Displacement in the Old Republic, Chapter 25

Mission was right about one thing, I look pretty much awful. Just looking in the mirror, I see a young adult with messy, unkempt long hair – and a surprising amount of stubble coming in. My eyes are a little bit bloodshot, a stark contrast with the black pupils and brown irises. There's a sizeable bruise across the left side of my face, and I've just noticed that there's a very uneven suntan around the top of neck and face, and hands.

My leg is a piece of work, but there's nothing more than the constant, persistent discomfort at the moment. I'm just slightly limping, but it's not unbearable anymore. Mission nearly had a fit when I told her what actually happened when we got back to the Ebon Hawk. That was sure an eventful occurrence, getting Force chocked by a Sith. Something I hoped to avoid, really. Though having someone hound me about it hours later sure didn't help.

And what the hell that was with Selena? I wonder if I scream her name really loudly, maybe she'll show up… Probably not, but I'm not in the mood for being in the dark. A bit hypocritical, given how I lied to everyone for quite a while, but screw it.

As awful as I look, I can't imagine I'm going to look any better after today. Darius, Carth, HK-47 and T3-M4 were all running off last night throughout the Academy, apparently never planning on sleeping. Even if they've wrapped up everything they could possibly manage inside the Academy, we're going to have a lot of ground to cover in the Valley of the Dark Lords. There's at least three tombs, and a cave. With flying monsters! And a Terentatek. If I hadn't been here this long, I would say that it doesn't seem very likely that there are going to be so many vicious animals.

Sadly, BioWare got that detail correct. Every planet, every room seems to maintain the tradition of being filled by beasts and hounds. At least the invisible ones are in KotOR 2. But, that being said, the wild Rancors are on the Unknown World.

Done checking myself over, I head out of the tiny cramped bathroom, and squeeze my way through the medical room. The ship is on low power, so none of the lights are on their bright setting. However, two small red lights are at essentially eye level, increasing and decreasing in brightness. Did some idiot put underpowered strobe lights right in the hallway? I get that there's no light out here, but it's not funny.

I follow the glow of the twin lights, realising they're not actually in the wall, but in some sort of orange structure that nearly blends in with the wall. Given how dark it is outside the main hold and cockpit, that's not surprising, but I sure recognise the figure. It's HK, my favourite bloodthirsty machine. Kind of strange, because I thought he was supposed to be with Darius in the Academy.

"Oh, you're here," I growl, "I thought you were somewhere else."

HK's voice drawls over the low hum of the lights. "Answer: My master had sent me back to his ship only an hour ago, in order to retrieve all meatbags for assignment."

"I really don't like you," I groan, not ready to head back out into the hot, sunny valley. I didn't get enough sleep, for starters. A usual occurrence, but it seems to be getting worse. I remember… I remember having a dream, or a nightmare, but I can't recall what it was. Most certainly nothing important, the answers to my problems aren't going to be found in my dreams, but it's not helping my whole not sleeping case at all.

"Statement: Your emotional response to my existence is hardly relevant. However, if you would like, my opinion to your own continued survival is quite negative. As it is for all meatbags, of course."

"Screw off," I say, not amused by the droid's regular verbal abuse.

"Query: As much of your speech patterns are not used by most meatbags, I must request that your clarify that particular phrasing, Especially given that you use odd terms on a somewhat regular basis."

No  way. HK is asking me this? "Uh, it means … I don't know, its slang for... well, but everyone just uses it as a curse word, for extra emphasis. I've heard some people here use blasted or something along those lines. I just have my own ways of saying things."

"Analysis: You possess a unique dialect, with slight differences in word choice, and pronunciation, though your speech most closely matches Basic that is being used by meatbags on Coruscant. Statement: Therefore, when you comment: "Screw off," HK switches to a perfect voice imitation of how I just sounded a minute ago, much to my disdain. Voice duplication for the purposes of mockery, I freaking forgot about that. Just another gun in HK's armaments against me. "You are not actually suggesting that I engage in pointless meatbag mating rituals."

"You've got to be kidding," I mutter, "It means that I hate you, and I you should go die, essentially. But don't take it too personally; it's almost a term of endearment."

"Statement: You are attempting to antagonise me, psychotic meatbag."

"Yeah, it doesn't work, does it?" I sarcastically ask, stepping around HK-47, and into the Hawk's garage area. The small garage is where we keep the rarely used swoop bike, as well as the workbench used for weapon repairs and things of the like. I've seen Darius over there once fixing up his lightsabers there. Last night, Mission taught me a little bit about basic weapon design, as well as got the dent out of the barrel of the blaster. The handle is still a bit messed up, but I feel better about holding the weapon in my hand, knowing how it works, and how to fix a problem on the battlefield.

Only took six weeks.

I can hear HK walking behind me, metal feet clanking against the deck. "Statement: Meatbag, everyone but the Twi'lek and yourself are waiting outside the vessel, prepared to depart at the earliest opportunity. Reminder: My master's instructions were specific, to bring all members of this collection of tortured individuals back to him. For some reason, he did not feel as if my knowledge and capabilities were sufficient for the mission at hand."

"Perhaps he didn't want to listen to you all day," I suggest, snatching my blaster from the workbench, checking the safety very briefly before sliding it into my waist holster. Power cell is there, along with my reloads. After an elementary gun safety lesson, I have a lot more respect for it. The blaster might be low-end, but it's still a weapon, and all it takes is a squeeze, and it can easily kill, something I've done. There are two types of people with weapons, she told me, ones who haven't had a misfire yet, and those who have. Basically, it's not a toy, and only drawn if one means to kill. That's something I never learned from films and television. Hollywood and its rather liberal interpretations of gun safety…

"Commentary: I would presume that if my master had grown weary of my rather smug personality and observations of meatbags – he would certainly not ask for your presence."

"Mission!" I call out towards the starboard dormitory, Mission's normal spot, since she and I are the last ones left on the ship.. Apparently, anyways. I head out the open loading ramp, HK in tow. Since he's still following me, I quip back to the droid. "At least I don't go around rampaging about killing all life forms and variants thereof."

"Interjection: In comparison, I do not possess psychological traits that are detrimental to mission objectives, and am far more capable with a variety of weaponry."

"You're not one for humour, either," I dryly note, my eyes quickly readjusting to the light from Korriban's sun.

A few moments later, the hiss of the loading ramp shutting fills my ears, along with Mission's voice. "Ladies, could you two behave? Just for a few minutes?"

"He started it," I quickly answer, getting my input in first. I wait a moment for Mission to catch up with the psychopathic droid and I, then resume walking towards the rest of the group, who are seemingly huddled together at the far end of the hangar bay, near the entrance to Dreshdae. No Carth, Darius or T3, so they must be at the Academy. That just leaves Mission, HK, Zaalbar, Jolee and Canderous to mess with en route.

"Correction: For the purposes of presenting a clear truth, this meatbag initially switched the tone of this conversation from informative statements to derogatory insults."

"You two really ought to settle down," Mission sighs, "I thought you and I bickered, Stephen. Yeesh, do you just look for people to argue with?"

"Not my fault," I say, smirking, finally smart enough to catch on to Mission's taunts and roll with them. As opposed to getting all up in arms, especially since we're more comfortable around one another… Rather, I'm more comfortable around her. Now that I've accepted this is my reality, or another one I'm in, I can live with my emotions to her. And after the whole origins deal, and the Leviathan mess, we finally seem to have gotten things working between us. "People just love getting in fights with me. You should know."

Mission chuckles. "I'll hit you again, that way you don't do something else incredibly stupid. Just throwing that out there."

"Protecting me from my stupidity?" I gleefully ask, smirking all the way. "I knew you cared."

Mission shakes her head. "Don't count on it."

I open my mouth to say something back, catching the undertones behind this little conversation. However, before I get the chance to come up with something witty and then actually say the words, Canderous speaks up. "We've got a full day ahead of us, especially if half the things they say about this planet are true."

"Like what?" Zaalbar growls in question, as the whole group setting off through the relatively empty colony. It seems as if the Sith are a bunch of late risers, or perhaps there's not much point in being here if they're not accepting applicants to the Academy. There's a single Czerka employee wandering about in the background, and a shopkeeper. Other than that, it's pretty empty.

"The Valley of the Dark Lords, they call it," Jolee explains. "It's a site of importance for the Sith, almost religiously, but for good reason. They've got half-dozen tombs riddled throughout the valley, with even more artefacts inside tombs and caverns. At least, that's what they think. The ancient Sith have put enough traps to blow any future intruders from here to Coruscant."

"No kidding," I comment, "Apparently the idea of anyone taking their possessions after they died was such a terrible notion. They've got everything from levers to armed droids."

"Do these artefacts have any importance to them at all?" Canderous questions, looking doubtful.

"There's some powerful things in there," I answer, thinking back to everything that was in those tombs. "Or some of it could be useless. The important thing is that it will get Darius prestige with the headmaster."

"Suggestion: Slaughtering all the inhabitants of the Academy building would surely be impressive enough to warrant entry into the Sith," HK kindly offers his own opinion, not that anyone is really paying attention.

"So what Revan wants us to do is plunder tombs and recover worthless pieces of junk all damn day?" The Mandalorian scowls. I notice that he says Revan versus Darius… Canderous' people have always had a great deal of respect for Revan, but it's a lot harder to think of Darius as a Sith Lord and military genius. Even though I've known that truth since I've met him.

The door opens in front of us opens up, right at the end of the colony. The small road to the Academy is right ahead, where we were just a few hours ago. There's just one guard as before, maybe the same one? Those NPCs never did move, but that can't be the case here. The sun beats down on all of us, I can already feel it on my skin, re-burning the sunburns I got from Tatooine.

"Sounds safer than getting into an armed conflict just to impress someone," Jolee snorts, "Especially as many Sith there are here. I'd bet that at least three of them try to interfere with any … excavation efforts we set up."

"You don't need to place wagers on that," I say, memories bubbling up to the surface of my mind. "I know for sure there's going to be two times we're going to have to be wary of Sith interventions."

"Twice? They're such an original bunch," Mission comments. "I thought the Vulkars were thick, but I guess if you're on the losing side, you must be short on brain cells."

"Speaking of which…" Jolee mumbles, right as the Sith guard comes right into view. Yeah, really funny. Just wait until he hears you, and shoots us all!

"We're with Darius," Canderous growls to the Sith. It has to be the same guard, since he nods to us, surely recognising us. The rather large door opens up, a gaping mouth ready to swallow us whole. It's a maw, dark and devoid of life. Really, it is just as a dark as before. No Darius, Carth or T3, which begs the question of: where the hell did they go?

Zaalbar must have been thinking the same thing. "Did Darius say he was going to wait for us here?"

"Clarification: Negative, my meatbag comrade. I last observed him within the dormitory section of this complex," HK quickly responds, his robotic head swinging back and forth. Why does he do that? It's kind of strange; I know it's got something to do with his idle animation. I guess.

"Which way is that?" Mission frowns, looking around the rather large central chamber. Good question. I should have printed off all the damned maps and brought them with me or something. Why the hell doesn't my BlackBerry get any sort of connection in this reality? Damn shame.

HK just marches towards the right, so I guess that's where we're headed. The floor slops downwards, and I glance towards Mission, not exactly sure where Darius is at. I silently follow the droid, much to my annoyance, through a turn or two – right into a little room at the end of a corridor. Darius is there, pacing about the room, wearing black Sith robes instead of his golden armour. T3 is just offline in the corner, none of its lights are on. Carth is sitting on the bed right in the middle, which stands to reason that he must have been resting recently. Or he doesn't want to stand up all day.

"Finally," Darius sighs, stopping his circuit of the room. Right on cue, T3 fires back up, blue light in the centre of its frame turning on.

"Did you miss all of us then?" Jolee asks, apparently amused by Darius' annoyance. Don't toy with the former Sith Lord! That's a bad idea just waiting to happen. Assuming that side of him is going to come back, but you never know… It's got me in a confusing spot, I'll admit that.

"You would have been bored," Darius counters. "Interrogated a mercenary, recited the Sith Code, and set a young kid in the right direction."

"It wasn't me, right?" I tease, knowing full well that they're talking about, Carth's son. When Carth throws me a stern look, I serious my attitude up a bit. "How did it go with Dustil? I'm hoping things got cleared up…"

"They did," Carth replies. "He's a smart kid, and he doesn't like being manipulated, that's for sure. It's going to be a while before we talk again, but for now… That's enough."

"Good," I smile. I can see Mission's face, and she's clearly confused, but I move on. Not important, really. Private matters, sort of. I don't want to go broadcasting Carth's side quest and personal issues to everyone. "Glad to hear it, Carth."

"What happened? Did I miss something?" Mission asks, raising an eyebrow. "Or is this one of those things?"

"If Carth wants to tell you, he'll tell you," Darius answers, but quickly changes the topic. "But we've got important things to do, and I want to make sure I've got an adequate list. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's renegade students out there, along with Lashowe's holocron scheme. And there's a three tombs, sounds like something in each of them."

"We've got to do this in one day? You didn't tell me you were going to kill us," Jolee raises an eyebrow and scowls.

"That's it, yes," I confirm Darius' list of tasks, mentally recalling each in turn. "The closest one is going to be the renegade students; they're going to be in a cave filled with all sorts of flying monsters."

"Shyracks," Darius corrects me, the man crouching down and fiddling with a footlocker at the base of the bed. "You all can head out there, from the back entrance of the Academy. They say it's a bit of a long walk, but I've got one last thing to fix up here."

What? Why bother calling us down here then? He's really getting erratic, and I thought that was really bad yesterday. Apparently, he's getting even stranger… There's no knowing what's next.

Shrugging, I turn around, only to have Darius' voice halt me in my tracks. "Before you and I head out, I need to talk to you Stephen. HK, no that doesn't mean you can stay, either," the man stares disapprovingly at his assassin droid, who is the second to leave the room. The last one out is seemingly Mission, leaving myself and the ex-Sith alone in this small dormitory room.

I take a seat on the bed, pushing my blaster away from my hip, so that it doesn't jab my waist or the bedding. I'm not exactly sure what he wants from me, or if he's just hitting me up for information about the coming mission. However, he hasn't had any trouble asking me when everyone else was present, so that can't be it.

Thankfully, Darius breaks the silence relatively quickly, taking a seat next to me. "Look, there was something I wanted to clear with you. Two things, actually. First off, this is for you."

He hands me something from the footlocker, practically shoving a blaster pistol into my hands. I quickly look it over, judging its weight in my hands, and it's much, much heavier than the one I'm used to. It's got a safety in the same spot, and another switch nearby. Seems to shoot a bit more powerful blaster rounds, given the size of the barrel, which also has tiny circular rings around it.

"I bought from a guy in Dreshdae," Darius explains, "Someone who offered me premium equipment for a decent price, all in the name of helping take down Darth Malak. I got some equipment, but since you don't have a worthwhile weapon, I picked this up as well."

"I know that bloke," I mutter, turning over the weapon a few times.

Darius gently takes the gun from me, grasping it and pointing it towards the wall. "It's bigger than one you're used to, so watch out for recoil. It's got a bit of selective fire, between normal single-shot and a fully automatic mode."

"A pistol with a full auto?" I ask, surprised. "Isn't that pretty uncommon?"

Darius nods, handing the weapon back. "You'd be surprised, especially with larger pistols. They never really caught on, but someone figured they could be an alternative to files. It'll burn through the power cell quite quickly, just so you know. And there's something else. I don't need this anymore, and it's adjustable…"

No way. Darius seems to have pulled out his gold armour that he was wearing just yesterday and back on Kashyyyk as well. I can't believe it. "Are you serious?"

"Look, nobody else needs it, so just take it."

I quickly reach for the armour straps in the back of my armour, stripping off the heavy silver plate that encases my chest and back. I practically throw the new gear over myself, noting how much lighter it is in comparison. I knew it! I painstakingly adjust the straps holding it all together, apparently I'm quite a bit skinner than Darius is, and a bit shorter too.

While I'm working, Darius keeps talking. "More importantly, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you, after I found out the truth about you."

"More questions?" I dejectedly say, a bit disappointed. I thought it would have been something else. I fiddle with the armour a bit more, but it's not centred. Better fix that one, unless I want to run around looking like an idiot.

"Not exactly," Darius replies. "Everyone else on this team has seen quite a bit of combat. Not saying we're all war vets, but you're in a unique situation. Tell you what, if you want to, I can leave you here after this, or drop you off at Manaan, somewhere nearby… What I'm saying is you don't have to come with us to the Star Forge. I'll need some information from you, but…"

"You're saying I can pass on the end part of this trip?" I don't know how I feel about that, to be honest. What would I even do? I know for a fact she's staying on this trip of insanity. "I'm not sure, I-."

Darius quickly cuts me off. "Think before you just answer. You, maybe more than anyone else, know what we're going to be facing after Korriban."

I've got a chance out of this madness, then. No real strings attached, hopefully I wouldn't have to give any of this gear back, though. As much as I worry, as much as I complain – what else would I honestly do? I don't have anything, and these people are my friends. More or less, I sure as hell won't count HK as one of my friends. And… and there's Mission, too. The alternative is…?

I finally finish adjusting the armour, biting my lip and chewing my tongue, thinking this all over. The only positive is not being killed, really. Not that it isn't one hell of a positive, but I don't think it's even close to being worth the cost. I have not come this far!

"I'm going to stay," I finally say, standing on my feet. "For good, you can count on it. Unless I get myself killed, which could be a very real possibility."

"Good, but this means you're going to have to listen my orders, even if you think you know better." Darius nods approvingly. "Then I've got to ask you one thing before we catch up with everyone else. Bastila. What's happened to her? And what the hell where you trying to do on the Leviathan?"

"Bastila," I whisper, realising that she's really gone. It's only been a few days, but the entire dynamic of this mission has changed. I speak up, still biting my lower lip. "She's with Malak, and he's… He's tortured her. And she'll turn to the Dark Side. Once we leave Korriban, it won't be long until we see her again."

"The Dark Side?" The former Sith Lord double-takes for just a moment, "Bastila, of all people?"

"Yeah," I confirm, and I see Darius' face fall for just a fraction of a second. "You and her were…?"

"You didn't answer my second question."

Oh, geez. Mission must have told him. She can't ever keep her mouth quiet, can she? "I tried to take her place. I figured that since I knew what was going to happen, I could die at the hands of Darth Malak, and Bastila wouldn't have to-."

"That wasn't your place to decide."

"I know that now," I quickly argue. "Mission stopped me, and beat the hell of me as well."

Darius shakes his head, sighing. "Between you and me, you really shouldn't piss her off like that. Let's get going, before someone else punches you. We've got a whole Valley to scour, and I need, at the very minimum, a little bit of knowledge to speed things up. Maybe that way, we can get out of here and save Bastila before it's too late."

I follow Darius out, placing the new blaster in my holster. Armed, armoured, and ready for this trip into the Valley of the Dark Lords.

---

BioWare lied to me. I'm not talking about any of the obvious things like rapid transit, stationary NPCs or that kind of thing. This is just such a blatant deception that it infuriates me. Or rather, it would if I wasn't panting to death, sweating every ounce of water physically possible. This isn't as bad as Tatooine, but that was a sea of sand even in the game!

They told me that this was a short little trip straight into the valley. It's quite a bit longer than that. It's ltierally miles and miles of mountain terrain. Hot, warm, the sun is out, and the bugs.

We're in a bloody cave, and it's still hot and humid. At least we've only been in this cave a few minutes, so we haven't run into anything particularly nasty yet. There are damn big spikes on the floor and ceiling, and plenty of fog so that I can't see my feet at all… I don't like it.

I'm near the middle of our heavily armed group, blaster pistol in hand, pointed straight downwards.

"No wonder the renegade students went to hide in here," Carth comments from in front of me. "As many corpses as we've passed, you would have to be crazy to come in here."

Thankfully for all of us, Jolee and Darius are leading the party, green and purple lightsabers lighting the way in this stupid cave. The light from their weapons at least reflects off the cave walls, so we can see more than a foot in front of us, even through the fog.

"Remember that fleet we saw flying in?" Canderous comments, "These students have nowhere to go. They'll either die in this cave, or fly out the spaceport and be blown to pieces. If you ask me, they're going to try and take a ship that can get through their fleet. Otherwise they would have left already."

Don't they plan on heading up to the surface? I can't really recall what their plan is, I just remember that they're in here. Renegade students who disagree with the Sith? Should be here somewhere.

"Lucky for us, Lashowe isn't far from here, either," Darius shouts from up ahead. "At this rate, I'll be grabbing Master Uthar's favour before the Sith have any idea what's going on."

"What about their final test?" Zaalbar roars, voice echoing through the cave.

"I've already laid the groundwork on that one," Darius answers, which could mean one of two things. Either he's going to kill both the headmaster and Yuthura, or he just knows about their double cross scheme. Hopefully, it's not the evil Darius option. "Hopefully things go fairly well, that way we can avoid that whole Sith Academy disaster you keep freaking out about."

"Observation: The psychotic meatbag is prone to irrational panic attacks, master," HK takes yet another jab at me. "Warning: Master, I am detecting several organic creatures ahead. Based on their characteristics, it seems to be a small pack of Shyracks and two Tuk'ata hounds."

"Distance?" Carth asks the assassin droid, pulling a blaster pistol.

"Clarification: Fifteen meters."

Darius stops holding his two green lightsabers like torches, falling back to a more defensive position. "All right, let's do this. If there's any more down this tunnel, we're going to keep on pushing through. If we find them, though, don't fire on the renegade students. That means you as well, HK."

I can't tell if the animals in question are getting any closer, thanks to the damned fog. I move to my right side, pressing my back against the cave wall, narrowly stepping over a huge spike. What is the hell is this? Regardless, I aim my weapon down the tunnel, barely able to see more than a few meters. The cave could make a quick turn, and I wouldn't even know it.

This new blaster pistol has a form of sight on the top, just a notch to look down and aim with. I grab the weapon quite tightly, right arm locked and one of my fingers hovering over the trigger. Waiting for the stupid things to show up is getting on my nerves… I can hear them, though, flapping wings and loud breathing noises. The fog in the distance is moving, being pushed from the centre out to the side. They're close, then.

I flip the switch on my weapon, arming it and disengaging the safety. Finally, one of them comes into view, screeching to the point where it's quite uncomfortable. Shyracks, they're massive! A wingspan of ten feet, I think, and it's racing towards us! Oh no! I pull the trigger three quick times, but it moves way too quickly.

Not knowing what else to do, I duck as it whooshes overhead. Whoa, that stinks. I turn around and take another shot at it, but the beast turns to face us again. Thankfully, T3 is right behind me, and shoots a blaster from its dome straight into the Shyrack's head. Yes! You bad-ass!

I hear Canderous' repeating blaster rifle fire from the front of the group, along with the sound of a lightsaber cutting across the air. Of course, there's more! I turn back around, and hit my leg on the stupid spike, the same one I injured yesterday. That clearly isn't the worst of my problems, though. Darius and Jolee are right in the thick of things, green and purple blades fighting off about three Shyracks, but there are two big dog-like creatures there as well, running after the winged beasts. Tuk'atas.

Okay, I can do this. I raise my weapon back up, and take a single shot at the closest Shyrack. The blaster bolt flies correctly, and burns straight through one of the creature's thin wings. It plummets to the ground, screaming all the way. Remembering what people always said about hunting on Earth, I take a few shots at the Shyrack, ending its life with nothing more than a squeeze of a trigger.

"Oh crap!" I yell. One of the Tuk'ata is practically right on top of me! I shoot at the beast at point blank range, leaving a huge black burn mark on its hide. Thinking I've got at least a few moments, I take a step back, breathing. Much to my surprise though, the edges of the wound seemingly heal before my eyes. "You've got to be kidding."

Regenerative health is real? Why don't we just put metal on their skeletons then?

I get ready to fire again, only to have the hound burst into flames in front of me. Holy crap! I stumble backwards even further, realising that HK's flamethrower might not be too picky about targets. I nod my thanks to the droid, raising my blaster to fire upon the next flying Shyrack, nailing the creature a few times right at the same time as Canderous does – pretty much the instant it comes from out from the fog.

Darius and Jolee both step into that same fog, quickly followed by Canderous and Zaalbar. Alright, here we go. I take it slow, not running or moving too quickly. The cave makes two sharp turns, even more animal corpses across the floor, one of which makes a sickening crunch under my foot. I slowly look down, and realise that it's not a dead Shyrack or Tuk'ata, it's a humanoid skeleton. Oh god… I've just stepped on a dead man's ribs.

"Hold it right there!" I woman's voice calls out, but I can't see who it is. Not Mission, but definitely someone else. I take a few steps forward, and it quickly becomes very apparent who is speaking with us, a female Sith student, wearing a uniform and holding a lightsaber. There's a couple more behind her, standing in a larger part of this cave with a fire going for warmth and light. It probably gets rid of those blasted animals as well.

Darius quickly holsters his weapons, raising his arms up in a sign of good faith. "Hey, hey, don't worry! I know who you all are, and I'm not here to kill you. We're here to help!"

I keep my tight grasp on my blaster, hard enough that it feels as if I'm capable of crushing the damn thing in half. I can see that most of the Sith are doing the same, hands on their own weapons. After a tense moment, their leader relaxes, and we all do the same. I flip the safety back on, but don't holster the gun. Can't be too careful, even if I'm not going to be much good against a Sith.

Everyone else does the same, it looks like. HK lowers his blaster rifle, as does Canderous. Zaalbar does the same with his bowcaster, while Jolee's lightsaber winks out of existence. Carth slowly lowers his two pistols, the last to do so. Aside from T3, I guess. Alright, so I've got the right idea. Wait, where's Mission? She was here just a second or two ago…

"You're from the Academy, aren't you? We aren't going back, so either turn around, or we're going to have to kill you," the former Sith student warns, her hand encased around a lightsaber.

"I'm not here to kill you-." Darius replies, but he gets cut off again.

"Well, then, what are you doing here?" The woman noticeably relaxes, but still has her hand around the weapon.

Darius glances at HK for a split-second. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Yes, I'm here because of the Sith Academy, but I'm not one of them. I'm a Jedi, working undercover here."

Way to spill the beans, mate. The Sith doesn't seem entirely convinced by that confession. "A Jedi? On Korriban?"

"You probably don't believe it," Darius shrugs. "But I'm not stupid. This cave is a network on tunnels, not a dead-end. Shyracks never breed in an environment like that, and if you've set up camp here… It means that you can't get back out through the exit, and not because of the environment out there. You've got to gear back there to survive three weeks on the way to hijack a ship. Therefore, something is keeping you here. Not teams from the Academy, more likely a large or powerful creature near the sole exit."

Damn.

The renegade Sith raises an eyebrow. "Alright. You want to help? There is a rather large beast out there, and it's got us pinned here. You kill it, we're going out into the desert, and we're planning on circling around and stealing one of the ships from Czerka in Dreshdae."

"We could tell the Sith that we killed them, for prestige." Zaalbar points out, and Darius nods in approval.

"What is it, then? Thirty plus Shyracks?" Darius asks, tossing one his lightsabers a foot into the air, then catching it his open palm.

The former student slowly shakes her head. "We think it's a Terentatek."

The smirk drops itself from Darius' features, wiped away by the sudden news. I know exactly why, too. I'd rather not think back to Kashyyyk, where I nearly got eaten by one of those massive things. And that was with me, Zaalbar, Jolee, Darius and Bastila all there. We've got more people now, but there's the danger of Shyracks and the narrow bridge the Terentatek was on in the game… Okay, I might have to panic now. I could deal with some other monsters and Sith jerk weeds, but I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with that Terentatek. The last one nearly ate me!

"We'll be back when it's dead," Darius says, his voice considerably less enthusiastically than before. He briefly gestures to seemingly thin air behind one of the Sith students further back in this particular cave. The air shimmers for a second, followed by a whistling noise. Ah, so that would be where Mission was. The Sith in front of her jumps up in surprise, but the Twi'lek just smirks at him. I didn't even know she was there, I can only imagine that bloke's reaction.

Now that we're all accounted for, Darius just points towards the end of this particular cavern, and we all set off in that direction, walking past the only source of warmth in this blasted place, a fire the renegade students have set up. The tunnel here is a lot like the previous one, except I don't see any of the Shyracks here. A few more corpses line the walls, but I stay clear of them. Avoiding any more of that.

I follow Darius and the others into a much larger room, there's ground as far as I can see on my left, but it also comes to a sudden drop-off just a few feet in front of me. About ten meters further, though, there's plenty of floor. And a brightly lit tunnel – must be the exit that the former Sith are planning on using.

"You're not afraid of heights, are you Darius?" Jolee snorts, pointing to the narrow bridge spanning the chasm.

"I would have died on Taris," the Jedi grimly replies, activating his lightsaber with a snap-hiss. The green light helps light up the area a little bit, but it really pushes the point home on this gaping maw right in front of me. Darius holds the blade over the side, but I can't even see where the bottom of this sucker is at. I take a quick step back, since I'm not a big fan of heights.

"No wonder they're hesitant about fighting that Terentatek," Canderous says, "No matter how intelligent this beast is, any animal is going to know how defendable this position is. It could have a feast, eating them one a time."

"It's the kind of thing I saw on Kashyyyk," Jolee observes. "Any predator knows how to use its environment to its advantage."

I frown, knuckles whitening as I grip my blaster pistol. Where is this monster? I know it's here, come on…

"They're also found of stalking their prey," the old man continues, not helping my nervous breakdown. "Well, I'm not saying that's the case here, but you never know."

"We're not being stalked," Darius says from in front of everyone else. How exactly does he know, then? Don't go all Jedi on me, mate, I need some answers. Not some mystical nonsense.

Carth pulls his two pistols out of his holsters, regardless of what Darius just said. "How are you sure of that?"

In response, the light from Darius' lightsaber shifts from being pointed at the maw before us. Now, it's pointed straight ahead, lighting the area of us. The bridge isn't actually empty, as I originally thought. With the lightsaber aimed straight at the centre of the bridge, the massive from of a Terentatek shuffles ever so slightly, almost cloaked in the near-blackness of this blasted cave.

The monster's teeth slightly shine under the light, as well as the Terentatek's solid black eyes. It must have noticed that we're aware of its presence, since it roars and swings an arm at Darius. The Jedi rolls backwards, activating his second green blade an instant later. Well, I guess we've found this one pretty quickly. The Terentatek attacks again, this time hitting Darius and knocking him several feet back towards the way we came.

Carth retaliates first, firing both his blasters in rapid succession. Canderous and Mission join in not long after. I remember that blasters don't do very much against this stupid thing, but I don't exactly have much of a choice. I fire a few times at the Terentatek; the blaster rounds either glancing off the beast's hide or being seemingly absorbed rather than doing any damage.

"Optimal accuracy ratio achieved!" HK-47 announces, followed by a single shot from the droid's sniper rifle. I can't tell exactly what happened, but the droid must have done some damage, judging by the sudden roars and howls. The light from Jolee's weapon shines some light onto what happened there, literally. Black blood pours from one of the Terentatek's eyes, and it paws at the wound, practically ignoring us.

"Crap!" I cry out, alarmed by the rather violent motions the beast is going through. It's bad enough that I'm worried the whole bridge is going to collapse.

Darius gets back on his feet, only armed with one of his two weapons. "HK, take that thing out!"

Not waiting for the droid to carry out his orders, I flip one of the switches on my gun and unleash quite a surprising amount of firepower in a few seconds. That doesn't really seem to do much, though. It's still shrieking and it's starting to rush forwards. Right at us! Oh, great. HK just made things worse, what a surprise. Why haven't I gotten back at that snarky droid yet?

True enough, though, the assassin droid takes his second shot at the wounded Terentatek. I can't see the blaster shot move from the barrel of the gun to the target, just a flash of red. A moment later, the animal falls forward, mouth open, right into the ground. The creature's corpse slides off the edge, plummeting into the pit below.

T3 beeps and whistles. I really need to learn to speak with that droid, or figure out how to tweak my translator unit. Judging by that little encounter, I'm going to go with a sign of relief.

I'm pretty relived too. HK is annoying as all hell, but at least he can shoot. He's making me look bad. Or rather, worse than I already look at all this.

---

It only took a few moments to tell the Sith we dealt with all their problems in a normal RPG quest manner. After that, I think we were all pleased to be leaving that cave. Darius lost one of his lightsabers in that fight with the Terentatek, so that put him in a fine mood for a few minutes. I'm surprised, to be honest, apparently we were in that Skyrack cave for several hours. It's past midday, the sun beating down over my head. I'm going to sunburn again for sure.

Though, part of all that time vanishing was our run-in with Lashowe. Pretty much as I suspected, once that brat had her hands on the holocron things played out much like they did in the game. It's a relief, being able to tell what's going on for a change. Things have changed a lot from the game recently, so it's nice to be able to have that. Dealing with the mother Tuk'ata didn't even take much work, Darius and Lashowe practically cut the thing to pieces. Not long after, Darius killed her for the holocron. I wasn't privy to the whole ordeal, but things looked pretty heated there before violence broke out again.

It didn't help my worries that Darius had nothing to say afterwards, not for several minutes anyway. I'm honestly worried about the whole light side versus dark side issue. It wasn't that long ago when I heard about what happened to Juhani on Dantooine, and now? I just don't know, and this isn't helping. The only words we all heard after Lashowe's death were to split up; Carth, Mission and myself were tasked with joining Darius, heading for one of the tombs. Everyone else was ordered to take out the rogue assassin droid in the other tomb.

"So this is the last thing we're being forced to fetch?" Carth asks, staring straight into the open doorway.

"It can't be that bad, Carth," Mission jokes. "You know that nobody who has ventured in here has ever come out, and that all the Sith say there's just about a dozen traps and defences still intact. Somehow lasting over millions of years!"

Maybe it'll be like Uncharted, and we'll all have to climb up a thousand well placed ledges, acting snarky all the way.

"The Sith really want that old sword," Carth notes. "And none of them have ever gotten it? Seems like something is at work in here, at the very least."

"I didn't beg you as the suspicious type," I wink, running a hand along the stone entrance to the tomb. It feels really dry, but there's no separation lines anywhere that I can feel. Which means it's all one piece of stone. I can't see more than a few meters in front of us, which is to be expected given our track record with these kinds of places.

Carth doesn't cross the threshold either. "I'm still not believing a lot of the stories they tell about this, but there has to be some logical reason why nobody has found that sword."

"Maybe it doesn't actually exist," Mission suggests, stepping forward. I do the same, quickly being engulfed by the dark. Thankfully, there's some built-in lighting system further down, judging by all the light. It's not exactly bright by any means of the word, but I can still see at least.

"If it didn't, people probably would have come back alive," Darius says. "But if the four of us can cut through sewers and Rakghouls, we can grab a rusty old sword."

"Rakghouls? I'd rather not reminiscence about those," Carth admits, "But if we are, you shouldn't forget about that Rancor, either."

"I don't want to be reminded of that," I retort. "That was the most messed up day of my life."

"Wasn't a vacation for any of us," Darius comments, and I feel bad for placing all the emphasis on myself. Especially given the Endar Spire and the fact that he and Carth rode an escape pod into a city building.

Mission steps forward slowly, pushing some sort of spider web out of the way. In front of us, a few stones fall from the ceiling, the sound of stones striking the floor echoing throughout the entire tomb. I stop for a moment, studying my breathing. We all have no choice but to make a left turn in this artificial tomb, and we nearly run straight into a black door, much like the ones used in the Sith Academy. Interchangeable doors indeed.

Unlike the ones in the school, though, these aren't opening right away. I wave a hand in an attempt to open it by motion controls, which has worked almost every else I've been. Huh. I haven't even noticed that I've been doing that out of habit. I've pretty much forgotten about door handles, or traditional locks. How long is it until I forget everything about my old home? This is my new one, I've accepted that. But I can't just forget about everything… Should I? I guess it's not like I'll ever return, but it's still part of my past.

A past I can only share with a very select group of people.

"Carth," Darius' voice yanks me out of my thoughts. "You pull on that lever there."

I cringe at the noise the lever makes, but the door opens nonetheless. Carth lets go of the device, and my immediate worry is that the portal is going to slam shut again, and probably take quite a bit of this tomb with it. Thankfully, the door stays open, revealing even more of the tomb. There's another long, narrow bridge with another running parallel, though that one further away seems to have quite a few inactive droids resting on it.

"And that's why nobody ever came back, Carth," Darius raises an eyebrow, the Jedi seemingly taking in his surroundings much more quickly than I am capable of. "There's six of them, and I'm honestly not sure how they're here or how long they've been here."

"I don't recognise the models," Mission observes. "You think they have some sort of automated repair systems? That would keep them running for quite some time."

"Built by the ancient Sith, no doubt," the Jedi sighs, eyes transfixed on the puzzle in front of us. "There's no telling what they've done here. Judging by how things are set-up, they're likely to gun anyone heading across."

I bite my lip, not sure what we're supposed to do here. "I'm guessing we can't just shoot them right now either."

"They're going to attack us either way, whether we walk across or try taking them out right now. Keep your head bout you, and we'll take them all at once. All six of them, that is. You're going to need one of these, each of you."

Darius shoves a hand grenade right into my palm, and proceeds to give one to Mission as well. Apparently Carth already has one, but I'm doubtful we can take all of them at once. The Jedi signals for us to be ready, and he lobs the first grenade right at the farthest droid, which explodes in a rather large blue explosion. The droid subjected to the blast is destroyed nearly instantly, but the other five unfold into metal monstrosities. Naturally, just like everything else, they seem to be armed to the teeth, at least as far as I can tell. At least four blasters on each one.

Mission and Carth throw their own grenades, and I do the same, pressing a button on the device before chucking it several feet towards the nearest droid. A rather colourful display of fireworks blows across the first few droids, in vibrant shades of red, white and cyan. I should've checked what kind of grenade I was just using. Though, I kind of forget what colour means what type of explosion. Red might be plasma, but that's not really important.

The smoke hasn't quite cleared yet, but red blaster fire practically pours from the rising gasses. I throw myself behind the rubble on my left side, my chest taking the brunt of that stunt. My leg hurts even worse than before, but I'm alive, I guess. I crouch behind these rocks, pushing aside an old armoured corpse for room. Gross, gross, gross. Die somewhere more convenient, if you don't mind.

I peer over my cover, and duck again when a blaster shot whizzes over my head. From what I just briefly saw, it seems like there's three of them left. But of course, it looks like ach one of those bloody droids are surrounded by a red energy sphere. Shields, of course. I might be rocking a new little pistol, but I'm not feeling too great about my odds here. Especially since nobody has even gotten past these droids. Granted, they might have been using lightsabers, but surely some of them were in this situation.

Well, now that I say that, there was a corpse in this very same spot.

I look up again, and see that the closest of the three has no shields. I raise my own weapon and fire on the sodding thing. Carth and Mission must share this idea, and the machine collapses in a shower of sparks. Okay, then… Two left. Both of which have their shields. How do we get those to go down?

Darius scrambles over the nearby rubble, quickly followed by Carth. "Look, they're powerful, but much older than anything recent. They've got to lower their shields for just a moment before they start firing. So-." Darius pauses for just a moment, as a rock flies past our heads. "When you said you were in this for the duration, did you really mean it?"

"I might be regretting it now," I say, raising my voice over the weapons fire. "But yes."

"You and Carth need to move up to the right, Mission and I are going to take out the other two droids as soon as they readjust their aim."

I take a deep breath, looking right at Carth. "You ready mate?"

An instant later, I rush into motion, ignoring the growing pain in my ankle. An instant later, the agony ramps up in intensity, much worse than ever before. I push past that, hearing blaster fire just behind me. There's not a whole lot of places to run, I'm essentially right in front of the droids. Another three meters and I'm at the far edge of the tomb, and a fallen stone support beam. Cover, awesome.

I grasp the beam, forcing my legs over and collapsing in a heap. Breathe, breathe, come on… Damn, that is one unpleasant feeling. Okay, I better take a look and see if those droids are gone… Oh. Six smouldering wrecks. That's what I'm talking about!

"Think there's anything else ready to fry us?" Mission asks, holstering her weapon and stepping into my field of vision. "Or are all these tombs haunted by murderous droids?"

I audibly groan as I force myself back on my feet. "If that's the case, we ought to leave HK in one of them for future Sith to find."

"If you're not careful, you're going to be left here while I grab the sword," Darius says, walking at the head of our group across the narrow bridge. Honestly, who builds platforms like this? Not even the one in Moria looked this unstable; I don't think this one could support a Balrog.

While I couldn't be any more happy to be on relatively solid ground, Darius doesn't seem to mind either way, waving a hand and opening the next and final door either through some motion control system or simply with the Force. I'm not sure how to tell if he's been using that or not, it's only really obvious when someone uses Force Lightning or something. He better not go all Emperor Palpatine on me.

"Sure doesn't look like much," Carth comments, and he's not kidding. There's just this one dusty, circular chamber with a coffin in the middle. And it isn't even sealed, it's ripped open! Along with a rather withered corpse, there are also three swords inside, and Darius grabs all three of them, looking them over. Great, which one was it? I freaking forget. Damn, I really wish I grabbed an online guide or anything when I had the chance.

Not more than a few seconds, a shiver runs down my spine, and it's almost like there's a bit of a nasty draft in here. Mission looks just as confused as I am, while Carth and Darius don't seem as addled by this.

"Too long… Too long in the cold and dark. I'm disturbing again? Three humans, and another?" A dry, raspy voice calls out from the entryway. The intonation and pacing of his voice pretty much matches the faux wind in here, which makes sense for this bloke. I turn around, and double take at the sight of a slightly transparent Sith Lord, who is more focused on talking to Darius. "A Jedi…? Why have you come to this dark place? Why disturb my rest? The Force is strong with you, human. Yet your face, your soul… It has been a long time since we last met."

"You met me before, you're some kind of spirit or ghost." Darius frowns. "As Revan. And who exactly are you?"

"I had a name, once. Ajunta Pall. Yes, that was my name. I was a servant of the dark side… the Sith Lords, we called ourselves. But that was an old life, and we hid from those we had betrayed. We fell. The Jedi Masters, the ones that taught us how to use the Force… We turned against them."

Darius puts the three blades back in the sarcophagus. "What happened then? You must have fought back against them. The same thing is happening right now, and the Sith aren't exactly the most original of thinkers. For that matter, the Jedi aren't either."

The deceased man keeps going; apparently he's immune to sarcasm and anything along those lines. Good thing he's not talking to me. "We destroyed each other. We desired the secrets of each other, we each had knowledge and power that the others possessed. We battled until our fortresses rained down upon our heads. Those loyal to us buried in these tombs, the weapons and traps just another defence from the other Sith. Tell me, do the Sith still survive out there?"

"That's the reason I'm here," Darius tells the spirit. "And they're just as likely to kill one another as the ancient Sith that you were familiar with."

"Has it been so long that you would call it ancient? So much time has passed, and yet we have learned nothing. You must be here for my sword, the weapon I filled with all my pride. It remains as I do, even though I regret. I am dead, as is my faith. But you…? You seek my power, just like all the others."

"I don't think those droids were the only defence here," Mission whispers, an act unnoticed by the thousand-year old Ajunta Pall. "I think I've got a bad feeling about this."

"I wish my sword to be taken… Taken from this place. I command of you, I do not wish it to rot away as I have, both in body and in spirit. If you and your companions are wise, you will not keep it."

"You said it's powerful," the Jedi takes a look back at the metal blades. "There's a war to be fought."

"If you are wise, you will not keep it," the blue-tinted ghost repeats. "In the end, it is what destroyed me and my followers... There are three blades in your grasp, but only one is my sword, but it has been so long that I can barely remember which was the one that the others desired."

Darius picks up one the blades, judging the weight of the weapon in his hand. "What if I guess wrongly?"

Ajunta Pall steps towards Darius, moving alarmingly close to me. I don't want a ghost to get me! "Then you must… die. That is how it must be. Place your choice on the statue, If it the true sword, it is yours. Go, find the sword and place it on the statue."

We all wait for about thirty seconds in eerie silence, I think there's a mutual feeling that this dead guy should say something a bit more. He's awfully vague, and I'm sort of glad about that. If he started going on and on about how he died and what exactly it's like to be in that sort of state… And I didn't kill him, so I won't be haunted.

No, no, it's not a real ghost. It's a Force … thing.

Still, it doesn't sound like he's got anything more to say…

Darius paces back and forth for a second, before walking right up to the small statue behind the sarcophagus. Carth quickly looks at the spirit before joining Darius and Mission. I follow right away, staying very, very clear of the blue Sith man. Darius lays all three swords on the ground rather carefully, presenting to us the problem.

A notched steel sword, a high-tech vibro sword and a silver-lined sword.

"You wouldn't happen to know the answer to this one, would you?" The former Sith Lord asks, jabbing at the vibro sword with his boot.

I try my hardest… Damn. A puzzle answer that could avoid us all being killed by a dead bloke, and I don't know the damned answer! "I'm not sure… It's not the vibro-sword, I think."

"Maybe you should've taken notes," Carth sarcastically comments. "I thought you said you knew what was going to happen?"

"You remember a story you read six years ago? Down to the small details?" Mission backs me up, but not averting her gaze from the three weapons.

"Shut up, I'm thinking," Darius barks, stroking his chin.

Countless seconds pass, until the Jedi picks up the notched steel sword, holding it with one hand right in front of the statue. So, if he puts the wrong one in that slot right there, we're all fried. And will probably die horrific deaths. My heart is pounding, my neck all twitchy… Time slows down to a crawl as the sword falls into place, scraping noise filling the circular chamber.

And… nothing!

I'm alive! Mission, Darius, Carth, ghost Ajunta… We're all still here. Well, I don't actually acre about the dead guy to be honest.

"Yes… that is the one. That is the blade that destroyed me," Ajunta deadpans. "Take it, take the other blades even. Go, leave this place. My darkness awaits me."

"There's not really any need to remain here, is there…?"

Right as those words leave Darius' mouth, the blue form of Ajunta slowly vanishing into thin air. The wind fades as well, along with a good chunk of dark brown fog. All in all, this place doesn't look like anything more than an ancient stone room. Not now that Darius has claimed the three swords, and Ajunta Pall is gone. We did it!

Forget the fact that I'm in an obscene amount of pain, but we still did it!

"Last thing we need for this Sith Headmaster?" Mission says, holding onto one of the three swords. "He must be pretty demanding if he wants all these things just to get accepted."

I keep my eyes straight ahead as we traverse the bridge again. Heights are not that big of a deal… Okay… It's just back out through the entrance area, and we're in the Valley, off to hike back to the Academy. This whole errand-running trip can finally end.

"So… The Spineless worm actually made it through the tomb? I'm impressed…"


One of the Sith recruits stands straight in our path, lightsaber active, glowing an eerie colour of blood across the walls. I can't recall his name, but he's a jerkweed regardless. Hopefully this doesn't escalate into a fight.

Darius switches his own lightsaber on. "Shaardan? What do you want? I'm not here to amuse you."

"Isn't it obvious?" The Sith sneers, grinning from ear to ear. "I've been hoping that someone would do all the work in retrieving the sword for a while. It's been a wait, but it seems to have finally pulled off. So be a good sport and hand it over, or I'll kill the children. And the old soldier for good measure."

"Thanks for the offer, I'll take you up on it. Give me just to minute to get it out, would you?" The Jedi tosses the silver-lined sword to the ground, as well as the actual sword. Mission chucks the other fake as well, forming a pile much like the one buried with Ajunta.

Darius reaches for one of the swords, but Shaardan interrupts him. "No, I don't think so." Much to my surprise, her turns and looks me straight in the eye. "You know which one it is, I take it? Give it to me, I don't trust your friend. He is trying to be a Sith, after all."

I glance at Revan, who gently nods. Okay, I know what he's getting at. I bend over, not looking away from the crimson lightsaber. I grab the silver-lined sword, slowly standing up once again. Okay, handing it over… The man pretty much snatches it from my hands. Geez man, you're going to poke an eye out.

"Smart move," Shaardan says, carefully placing the silver-lined sword in a small bag. "You're obviously even more pathetic that I could have even imagined. Thanks for the sword, idiots."

What a dumb-ass. Trick a Sith? Done. Ready to grab the last Star Map? You bet.

Now I just need to figure out how I can get back at the damned droid.