The holocron moved.
Khan looked up.
It left his open hand and crossed the chamber.
Malgus caught it.
The artifact's red light passed over his broken armor.
"What are you going to do?" Khan asked.
Malgus studied the holocron.
Something moved behind its sealed surfaces.
The Emperor's fragment remained inside.
Trapped.
Waiting.
"This world will soon return to what it truly is."
Khan understood.
The Emperor had shown him how the artifact amplified memories within the Force.
Kaas City.
The ancient Sith.
Malgus.
Everything had been given form through the holocron.
Malgus looked toward him.
"The memories are sealed."
Part of his damaged armor flickered.
Darkness appeared beneath it.
Then his body became solid again.
"Their manifestations will disappear with them."
Khan slowly rose.
"You knew."
Malgus said nothing.
"You knew sealing the holocron would destroy you."
Another tremor passed through Malgus's body.
His hand remained closed around the artifact.
"Why?"
Malgus looked at Khan for what might be the final time.
"I refuse to be chained."
His yellow eyes remained steady.
"Never again will I exist for another's ambition."
Khan stared at him.
Malgus had known what would happen.
He had known before freeing himself from the ruins.
Before leading Khan toward the waterfall.
Before sending him up the mountain.
Everything had been preparation for this moment.
"You trained me so I could help you destroy it."
"I trained you because I required strength."
Malgus looked toward the weapon at Khan's side.
"And because you had none."
Khan's hand moved near the golden hilt.
Malgus continued.
"I have taught you the way of the Sith."
His body flickered again.
"I kept my promise."
A low sound passed through the chamber.
Stone shifted somewhere above them.
"You are now a weapon of your own revenge."
Khan's expression tightened.
"I am more than just a weapon."
Malgus showed no anger.
"Then prove it."
His fingers closed more firmly around the holocron.
"Destroy that which you hate the most,"
Red light escaped between them.
"Claim your victory."
Malgus stepped closer.
"And break your final chain."
Khan had no answer.
Malgus was not a good man.
He had insulted Dooku.
Destroyed the last piece of Khan's master.
Used his grief and anger to push him toward the dark side.
But he had also saved Khan's life.
He had given him the strength to survive.
Now, Malgus stood before the artifact sustaining his existence and chose to destroy it.
He would rather cease to exist than remain its prisoner.
In this moment, Malgus was free.
More free than anyone Khan had ever known.
"The hold upon this planet is broken," Malgus said. "Leave and fulfill your ambition."
Khan looked toward the holocron.
"What about the artifact?"
"I will destroy it."
The chamber trembled.
Dust fell from above.
"And free myself from ever being used again."
Khan looked toward the passage behind them.
Malgus followed his gaze.
"If you wish to die, remain here and continue asking questions."
It was not a threat.
Only a certainty.
Khan understood.
He turned toward the exit.
After several steps, he stopped.
Malgus remained at the center of the chamber.
His armor was broken.
His body was fading.
Yet his presence had not weakened.
Khan felt many things toward the ancient Sith.
Anger.
Distrust.
Something close to respect.
Whatever remained between them would end here.
Khan looked at him one final time.
Malgus met his eyes.
"My chains are broken."
Darkness gathered around the holocron.
"The Force shall free me."
Khan ran.
The enormous door remained raised as he passed beneath it.
The moment he entered the corridor, the stone began to move.
The door descended behind him.
Khan did not look back.
It struck the floor.
The impact shook the passage.
Khan reached the elevator and activated the ancient mechanism. The platform responded, rising into the darkness above.
The chamber below disappeared.
Khan felt the holocron one final time.
Its darkness gathered into a single point.
Malgus's presence surrounded it.
Then both disappeared.
A wave of energy erupted beneath Khan.
The shaft shook.
The platform nearly threw him from its surface.
Khan lowered his body and reached into the Force.
Stone broke from the walls and fell into the darkness below.
The elevator continued upward.
Red lights along the shaft went out one after another.
The platform finally reached the Sith Sanctum.
Khan jumped from it before it stopped.
The chamber had begun collapsing.
The statues surrounding the construction station cracked. Ancient banners turned to dust before touching the floor.
Khan ran.
He passed through the Sanctum doors.
The symbols covering them flickered and disappeared.
The Citadel trembled around him.
Broken pillars fell across the halls. Sections of the ceiling collapsed behind him.
Khan reached the upper levels.
For brief moments, the ruins changed.
The Citadel stood complete.
Sith walked through the halls.
Imperial banners hung from the walls.
Red-armored guards stood beside doors that had fallen centuries ago.
Then the images vanished.
The ruins returned.
Memories given form for the final time.
Khan continued running.
He reached the entrance of the Citadel and stepped into Kaas City.
The dead city flickered around him.
Collapsed towers rose.
Broken roads repaired themselves.
Ships crossed the storm-filled sky.
Thousands of figures moved through the streets.
None looked toward Khan.
None knew they had already disappeared.
A final tremor passed through the city.
The images faded.
Only the ruins remained.
Khan entered the forest.
The ground shook beneath him.
A distant red light rose from the center of Kaas City.
It climbed into the sky.
Then it vanished.
Silence followed.
Malgus was gone.
Khan stood among the pale trees.
He did not say goodbye.
Whatever anger he still carried toward the ancient Sith would remain on this world.
Khan continued through the forest.
The path eventually led him beyond the ruins.
He stepped into an open clearing and looked toward the sky.
Dark clouds remained over the planet.
The world had not suddenly become brighter.
But the lightning was gone.
The clouds no longer pulsed with purple and blue energy. The pressure that once surrounded the planet had disappeared.
Khan reached into the Force.
He could feel the creatures within the forest.
Their hunger.
Their fear.
Their desire to survive.
But the endless presence behind them was gone.
Nothing reached into his thoughts.
Nothing attempted to consume him.
The world remained dark.
It was no longer possessed.
Khan turned toward the direction where he last saw his friends.
Movement appeared between the trees.
A hooded figure ran through the forest.
Red cloth passed between the pale trunks.
A cultist.
Khan watched him.
The figure did not fade.
Malgus had disappeared.
The memories of Kaas City were gone.
But the cultist remained.
He was real.
Khan followed.
The cultist moved without caution. He repeatedly looked behind himself, breaking through branches and nearly falling over the roots beneath him.
Khan remained out of sight.
He no longer needed to watch his footing as he had with Xavier.
He moved through the forest without hesitation.
Nothing stood in his path.
The cultist reached a ruined clearing.
Several others were waiting there.
Some carried weapons.
Others gathered supplies.
Their voices rose as the fleeing cultist joined them.
Khan could not understand their language.
He did not need to.
They pointed toward the sky.
Toward the mountain.
Toward different paths through the forest.
They were deciding where to flee.
Khan watched from a stone ledge above them.
These were the people who kidnapped the children.
The people who drained their lives into the pit.
If they escaped this world, they would continue.
Khan would not allow that.
He stepped from the ledge.
The cultists looked up.
Khan landed among them.
His hand closed around the new hilt at his side.
Golden light filled the clearing.
The nearest cultist reached for his weapon.
Khan struck first.
The blade passed across his chest.
He fell.
The others reacted.
Two charged from opposite sides.
Khan turned toward the first.
Their weapons collided.
Blue sparks erupted from the golden blade and traveled across the cultist's weapon.
His body stiffened.
Khan drove the blade through him.
The second attacked from behind.
Khan moved his free hand.
The Force caught the cultist and threw him across the clearing.
His body struck another.
Both fell.
A blaster fired.
Khan turned his blade.
The bolt struck the golden light and returned toward the cultist.
He collapsed beside the ruins.
More weapons appeared.
The cultists attempted to surround him.
Khan moved before they could.
He crossed the distance between himself and the nearest attacker.
One strike removed the weapon from the man's hand.
The next cut him down.
Khan turned.
His blade caught another attack.
He redirected it toward the ground and drove his shoulder into the cultist.
The man stumbled.
Golden light passed through his body.
A cultist rushed toward Khan from the side.
Khan extended one hand.
The Force stopped him in the air.
Khan closed his fingers.
The cultist was pulled forward.
The golden blade entered his chest.
He fell at Khan's feet.
The remaining cultists hesitated.
Fear passed through the clearing.
Khan could feel it.
One dropped his weapon and ran.
Khan looked toward him.
He raised one hand.
The fleeing cultist was dragged backward.
His feet left the ground.
Khan turned his lightsaber.
The golden blade passed through him before he landed.
The others attacked together.
Khan stepped forward.
He did not retreat.
His blade moved with Dooku's precision.
His body carried Malgus's strength.
Every strike ended a life.
Every movement brought him closer to the next.
Blue sparks filled the clearing.
Then silence returned.
Khan stood among the bodies.
His golden blade remained extended.
None of the cultists moved.
Khan felt no regret.
They had taken children from their families.
They had sacrificed those who could not defend themselves.
This was vengeance for every life they had taken.
It was also a promise.
They would never take another.
Khan deactivated his weapon.
He looked toward the path the cultists had followed.
It led back to the cave.
Khan entered the forest.
He reached the cliff and descended toward the main entrance.
There was no reason to use Xavier's hidden passage.
Two cultists remained outside.
One noticed Khan approaching and shouted.
Khan ignited his lightsaber.
The first cultist raised a blaster.
Khan deflected the shot.
The bolt struck the second.
Before the first could fire again, Khan reached him.
The golden blade ended the fight.
Khan walked through the entrance.
The cave's corridors were quieter than before.
The purple veins within the walls no longer glowed. Darkness remained between the stones, but it carried no presence.
Several cultists attempted to stop him.
None succeeded.
Khan continued deeper.
He passed the narrow corridors where he had fought to give Xavier time.
The bodies of the fallen remained against the walls.
Khan reached the central chamber.
The cages stood open.
No children remained inside them.
Khan released a quiet breath.
Xavier had led them away.
He looked toward the pit.
The glowing symbols surrounding it had gone dark.
The children who had knelt beside it were gone.
No bodies remained.
Nothing showed where they had been.
Khan stared at the empty places around the pit.
He had not been able to save them.
He could not change that.
But no child would ever be brought here again.
Fear touched the Force.
Khan turned.
Someone hid behind one of the empty cages.
Khan raised his hand.
The cage moved aside.
A cultist attempted to run.
The Force closed around his body.
He rose from the ground.
The cultist struggled.
His hood fell away.
Terror covered his face.
Khan pulled him closer.
The man spoke rapidly in the language Khan could not understand.
He had no weapon.
His hands reached toward Khan.
Begging.
Khan carried him toward the pit.
The cultist's struggles became desperate.
Khan stopped at the edge.
He looked into the darkness where his first lightsaber had disappeared.
The man continued pleading.
He was afraid.
So were the children.
Khan opened his hand.
The cultist fell.
His scream descended into the pit.
It grew quieter.
Then it disappeared.
Khan looked into the darkness.
Nothing returned.
He turned away.
The cave was empty.
Khan walked toward the exit.
The sound reached him before he stepped outside.
Engines.
Khan emerged from the cave and looked toward the clouds.
A Jedi transport cruiser descended through the dark sky.
The markings across its hull were unmistakable.
The ship passed over the forest and disappeared beyond the trees.
Khan watched it.
He did not know how it found them.
He did not care.
He moved toward the direction it had gone.
The cruiser landed within a wide clearing.
Khan heard voices as he approached.
The boarding ramp had already opened.
The rescued children were being guided toward the ship.
Some walked together.
Others were carried.
Yarael helped an injured child onto the ramp.
Kit and Aayla stood nearby.
They were alive.
Khan stopped between the trees.
For the first time since leaving them, some of the pressure within his chest faded.
Xavier remained near the children.
The boy looked toward the forest, watching even as the others boarded.
Master Coleman stood at the rear of the group.
He turned.
His hand reached for his weapon.
Green light appeared in the clearing.
"Show yourself."
Khan stepped from the forest.
Coleman raised his lightsaber.
Then he saw Khan's face.
His expression changed.
"Khan?"
The weapon lowered.
"Khan, you're alive?"
Coleman deactivated his lightsaber and walked toward him.
Khan stopped before the Jedi Master.
It felt like days had passed since they last saw one another.
"I'm glad to see you alive," Coleman said.
His eyes moved across Khan's burned robes and dried blood.
"We thought we had lost you."
Khan looked past him.
"Did Xavier reach you?"
"Yes."
Coleman glanced toward the boy.
"He contacted us with your communicator. Without it, we might not have found them in time."
Khan looked toward the children boarding the ship.
They were exhausted.
Frightened.
But alive.
A small smile appeared across his face.
"I'm glad."
Coleman studied him.
His attention moved toward the unfamiliar lightsaber at Khan's side.
"What happened after we were separated?"
Khan looked back toward the forest.
The cave remained hidden beyond the trees.
Farther away were the ruins of Kaas City.
And beneath them, the place where Malgus had chosen his end.
"A story for another time."
Khan turned toward the transport.
"Right now, I would like to leave this planet."
He paused.
"And perhaps take a hot shower."
Coleman smiled slightly.
"I understand."
He gestured toward the boarding ramp.
"Come. Kit and Aayla will be glad to see you."
Khan followed him.
As they approached, Kit looked toward them.
He froze.
Aayla followed his gaze.
Relief appeared across both of their faces.
Khan did not stop.
There would be time to speak once they were away from this world.
He reached the boarding ramp.
Before stepping inside, Khan looked back one final time.
The clouds remained dark.
The ruins remained hidden.
But the planet no longer held him.
Malgus had broken his chains.
Khan still had one remaining.
The Sith Lord who killed his master was alive.
Khan rested one hand against his new lightsaber.
It was time to claim his revenge.