

She was confident that Sigma would come to her aid, because there was no way Nisha would allow the holocron to be damaged. Not only that, she'd seen him lurking around earlier. She started firing past the Zabrak, using suppression fire on Master Tannis.

"Tess? Zarbon asked, feeling the strong burning of the light side in her. In fact she might well be the lightest in the room at present. She stopped firing for a second and looked at him.

"You have the wrong person..." She lied.

"Tess, you're a Jedi..."

"Yeah, well apparently not an important enough one to send a rescue team after." She growled.

"Master, we have a Jedi enslaved over here!" He called to Renne. But the master remained in front of Nisha, glaring down at her dogs. She didn't want to have to kill them, but she wasn't above it.

"Nisha, we know you well. You're a fugitive. Do you want to die, or do you want to pay for your crimes?" Renne asked, making the question quite simple. She was on edge, spinning her double lightsaber around in her hand.

"She's not a bad person..." Tess told them. "She's not..." The slave pleaded.

"Go home, Jedi..."