Sianid Ascendant: Chapter 8

"Team, this is now a Type-9 Extraction. Dianiss . . . is dead."

The sound of Kendsel's voice in the comm channel was completely drowned out by the sound of Kariharra screaming "NOOOOOO!!!!!"

"Master Casei? Master Casei? Listen." He finally got through. "There IS a future with Dianiss in it, but it's fading away. You have to act fast. It has to be you. You have everything you need. There's much more going on here than we realize."

Casei could already hear the sounds of the Scoundrel's Vacation landing right outside.

"Kendsel, is there anything else you can tell me?"

Silence.  In reality it only lasted a few seconds, but in the moment it felt like forever before he responded.

"You have to die with her--and our mission has to fail.  I'm sorry."

--

As Sianid's ship was approached the landing site, she noticed the signs of a connection in the Force to Dianiss returning. It was different this time. It was inviting her . . . even pulling her in . . . and strengthening her.

She embraced it immediately and once again collapsed on her bed.

--

Kari'arra and Dr. Cedrax were running down the ramp to help the Jedi with much-needed healing support. But Kari was not at all hiding her tears or her anger at him.

"I can't believe I told you you did 'great work'! How could you let this happen?"

"Captain, I know you're upset, but you need to calm down. We did introduce some carbon monoxide into the air. But it was only enough to render them unconscious and keep them that way. She WAS weakened by it, certainly, but I promise you: she did NOT asphyxiate."

"Then what DID happen? How in Drayan's name did you accidentally kill a JEDI?!?"

"I don't know. Holiday was monitoring her vitals the entire time, and some time after the crash her entire system just stopped, all at once. Remember: Qyzen was there, too, and survived. I suppose it's possible--probable even--that it could have had something to do with 'the force', but I'm not an expert. For that, you'll have to ask one of the other Jedi. But something ELSE happened, unrelated to the crash landing, and it affected her alone."

She didn't know how to respond.

--

The bond formed between Master and Padawan never fades. From Kendsel's cryptic clues, Casei had already figured out that 'It has to be you' meant that her Master/Padawan bond with Dianiss would be the key. She had already moved Dianiss' body off the chair and onto the bed in the ship's main quarters, and was kneeling at her side meditating.

But it was the final part of his vision that was the most troubling. How would dying with her bring her back? Casei began to quiet her mind and let the Force guide her will, even as she reached out in the Force to connect and commune with Dianiss, just as they had done on the hill on Tython. That seemed like ages ago now.

As she did, she could feel herself being pulled into the abyss. What purpose does this serve?

--

With the support of Master Annanya's blade and now a pair of healers, the Jedi were just starting to get the best of Synzia. Synzia, however, seemed to enjoy it. Her attacks started to become more ferocious, and--as Galadina had feared--more damaging.

Even the occasional sniper shot from Zenith was little more than a moment's distraction as she deflected them back at him with her lightsaber. Lt. Iresso's heavier ordnance was mostly splashing harmlessly across her Force shields.

But most disturbingly of all, Dina could sense that Synzia's mental state was complete confidence--even in the face of all of these combined attacks. Was she really that powerful that she had no cause for concern? Or was her reputation for insanity so well-founded that she was really that out of touch with reality?

--

Casei was feeling the darkness surround and penetrate her, sapping her of her strength and even her will to live. At least, she hoped, the existence of all this darkness proved that there was still something left of Dianiss to connect to, however small.

She kept reaching out, searching for any clue at all as to what she could do. So far, the only thing that she had found was at the sub-cellular level: though the individual cells of Dianiss' body were dormant . . . dead . . . the midichlorians inside were not fading like they would normally do when a Jedi becomes one with the Force. Something was sustaining them. It was as if she desperately didn't want to die . . . or that the Force did not want her to die.

No, not the Force. Something dark and sinister. Something of the dark side.

Was this the unknown power that Dianiss had held inside her all her life?

Casei wondered if she could she get close enough to it to command it as Dianiss did. Is that even possible?

--

In the distance, under the cover of Force-based stealth, Master and Apprentice were watching carefully. The two of them had also been communing in the Force so that he could experience the world around them through her eyes, using her Force Insight.

Right now, all attention was focused on the flow of the Force inside the crashed Jedi ship.

"I've never seen anything like this! Zarvell, what's going on?"

"If I'm correct, he's drawing the healer in. He can't use it without her."

"But . . . three?!? And now a fourth?"

"No. Just two, really. He has already overcome Sianid's control. She'll not be able to return uninvited. The healer is of no consequence . . . a means to an end. If she is clever, she'll save herself as well. Everything she needs is at hand but her time is quickly running out."

--

The darkness surrounding Casei had become substantive, like being immersed in molasses. She was desperately trying to work out what she could do. She had already discovered that going back was not an option...the pull of the abyss was too great. She had knocked on Death's door and willingly passed the threshold. Death did not intend to release its grip.

'It has to be you.'

'You have everything you need.'

'Our mission has to fail.'

Once upon a time, Master Casei would joke that her young Padawan--the daughter of two Sith and the vessel for a great, dark power--would be "the death of her." A strange thing to be prophetic about.

And now, all she could do is think back to those days, and how they had lead to the beginning of THIS . . . Dianiss and Qyzen coming to Tython, carrying a simple drawing of something he'd been shown in a vision.

The darkness was starting to feel inviting, comforting, even loving. Something of Dianiss was definitely a part of it. She could almost see Dianiss' smiling face. She could feel some of the same closeness with her, the same intertwining of their essences they had when the two of them studied the relic together back on Tython.

THE RELIC!

"Think Casei, think!" Something about that day had struck her as odd, but Dianiss' surprise attack on her and Master Annanya, and the events that followed got in the way of really stopping to think about it. What was it?

They had been told it was a shield, but it didn't seem to block the Sith attack at all. The Jedi always favored defensive abilities over attacks, and vice-versa for the Sith. This "shield" was of ancient Sith origin, which is an oxymoron. If it wasn't really a shield, then what DID it do?

"That's right...." It wasn't ONE attack, it was TWO. The relic responded to the first one, but only afterward. It was a supposedly a defensive measure against an ancient Sith death strike, but the Sith--especially those of that era--were obsessed with immortality. Was its real purpose to reverse the effects of the attack rather than block it? If this attack kills, does the device that reverses it raise the dead?

"Where is it?" She had very little willpower left. She was having trouble telling where she ended and the darkness began. She mused that she might even be dead already.

Out in the darkness she could sense that there were a few other things, things that were somehow darker. One of them, the one closest to her, was a flat diamond shape...one that she recognized.

She focused on that shape. She found the seam that she knew would be there. She found the crystal inside. With what little strength was left, she twisted it.

"There is no death. There is only the Force." She stopped fighting the encroaching darkness. With only the tiny bit of strength she had left, she used all of it to press on the crystal from all sides the same way she'd seen Dianiss do it just a day ago. "Annie, this is for you."

--

"There it is." Zarvell said to Denevee, as a white pulse of energy emanated in all directions from the Jedi ship. "Now watch carefully, THIS is what we came here to see."

--

Inside the Jedi ship, the lifeless body of Master Casei lie next to Dianiss' bed, with Dianiss' cat now sniffing curiously at HER face.

Dianiss' body spasmed.

And spasmed again.

She took in a long, deep, gasping breath.

Her eyes opened slightly, and the dark reddish glow emanating from them was unmistakable.

Dianiss' cat ran from the room, frightened.

--

Kendsel was on the radio again, with a sudden urgency in his voice.

"Strike Team, Support Team . . . Master Casei is down. Repeat, Master Casei is down. Do NOT, under any circumstances, engage Dianiss."

Everyone who heard those words simultaneously said "WHAT?!?"

"Also, we've got more party crashers...."

--

The arrival of Sianid's crew on the scene turned the situation immediately chaotic. Zedemm immediately squared off against Ashara, their four blades whirling so fast it was hard to see them as individual blades.

Xalek drew Annanya from the fight with Synzia, and the two of them matched saberstaff techniques blow-for-blow, each in a defensive stance that would not give the other an inch of ground.

HK-51 managed to keep Zenith and Iresso BOTH pinned down. His shots were extremely accurate, even from extreme distances.

That left Galadina alone with Synzia.

Or at least it would have. Synzia was less concerned with fighting Galadina than she was insulted by the fact that her 3-on-1 fight had been disrupted. She all but ignored Galadina's attacks and instead just fired lightning blasts at random enemies. One of those enemies, Dr. Cedrax, was taken out immediately.

At least Zedemm quickly took Ashara out of the fight, breaking their stalemate by knocking her unconscious using an unorthodox blow to the head with a momentarily deactivated saber hilt.

Through all the chaos, Qyzen emerged from the wreckage of the Pure Light, carrying Dianiss in his arms. She continued to jerk and spasm as if having a minor seizure, but the symptoms were passing.

Kari ran towards them. Qyzen tried to avoid her, while still making his way to the landing site of Sianid's ship. He even set her down, as she started to be able to walk on her own.

Before Kari could get there, Zedemm had leaped in and closed the gap. Kari could at least help him with healing support.

--

"Excellent work, my son." Zarvell thought to himself.

Denevee was puzzled. "We're still just going to watch?"

"Oh yes. The Jedi were foolish to come here unprepared. They will lose this battle, because power is never the means to defeat a Sith. How this eludes them after all these millennia, I shall never understand."

"But you said we were here for her."

"We are. If we interfere now, we'll lose her for certain. That one, he is doing what must be done. We, in turn, must observe and learn from it--so that we may do what must be done."

--

Zedemm was remarkably careful in his battle with Qyzen. This was an ally, in body if not in mind, and Zedemm didn't want to seriously injure him. Qyzen seemed similary concerned with Dianiss--who was mostly just looking around, blank and disoriented--and that gave Zedemm the opening he needed to stun Qyzen and knock him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Synzia's anger was even being turned on Sianid's crew. HK-51 had already hit Zenith and seriously wounded Lt. Iresso, but was then shorted out by her lightning when he turned his rifle in the direction of Annanya.

Next, she unleashed her wrath on Xalek, injuring him enough for Annanya to get in a clean strike that brought him down. Annanya had to laugh at her odd turn of luck and couldn't help saying "Cool Beans" to herself.

With Qyzen down, Zedemm turned his attention to Dianiss herself, who was by this time looking strong, if still a bit disoriented. Galadina was now by his side. "Do you trust me?" he asked her.

"Of course."

"Get her attention."


Dina was an expert at that. Throwing the shoto over Dianiss' head, she yelled out to her long-time rival.

"Hey Dianiss! Do you know what the difference is between a Jedi Master and a gigantic slut?"

Dianiss regarded her with a puzzled look.

"You don't? Why am I not surprised...?"


Dianiss spoke, very slowly, very deliberately. "I know you."

"Then you know you're not going anywhere. We have unfinished business."

"I have been defeated you before."

"You think you can take me? Give it your best shot."

Dina was prepared for an attack, but Zedemm used that opportunity to attack from behind, forcing Dianiss to put up a protective shield rather than attack Galadina. As both of them began to attack, the shield took on a distinct dark purple hue, and was absolutely impenetrable to every kind of attack they tried.

Kari had already taken cover behind a nearby frozen rock. "Well, . . . THAT'S new."

Galadina could sense that an attack was about to be unleashed. In a way, she'd been preparing for this moment for years. Once upon a time she'd been surprised by Dianiss' power, and since then she'd replayed those moments in her mind over and over again. What could she have done differently, had she known what was coming?

This time, she knew what was coming. To protect Master Zedemm, she leaped directly in front of him, putting herself directly in the path of the coming attack. Then she readied herself to use the Force for a powerful push, concentrated in a narrow line only a few inches thick. She didn't have to overpower the attack or even stop it, she just had to deflect it with the precision to create an area where it would be weakened enough to withstand.

As the blast of Force power came, she pushed out into it like a spear against a tidal wave. In the wake of her counter-attack, a cone of reduced intensity formed, but it was still a struggle to maintain concentration and keep it up.

The only reprieve was Annanya, who was maintaining a safe distance and attempting a attack to server Dianiss' connection to the Force. That seemed to weaken the attack a tiny bit.

Finally, Dianiss' strength seemed to start wavering. In a desperate attempt to finish the battle, she exploded her protective barrier in a massive pulse of power that did overwhelm all three Jedi, sending them flying. Even Kari's rock was uprooted and rolled over her, breaking several ribs along with her right leg. All four were left unconscious and near-dead.

--

Kendsel saw the chaotic scene and knew that there was one last, desperate hope for victory. Bringing the Destiny around, he turned her guns directly on a noticeably tired Dianiss, forcing her to put up the powerful barrier once more. As her strength failed, he waited for exactly the right moment to cease firing so that he wouldn't kill her (which, the moment he thought about it, he realized was ironic).

But before that moment came, the controls registered massive systems failures, particularly in the electronic components. As he started to actually lose control of the ship's propulsion, he saw the face of a Sith Pureblood looking in at him from outside the cockpit window.

Synzia had leaped up onto the ship while he was firing and unleashed a massive electrical attack on the hull to disable the ship. Now she was coming after him directly.

As she started cutting a hole into the cockpit with her lightsaber, he was ready with his own weapon to fire back at her. Even though he wasn't really successful in hurting her, he did get her to leap off the ship back to the ground.

Unfortunately, she wasn't done. Reaching out with the Force, she grabbed the ship and twisted its trajectory into a sickening flat spin, and tossed it away from the site, much like she had done with the Pure Light earlier.

The G-forces of the out-of-control spinning ship were too much to bear, and Kendsel lost consciousness before the crash.

--

With the Jedi task force defeated, Andronikos and Zash/Khem gathered up their wounded, and took both Dianiss and Qyzen aboard. Synzia, looking suddenly bored with it all, belted her lightsaber and started walking toward where her own ship probably "landed" some distance away.  They all lifted off soon after, leaving the Jedi and their companions to freeze to death on the icy, unforgiving surface of Ilum.