It was finally over...
The moment we reached the surface, the last rumble from below marked the collapse of the tunnel we had escaped through, cutting off anything else that may try to come after us. I had never once felt so tired in my life before! Luckily, my legs kept me moving while Master Kyle detonated the passage behind us using a combination of his lightsaber and the pure, raw strength of the Force he tapped into. Dust and heat followed us up through the crack that served as our exit, looking like it was coughing us into the open jungle.
"This is not our entry point..." Vestara said as we stood, gasping for air, looking around.
True... We emerged somewhere different. Or we just couldn't remember right... I couldn't tell anymore. But, trying to focus, maybe she was right, and the vines and rocks didn't match the area that I remembered, either. But... focusing felt really hard now, and my breathing was becoming more strenuous as adrenaline was leaving my body... and the pain was replacing it. The jungle air was hot and thick, making it even harder to breathe, but at least it wasn't filled with screams I still kept hearing or with the humming of those damned death machines. We had made it.
Mostly... Because when I tried to step forward, I staggered as the world tilted to the right.
"Kael?" Vila was instantly at my side, a steadying hand at my elbow. Her voice was worried, and I caught myself from grunting. Yeah... something was not right. "Hey. Easy! You alright?"
I wanted to answer yes; honestly, I really did. But when I looked down, I saw it... blood. A lot more than I remember spilling. So... that injury wasn't as surface-level as I first thought and felt. Now, with my body relaxing, it seemed the wound itself decided to open the floodgates.
"Not so much..." I managed, grunting.
"Let me see," Ben said, stepping in close, already crouching down in a hurry as he pulled my outer robe aside, and I felt the sudden sting of air against my raw skin. Damn, it... I shouldn't have looked. The gash in my side, right under the ribs, was indeed deeper than I first felt it.
"Damn droid nicked me harder than I realized," I muttered, trying to smile, "Well... I should be okay."
[Statement: This is why meatbag bodies are inferior]
"Thanks..." I moaned while Master Kyle also dropped to his knees beside Ben. He took one quick glance, then reached into his field kit on his belt.
"Hold still." His voice was cool and focused as if he had done this a thousand times and more, which I guess he did, but I caught the slight furrow between his brows. He might not have shown it outwardly, but he was worried, too, which made me worried as well. Is it that bad? His hands were quick and practiced as he disinfected, stitched, and sealed the wound, using the skin-like foam to ensure it would not reopen until they reached the ship.
"He okay?" Vila asked, trying to look between them, "He is, isn't he?"
"He will be," Vestara said, walking past us and checking the tree line in the meantime. "But he needs a bit of bacta and then a good Jedi healing trance. You did teach him how to do that, didn't you? Didn't you?"
"The basics..." Ben muttered, grimacing, as that technique was indeed something I was not really focusing on, always finding something else to do. Well... Now, I was reaping what I was sowing.
"Well, we can't rest here," Vestara added firmly.
"Agreed," Ben nodded, standing up and pulling my arm over his shoulder. "Kael, sorry, but you're getting carried for a bit."
"This is humiliating," I muttered as he hoisted me up with far more strength than I anticipated, making me moan again.
"Consider it a favor I'll hold over you later," he replied dryly, not giving me any chance to try and stand on my own.
"Don't be a kid!" Vila scoffed, watching me, making sure I was well attached to my Master's back.
[Statement: I shall guard your rear. Addendum: Try not to die from embarrassment or from bleeding out.] HK commented again while he scanned the treeline and clicked his weapon into standby mode.
"If my butt is shot, it's your fault..." I mumbled back to him.
[Statement: I do not fail.]
I wanted to make another witty remark... but somehow, I didn't have the energy for it. I felt like I was on the verge of falling asleep, which wasn't a good sign. Probably... And I didn't want to dream again, not here.
So, while I was doing my best to stay awake, we began our trek.
The jungle was darker now, likely because the sunset had come and gone while we were below. Or was it just me? No... The night was here once again, and it was very dark. With the missing sounds of insects, it was strangely comforting. Which, once again, told me that wasn't a good sign. Damn it! Focus Kael... The Force... No... Tsk... I can't rely on it. Double damn it... The Force here still buzzed like static under my skin... Ugh... Damned Rakatans... To some extent, I am glad they are gone forever...
As Ben carried me, not really stopping, only to reinforce where we were going, my head lolled slightly to one side. I watched as Vila walked beside us, silent for the most part, but I could feel her through our connection. Her worry was tightly restrained inside her, making sure it wouldn't prompt her to do something stupid. Master Katarn must have warned her already to stay calm and not smother me while I was recovering. She was trying and doing her best...
I appreciated it. Even half-unconscious, I could feel how much effort it took.
But... The trees blurred in the end, and my mind drifted... further away...
...
....
.....
There was nothing but darkness. I was not asleep. Not really... I already knew that this was just another vision. Great... Is it because I am more sensitive to things like this? Are you purposefully assaulting me with old memories, or what?
Then, the humid hotness of the jungle disappeared. It was replaced by freezing cold and a flash of frost and then the bright light of the endless white.
I could feel the wind howling across a shattered plain of ice. Squinting, I saw black structures jutted from beneath the snow, half-buried towers of some kind, and multiple fallen spires. But there was a movement not far from me. The figures... They looked... Familiar. And then it clicked. Wait. I wasn't in the far past... I was watching the squad of Vestara's followers who had been sent to the Pole region. The second signal... Not good. Not good!
As I watched, they moved cautiously, their senses on high alert, finding an entrance and moving down, traveling under the snow and ice. My consciousness was right behind them, and I saw as they walked through blueish, icy caverns and entered rooms where everything was frozen over.
Unlike us, they found bodies stuck behind thousands of years of ice, frozen in motion. They were Rakatans alright, the cone head, those jutting-out eyes... those snarls and angry expressions frozen onto their faces... Creepy. Eerie... Baaad. Very bad. I tried warning them because the feeling of a presence, or an amalgamation of multiple presence, was so much stronger.
But I could do nothing because... that thing was here. Actually here.
It was a voice... No, not a voice. Voices. A massive pressure in the Force... A collection of hundreds of thoughts. A... Hive-mind-like consciousness. It was circling Vestara's disciples without them realizing it. I saw it using the Force to split them up, herd them without the poor bastards ever realizing it. It... It lured them to different spots, and then... It dropped on them like a net. I could feel them trying to resist, but they were already too deep. One by one, their minds pushed back, realizing that the Force here was not their ally. They tried their best to ground themselves in identity, memories, and names, pushing back with ambition or tapping into fear... or anger.
That was a bad choice. All of it just made it easier for this... entity to dig into their minds. I expected them to die, but...
It didn't destroy them. It did something far worse, far more insidious. It used the Force to fold their consciousness into something unified, making their memories part of its mass and absorbing their personalities. Vestara's man didn't even scream; they only took a long breath, and then, they were done. I watched as their bodies straightened, and their eyes flickered in an unnatural light reflected from the icy walls. All color and warmth that made them alive was drained out of them. I don't think they were Vestara's disciples anymore, but simply flesh-vessels for something more... ancient.
...
....
...
I gasped when I awoke, coughing, my head jerking forward. We were still walking, at least; I got that feeling, and the moment I flinched, Ben grunted, adjusting his grip.
"You okay?"
"A vision," I moaned, my throat dry. "The team we sent north... They're compromised."
Vestara stopped mid-step, hearing me, dropping from the front to trek beside Ben.
"How bad?" she asked, examining my pale face.
I looked at her, thinking what to say... but I didn't really know.
"They're... Maybe still alive. But they're not themselves anymore."
"That does not sound good." Master Kyle interjected, and his words were followed by silence. Then he gave a low curse under his breath, feeling the others were agreeing with him.
"We will deal with it after we are back on the ship." Ben decided, speeding up even more, "We'll get back to the shuttle. Then we regroup!"
No one argued, of course... I just hoped I wouldn't become a liability.
...
....
...
The moment I saw the shuttle, my chest loosened.
It sat right where we had left it, nestled between the thick jungle trees that still hadn't reclaimed the clearing we'd carved on landing. The sight of it, being familiar, functional, and safe, was enough to make me breathe again. Entering, Master Ben lowered me down gently onto the bench.
"You good here?" he asked, kneeling beside me.
"Define good," I muttered, trying to smirk but managing a grimace instead. "But yeah. I can sit upright, breathe, and not die. That's enough. Let's head back to the ship..."
While Master nodded, heading to the cockpit, Vila immediately knelt beside me, rechecking the bandages, though I could feel through our link that her hands were shaking. Of course, not visibly, not enough for anyone but me to know. But I knew... She kept quiet, her lips pressed together in a tight line, just doing her job.
[Statement: You did well down there for being a meatbag] HK came up to us after closing the boarding ramp.
"Could've done better," I mumbled, fighting the urge to close my eyes.
[Statement: Of course. You will need to learn from me.]
"Yeah, no." Vila scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Certainly not."
It was then the engines roared to life, shaking us as we lifted off.
It wasn't a long ascent, but it felt like hours for me. My head bumped against the bulkhead wall multiple times while I fought myself to stay awake, trying to stare at Vila out of the corner of my eye.
"Stop doing that," I croaked.
"Doing what?" she asked, startled all of a sudden.
"Thinking I'm dying." I moaned, fixing my sitting position, "I'm not."
"You're injured," she said sharply. "I saw enough times what happens to those who are injured and can't keep up... I won't experience it again. Not with you."
"Yeah, you won't. I can handle it," I muttered, grimacing again, forcing my body to move, "Trust me."
"..." She didn't answer right away. Then, softly, almost too quiet to hear, she muttered something I didn't expect, "If I let myself release everything I want to feel right now, I'd scream until the shuttle cracked in half..."
"Fair." I chuckled, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "That would be bad, so... don't?"
"Hmph..." She snorted but squeezed back.
[Statement: I would prefer you not do that, too.] HK turned his head slightly. [The structural integrity of this vessel is not designed to withstand the emotional outbursts of a Jedi.]
"Shut up." Vila gave him a look that could've peeled paint. "You're lucky I don't have the energy to argue with you."
[Observation: That has never stopped you before.]
Before she could reply, a harsh static burst filled the shuttle, followed by a sharp, urgent voice from the bridge of the Star Destroyer.
::This is the bridge. We are under attack! I repeat: hostile incursion on board. Decks 7 through 9 have been breached. Emergency lockdown in progress!::
The blood drained from my face, if it still had any, that is.
"Damn it!" Vestara's voice snapped through our local comm. "They're already on the ship."
"The other team…" I whispered, feeling the dread slide cold down my spine, just like the cold in the vision. "They returned first... What I saw wasn't happening at the same time... They must've gotten back while we were still below!"
"We are docking soon," Ben's voice came over next, and it was just as clipped and grim as I expected, "It's them. Kael was right... They're compromised."
"They're going for the bridge," Master Kyle added, his tone also dark. "They are trying to seize the ship."
I could feel that at the same time, the shuttle began docking as the hangar clamps engaged and pulled us into the belly of the Star Destroyer. Finally, we jolted slightly for one last time as we settled into position.
"Kael, you stay here." Master said as they appeared from the shuttle's front, "You're not fit for this fight. Vila, stay with him. That's an order."
"Yes." Vila nodded instantly.
"Good," Kyle smiled at her, "We're going to contain the breach and stop the others before they do something irreversible. You guard this shuttle and Kael. Make sure nothing gets in—or out. You too, HK!"
[Statement: I will ensure nothing unauthorized approaches this vessel. Or leave it intact.] HK raised his carbine. [Addendum: I do hope they try.]
"Um..." I wanted to argue. I really did. But the fire in my side told me otherwise... So, I nodded reluctantly. "Go. You'll need to act fast; we will be fine here."
Ben gave me a look of pride mixed with concern, then turned and jogged down the ramp after Vestara and Katarn, active sabers already in hand... I just hoped this would be over quickly.