Mimban/Circarpous 28.7 BBY (14 Days Later)
Mud continually sucked at my boots, as a light but steady rain continued to patter down on the hood of my fortunately weather-proofed Jedi cloak. Despite the rain's seemingly perpetual fall, thick mist managed to coil all about our group like a gently swirling and nearly all-concealing gray blanket. Dulling and distorting in strange ways the many unknown sounds belonging to the jungle's inhabitants, while creating an ever-shifting limit to our field of vision as we moved. The addition of all but invisible and bottomless bogs to the jungle's nearly trackless nature made travel under these conditions while lacking an expertise with this specific locale feasible only due to the Force.
That wasn't my area of focus at present, however. I was splitting my attention between simply staying with the group as it moved, and minding the reports I was receiving from a droid control-interface I was kept busy using telekinesis to keep dry enough to remain functional. I'd built both the droids and interface with an extremely humid environment in mind, but Mimban gave new emphasis to the term "dripping wet." Everything here was damp, wet, or soaked all the way through. Causing the growth of the huge swathes of brightly colored molds and various sorts of fungi. Which together gave the entire planet a lingering odor akin to rotting fruit mixed with beds of mulch.
Finding the Temple of Pomojema from the air hadn't been difficult. It was, after all, the only large piece of advanced stonework that was anything you might refer to as structurally sound anywhere in the jungle of the northern hemisphere. No, it had been finding somewhere solid enough to set the Argent Bulwark down which wouldn't lead to the heavy starship immediately disappearing beneath the unstable surface of the planet. Somewhere that also happened to be (relatively) near to an ancient temple long since all but swallowed by the jungle that had proved to be the challenge. A long day of slow flyovers to scan for such a landing site had followed after our two day journey to reach the planet. Finally resulting in the eventual discovery of a rare rocky plateau approximately eighty-five miles south by southeast of the Temple which scans indicated was strong, stable, and clear enough to serve as a viable landing-site. We'd all disembarked anticipating no more than a seven or eight day hike. We had the Force on our side, after all. Surely we could manage slightly more than ten miles a day, right?
That had been two weeks ago. It wasn't really the difficulty in traversing the terrain per se which slowed us down. The chief difficulty was finding viable trails that hadn't already been claimed by the indigenous peoples as part of their territory. After the first confrontation between our group and a band of Coway warriors intent on defending their territorial prerogatives had nearly forced us into a fight with the primitive hunter-gatherer worshipers of a warrior-god whose tenets bid them behave as the next thing down from Orcs, Yoda had declared we would be avoiding trails blazed with Coway markings. It had been interesting watching the Grandmaster use the Force to converse with aliens whose language I was positive he didn't know, but frustrating to be giving way to the demands of beings not in any way harmed by our use of their trails. Individuals who'd stubbornly refused all possible offers to "rent" the use of their trails for, reasons, I guessed.
"Patience, Apprentice. What does it matter how long the journey takes us, if what you told me about your nocturnal activities during our stay within the Temple was accurate? If the only beings who know about this mission are either on this mission, members of the High Council, or highly trusted Sentinels serving as factors to the High Council, how could the Sith learn of their peril?" Dark Woman very quietly inquired in what was meant to be a comforting manner. She'd dropped back to my position at the tail of the group so we could talk with a measure of freedom, but her words made it clear I hadn't done a sufficient job in explaining the evil genius or the sheer dark power arrayed against us. I knew it was her mind, fighting the notion the Jedi were not only the hunters, but also prey. She had long since grown accustomed to Dark Siders being something you simply hunted down, rooted out, and moved on from. Still, knowing what the problem was didn't make it any less frustrating.
"Master, no one ever went wrong by assuming That One knows that which he could not" I murmured in equally low tones. I didn't want to be making any reference to my meta-knowledge this close to our fellows, but Dark Woman's comments hadn't left me any choice. While I spoke, a vision of a thousand mind-controlled Coway warriors being set on us by Bulq in his new guise as a Sith Apprentice flitted through my mind's eye. It was only one possible method the Dark Side might be utilized to make our superior numbers and power go for nothing, and that was what bothered me. I was confident there were a hundred equally deadly possibilities I hadn't imagined. Palpatine would do anything, risk anything to prevent his being identified as the Sith Lord the Jedi Order sought. Even after everything I'd explained to her, I wasn't sure my Master had really digested the idea the might of the Republic itself could be turned against us to shield the man who'd wormed his way to it's heart.
Yet that wasn't the dread which fed my deepest, most unspoken fears. If this worked, then Palpatine would be on the run. Yoda couldn't be in two places at once, and Mace Windu couldn't kill or apprehend a Palpatine unwilling to stand and fight. When I'd initially concocted the notion of revealing Palpatine as Darth Sidious via the Kaiburr Crystal, I'd envisioned being considerably older and having significantly more time to devise a means of preventing the Sith Lord's escape from Coruscant. I had absolutely no doubt he had the Scimitar or a duplicate of the Sith Infiltrator ready and waiting in case he needed to make a quick escape. He would flee the ruins of this plan. Only to pick up the threads of a contingency-plan I was CERTAIN the man had prepared. The Expanded Universe material made one thing very, very, very clear. You couldn't be certain that Darth Sidious was defeated and dead even when you had sat three days with the body just to be sure.
Which would render a great deal of my foreknowledge worthless. That was my deepest, most potent fear. I knew I didn't have a third the mind for plotting and scheming that Sheev Palpatine did. Once we went off-script, this would be decided on the merits, and a part of me dreaded that my side might not be able to pull out the win. I kept giving my fears up to the Force. Letting it remind me of my connection to everything as it soothed away anxieties which served no constructive purpose, but my concerns never faded.
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Coruscant, Republic Executive Building (1 Day Earlier)
The bluish holographic image of Jedi Master Ronhar Kim smiled at his old friend, but there were obvious signs of tension and fatigue in his body language as he apologized "Forgive me for taking so long in getting back to you, Chancellor. I only returned two days ago from a month-long undercover mission on Nar Shaddaa/Legends to ascertain the source of the unusually large, well-armed, and highly organized slaving raids targeting the Twi'leks of Ryloth, so it's taken me until now to discover the answer to your inquiry. I'm troubled, not to mention curious, as to why you couldn't simply take your concerns about the threat uncovered by the Intelligence Service to the High Council, however."
Effortlessly concealing his irritation and impatience with the necessities demanded by the role of interested old friend, Palpatine frowned slightly and adopted his Grade Two Concerned Voice, as he replied "I would have thought that would have been obvious, old friend. Given the indications that this new group formed out of the remnants of the Bando Gora seem to possess access to information the Jedi Order would certainly consider as sensitive as I do, I'm concerned that as troubling a notion as it might be, the prospect of a leak actually within the Order cannot be discounted. How else would these terrorists know a major operation requiring the private purchase of an extremely expensive starship was recently sanctioned by the High Council, or that said mission had just recently gotten underway?" He effortlessly suppressed the urge to smile as the foolish Jedi's frown deepened, with the man's next words making it obvious he'd taken the bait.
"I was afraid it was something like that. Still, it wasn't easy to determine what's going on, and if it were anyone except you, I'd never consider divulging this information. The seal of the High Council is on the Grandmaster's mission, so I could be expelled from the Order for revealing what I'm about to tell you" Ronhar related with an even grimmer expression. He hurried on with his explanation a moment later, with the Jedi's words sending a shock of surprise, fury, and fear bordering on terror through him. Requiring the Sith Lord's every bit of skill at dissembling to go on concealing his true feelings beneath a mask of thoughtful concern.
"I couldn't actually discover all the details given the High Council's seal, but I did learn Master Yoda assembled a detachment involving a Knight trained in xenoarcheology, and another trained as a Liturgist skilled with ancient languages. Rumor has it he's looking for some sort of Force-relic, but that's all it is, a rumor. I don't know where they've gone, or when they're expected to return. Not very helpful in regards to stopping any terrorist plot to interfere with the mission or kill those on it, I'm afraid. The only other detail I can provide is the Argent Bulwark's hyper-comm signal frequency. Useless, I know, unless they call in while someone's scanning for the frequency. I'm sorry there's nothing more, but I'll keep digging." The Jedi Master supplied in a worried yet completely trusting voice.
A ship designed almost specifically for extremely hostile atmospheric flight, Jedi Researchers, and a Force-relic being sought by Yoda himself. The picture had come together for him even as this trusting imbecile was still speaking. Filling Palpatine with a savage, bestial longing to choke the life from Vergere with his bare hands. Not since his final confrontation with that petty, unambitious weakling who'd sired him had he felt such a visceral and all-consuming fury. It was solely a testament to his skill at deception that his voice remained steady as he pointed out to the Jedi his fictitious fears that any attempt to contact the members of a mission they weren't supposed to know existed would be the equivalent of screaming in the terrorists' faces that their intentions had been discovered. Given the Bando Gora's infamy for destructively acting out when the cult's primary aim was thwarted, Palpatine didn't need to waste time or effort convincing his too-trusting informant to keep what they'd discussed between them. It was the one tiny spot of light amid a disaster in the making. Not needing to worry Kim would pass on his "concerns" to the other Jedi.
With the hyper-comm call ended, Palpatine's mind whirled as he considered the various possibilities. All the while moving toward the secret lift that would whisk him from his office and deep into the bowels of the building. Where he could take his private mag-lev to an initial hideaway, and from there to the speeder-car that would get him to his concealed complex in the Works as soon as humanly possible. He needed to be able to drop his Mask and reach out through the Force to determine the immediacy and overall scale of the peril. There was still the chance enough time existed to get ahead of this disaster.
"I'll contact Lord Ximshak and reveal I care nothing for his indiscretions with Maul. Once he understands our shared peril, we can focus our efforts on preventing that little green monster from grasping the means to so damage our plans in his revolting little hands. I'll-" Palpatine's train of thought was shattered as the Dark Side prioritized his continued survival over the tiny chance of discovery. The premonition screaming across the turbid surface of the constantly roiling sea of vacuum cold fury and hatred within him. Despite the roiling surface, an image came to him out of those frothing shadows. It was a razor-sharp shard of blinding, repugnant light erupting into being. Ripping a wide rent in the carefully cultivated shroud of the Dark Side as a maddeningly familiar large brown eye peered through the rent like a man peeking through an ancient keyhole.
Not some vague vision of a possible future weeks, months, or years in the future. The certainty integral to the mental images was as absolute as the coming darkness of nightfall. Their visceral surety like repeated hammer-blows to his awareness. Now, as he sped toward his hideout, there was only coming to terms with the onrushing wave of resulting danger. Yoda would gain the Kaiburr Crystal, and with it reveal him.
It wasn't illegal to be a Sith, but quite a few Republic worlds had laws on the books proscribing involvement in official political or diplomatic activities without disclosing that one was a trained Force-sensitive. These were bitterly ironic relics from the days of the Jedi Lords and Ladies in a time before the Reformation. When Jedi Chancellors of the Republic had been the unbroken norm for centuries. The majority of worlds had long since removed such statutes from the books as unnecessary anachronisms, but Eriadu, Mon Cala, Onderon, and his own homeworld all retained them. These were all worlds he'd unquestionably visited on official business during his stint as Senator of Naboo, so not even an argument of Executive Privilege would protect him from Jedi-instigated extradition efforts. Saying nothing of his having caused medical records to be falsified to conceal his midichlorian count, and a dozen other serious crimes he would easily be charged with once it was revealed he could use the Force. It was more than conceivable that, like rats from a ship they feared to be sinking, one or more members of his inner circle could turn their coat and pass on damaging information in exchange for leniency. He'd done well to insulate himself in most such situations for precisely this potential eventuality, but no one could be perfectly distanced from their every illegal act.
"The Jedi are absolutely relentless, once roused. They will tug at each thread, explore every possible avenue, and interrogate my every associate" The snowy haired, lean, patrician featured Sith concluded as still more rage bubbled just beneath the surface of his outward veneer of control.
While it was likely his political, judicial, and corporate allies would be enough to keep him free on bail when considered together with his other assets, it wouldn't matter. He didn't yet control enough Senators outright to prevent the inevitable alliance of the reformers under Bail Prestor Organa with Seti Ashgad/Legends opportunists, and now he never would. That was what the trap which was the planned Outbound Flight had been meant to accomplish. Being it's most ardent supporter, the project's catastrophic failure would have placed Vice-Chair Mas Amedda entirely at his mercy. Giving him the lever required to move beyond mere manipulation of the members of the Rim Faction to total control of reactionary simpletons like Orn Free Taa/Legends . He'd been so close to in truth being the Senate in every practical respect, but even if he managed to escape the legal consequences of his actions, this scandal would be enough to see him ousted as Chancellor.
"Iteration A of the Grand Plan is no longer viable, so be it" Palpatine considered with a spider's inhuman deliberation as he suddenly changed the car's direction to head for his private landing-pad. A mysterious disappearance that was coupled with "evidence" of a Jedi kidnapping attempt carefully supplied by Doriana and Pestage would delay matters and cause a chaotic uproar his lieutenants would do everything they surreptitiously could to prolong. Getting him out ahead of this, and providing opportunity for him to become ensconced in Iteration B before the Jedi could capitalize on their unexpected success.
"The Jedi claim to be protectors of the people and the peace. Each of them willing to lay down their lives, so that others might live. I would have brought them their end with sudden efficiency, but most of the cattle they care so much for would have been spared in Iteration A. They seem to prefer the horrors of galactic war, however, so I will give them war. Let a millennium of failure to redress the tensions between Core and Rim drown them all in blood. It will give me the opportunity to rebuild all as I would have it, anyways" It was the wintry, rage-filled vow of a controlling sociopath whose aims had been thwarted. One delivered to the empty air with a calm so sudden and so purpose filled it would have terrified the most serene of Jedi beyond the capacity for rational thought as he sped off into the lengthening shadows of evening.
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Mimban (Day 15 of the expedition)
The temple was covered in a strange, spiraling, blue-green ivy with tendrils as thick as my wrist in places. Where it's dark gray walls could be seen in rare gaps of the climbing plant life, I could tell the people who'd built it had progressed to at least a medieval level of development. The construction of the tremendous gateway's arch made that much obvious. It had been gratifying when my droids had found us a path along the bank of a shallow river that allowed us to cover the final fifteen miles to the Temple of Pomojema in a fraction of the time the previous thirty had been traversed, but I'd played it cool while my elders complimented my scouting-by-proxy efforts. That earned me a brief smile of approval from my Master when Jedis Darys and Krintu had expressed shock and surprise to discover that I was the builder as well as programmer of the droids, and not simply their minder. Yoda simply chuckled and shook his head. Waiting patiently for said droids to return from their penetration into the temple's precincts. I'd pleaded for the group to permit my sending of the dragonfly-hawks ahead, rather than doing the initial scouting personally. There had been a bit of consternation from the two Jedi Researchers eager to finally achieve the goal of the mission, but the Grandmaster had taken one look at my worried expression and made the executive decision to give my droids their chance.
Only two of the three droids emerged from the temple, and one of these was sparking and smoking. Missing the final rear quarter of it's body and one of it's four wings, as the damaged and undamaged scouting droids made their way back to me and powered down. The two Jedi Knights looked concerned by the absence of one of the three droids to enter, and the substantial damage to a second, but Dark Woman and Yoda both seemed unsurprised by this development.
Walking over, I held out the control interface where both the Jedi Masters could easily see it's screen, then shifted the display from the visible spectrum to scans provided by the six mass-sensors that had been housed by twos within each droid and deployed about the large building's interior at my command during their initial entry at ceiling height. It had been the need to drop lower as the ceiling lowered near the rear of the temple which had caused the loss of the third droid, as something which could not be seen snatched it from the air, then lashed out and nearly caught a second droid in similar fashion as it's autonomous evasion protocol was lifting it back toward the structure's higher ceiling and safety.
"Curious, it is. The creature's stealth, your apprentice anticipated. Another vision's result, it seems." Yoda's remark was outright needling. His alien facial structure made it difficult to tell, but I thought the look he was giving me was meant to communicate "You don't really believe I'm buying this anymore, do you?"
The picture obviously lacked detail, being nothing but a rough visual compilation of dimensions and movements of the object tracked based on the readings gleaned from the deployed sensors. It showed something significantly longer than it was tall. Stockier at the fore, and tapering to a more narrowed end one could easily infer was a tail. Other than it's ability to move fast enough to pluck an extremely agile droid capable of near-instantaneous changes in direction and altitude from the air when the spirit moved it, little more could be gleaned from the constructed image. Leaving me with the quandary of whether or not to warn my compatriots specifically about what they were facing.
"The presence of the Dark Side, I sense. Tainted by it, the creature is" Yoda observed after a moment. Not taking his eyes from me for an instant as he did so. I was being put to what sabacc players called a Moment of Decision. The Grandmaster wanted to know whether I'd risk others being harmed to prevent people from noticing I knew a great deal more than I should about things I had no business knowing anything about, so he was putting me in a situation that would force me to prioritize either my sense of discretion or ethics.
Sighing quietly, I pointed to one of the readings on the control interface. "It isn't much warmer than it's surroundings, looks rather reptilian to me, and Mimban was occupied by the ancient Sith at one point according to articles I read in the Archives to prepare for the mission. Could it be a Hssiss ?"
Ameesa Darys's head whipped toward me. Her expression sharp and showing her surprise, as the tall, pale, white-blond and golden eyed Jedi remarked in a tone bordering on incredulity "That's one very specific guess, Padawan! I didn't think anyone outside the Researchers remembered the Dark Side dragons. Especially since they're most commonly associated with Korriban." The Jedi Knight might've said more, but just then Knight Krintu coughed loudly. His not so subtle cue cluing me something had been discussed concerning my knowledge. From the flash I caught from Ameesa, that had been Yoda's doing.
"Irrelevant, this line of reasoning is. A strategy, we need determine" The Grandmaster calmly cut in. He was too much the wise and dignified mystic to glare at the Twi'lek language expert, but it wasn't hard to figure out he was less than pleased with the Jedi Knight for essentially letting slip there had been a discussion of my "uncannily accurate predictions" at some point. His ears had lain back as he eyed the man. Causing the tall, whip thin, aqua-skinned Knight to drop his gaze toward his own feet as I sensed a flash of abashed chagrin coming from him. It hadn't escaped my attention that Ameesa and Hallan were infinitely easier to read empathy-wise than my Master or Yoda. Which kind of made me wonder where my powers rested with comparison to your average Knight.
"Go right on thinking about your powers being greater than your elders, imbecile. You know this road leads to ending up a dismembered and immolated baby-killer, so how are you letting Grade-A Stupid like this cross your mind? Just enjoy being a natural prodigy while doing your part." It was disheartening, just how often I was forced to give myself a reality-check like this one. Almost as if it hadn't simply been something in Anakin's personality that lead him astray, but something more tangible that I'd inherited. Something which caused me to dwell on my grasp of the Force's ways in comparison to others.
I'd perused some introductory mind-healer texts and diagnostic criterion programs within the Archives, but hadn't really found anything which jumped out at me. No specific chemical imbalance or neurological damage seemed to cause sufferers to wonder how they compared to their peers with undue frequency.
I never thought of myself as a particularly competitive person, but then again, I'd never had so much potential in numerous areas that it made others uneasy due to there being no way for it to go unnoticed. Was I simply mirroring the reactions of those around me, or was there something more to it? Could people be born with a predisposition for turning to the Dark Side? It was a disturbing notion, but I knew many people were genetically predisposed to alcoholism and other chemical dependencies. Just as I knew that emotional and psychological problems could cause people to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Creating an almost inescapable downward spiral, if their predispositions lined up just so. Did I have strikes against me from the outset that other Jedi didn't, or was it simply the old maxim about the corrupting nature of power in action?
"No! I have no desire to control people, and certainly no wish to hurt them if they won't obey me. I often feel fear and anger, but I do all I can to cope with both emotions in healthy ways" I murmured beneath my breath. Feeling myself amped up for no good reason, and growing more on edge, if not outright angry with every heartbeat that passed.
"Emotion, yet Peace
Ignorance, yet Knowledge
Passion, yet Serenity
Chaos, yet Harmony
Death, yet the Force."
I began whispering these lines first to myself, then repeating them louder and louder without regard for who heard me. It wasn't my Code, not the one I really wanted to be saying right now, but even in the midst of what I now recognized as an unnatural and insidious assault on my mind and feelings, I had the presence of mind to remember the Grandmaster would tolerate only so much heresy. That thought tried to stoke the edginess and ember beginnings of anger into something simultaneously hotter, colder, and darker, but I continued to focus on my breathing and the meaning behind the words I was repeating. Finally, after what felt like forever, but which my wrist chronometer reported had only been two and a half minutes, I felt the black emotions recede. Leaving me in command of myself once more.
Looking about me like I was waking up from a bad dream, I realized I had followed the other into the temple in a diamond formation with me bringing up the rear, of course. Yoda, my Master, Ameesa and Hallan were all looking at me. The latter two careful to keep their expressions guarded as they looked to the two Jedi Masters for cues after Hallan's earlier slip, but the diminutive and venerable Master was favoring me with a look which was difficult to read. He seemed satisfied with the fact I'd shaken off the Dark Side emanations of the temple's interior on my own, but there was a quizzical tilt to his head as well. One which took me a moment to divine a reason for.
"I, uhh, no disrespect to Master Odan-Urr/Legends . It's just the original version of the Code resonates more powerfully with me. I was really on edge, if not angry just now, and it helped me find my equilibrium" I said in a respectful yet unhesitating manner once I got over my initial moment of self-consciousness due to being stared at by everyone.
"You're not the first young Jedi to feel that way. I too preferred the original in my youth, but found more wisdom in Master Odan-Urr's interpretation as I grew older" Dark Woman spoke up after seeing the two Knights scowl at me for my "impertinence." Hallan's look kind of bothered me, but tall and beautiful Ameesa's glare simply pissed me off. I opened my mouth to snap at the future torturer and killer of children, then realized it was the temple getting to me again and began focusing on my breathing once more.
Yoda was turning to face the depths of the building, and his move caused everyone else to fall in once more. I was thankful he'd taken the attention off me, but couldn't help wondering what he'd thought of my comment. I brushed the thought off quickly. Reminding myself there was an extremely dangerous, invisible, dark side tainted apex predator in here.
Looking around as we moved deeper, I realized the building reminded me of pictures of the old Aztec or Inca structures. Not necessarily the stepped pyramids, but some of the other buildings I could remember seeing in National Geographic articles. There was this one building that had been constructed within a huge, naturally occurring cave. One which was supposed to lead into their underworld, if you went down far enough. That's what I would most remember the Temple of Pomojema being like. Not the immense statue that was exactly as I'd described it. Humanoid, powerfully built, winged, and with a face full of tentacles. The twenty foot tall statue stood all the way at the back in a chamber that was the definition of dark, dank, and oppressive despite also being fairly wide open. There were a lot of niche-like ledges running around the huge rectangular chamber's edges that made me nervous. Giving the hssiss plenty of perches to leap down on us from, if it didn't use the huge cord-like vines criss-crossing the room a dozen feet above our heads like organic walkways to increase it's ambush options even further. The abominable lighting in here made me glad I'd remembered the darkness of the structure's interior from Luke and Leia's visit. Which was why I whistled sharply just then. Activating the twenty thousand candle power radial lights I'd wired into each of the sensors deployed by my droids.
"Let there be light!" I joked to no one in particular. The strange looks I got from my Master and Knight Krintu reminding me no one in this galaxy was going to take that comment as anything aside from a statement of fact. I got an appreciative grunt from Yoda, but otherwise nothing as we proceeded deeper. Even my lights were having a difficult time doing more than pushing back the darkness enough not to need the warnings of the Force to avoid tripping over vines or cracks in the stonework. It was still dim as hell, and downright dark beyond the conical range of each light dropped in each corner of the room, plus the wrist-lights of each of us except Master Yoda. I was continually shining my light all about me and paying careful attention to any promptings from the Force with my left hand resting on my lightsaber. Wondering briefly if the hssiss had fled when it sensed this many intruders.
Until the light in the far right corner of the room died with a sputtering, sparking hiss as something smashed the baseball-sized sphere with a slightly flattened top and bottom. There was nothing to see by the time my head whipped that way, but I took my cue from my Master. Her lightsaber was now in her hand, yet wasn't ignited. Prompting me to do the same, as I noticed both Jedi Knights following suit. Master Yoda hadn't touched his own weapon and continued simply tap-tap-tapping toward the great statue, but I knew just how fast he could draw and strike from watching his fight with Darth Sidious onscreen about a gazillion times.
The Force keened a warning at me. It was so sharp and intense a struck note in the savage song of this place, I didn't think. Reacting as my instincts demanded by not igniting the lightsaber in my left hand, but raising my right and shoving with every bit of focus through the Force that I could. For the first time since I'd reached a level of proficiency that what I focused on never failed to move as I willed, something felt like it was pushing back in a manner I'd never experienced before. Challenging my power to move it with it's own insistence on not being moved. I couldn't see what I was pushing against, but I gritted my teeth, closed my hand, then flung my arm forward just as hard as I could once more. Mirroring the physical motion with my every bit of focus and concentration on exerting the most powerful Force Push I could.
I felt the bizarre resistance break, heard a hissing squeal so loud and strident it hurt my ears, and saw for the briefest instant a shimmering, distorted and now writhing something fly like a line-drive at the right wall of the temple. My heart went on racing as the memory of the furthest forward portion of that writhing shimmer coming within a foot of my face before my telekinetic push finally sent it flying. A moment later there was a loud and echoing thud-whomp, as the creature I'd flung slammed into the stone wall with enough force to turn a human into a bloody mass of shattered bone and rent flesh, then dropped to the floor. There was literally no pause before the scritch-scritching of claws on stone carried to us. The beast racing back into the gloom with it's first try a failure. In it's defiant screech I could literally feel it's hunger and fury at being denied.
Three snap-hisses came from ahead and to either side of me. Followed by Yoda's voice, a little louder than I'd ever heard it before, as he called out "More than one creature, there is. Their movements, hunger, and rage, sense them, you can." I saw the great Jedi's head continue to swivel. His three-fingered right hand raised to chest level before him while he continued his advance. What happened next, I heard more than saw, as the snap-hiss of the Grandmaster's emerald blade carried to where I was standing, and a blurred green orb with a brighter green strip shot ten or twelve feet to the left of the last place my mind had identified as Yoda's location. The longer hiss-rmm of a lightsaber blade making rapid yet extensive contact with something solid followed a split-second later, then he reappeared, lightsaber in hand, beside what looked like a cross between a huge hunting cat and a saltwater crocodile as the thing fell over onto one side. The hssiss's head seemed to have suffered numerous cuts of the plasma arc while the Jedi Master had been an untraceable blur, because the great maw and most of the skull simply slid apart into multiple scorched pieces an instant later.
A much closer hiss-vroom of a closely passing lightsaber flashed past me. Happening at exactly the same time as another dire warning from the Force's now rolling, urgent, rapid-fire beat came to mind, and my Master's hissed admonishment carried to my ears. "Be mindful, Anakin! You can gawk at Master Yoda later, but you need to defend yourself now!"
The keening screech of the monster she'd just prevented from attacking and maybe killing me echoed out of the dimness as it withdrew once more. Finally prompting me to ignite my own blue-white blade. My blood felt like little white fires had ignited and were flitting through my veins just as potently as the energy shroud of my light-saber. Making everything feel crisper and more clear as the knowledge I'd nearly died and might yet became foremost in my thoughts. The Force's song was a nearly savage drumbeat in my head. One which I had to focus on remaining perfectly centered within, so the darkness of this place couldn't pull me off-balance. It didn't really bear mentioning I was now having the time of my life rather than being sensibly terrified. I felt more awake and alive than I'd dreamed possible, and I liked the feeling!
Suddenly, I could no longer fault Other-Anakin nearly so much for all the mad, high-risk, action-hero antics he'd pulled. If dangerous adventures felt this absurdly good as a Force-sensitive, how in Ashla's name did all the Jedi remain so calm, collected, and composed?
"We remember you quickly end up a corpse if you lose control. Which isn't to say there's anything wrong with your feelings, so long as you control them, and they don't end up controlling you" Dark Woman murmured so quietly that no one who wasn't as close as I was at her back could have heard her speak without the Force. The two of us were standing nearly back-to-back, as were Ameesa and Hallan. Yoda, showing absolutely no sign of his usual hobbling, walking stick assisted gait was prowling about the perimeter of our little group. He'd deactivated his lightsaber for the moment, but I was coming to realize that quick-activation-and-spin thing he did was some sort of incredibly advanced custom Ataru velocity he seemed to use quite often. Whether he moved laterally or horizontally, the Grandmaster was capable of zero-to-nearly unobservable controlled accelerations that beggared belief. The big screen didn't even begin to give one a sense for how he moved when he had a will to.
"The Force is my ally, and a mighty ally it is. Indeed." I thought with more than a little amazement.
Until I had no more time for distractions, and the Force's keening warned me of danger once more. Granting me a flickering mental image of one of the great lizards having stalked to within pouncing distance of Knight Krintu's flank without his seeming to detect it, and at the same time showing me the third hssiss about to drop straight down onto me from above.
Above us, Master!" I called out loudly and firmly. Having chosen to place my faith in the Jedi Master who'd taught me nearly everything I knew, rather than in Knight Krintu's ability to effectively react to a similar warning. My right hand came up and this time I grabbed rather than shoved. Instantly, the pressure of the immensely strong reptile fighting the grip I was exerting through my influence in the Force began to mentally tire me, but I didn't need to hold it long as my Force Leap carried me high and wide. Passing the falling dragon yet outside it's reach, as I completed my front somersault and brought my blade downward in a slash backed by the entire weight of my falling body. There was so little shock of resistance, I continued right on through into a roll. Coming to my feet and rounding just in time to see the lizard I'd nearly beheaded as it had leaped fall and skid to a stop two or three feet shy of the Twi'lek Knight.
My brow furrowed as I took in the sight of Yoda pulling his blade from the left eye of the hssiss he'd just run through a step or two shy of the tall, lithe, white-blond Ameesa. I'd missed his crossing the more than sixty feet between Grandmaster and Knight in less than an eye-blink to accomplish the feat as I'd reacted. Just as I'd missed my Master somehow getting above the fifteen foot long, three or four foot wide crocodilian-cat, and sending it's head rolling. She'd just now landed, and I was puzzled by the way her face had gone ashen. There was a look of what I would have called great fear on her handsome, lined features, if I'd ever seen her afraid before. Everyone was suddenly headed my way, but it was Yoda who got to me first, with Dark Woman a second behind him.
It wasn't until Yoda reached out toward me and said "Fine, you will be. More than this Skywalker, to kill you, it will take" that I felt it. A burning heat running down my right side in a wash. Looking down, I saw the white shirt I was wearing beneath my cloak drenched in scarlet. Missing an intervening frame of continuity, I found myself on my knees a second later. Dimly hearing Yoda snapping something at one of the others I couldn't make out.
Worming threads of acid were joining the heat penetrating my side. Not thinking clearly, I returned my lightsaber to my belt, then fell backward. Unable to feel whether anyone caught me before I hit the ground.
Edit: I have been experiencing an odd phenomena where my ability to copy-paste links to Wookieepedia articles suddenly stops. If anyone could explain what's happening, and how to prevent it, I'd be appreciative.