Aria took in their surroundings with a kind of quiet appreciation, noting that it seemed as if Yerbol’s dad (Vol, at least it was close enough to Yerbol’s that it would make it easy to remember..) was quite hands-on, the normally basic looking circular home had been vastly expanded on, she had to admit it was impressive and indeed unlike anything she had really ever seen before. Anything she had wanted to ask was quickly dismissed, however, as Vol disappeared and returned with a woman almost a foot shorter than himself, introducing her as Yerbol’s mother. Understandably, emotions would run a little high since it had been so long since Yerbol had last seen either of them, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see Tabitha crying a little as her eyes finally rested on her son, therefore. Once again, Aria hung back and let the pair hug first, waiting until Tabitha broke away and approached her first.
The young woman's face flushed a shade of light pink as she shifted her weight awkwardly and proclaimed:
“I'm sure it's more of a two-way street than you think, I've gotten us into more than enough trouble too.”
His parents were so warm and inviting it was almost off-putting, even her own mother hadn't been so quick to give out hugs so that was something Aria had to get around (thankfully Yerbol's previous hugs had helped with that too).

They recounted their efforts together against Bracknell and Saresh’s Alliance movement, pausing every so often to answer Tabitha and Volgorl’s questions whenever they popped up. She had expected them to ask about Lysa even though the duo artfully avoided bringing up her demise. Like Yerbol, Aria too wasn't sure whether their lack of prodding on the subject was a good thing, or not. She was grateful when the topic moved from their previous exploits to the goings on here on Taris since Yerbol had been away. Aria noted their marked reduction in Rakghoul sightings on the way in, which Volgorl proudly attributed to the large grey wall structure encircling the settlement, and also to recent scientific studies that had been conducted on the local populations in the efforts to try and develop some kind of vaccine. It was still in prototype stages, of course, but it seemed to prove effective which meant that more people could survive attacks without mutating into one of the beasts. While it didn't shrink the CURRENT population of Rakghouls, it did ensure that it didn't grow as quickly, and the older specimens were bound to die of natural causes sooner or later, they weren't immortal after all. She managed to speak calmly about her own parents without crying this time, when it came up, which she was somewhat proud of.

Her attention had been fixed on the breathtaking views outside of the large kitchen windows when Tabitha suddenly spoke another question:
“How long are you two staying for?” Aria bit her bottom lip and exchanged a glance with Yerbol. They hadn’t really talked about the length of their visit, she wondered whether Yerbol had given it thought and not brought it into discussion with her just yet.
“Well, we hadn’t really thought about it too much.” she admitted, a smile creeping onto her features as it seemed to REALLY sink in that they actually had NO other strategy conferences or anything of that sort to attend in the near future. “I mean, we had to promise to visit others again too in a couple of months but we could certainly manage to stay a little while.” She glanced at Yerbol, who seemed to nod in affirmation with that.
“We’re not in any hurry.”
_________________________

The night’s rest had to be the best one Aria had ever had in her life, and that wasn’t an exaggeration. Perhaps the only thing better was having the opportunity to surface again the next morning at their own leisure without a comm unit blaring obnoxiously to beckon their presence to a certain squadron that Neta or Elara needed them to captain for the day. When she finally managed to rouse herself from sleep enough to actually get up and move, she found Yerbol’s family all gathered around the same wooden table from the night before, all their eyes moving to focus on her as she shuffled in to join them.
“Good evening, both of you.”
“...huh?” Aria had frowned at Volgorl’s teasing smile in confusion, not quite understanding what he had been getting at. Tabitha had swatted her husband in the chest again as she had done the night before and admonished him.
“Vol, leave them be! They probably haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in months! What does it matter that they slept till three thirty in the afternoon?”
“Relax, I was just teasing.” Volgorl had assured them, though Aria got the feeling that the pair bantered back and forth like this a lot, oddly it reminded her of herself and Yerbol. She wondered if that jab at their sleeping habits was the reason her friend’s face seemed flushed or if there was another reason. His parents had insisted on not keeping them too long for the rest of the day, and dismissed them rather quickly.

She had almost forgotten about Yerbol’s previous idea in the haste of their departure from Zinuthra and subsequent catching up with Vol and Tabitha; it wasn’t until Yerbol nodded and rose from his seat, motioning for Aria to follow after him that she remembered. Bidding his parents a quick farewell, she slipped back out into the verdant countryside around the settlement.
“So...are you going to tell me where we’re going?” she had asked him, to which the Knight simply grinned and shook his head, leading her along a pathway that snaked off through the hills from his parents’ garden. They traversed the path in silence for a few minutes before Yerbol implored her to slow down again, Aria complying with some confusion which was only heightened as he placed both hands over her eyes.
“Bol...what...what are you doing?” she had asked him, Yerbol simply insisting that she keep on walking. “How am I supposed to walk if I can’t see?”
“Would I let you fall, Ari?” he had chided gently, batting her hands away as she tried to reach up and pull his away. “Uh uh, no peeking!”
With a mock long-suffering sigh, she had dropped her hands back to her sides and kept walking, allowing him to lead her along.
“Okay, okay...but if I trip over something I’m taking you down with me!” she promised.

"Well that's a relief. Stay as long as you'd like. We've got two spare rooms at the end of the hallway that you guys can use."
"Wait, what happened to my room?" Vol whistled guiltily and looked away as Tabitha filled in:
"Your father converted it to a study."
"And Lysa's room?" Tabitha's spine stiffened, sitting up as her tone grew melancholy.
"We...we haven't touched it." So they did know. HOW they knew would be a subject of discussion sooner than later. Vol broke the uncomfortable silence that had come over the table with a jubilant suggestion:
"Right, so dinner and bed? How's that sound? I've got some good stuff in the fridge that Eli harvested a couple days ago. Best potatoes and Nuna you'll find around here."
"Haven't had Nuna in AGES!"
"Well get ready for the stuff that'll have you rejecting any other meat for ages to come."

_____

Dinner and sleep treated the duo well; so well in fact that Yerbol didn't shuffle out of bed and to the kitchen until noon. So that was what, fourteen, fifteen hours of sleep? He wanted to crawl back into bed, but the sight of his parents gazing at him from the kitchen table banished the thought.
"Got some nut milk for you." Vol commented, leaning back in his chair as Yerbol extracted the beverage from the fridge and joined the duo, whose eyes reflected the very opposite range of emotions from yesterday.
"What is it?" Tabitha tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear as she said softly:
"I felt her death, Yerbol. Felt it all the way from here." Yerbol grimaced, leaning forward on his elbows.
"Were you there, son, when she passed?" Vol asked quietly, hopefulness laced in his tone.
"I was close. She sent me a message to join her on Korriban and-"
"We know." Yerbol's brow shot up in alarm.
"What?!"
"Lysa came here about eight months ago, battered and bruised from what she called her latest 'adventures free from the Jedi'. You know how I feel about the Jedi, the Sith, all of them, but...she was different. Angry. Bitter. Said she was so glad she was liberated from their oppression." Tabitha shook her head, gripping the mug in front of her tightly.
"Did she tell you about the Academy?"
"She mentioned Korriban and-well, your father and I aren't stupid. Korriban plus hatred for the Jedi? We knew what she was trying to do and it was as if...as if..." Tears trickled down her face as Vol drew closer, finishing his wife's thought:
"She told us that whatever happened to her out there would never affect the love she had for us. Now, in hindsight, we think she was saying goodbye, like she knew the path she was on would only end one way." A momentary silence before Vol added:
"She sent that message to you in her old room. We could hear her cause she left the door open. Tried to stop her, tried to reason with her, but we got nowhere." Tabitha leaned into her husband's shoulder, nuzzling into him as he drew his arm around her.
"I almost got to her in time, but...but she was already gone."
"How?" Tabitha asked, straightening up slightly. Yerbol's lips pursed, fully aware that his mother's Force sensitivities might pick up on his hesitancy. He thought for a few moments, then answered confidently:
"A Sith acolyte got her in one of the tombs. I fought with her, but the tomb's supports were unstable and our fight slashed some of the support pillars to pieces. Tried to get Lysa's body out, but couldn't risk it." Another silence dominated the room until Vol nodded.
"We'll choose to remember her the way we see fit. Right, darling?" Tabitha mirrored her husband's reaction, taking strength from his resolve.
"That's right. And we should feel lucky enough to have our son with us...who brings a lady in tow..." Tabitha's brow quirked upwards in a very similar fashion to her son.
"Mom, wait-"
"No, don't you 'Mom, wait' me. You two are adorable together. You ARE together, right?" Yerbol slapped a hand to his forehead.
"No! I mean, well, we're together in the sense of being partners and best friends and-"
"And what else do you need to show you that you love this girl?" Vol's question prompted a slack jaw from his offspring, the former following up his question with:
"Son, are you really that oblivious?"
"Love is a strong term, wouldn't you say?" Tabitha chuckled.
"Baby, what does she mean to you?" Yerbol quickly answered:
"Well, everything."
"Mhhmm. Would you die for her?"
"Of course! Almost did several times."
"Would you be willing to take care of her at her worst and celebrate with her at her best?"
"Yeah! She's my best friend, of course I would!"
"And what did we tell you when you were just a boy? About love?" Yerbol strained to remember, Vol jumping in to remind him:
"Love is when your best friend in the whole world BECOMES your world. Is she that? Is she your world?" Memories flooded into his mind of the past six months that forced him to consider the question. Their endless battles together, their laughter filled walks, their meaningful embraces, their...

He was in love. No, scratch that. He loved her. He loved her so much that it sunk into his bones, consumed his heart.

Tabitha looked to her husband with mischievous eyes.
"I think he just figured it out."
"I love her." He mumbled, eyes sparkling with epiphany.
“I love her!” He nearly shouted, his parents waving for him to lower his voice.
“Don’t want her to find out before she’s ready.” Vol chided gently.
“Right…” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand nervously.
“So…I need to think. Be back in a few. Are the old walking trails still around?”
“Just out the back through the gate. Actually prettier than you remember.”
“Good.”
He returned about ten minutes before Aria awoke, having set the stage for what might be either his biggest accomplishment or his biggest mistake. In either case, his parents supported him, telling him confidently that love is something that doesn’t wait for an opening, but instead just emerges and forces you to deal with it in whatever way you choose. The way he had decided to handle telling her…well, he thought it would be a fun surprise.
__
Leading her gently up the soft slope, he told her:
“Just a couple more feet…there…we….go!” He unshielded her eyes to display a clearing that ended about two hundred yards north, allowing for spectacular views of mountain peaks in the distance, green valleys below rolling gently into each other, the tops of trees shimmering from the afternoon sun’s light.
“This is what I grew up with. I wanted to show you.” He brought her forward, pointing at the various settlements, sharing a couple of small memories before he faced her, looking into her striking ebony irises. She was beautiful. On so many levels. And he was about to tell her.
He gulped slightly, shifting his feet a bit before he began:
“So…so I brought you out here for more than just the views.” He sighed.
Here we go.
“When we first started out on this journey together, I didn’t think I would gain such an amazing friend.” He reached for her hands, taking them into his own, stroking the tops of them with his thumbs as he continued:
“You are so wonderful. In so many ways. You’re kind, thoughtful, really, REALLY funny, loyal, compassionate(even if you’ll deny it), you put others before yourself and…well, I could keep going, but you get the point. You’re awesome.” He chuckled slightly.
“The past six months have shown me that friends can show up when you never see them coming and that….” He couldn’t contain it anymore.
“Friendship can evolve into so much more.” He paused, but then shook his head, knowing he couldn’t say it any other way than:
“I love you, Aria. I love you with all of my heart, with every fiber of my being…and if you’ll let me, if you feel the same, I will never leave your side. I will always treasure you, defend you, honor you and make you snort milk out of your nose.” A teasing smirk accompanied the last bit.
“And if you don’t feel the same, I’d get it. I’ll never stop loving you, though. I can’t. Not after all we’ve built together.”

Unable to focus so much on not tripping since she couldn’t see with his hands over her eyes (she was relying on him for that, too, and was surprised to even find she was okay with that), she was still processing it, wondering how to put those feelings into words. The awkward first conversation around the holoprojector on their first trip to Quensu, the way she had silently berated herself for not letting those creepy ice demons flay him to pieces while she made off and carried on (“like a REAL Sith would have done!”) and then being oh so glad she hadn’t later on down the line when they had gotten to the top of the temple. In fact, she was more than confident it had been the right thing to do, especially after all the hardships they had faced together as a team. She remembered the gut-wrenching feeling of panic when she had thought she would never see him again, only to have him appear precisely at that moment to come to her aid and help her to fend off whatever trouble she’d managed to end up in.
She had attributed it to their Force bond, but perhaps it wasn’t JUST that…

They stopped on the hillside, Yerbol revealing the spectacular view to her and they took a few quiet moments to just admire the views. He had shared some of his memories, and Aria had shared some of her own. Smaller memories, some silly and others more nostalgic, like the times Roan had taken her up to the Sky Ramp on Onderon at night and they had just sat and watched the stars while he pointed out the constellations and she hadn’t grasped the concept of Jedi or Sith Lords or the Dark Council…. that she would have never thought about sharing with anybody before, because they had been too private or insignificant for anyone but her to know. Unknowingly, she had inched slightly closer during their previous talks, their shoulders just brushing. Aria looked up to find her gaze locked with Yerbol’s and there was an intensity there that she had never noticed before, not even on Zinuthra. He took her hands in his own carefully, the contact sending shivers of warmth down her spine as it had done once or twice before-

The realisation hit her right between the eyes like the butt of a rifle, and she almost wanted to try and deny it again. Yerbol was her best friend, she COULDN’T be in love with him….could she? Her throat tightened at the prospect of having to somehow tell him, though she was thankfully spared any awkward fumbling with words as Yerbol decided he would be the one to start talking first. She should have looked away, but couldn’t, unable to break her attention away from the sudden depths that had appeared in the Knight’s bright blue eyes, even if she had wanted to. But then he wasn’t talking about being friends anymore, and she felt her heart flutter violently with each passing second of his confession, until it was going so fast she was terrified it was going to explode against her ribcage. He smiled at her again, and this time her knees really DID wobble; she had to grab onto his hands even tighter as an assurance that she wasn’t going to collapse into a puddle right there in front of him.

BREATHE! MOVE! SAY SOMETHING! her brain was screaming, and yet it felt like an eternity before she could make her mouth move again, the words all tumbling out at once in a breathy whisper:
“I was so, so sure I was going to kill you in that tomb and prance back to Bracknell with the artefact and then I’d be the most successful acolyte and everything I’d been through up to that point, the things I’d done, would have been worth it. And maybe it was the Force...or destiny or..or something else, I still don’t know and it doesn’t even really matter, because I’ve never been more glad of something I didn’t do in my whole life. When that Force bond happened in the Quensu temple I was so TERRIFIED. I didn’t want to be stuck tethered to some stupidly brave Jedi that thought he knew the answer to everything for the rest of my life, actually I thought my life was over right in that moment,” she choked out a laugh, having to pause to blink away the mist of tears that had started to form in her eyes, “Now I...Force, I don’t EVER want it to go away. You became not just my best friend, but the best reason for me to still be alive when I didn’t really HAVE anything else except what my father wanted me to be; you were somebody I could trust with anything, you stuck up for me and anybody else that ever needed it, even when not everybody agreed with you, you’re still stupidly brave but I’ve realised that’s not a bad thing because if you weren’t all of us would have been a lot worse off without you there to encourage us and keep us going. Running into you was the best damn thing that ever happened to me and I don’t ever want you to think anything less than that, you hear me? You were willing to stick by me and work with me even after everything I’d done (even if I thought you were really stupid for it at the time), especially to you, to...to Lysa...and maybe it took a little while but being with you made me stop and actually think for once, about what I was doing with my life, what I was letting the Dark Council turn me into. And I realised that I didn’t need to be killing and fighting and trying to impress them to have a life I could be happy with. I just needed...somebody like you.”
She pulled her hands free from his, but only to hug him instead, quickly wiping away the stream of tears from her cheeks in an attempt to not cry all over him, too.
“I’ll never stop loving you, I can’t.” he had said.
“You’d better not.” Aria mumbled into his chest. “Not ever; because I love you too.”
She’d said everything now.

His heart soared in his chest at her declarations, almost threatening to burst out of his chest when she embraced him and reciprocated his feelings. He gently pulled a couple of inches away before bringing a hand to her cheek, stroking it lightly as he told her:
"Then it's settled. We take this life on together." He leaned in a bit, lips barely grazing hers.
"And I wouldn't have it any other way." Completing the initial lean, he planted a kiss on her lips, a long, passionate one that seemed to contain the essence of his feelings towards her. As he pulled away after a while, he chuckled.
"I've been waiting to do that for a while. SO worth it. Mind if I have another?"

-End Act I-

____

-Two and a half months later-

-Act II begin-(for my own reference)

"Ari?" Yerbol called out, slightly winded by the simple act of walking back to his parent's home. To be fair, the young man had been employed in rather tedious and difficult manual labor which involved constructing similar looking walls to the one around the Brell settlement(where his parents were located). This would be wall number three that he had participated in the efforts on and each successive time he hated showing up, but loved the feeling of seeing the work he and the other settlers had invested pay off when the final stones were melded together by cauterizing units brought in by Alliance construction teams. Yerbol was thankful every single day for Alliance crews, seeing as they worked hand in hand with the local settlers to not only fortify existing settlements, but build new ones as well as scout out wild areas of Taris for the terraformers to shape. Thankfulness also extended to the fact that there were no troopers hounding he and Aria to oblivion, no corrupt regime to gut and cleanse from the inside out, no insidious True Sith Lords attempting to deconstruct their very way of life and the list could go on. They were normal, working people...or so they portrayed themselves to be over the past couple of months. People KNEW who they were from their exposure on the holonet, which created a mixed bag of reactions. Some still thought Force users were blights on humanity, which was all too clear when a couple of settlers decided to throw rocks at the duo when coming back from a scouting trip(Yerbol had scared them off by picking up a chunk of earth with the Force and having Aria infuse lightning into it. The pair cackled gleefully all the way home.) Most accepted them for their heroic actions and felt even more apt to endorse them when realizing that Yerbol was Volgorl and Tabitha's son. With the prevailing attitude towards Force users positive, the sanctuary settlement being built on the ruins of Taris' former capital city got support and volunteer efforts from settlers who agreed that galactic peace couldn't occur unless "we worked together, regardless of affiliation, race or creed"(Saresh's words, often quoted by settlers who remember her efforts as head of the Tarisian restoration effort). Yerbol and Aria had gone to see the initial construction efforts, lending a helping hand to those who were sent to start the city, which included Voldon and Kira, who were all too happy to see them alive and well. They had wanted to help the Battlemaster and his wife with setting up the city, but the duo encouraged them to take some more time away from the situation, Voldon reminding them that there would "always be work for you once you're back on your feet." Kira's sideward, knowing glances at the pair was also a large hint that not only had she figured out their new romance, but told her husband to go easy on them.

New romance didn't necessarily feel "new" to Yerbol, however. Their relationship only grew in depth, Yerbol appreciating his partner so much more every passing day. They had a new dimension to how they interacted(the kissing and other romantic gestures were very nice), but as Yerbol pointed out to Aria on multiple occasions: "You're my best friend. Shouldn't it be natural for me to love you?" A couple of times they had disagreements about how to proceed with a mission or how to properly cook something, but those minor conflicts normally ended with giggling, kissing and/or hugging(which, again, Yerbol would never protest). His parents were all too happy for the duo, cheerily sharing many meals together along with stories, life advice and overall good company, Tabitha and Vol attempting to spend as much time as they could with both of them. Tabitha especially enjoyed Aria's company due to their mutual ability to not only take their romantic partner's jests, but fire back with their own teasing that was just as good, if not better.

In their spare time alone, they talked. Talked so much about the past, their future together, shared memories, read books, played games and did other fun activities that were normal for two twenty somethings in love to do. That was key for Yerbol; to just BE a couple. Not a couple dedicated to eradicating evil, not a couple that was on the run from death, just...well, two people in love.

His love, at the moment, was nowhere to be found on this particular late afternoon. When they had gotten up in the morning, Aria had mentioned something about heading out with Vol to Echo Base for supplies, but that shouldn't have taken this long. Maybe they stopped somewhere to eat? Snorting a laugh at the thought of fast food on Taris(Rakghoul burgers?), he made his way to the bathroom and shed himself of the sticky clothes that threatened to impinge all movement before tugging on the bond that they had sharpened rather nicely on their hiatus, asking:

Ari, honey, where are you? Did Dad drag you out on an unplanned expedition? Cause you know he'll do that.

The duo spent the best part of the following two and a half months lodging with Yerbol’s parents and doing what they could to help with the restoration efforts. This not only involved the more physical projects such as moving and constructing barriers and walls (which Yerbol evidently preferred) but also accompanying investigatory forays into the pockets of Rakghoul-infested territory in order to collect samples for scientists (research towards developing a vaccine of sorts was in full swing now that the war effort was over, with many leading brains of the field boldly proclaiming a “Rakghoul free Taris in the next century!”), or to scout out the safest way of setting up another thoroughfare route between one growing settlement and the next one over that AVOIDED the Rakghouls. Having the two Tuk’ata around to frighten away any of the walking corpse-creatures that tried to approach helped with that; the duo had attempted to train them to stay on the freighter but within two weeks the beasts had become despondent and complained that they weren’t getting enough attention (they really WERE just over-enlarged lapdogs….with massive teeth). Aria had taken pity on them and persuaded Yerbol to consider letting them accompany the duo back to the settlement. Tabitha and Vol had been wary of them at first, but with reassurances that they were (mostly) harmless seemed to be willing to give them a fair shot at it, provided that they stayed outside of the main part of the house (which had been quickly agreed upon within two nights of the tomb beasts joining the impromptu family; Aria had drawn the line when she had been rudely awoken in the wee hours of one morning to find that Chwuq and Taral had attempted to climb between them and virtually forced the pair out of the bed and onto the floor. Yerbol had not been pleased when he had woken up either!).

During their stay they had encountered Kira and Voldon and managed to catch up with the older duo to find out how the sanctuary on the planet had been coming along. Kira had shooed them away again with a knowing grin that gave Aria the nearly irresistible urge to stick her tongue out at the older woman. Though Kira wasn’t one to run her mouth off to the nearest person with the latest gossip, Aria still had a feeling that the news would reach Vano and the others back out in Wild Space before too long. Speaking of the Mirialan, Aria had kept to her promise of keeping in contact with her, though perhaps not as often as Vano had originally insisted, and Aria had withheld giving the news of the pair’s budding romance at first, not because she was ashamed to admit it by any stretch but because she struggled to find a way to word it that would elicit the LEAST smug response from her adopted sibling. The next time they saw the Naylons, Kira had handed them a letter(containing updates on the goings on back at Zinuthra, such as their success in cleaning up the mess from the previous battle, Cheriss making a full recovery and subsequently staying on to aid Matt, Janika and Manso in establishing the planned sanctuary there, which freed up Vano to continue on the scholarly pursuits of analysing the stash of holocrons and scrolls they had retrieved from Quensu...something Roan would have been proud of she was sure) and a small package, which had contained some of the crystals they had found on Zinuthra, fashioned into a rather attractive almost-heart shaped arrangement that now sat on one of the shelves on full display back at the house. Attached to it had been a small note, which proclaimed only four words written in the Mirialan’s elegantly flowing script:
“I TOLD YOU SO!”
Aria and Yerbol had just laughed.

They did a lot of that, both on their own during walks they took along the trails behind the house during their breaks, or over the dinner table with Yerbol’s parents, whom Aria found herself quickly growing fond of (especially Tabitha, whose never-ending supply of comebacks Aria often tapped into when her own wits deserted her temporarily). None of their disagreements had devolved rapidly (or vehemently) enough to be called proper arguments, but rather differences of opinion that usually ended in more teasing: “Shut up and kiss me, you idiot” was quickly becoming a favourite on both sides. In summary, it had been delightfully peaceful, relaxing and...normal.

Though they stayed in touch with the Council of Elders they had kept their distance from all that political malarkey, Aria didn’t miss it, at all. She was sure Yerbol didn’t, either. The closest thing they had ever encountered to anything of that sort was during their trips to the main part of base Echo for supply runs (which she and Vol or Tabitha frequented while Yerbol was out working on the restoration works during the day), whereby they would occasionally encounter a diplomat or two who had stopped by to check up on the progress; Saresh was always sending people to look in on the planet, the Twi’lek had a fondness for it though she rarely had the luxury of visiting in person anymore.
Today was apparently one of those occasions, as they had collected their latest run of supplies Vol had gotten word of some new faces being sent in from Coruscant and the other Core Worlds as part of the latest construction team to help finalise the latest repairwork to the restored zone just north of the original Brell settlement where they lived. Vol had insisted upon making a detour out to check up on their progress and Aria could hardly refuse.

She’d been pleasantly surprised to find a VERY familiar aqua-coloured face among the engineers of the construction team. Manso had insisted he was only making a temporary detour from the work on Zinuthra because Saresh had been short on engineers and needed somebody ‘sensible and reliable on very short notice’. Nonetheless, it was good to see him again and catch up, like the duo he had found a mixed bag of acceptance and hostility among the general population towards his talents, but the hostility seemed to at least gradually be shrinking away. They were bidding the team farewell to head home when Aria felt the familiar gentle tug of her partner’s consciousness against her own, shortly followed up by his question.
She chuckled softly, responding:
Maybe...sort of? You know what he’s like, Bol. Besides, it wasn’t far. We’re on our way back now, and you’ll NEVER guess who I’ve just seen with the new construction team on ‘emergency engineer duty’. FORCE he’s gotten tall!
She braced herself for another “everybody’s taller than you, sweetheart” joke, realising all too late what she had walked herself into. She’d have to enlist Neta’s help to get appropriate revenge whenever the duo had the chance to go and visit the former spec ops slash pilot on Onderon.

As he stepped into the shower, he asked:
Who was it? One of the youngsters, I presume?

When Aria said it was Manso, he laughed, rubbing his scalp and allowing the water to cascade over his fatigued muscles.

They do that, don't they? Grow. Apparently you forgot to grow when you were younger. He KNEW that was going to come back to bite him in some way, shape or form, so he would savor the victory while he was alone and not within tickling distance. Out of all the things Aria had come up with to get back at him for his teasing, tickling was the worst. It wasn't like he could swat her away because he was afraid he would hurt her. Instead, he was forced to go into a fetal position while trying not to die from laughter as she clambered on top of him and proclaimed herself the victor. That wasn't too bad of a position...

Jolting himself from the potential train of thought that could have gotten himself in trouble, he simply told his partner:

I'll see you when you get home, then. AND I won't be a sweaty wreck! Won't that be something?! And yes, before you ask, I'll make sure the dogs get walked. As if they could hear their unspoken discussion, Chwuq's snout poked through the bathroom doorway, a knowing snort breaking Yerbol from his once peaceful shower.
"Hey, hey, you don't see me trying to harass you guys when you want your private time, right?" Silence.
"Yes, I'll walk you both! Just let me finish my shower, for Force's sake!" A grunt of affirmation before another snout cracked the door, a groan that resembled "waaallkkkk?" coming from the other. Head hanging, Yerbol muttered:
"So lucky that you two have grown on me."

__

After changing into a fresh t-shirt and shorts(Taris was experiencing a brutal summer), he opened the back gate and escorted the Tuk'ata up the path that wound towards where he and Aria had first proclaimed their feelings, but instead of heading all the way up, he shifted left to a wooded area that extended beyond the village. As the creatures bounded, played and used the bathroom, Yerbol kept one eye on them with another on his personal datapad. Logging into his messaging platform, he found a couple of links for strength workouts from Bex, who also attached a couple of snapshots from Zinuthra which featured some of the repairs that had been done on base.
"Gettin it done, Bol!" and "Get your lazy butt over here!" were the captions, Yerbol chuckling at the exhortations. He and Bex had run several operations together and had instantly hit it off, spending time outside of operations getting to know one another and bonding over their mutual interests. He flipped past the message from his friend, noting some of the headlines that scrolled across the top of his screen from the holonet, one of which caught his attention.
"Alliance Parliament coming together, Saresh choosing cabinet."

He didn't click on the link to the article, but was comforted to know that Saresh's promise to stabilize the extremely vulnerable Alliance was working. With Bracknell out of the picture and what looked like a defunct government in play, some officials just abandoned their posts, fleeing in any direction their money could take them. Others chose to stay behind and work with Saresh, seeing as without this Alliance, government would be non-existent in the Core Worlds, a thought that chilled those in power. From what they had seen on the Holonet while planetside, there were heated debates, threats of secession from former Republic and/or Imperial diplomats that tried to stand on the pedestals of tradition and even a couple of attempted bombings on Coruscant and Dromund Kaas, but the overriding desire for one governmental body seemed to crush most open attempts at defiance. For now, things were taking shape, showing promise for the galaxy. He hoped it would continue.

While in the midst of sending a reply to Janika(who had proudly sent him a picture of her bearing her lightsaber, the caption reading "I'm a Knight!", her tanned face beaming next to Ethan, another youngster they had rescued a couple of months back), the Tuk'ata came back, eyeing Yerbol expectantly.
"Right, so we're through now?" He knelt down and patted them both on their flanks, a smile forming.
"You two must know that I think you've grown quite a bit. Almost like you're not vicious beasts that could tear someone's throat out." Their eyes were closed, humming coming from their throats.
"You want me to keep doing this?" The humming continued, eliciting a laugh.
"Come on, you goobers. Let's go get dinner."

___

With dinner and conversation out of the way, Yerbol was content to go to their room. removing his shirt before laying on top of the sheets, hands behind his head. When he heard Aria come in, he looked her over with a teasing smirk.
"You know, you ought to wear that top more. It's very...flattering."

Aria rolled her eyes at his teasing response, simply chuckling and adding:
Hmm, yes, that would be fantastic. It would be nice to be able to hug or kiss you without having to worry about my eyebrows falling out because of the smell. It of course made very little difference to her in reality, but where was the fun in admitting that? It was comforting to hear him volunteering to take Taral and Chwuq on their next walk, she had been worried that she was more fond of them than Yerbol, but it was a sign that they were slowly growing on him. Apart from the occasional offering of a dead bird (or, on one occasion a half-grown juvenile Nexu cat) brought back from a hunting foray; the two tomb beasts were as much like any other ordinary dog as could be. It was almost too easy to forget that there were rows of serrated teeth that could easily strip flesh from bone waiting in those slightly slobbery jaws.

Had a little conversation with Manso about how stuff’s going over in Wild Space, sounds like ‘good’ is omitting a few details. We should probably take a trip back out there sometime.
The duo hadn’t been back that way since their arrival on Taris, and while letters and the occasional holomessage worked well enough for exchanging information it was no substitute for face-to-face encounters with their old friends. They might not have missed the politics and the war councils, but it sure was easy to start missing their company. Overall, the progress had been positive. Saresh had followed through on her promise to make sure that they received the resources they needed to continue the rebuilding effort on the Wild Space planets, and there were even rumors circulating that the Supreme Chancellor had been lobbying for a petition of one of the experienced members of the Elders to be signed on as a formal representative in her new cabinet. The right steps were being taken, as had been promised, to re-integrate the Force users into mainstream society.
In fact, the initial sanctuary town set up on Coruscant, according to last month’s update message from Ailel, had been such a booming success (within its district) that there were talks of attempting similar projects on other heavily populated worlds like Nar Shaddaa and Alderaan.
___________________________

Dinner had been pleasant, as always, and after helping Tabitha to clear away the used dishes, she had bid Yerbol’s parents goodnight and shuffled into their room to join him, giggling softly as she scooted across to settle into her usual place beside him. “Flattering, huh? Likewise I appreciate it when you decide to sleep without a shirt on.” she echoed, her fingertips absently tracing patterns across the back of his hand and his forearm. It seemed like far too much effort for her to get up again to change out of it, even if the clingy fabric PROBABLY wouldn't be the best thing to sleep in, Aria instead concluding: "It IS comfortable, and I wouldn’t want to deprive you of your little bit of eye candy.” she tilted her head back to grin at him, leaning upwards to close the distance between them and plant a kiss on his lips. “Does start to get uncomfortable in this kind of heat, though.” The weather had been getting almost unbearably hot lately.
“Maybe we should all take a trip out to Hoth till this heatwave is over.” she whispered, dissolving into another fit of giggles as her partner grumbled loudly in response and gave her a half hearted shove with one shoulder. Just like Yerbol couldn’t stop himself from picking on her height (or lack thereof), Aria couldn’t resist the temptation to remind him of the Wampa incident at every possible opportunity.

She retorted by snatching one of the pillows he had been leaning on and hitting him over the head with it. Her lover’s eyes narrowed before he lunged for the next nearest pillow and a tussle of near-epic (as much as they could both muster after a long day of various work tasks, at least) proportions ensued until one of them had been disarmed. Determined as ever not to admit defeat, Aria lunged for him and tried to grab the pillow from his hands, missed, and lost her balance. Yerbol abandoned his weapon in favour of trying to catch her before she hit the floor, leaving him open to a sneaky tickling maneuver. She would have to thank Neta in her next correspondence for reminding her that his ribs were particularly vulnerable.
Both out of breath by that point, they both collapsed onto the mattress as he feebly attempted to duck out of her reach, Aria managing to pin him down by the wrists with one knee resting on either side of his torso. There was no way he could have escaped without physically moving her body out of his way, which she knew he would never do (he was a massive pushover when it came to their playfights, she always won). Without the energy to keep up the punishment, they remained like that in silence for several moments, until Yerbol playfully scowled up at her as he proclaimed:
“You are...a dirty little sneak!” She grinned back at him, leaning in to whisper in retort.
“Hah, you could always actually try to stop me...till then I’m gonna keep doing it!” her head tilting to one side, she added, in a SLIGHTLY more serious tone. “...I’m not made of glass, you know.”

Yerbol smirked mischievously, eyes looking over her upper body and positioning before telling her:

"Well, if that's the case, then I dare say that we ought to test that theory out." He used his hands to prop himself up onto his elbows, naturally forcing Aria's grip on his wrists to loosen and finally release before he continued at a quieter decibel level:
"Sometime...sometime very soon, we can get ourselves a private room somewhere, away from parents, Tarisian settlers and ah..." He elevated himself a bit further up, to where their faces were within a few inches of each other.
"Have a little tussle. With all that room and me not holding back, I think we'd have a pretty good time." The smirk grew wider as he kissed her on the lips, sitting up fully before moving his lips down to her neck, then collarbone before whispering:
"But now's not the time, eh? I don't need my parents listening to that-" He plopped back down onto the bed before finishing:
"Or anything else we want to do, for that matter." Reaching for the floor, he grabbed his former fluffy weapon of choice and stuffed it back beneath his head.
"Don’t get me wrong, I love them to pieces and the past two and a half months have been awesome, but I do think it might be time for us to find our own place. Never actually HAD an apartment or a house to myself, you know? I bet you didn't either, seeing as the Academy probably didn't want their Acolytes to get too uppity." A broad smile, one of hopefulness and optimism rather than twinkling playfulness, framed his face.
"What do you think? I don't mean we get a place right this second...wait, am I pressuring you? Is that too fast?" A slight flush of red as he looked up at the ceiling.
“I mean, just think about it? At least?” He gulped.
“Sorry, I just…” He shifted uncomfortably on the bed, looking down at Aria with embarrassment in his aqua blue eyes.
“I’m so excited about us and where we’re at and where we’re going and…I just think it would be nice to have a place we can call our own. Well, us and the dogs. I think they’d appreciate having a safe space away from people other than us.” A contented sigh escaped his lips before he kissed her on the forehead, head fully crashing on the pillow, eyes closing.
“Just tell me you’ll think about it? We can talk more about it when we’re both not exhausted…unless you have thoughts now?” Yes he was tired but yes he would love to hear Aria talk about his idea. While they had discussed a lot of possibilities for their future, this was the first time he could remember trying to act on their litany of premises.
_
They’ve had enough time.

Renso’s eyes snapped open, bile churning. Rising from his folded position, the gaunt Master walked out of the dimly illuminated chamber into the empty stone corridor that held several branching hallways into the tombs. It had been so long since he had explored the echoes of the past, let his fingers trace over the cool, sticky stones, allowing his mind to flood with the river of events that had cascaded around and through him. So much has happened. So many mistakes. He had to correct them.

A sudden pain coursed through his torso, forcing him to one knee, gasping for breath, sweat beading on his forehead. It wouldn’t be long before his connection would fade into oblivion. She had warned him about this. They had all warned him of the consequences and they were all right. So very right. It bothered him how right they turned out to be. Maybe that amplified the pain. Knowledge. Knowledge is pain.
No. Knowledge is the essence of the Force.

No. Knowledge is power that balances the Force.

Yes. No?

The pain subsided and Renso finally was able to get to his feet, running both hands over the smooth, fraying skin of his skull. Yes, Knowledge Is the essence of the Force. He still knew. Yet it was fading. He needed them. They would be the only way he could ensure that the mistakes of his past and present were wiped out. They were atonement incarnate.

They’ve had enough time.

“Fulfill your potential, young ones.” He mumbled, looking towards the end of the hallway.

“Before we all are dust.” Another shock of agony filled his system, this one more precise, acute.

Xiis.
__

A wicked cackle bounced off the walls as she stood over the feeble opponent, his eyes wide with fear. Her deathly blue pallor pulsed with vivaciously moving blood, energizing her body and mind like it never had before. Sleep had been good to her and the followers that eviscerated the weaklings in other chambers, screams of savory, sumptuous pain filling her bones with life. Her purple tongue coursed over her lips as she hoisted the armored soldier effortlessly into the air, black pools of madness searing into his consciousness.

“I want you to remember this feeling, human.” She hissed seductively, one hand tracing over a bloodied chestpiece.

“Remember the fear. The horror. And embrace it.”

Naturally, as he sat up and moved towards her she had to release her hold on his wrists and let him shift their position or risk ending up with uncomfortable muscle cramps in several different places. She huffed out a quiet breath as he broke the contact between their lips and moved along her neck, a soft shiver passing through her, a grumble of protest almost formed as even that contact stopped though her face flushed a light shade of pink as she seemed to catch on to what he was suggesting. Now wasn't the right time, she agreed.
“No, I’m sure your parents wouldn’t appreciate it, either.” she chuckled softly, falling quiet for a moment to consider the question he had posed to her. The suggestion caught her off guard somewhat, she hadn’t given it much thought recently (the thought had flitted through her mind on a few occasions while she had been out and about, sure, but she’d never stopped to REALLY think about it). So when he asked what she thought about it, she didn’t reply straight away, chewing her lip as she shifted to lie on her side next to him.
“Where would we go, though?” she regretted the question coming out the way it had as soon as she’d said it, noting the playfulness evaporating from his eyes and feeling his embarrassment prickling at the edges of her own mind. She tried to shush him quickly and rephrase it, but as Yerbol often did when he got nervous he began talking excessively.
“Yerb...shush...Bol...honey, stop!” she smirked back at him, finally succeeding in getting him to be quiet by placing her index finger gently over his lips. “Shh. I think it’s a good idea, I do. It’d be different, and exciting.” she smiled reassuringly, letting her head sink into the pillow on her side as well. Having their own living space would be a big step for them, that would give them a chance to take the advice Vol and Tabitha had been giving them over the past months and put it in to practise (as well as the freedom to consider such trains of thought without feeling self conscious); they had the ship of course but it certainly wasn't a good long-term living space. “I was just thinking well...we’ve got a lot of options about where to look, right? We could stay here on Taris or...go off world somewhere else nice.” her eyelids were drooping, exhaustion threatening to take over despite her eagerness to put her thoughts forward before sleeping. “S’long as it wasn’t a city planet...dogs would hate that.” the Tuk’ata could just be heard snoring outside their door, already fast asleep. She was starting to think that would be a good idea for them, too. “But we can think about that more later, when we’re not so tired…”
_____________________________

It had been so long since her sleep had been disturbed by anything remotely like a vision that she had almost mistaken it for a nightmare (something she ALSO hadn’t experienced in years). It had begun as a tangled mess of feelings, sharp crippling pain that seared at her chest, lungs tightening as she struggled for breath, stumbling in the dark to search frantically for something that MUST be reached before it is too late...the pain subsided, the dark tunnel opening out to reveal a glittering span of glaciers as far as the eye could see. Red eyes, cold red eyes framed by a face of sickly blue pallor bored into her skull, the bloodlust and hatred those eyes reflected was frightening enough to pull her out of the dream. As the images began to fade, a familiar voice spoke, exhorting them to fulfill their destiny.
You are the only ones that can. Come and find me, before it’s too late...they are coming.

Before she could ask for clarification, Aria’s eyes flew open. It was still dark, her throat was dry and her head hurt. Shifting again, she fumbled to turn on a light as she felt Yerbol moving beside her. Turning to face him again, she found his eyes widened, a sheen of sweat coating his face. Brushing his dampened hair gently from his forehead, the question she croaked out was:
“You saw that too, right?” But what she had MEANT to ask was: “What do we do now?”.

Aria cleared her throat as she half sat up, her own cheeks clammy as she ran her hands over her face, groaning.
“It had to be Renso, but he seemed...fainter. Weaker.” the Sith Lord's presence had been so powerful the last time he had contacted them, but now all of that seemed to be slipping slowly away while Renso, wherever he was, desperately attempted to cling to his own existence long enough to reach out to Aria and Yerbol.

After the initial shock of the experience had worn off, they had spent an hour or so in quiet thought together, attempting to meditate and make sense of what they had seen. What had the vision meant? Who (or what) was this mysterious "they", and why was Renso afraid of them? Had they witnessed Renso's final moments before the ancient Sith Lord had passed and become a Force apparition? Either way, it had been clear enough what he had wanted. Find Renso...how would they do that? A tomb, perhaps, like those that had been on Korriban? There were too many questions that they couldn’t answer on their own. They needed help, from the other Masters. With that concluded, Yerbol placed a call to Voldon and Kira as the sun began to peek over the hills, while Aria scrambled to gather up their belongings and both wondered how they would explain their rush to return to Zinuthra to his parents. Ironically, Aria thought, their plans to look into taking the first step out as a couple on their own would have to be put aside for an entirely different adventure into the unknown, if the images in the vision had been anything to go by.

The excitement of knowing that she was on the same page as he was kept him for a short while after his partner had fallen asleep, but eventually his eyes closed, his mind stopped racing with possibilities and he found himself in a deep slumber tha-

It was bleak, desolate. He had seen landscapes like it before, but he knew it was different.

Glaciers were melting. No, not melting, but there was heat. Circular red dots staring out from the mounds of ice that were slowly becoming a morbid shade of blue. Blackness enveloped the sky. Screams...so many screams...lurching forward, clawing for her, make sure she's safe.

But he knew no one was. No one would be.

Maniacal laughter. Bouncing off glaciers, ripping his spine in half, knees slamming to the tundra below.

You are the only ones that can. Come and find me, before it’s too late...they are coming.

He sat up violently, eyes wide, breath coming in short, frightened gasps, just like Korriban, except this...this was a herald. A warning, premonition, whatever one could call a vision that inspired terror and ominous language in one package. Yerbol nodded at her question, his anxiety stabilizing as he felt her touch on his forehead, the two of them beginning to wrap their heads around the sudden vision in the next hour. With so many questions and no immediate answers accessible, Yerbol felt the need to see Voldon and Kira. With Aria supporting the idea, he reached out to the Battlemaster at around six in the morning, whose grumpy facade gave way to worry when he saw the younger duo's panicked(his perception) expressions, exhorting them to meet in his private quarters. Bags packed and Tuk'ata on heightened alert due to their owner's dispositions, they entered the kitchen where both parents sat over their morning beverages.
"Well, this is unexpected." Vol said with an amused smile, rising with Tabitha, who asked:
"Where are you two headed?" Yerbol exchanged a quick glance with Aria, understanding passing between the two. They couldn't tell his parents. Needed to come up with something.
"Well..." Ah ha!
"We've been wanting to check on the Sanctuary cities for a while now. Not very intense labor at all, just simple reunions and check-ups."
"Mmmhmm." Tabitha looked to her husband with a twinkle in her eye before saying:
"It's ok to say that you're tired of us."
"No, no, it's not that!" Yerbol drew closer to his parents, a sad smile forming.
"I've missed you guys so much and it's been...it's been so wonderful to be able to spend time with you both again, but..." He shook his head, the smile growing.
"Duty calls, right?" Tabitha and Vol both nodded, drawing their son into a mutual embrace, the former kissing her son on the cheek.
"Be careful out there, honey." She gripped her son's hand tightly.
"And come see us again sooner than ten years, eh?" Vol quipped, both parents going to hug Aria and tell her similar words of encouragement, Vol proclaiming:
"I'm going to miss my exploration partner! We'll have to do some more of that when you come back." He gave her a wink after their hug, telling her quietly:
"Take care of my boy. Please."

___

After some more goodbyes, they took a shuttle(many of these were now up and running thanks to generous monies and laborers provided by the Alliance) to the Sanctuary, all the while attempting to console the other poor souls on board that the Tuk'ata wouldn't rip their hearts out of their chests. Thankfully the trip was a short one and within half an hour, they were at the bustling construction site, passing by the temporary shelters and half finished structures before entering the only finished building at the very rear of the settlement. It was a two-story rectangular shaped barracks, complete with individual quarters for those Force users who needed them. There were already a handful of Force users on site, some of which the duo had met with previously and gotten to know on a superficial level. None were in the common area that greeted those who entered, Yerbol silently thankful for not having to interact with anyone, the duo taking a flight of stairs to the right which led to Voldon and Kira's quarters. Before he could raise a hand to knock, Voldon opened the door, his normally tanned skin two shades darker, eyes lively and alert. He motioned them in, shutting the door behind them.
"Sit." He commanded flatly, pointing at four overstuffed chairs, one of which was occupied by Kira.
"Stop being so grumpy, big guy. It's not THAT early." Kira said with a smirk, waving at the duo as they sat, brushing some loose strands of dark red locks away from her forehead. Voldon refused to comment, instead placing himself across from the younger couple.
"What troubles you?"

They shared the vision the best they could, although Yerbol found it difficult to express every single aspect of what they felt. Thankfully, Ari made up for his lack of terminology. After proposing their theory about Renso, Voldon quickly responded:
"I don't like sending you out there by yourselves. I would wait on another vision before going."
"But what if they don't go now? You of all people should know what it's like to get nasty visions from someone long gone." Voldon grimaced.
"True." He looked at the pair with wary eyes.
"You're sure this is the same presence that contacted you before, that said you bonded with him? We don't know if Bracknell conjured Renso as a red herring."
"Fairly sure. It's hard to verbalize, but we know Renso is out there somewhere. He's real. Very real." Silence pervaded the room for a few moments.
"The rest of the Council will hear of this from me. Check in with Aliel, Matt and Cheriss on Zinuthra. I'm sure they'll want to know what's going on...and I'm also certain they'll want to tell you about our plans themselves."
"Plans?"
"They were the ones to come up with it. They should be the ones to tell you. I'll holo-call in when you get there."

It was comforting to know that it WAS a vision and not just a night terror, though it didn't help calm the gnawing sense of dread that clawed at her, nor did it have any effect on removing the image of those ghastly red lights (landing gear? Sniper guidance lasers? She wasn't even sure what they were...eyes? No, they couldn't be eyes…) boring into her from within the depths of the glaciers. It took them next to no time at all to pack up everything and contact Voldon and Kira, Aria had hoped they would be able to slip out unnoticed and leave Yerbol's parents a note of some kind but of course they would be awake. Exchanging a glance with Yerbol, she understood what he meant. Fumbled for something that they could say that would explain their sudden departure. Thankfully Yerbol was quick enough to come up with an idea that she could go along with. Smiling faintly, she nodded and returned both their embraces. She wondered if Tabitha could tell they were lying.
“Thank you. I will.” she promised, stepping back. “We'll be back to visit again soon.” And hoped they could keep that promise.
___________

Chwuq and Taral were restless on the shuttle, constantly chuffing and grunting “Danger! Unsafe! Yark! Yark!” it was making the other passengers restless, afraid that the Tuk'ata may lash out at them at any moment. Aria had to get a little rough with them in order to get them to quiet down; thankfully they had little interest in continuing to make noise after being kicked in the nose a few times and urged that their fretting was NOT helping.
They had apologised profusely for disturbing the Naylons so early in the morning, but it didn't seem to improve Voldon's mood much. They recounted the vision they had shared, the duo as gravel grave-faced as the Battlemaster as he considered the implications of the vision.
Kira had been more supportive of them pursuing the instructions than Voldon was, but in any case a trip out to Zinuthra wouldn't be a bad start.
_________

After her success on Coruscant, Ailel had withdrawn to join Matthew and Cheriss back in Wild Space, the little contingent of Masters more than happy to see the duo again. They had taken a few hours after arriving to rest up (it was still a long flight, even though they made use of the Ice Box’s slipspace generators), and another hour or so to quickly catch up on the work they had done, Janika quite eager to give them the guided tour of the brand new training complex Bex was helping them to set up. After bidding the youngster farewell, they had returned to the old military complex where they had once sheltered a few months prior to join the Council of Elders and begin their discussion.
Before they were allowed to discuss the vision, Cheriss had insisted that they discuss the “plans” Voldon had alluded to before they had left.
“But Cheriss this is impor-”
“It will only take a few minutes, Aria. I'm sure you can spare that long.” Ailel chuckled, imploring the duo to listen to the announcement.
“Naturally, if we're going to be training youngsters we need to be putting some kind of ranking system in place.” the Dathomirian explained, “Now we know you're going to protest, because rankings will lead to squabbling and etcetera, but we need SOMETHING to distinguish the newcomers from the learners and those from the rest of us who have been here for a while.”
A chuckle had passed through the room, Ailel and Matthew picking up where Cheriss left off, to explain the titles they had designated to each rank. Neophyte for the newest youngsters that came into the facility, Disciple for those who had learnt a lot but had yet to pass their final trials, Apprentices (the title which Vano, Janika and Manso could now all proudly bear) would be the equivalent of Knights or full-fledged Sith as they had been in the former Orders and could help the Masters on the Council to instruct the Neophytes and Disciples.
Aria had frowned during the pause and exchanged a glance with Yerbol. No mention had been made yet of a rank they would be assigned to.
“So...so where does that leave us?”
“We thought we could add another rank, between Apprentice and Master.” Matthew put in, hands folded neatly in his lap, “‘Champion’ seems an appropriate title to give you, after everything you contributed to our efforts during the conflict with Bracknell.”
“You aren't old enough yet to be fully fledged Masters.” Ailel continued, “But we felt this would be the next best thing we could offer you, until you ARE old enough. You should be recognised for all your hard work and dedication, and that's why we've decided you two should be the first to receive this title. Perhaps, in time, others can join you but we wanted to leave that decision up to you.”

Aria was stunned into silence, glancing sideways at Yerbol as she felt her jaw slacken slightly. “W-Well, we'd be….honoured, thank you.”
“Don't think it gives you an excuse to push us around though!” Cheriss scolded them, though there was a glimmer of amusement in the Dathomirian’s eyes. With that concluded, they could return to the matter at hand:
“Now….this vision you both saw…”
The duo once again recounted what they had seen and were once again met with skepticism about the vision’s origins.
“How do we know it isn't a trap?” Ailel put forward, leaning closer to the duo.
“Ailel’s right, why would the visions stop after Bracknell's death only to suddenly start again now? Sounds like somebody might have been using his persona to lead you off track. They nearly did it before.” Matthew agreed, eyeing the duo skeptically. He suggested Soto, who had been stationed on Coruscant under Ailel’s care, finally unguarded again since Ailel had returned to Zinuthra about a week before.
“It WAS Renso.” Aria affirmed. “If it was Soto all along we would have recognised her presence the first time. Renso helped us to fight Bracknell and win, he probably stopped talking to us because he didn't think he'd need our help anymore with Bracknell gone. Now he does, and he's getting weaker.”

“If it IS Renso's ghost, it would be plausible that he would weaken over time.” Cheriss’ lips pursed together as she thought out loud. “Force ghosts often persist in our world if they have unfinished business among the living that they want to see through before becoming one with the Force. If we have managed to achieve this balancing act he had been striving for then there would be no other reason for him to remain an apparition.”
“Except for this new vision of his.” Ailel supplemented. “Hm...this is worrying.”
“We can't ignore it.” Cheriss asserted. “Last time we did both Orders’ home planets were destroyed and we nearly all died, we can't make that mistake again. Aria and Yerbol are more than capable of handling this.”
“Then where do they go, Hoth?” Matthew frowned. It was the only planet they knew of comprised entirely of ice.
“It wasn't Hoth.” Aria shook her head. “It was too...warm. It was very strange, there was heat, but ice at the same time.”

The Council had been even more perplexed by the further description of the landscape that Aria and Yerbol could provide. Without a clue where to begin searching, they couldn't act on Renso's summons until they knew where to go. Cheriss suggested that they visit Vano in the newly constructed library and see if the Mirialan could find anything within their recovered data archives that could help. It MUST be another place in Wild Space, after all.
______

“A specific mountain range somewhere in Quensu, perhaps?” Vano had suggested after each of them had received another hug and exchanged quick greetings. You said the ecosystems there conflicted quite drastically. There must be ice around there somewhere.”
Aria exchanged a wary glance with Yerbol. “Quensu’s too warm...even the colder parts around the temple didn't have snow. The...the temple guardian made the snow that appeared at the top.”
The Mirialan nodded slowly and turned to scan along the rows of holocrons on the shelf above her head.
“Could there not be more than one guardian?”
“It wasn't there the second time. It has to be somewhere different. Don't you have anything on any other places nearby to Quensu or even here?”
“Not much…” Vano admitted with another frown, plucking a holocron from the shelf and activating it. Out of the small cube projected another map, Zinuthra flashing up in place first, and a few days’ travel away appeared another sphere. Smaller, a moon of some kind.
“There IS this moon here, the one we nearly set up base on. We've had the co-ordinates for a while, but last time I took an expedition out there...well, we didn't get very far. Wanted to do a general ecosystem survey, just to record the biomes and native fauna for the archives, that sort of thing. Janika and I took some of the younglings and a couple seismologists (or something) to help record the data but as soon as we got close Janika and I felt something, in the Force.” an uncomfortable shudder passed through the Mirialan at the memory, Vano shaking her head again. “I don't know what it was, but that moon gave us the creeps. We got the hell out of there before we even landed. It doesn't inspire confidence if this guy wants you two to go out there…”
“Va, if it might have the answers we need, we have to go.” Aria sighed, glancing to Yerbol for confirmation.
“Grrrr.” Taral and Chwuq circled the projection of the moon, snuffling and lashing their tails.
“Strange. Not safe.”
“See? Even they can feel it! Give me more time.” Vano insisted. “Just let me dig up some more stuff about the moon before you go storming over there. Go to Quensu first and try to contact Renso there.”

“Moon-Force strange…. Not go there. Danger, danger.” Chwuq pleaded, headbutting her urgently in the ribs.
“Oof!” Aria grunted, staggered slightly by the force behind the nudge, looking towards Yerbol again. “What do you think? It wouldn't be the first time we hit the ground running doing something, but if the Force around that moon is that volatile that the dogs can sense it too just from looking at the map, it could be a good idea to go in with more information under our belts…”

"The more we know, the better prepared we'll be for tackling whatever faces us on that moon." He attempted to calm their furry companions by scratching behind one of their respective ears, but in an abnormal behavior for them, they slunk away, eyes locked on the flickering map.
"Vano, think you could point us in the direction of information about Quensu itself? I like your idea of there being something important of the planet that links to our vision. It was their homeworld, after all; surely they left records behind?"

Vano left them in one of the many small study rooms that had been built in as private retreats to do the kind of intensive research they were forced to do, sifting through holocrons, scrolls, cracked datapads and physical books for any mention of a moon laced with Force sensitivity. The duo bounced potential ideas extracted from their individual findings every so often, neither of them finding anything truly relevant until the newly appointed Champion came across a datapad, the owner's signature in the bottom left corner:

"Yusef Malagna, Chronicler of the Whispers." An eyebrow quirked upward before looking to Aria.
"You mentioned finding something else about 'Whispers' before, right?" He flipped through some of the initial notes, all of which extensively detailed the credibility of the account as well as warned readers about attempting to find the moon without first discussing their intent with a Master. Such admonitions were common in the work they had come across, which might have meant many of those reading would want to prove themselves worthy to their Masters or possibly desire to test themselves in order to progress their abilities in the Force(both schools of thought were brought up in a speech that Jungze had found when they brought their initial haul of findings, the speech given by a Master Kinwu, who warned the younger among them to stop "needlessly throwing themselves into danger for the sake of glory!") After the warnings, Yerbol found an entry with a few numbers in the upper right hand corner that probably was a date...or some kind of marker; more importantly, Yusef began to discuss the "Whispers" in extensive detail. He read aloud:

"There are many planets within our sector of the galaxy that retain Force energy, which was more than likely a purposeful choice made by those who came before us. While the Force energies on these planets enhance our abilities and techniques, there are strange side effects, some of which include the 'Whispers' or imprinted life force signatures of those who died on the planet. From what we have gathered, the largest concentration of these Whispers are on the moon Nuncata, where entire chunks of forest and swamp are filled with the fragmented memories and echoes of those long gone. We have recently encountered some on Quensu in a grove not too far off from the Academy. I will update this log after our encounter."

Flipping to the next page, he continued:

"We were contacted by a team of scouts from Nuncata that stumbled onto a glacial formation with dense concentration of Whispers, most of which, according to the scouts, were uttering what sounded like phrases or chants. Master Renso quickly told them to hold off on investigating further and return. Soon after we lost contact. Master Renso seems even more agitated than normal about a situation like this, which leads me to believe there's something on that moon he knows about that we don't."

Another page:

"Reports from the grove indicate similar 'chanting' that was heard on Nuncata. No one is allowed into the grove, but I saw Master Renso heading down that way. I will se-" Grimacing, he tried to flip through more data, but nothing showed up.
"Well, that should give us...something." Looking over to his companion, he continued:
"I have a feeling that grove might be a good place to start. Maybe these 'Whispers' on Nuncata somehow manifested themselves on a smaller scale? Or something?" He chuckled.
"Nothing like reading old diaries to try and meet a dead Master, right? Ah..." Shaking his head, he rose from his chair and planted a kiss on her head gently.
"Someday we're going to spend our days doing normal couple things. Like debating the color of washing machines. Or when to bathe the dogs."

_____

Before leaving Zinuthra, Vano gave them planetary surveys that were dug up from one of the more recent expeditions, pointing out some potential sites where a 'grove' could thrive. After goodbyes and promises to return shortly, they hovered over the face of Quensu, Yerbol remarking as they descended:
"The atmosphere has stabilized since we've been here. Different season?" That question was answered quickly when upon breaking clouds beneath the freighter they were greeted with torrential rain, lightning occasionally crackling through the sky.
"Right, forget I said anything." With some navigating and piloting assistance from Aria, the duo managed to set the freighter down on a sweeping plain that gently rolled downward towards a thicket of trees that were distinctly marked on the map by Vano with a large question mark. As the ship jostled into it's resting position, a sickening taste formed in his mouth, stomach churning.
"You ah...you feel that too?" The dogs skittered to the cockpit, one of them growling:
"Ouuttssiiddeee. Baaadd."

That's not good.

They retired to a study room to pour over the research Vano had indicated, Aria frowning as for a very long time they seemed to come short of anything useful. That was until the mention of these ‘Whispers’. They sounded important, and thankfully Bol had a LOT to read in the records about them (even if they were incomplete as well).
“Mhm, sounds very suspicious.” she agreed. “I’d say we need to find this grove and see if we can discover these ‘Whispers’ for ourselves.” maybe it would help them to contact Renso, too. She sighed softly at his promise about doing normal couple things, getting up from her chair as she leaned into his touch for a brief moment before stepping back.
“If only. I’m kind of bummed this has gotten in the way of everything.” she admitted with a wry smile before shrugging again as they made their way back to find Vano again to get some maps and directions to help them find the grove.
Before they left, Vano had dragged her into another hug so tight Aria almost thought she would pass out from lack of air, the Mirialan whispering into her ear.
“You be careful out there, baby girl, okay? I don’t want to lose my sister, too.”
“Va…” she forced another smile, patting her shoulder comfortingly. “We survived a mass genocide, we’ll be FINE.”
“Maybe. I hope so. But I don’t like this. At all.”
“Neither do I…but we have to go.”
________________

For a moment, they had thought the weather would be calmer. The lightning storm on the other side of the atmosphere, however, seemed to even rival the one they had barely escaped their first night on Zinuthra in intensity. She made a quick quip about Yerbol jinxing it with his earlier comment before she was forced to focus on steering the ship, both with the co-pilot’s controls in front of her and also through manipulation of the energy currents as they had once done as a group on Zinuthra. After what seemed like an eternity, a bit of cursing and praying and much anxious whining from the Tuk’ata back in the seating area, they touched down in the clearing Vano had marked out as the most likely place for this grove to be.

Slowly releasing the controls, Aria stiffly got to her feet again and glanced at her partner, nodding her head as she tried to swallow down the horrible metallic taste in her mouth. She felt sick.
“Yeah-” the two beasts barged into the cockpit, their whines and growls increasing in pitch as they clamoured towards the duo. They kept making low, urgent grunts of “Uff! Uff!” which she had deduced meant something similar to their louder alarm call: trouble, danger. Their anxious exclamations and reluctance to physically let the couple leave the cockpit to disembark seemed to back that up.
“Bad! Bad bad bad!” whined the larger of the two. “Force bad!”
“Look I know it’s funny, but we have to go!” Aria had insisted, trying to dodge around them only to have the Tuk’ata’s teeth snap at her cloak, grabbing it firmly as she tugged Aria backwards, howling.
“Nooooooooo-oooo!”
“Woah, hey hey!” Aria protested, dropping onto one knee to scratch behind her ears. “C'mon Chwuq now you're being silly. We HAVE to go.” the dogs fell back into muted whines, clearly still displeased by the area they had landed in. She exchanged a glance with Yerbol. This wasn't good. It took some more coaxing and ear scratching but eventually they managed to make it down the ramp and back onto the peaty soil that seemed to dominate a lot of Quensu’s biome. They had indeed landed in a grove of some description, though up ahead the trees seemed to open out into a slightly wider space, a few scattered shrubs and dead logs taking their place. Nervously they inched closer to the middle, Aria glancing upwards as a sudden breeze seemed to pick up from nowhere, a low moaning passing through the tree branches above their heads.

An uncomfortable cold shiver passed down her spine as they passed through the ring of trees, another heavy wind blowing past them and carrying with it an eerie wail, as if the disembodied voices were in great distress in what was possibly their final moments.
“W-Well, you can tell why they call them Wh-Whispers, huh?” she laughed nervously, about to say something else though she jerked back abruptly from her next step with an alarmed scream, clinging to Yerbol's arm.
“SOMETHING JUST GRABBED MY FOOT! THIS IS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE I DON'T LIKE THIS!”
“Hurt?” snuffled Taral nervously as he nudged her gently with the end of his nose, concerned she had been harmed because of her exclamations. Chwuq prowled nervously forward with her nose to the ground, sniffing at a knarled root that jutted out of the ground in front of them.
"No, no I'm not hurt." she promised, letting out another breath though she didn't let go of Yerbol's arm. "This place is just SUPER creepy...."

Yerbol's already heightened senses went into alarm when Aria vehemently objected to the touching of her foot, grabbing his saber and about to ignite it when he looked down, nervously chuckling while another soft breeze floated through the maze of trees.
"Yeah...yeah it is. Like walking through a cemetery at night or-" It was soft, delicate, almost undetectable, but he knew he had heard it. A cackle. Filled with malice, bloodlust, disgust, his mouth once again tasting coppery.
"That wasn't my imagination. I know it wasn't." The incorporeal Whispers grew in number, surrounding them, uttering nonsensical phrases that sounded like jibberish spouted in hushed, harsh tones. Yerbol's back stiffened, arm protectively wrapping around Aria's waist and another dangling at his side, grip on his saber tightening with every step they took forward. The trees began to grow sparser in number, a smooth stone barrier about ten feet in height marking an end to the forest. Or the part that others were allowed access to? Reluctantly slipping the arm that had been around Aria back to his side, he approached the barrier, hand running across the surface.
"It's freezing cold." He muttered, turning back to his companion just as a few droplets of rain hit his scalp. Turning his head upward, he noted the black clouds that they had managed to outrun when descending to the planet and grimaced.
"Right. So we should probably head back to the ship unless we want to explore a spooky place with whispering echoes of the Force in the cold, dark, wet night."

Close. So close.

Renso's voice had become unmistakable.

Who? What? Are we close to you?

Nuncata. Come quickly.

Where on Nuncata?

After a minute or two of reaching out from the duo and receiving nothing but silence, Yerbol motioned back towards the dense maze of trees they had just emerged out of.
"At least we know he's not here, right? Maybe we tapped into the energy here and he was able to reach us...or something." Taking a few steps past her was all he could muster before Taral bumped his leg.
"What? What is it?" A gruff snort and a head nod towards the wall prompted the Champion to turn, Whispers growing louder as a minute crack blemished the surface of the barrier.
"That wasn't..."

Wolves asleep amidst the trees

Bats all a swaying in the breeze

But one soul lies anxious wide awake

Another crack on the wall, larger this time, stone crumbling under the pressure as the Whispers grew in volume, chanting, almost singing the phrases over and over. Saber now ignited, Yerbol stood next to Aria, knees bent, muscles tensing.

But heartache and woe

Deep, deep woe

Birds are silent for the night

The Tuk'ata growled, snapping at the wall before galloping in front of the duo, their thick musculature on alert. He wanted to speak, to try to shout the Whispers into submission, but he knew, he KNEW that it was impossible, they would continue to sing, to bore their melodic death sentence into their skulls until they were paralyzed with an overwhelming fear, that-

Lie still, lie silent, utter no cries

As we cut

And eat

You

Whole

The wall shattered, swift forms bursting from the now gaping chasm in the once solid barrier. The forms were hunched over, their breathing loud and heavy until they straightened up, crimson red corneas framed around jet black, sickly blue skin slick with the now pouring rain. There were three of them, humanoid in form. Two males(from what Yerbol could guess) were clothed in tattered beige shorts, red stripes on their exposed chests and torsos. The woman had similarly tattered garments that covered her chest and upper legs with stripes across her abdomen and forehead, rusty piercing through her chin.
"Chusu mena?" The man on the right of the woman asked, looking to her with a smirk. The woman nodded.
"Maito judena." Their eyes locked on the duo, the woman hissing out in accented Basic:
"Sith? How flattering." Before Yerbol could object, the men thrust their hands out, lightning crackling from their fingertips. Thankfully Yerbol was already on guard, raising his saber a millisecond before the bolts connected, his massive frame being driven back by the sheer force of their attack. The Tuk'ata roared, charging forward to presumably eviscerate(or try to) the attackers, which distracted the men just enough for the lightning to cease. Yerbol leaped into the air, attempting a downward slash at the man on the left, who swiftly dodged, laughing maniacally as he slammed an elbow into Yerbol's ribs and nearly connected with a haymaker if it wasn't for Yerbol ducking at the last moment, slicing at the blue man's ankles, severing feet from leg, prompting a howl of agony.

Right. This was going to be interesting.

The cackle reached Aria's ears too as they made their way through the grove, the Champion drawing one of her own sabers and gripping it as they came to the barrier.
“I don't know about this…” she muttered warily as Yerbol let go of her to move closer to it. Aria began to edge backwards as droplets of icy rain began to fall from the sky, the duo left perplexed as Renso's contact ceased without warning. The hairs on the back of her neck prickling as another familiar voice spoke urgently:
Get out of there. NOW.

Daddy?

Don't touch the wall. Get out of there.

She couldn't be sure if it had been her imagination that the warning had come in Roan's voice but her instincts told her that they should listen to it regardless of where it came from. Still edging back towards the path that led to the ship, she called out to Yerbol but it was too late. Too late. The chanting rose in tempo, eerie lyrics seeming to permeate right into their skulls as the duo stood side by side, viridian-orange and red-blue blades ignited and held up as the wall crumbled. The tomb beasts stood between them and the wall as the last bits of stone collapsed and the humanoid beings galloped towards them.

She couldn't understand what they were saying, couldn't pinpoint the language used. Could it be some dialect of Huttese from another planet they hadn't travelled to before? All the way out here in Wild Space, though? There would be no time to debate it, however, throwing up lightsabers and dodging sideways to avoid the electrical bursts that were directed towards them. She spun on her heel, trying to press her back to Yerbol’s so the figures couldn't get between them. An unfamiliar howl from behind told her Yerbol had landed a blow, Aria twisting to avoid a solid fist connecting with her ribs and jabbing a blade forward in retaliation. The hand severed at the wrist, it's owner staggering for a moment with a cry of pain before he lunged for her again. She felt a furry flank brush against her leg as the Tuk'ata shot between them, fangs and claws lashing out at the attackers as they tried to drive them back. Chwuq’s jaws closed around the man's shoulder, his crimson eyes still glistening with hatred as the bone crunched loudly.
“YARK! YARK!” Taral’s warning bark came just in time, Aria spinning around to find the female advancing closer to her. Plaque-stained teeth (were….were they slightly pointed, or were her eyes playing tricks on her?) grinned back at her as the blue woman cackled.
“Your Sith-blood will make us strong!” in a tone that was so much like the sing-song Whispers that it made Aria's gut twist in discomfort.
Cut. And. Eat. You. Whole. The chanting still sang through her skull, as she darted right to avoid the woman's arms wrapping around her midsection. A foot or a fist connected with her sternum as she straightened up again, knocking her to her knees, she threw her sabers up to protect herself, the woman hissing as she ducked to avoid the blades and grabbed Aria's wrists, attempting to wrestle the weapons from her grasp. It became a battle of endurance as well as strength as both tried to gain enough strength in their arms to overpower the other and shove her away.

Teeth snapped shut millimeters from her throat, Aria's eyes widening as she tried to lean back to get out of her range in case she tried that again.
Blood roared in her ears as Aria tried to contain her own fear.
Use your fear. She heard Roan's voice remind her again. Use it, but don't let it consume you. It will make you strong.

How?

Distract her, look for a weakness and strike as hard as you can. You and Yerbol need to get away and get out of there. Run if you have to.

She could feel Yerbol's fatigue as he and the tomb beasts tried to fight off the two men, unsure if Roan's spirit really was there but if he was…
Can you help Yerbol?

There was no answer.

“Renso cannot protect you forever!” her attacker sneered. Aria saw her opening.
“Who are you? What do you know about Renso?”
“Xiis! We are Xiis!”
“Xiis? Is...is that your name?”
“You do not remember no, only Renso remembers! Renso hides us away!”
“On Nuncata?”
“Cold...cold, very cold! Must fight! Must survive! Only strong can live!” The blue woman babbled, spit flying from her cracked purple lips. “We are strong now and WE will hunt YOU and we will DEVOUR you!”
Aria's palms were sweating, her arms weighted down lead. She wanted to ask more questions, find out more, but knew she couldn't keep it up. She let go of the hilts of her lightsabers. Prayed to the Force and whatever deity may be watching that she'd be strong enough. They were bedraggled, weaker than them. Tired like she was. Aria slipped past her, spun around and locked her forearm around the woman's neck, the other hand grabbing her under the jaw. If she hadn't been able to tap into the Force and use it to help her, Aria would never have had strength or speed left to get into position and jerk her head back until it cracked loudly out of place and the body went limp.

Her weapons clattered to the floor and rolled a few inches forward. Aria fell back onto her haunches, bile rising in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the crimson eyes still wide open. Still sneering with bloodlust and cruelty.
WE will hunt YOU. We will DEVOUR you. Your Sith-blood will make us strong. The words thrummed hauntingly in her head.

She fumbled to stand up and retrieve her weapons, fighting the urge to dry heave, looked around for her partner to find he had dispatched the two men as well. A muscular body pushed against her, steadying her as the Tuk'ata snuffled at her anxiously.
“Hurt?”
“I don't...I don't think so…” she forced out, meeting Yerbol's blue gaze.

“They were tracking us...hunting us, she said they were ‘hunting’ us...like...”
“Prey.” Chwuq snorted, agitated as she shook out her fur. “We not prey.”
She wanted to ask him if he had heard Roan, too, but was afraid the chanting had made her delirious and that he'd think she was mad too.
"Let's...get outta here, yeah?"

The other male attacker had come to his debilitated friend's aid, hand open to deliver a vicious palm strike to Yerbol's side, which prompted most of the breath Yerbol had just inhaled to forcefully sputter out, his ribs protesting at the sudden trauma. To avoid another strike, he jumped backwards, twisting himself to face his new opponent and allowing a chance to regain his footing, which was becoming increasingly difficult as the rain was creating a mucky battlefield.
"KILL!" Yerbol quickly rolled right to dodge a blast of Force energy from the attacker's palm, deflecting another gust before dashing right and connecting with a solid slam of his hilt into the creature's shoulder, throwing his left leg forward to use momentum and have his bloodthirsty opponent land face first into the slimy earth. Not hesitating, he thrust his saber downward into the upper back, twisting to ensure that he had gotten the heart(or at least, he assumed that was where his heart was). A muted gurgle could be heard, body convulsing before it was still.
"YOU WILL NEVER STOP US!" The crippled one claimed, eyes wide with murderous triumph.
"That's a bold assumption." Yerbol strolled calmly to the creature, who was attempting to slither away without the help of his detached feet, wiping away blood that had spattered from his mouth onto his chin.
"SITH WILL DIE! ALL SITH!"
"You obviously haven't kept up with current events. The Sith are long gone."
"LIES! ALWAYS LIES!" Spittle and blood intermingled with rain as he continued to shout:
"DEATH! ALWAYS DEATH! PAY FOR ALL...ALL YOU HAVE DONE!" Yerbol leered down at the obviously insane figure before shaking his head. They would have to get answers from Renso. Quickly he dispatched the downed enemy in the same way as his fellow assailant, looking over to Aria, who looked a few shades paler than she had when they arrived.
"Never heard anything better in my life."

___

After getting out of the atmosphere and into the comforting smoothness of vacuum, Yerbol took an opportunity to get cleaned up, wincing all the way through showering and changing due to the slowly growing purplish blue bruising on the side of his rib cage. Commenting on the source of the bruise to Aria upon returning to the cockpit:
"They hit harder than anyone I've ever faced before. That includes even you." A half smirk played upon his lips before it disappeared as quickly as it came.
"So obviously they were crazed and obviously they were remnants of the past like Renso, but unlike Renso, they were very much alive." He leaned into the chair, watching the nav panel as the ship slowly made it's way to Nuncata.
"Which begs the quest-, no, which begs MULTIPLE questions like: who are they? Why do they have such anger held for the Sith? How are they alive AND does that mean Renso is still alive as well? Because according to the records your dad pieced together, the True Sith died off nearly two thousand years ago...or at least, that's what he could find." He laughed slightly.
"But even he, in all his wisdom, told us that those dates could be off. I remember that bothered him. A lot. Not being able to figure it all out, EVEN THOUGH he was singlehandedly responsible for figuring out Bracknell's true agenda." A knowing look was cast his lover's way, taking her hand in his and squeezing it gently, silence passing between them for a few moments before the Tuk'ata nearly tripped over each other, invading the cockpit and professing in all sorts of ways that the moon was still a dangerous place.
"We're aware, guys." A derisive snort, then Chwuq headbutted Yerbol's seat, uttering:
"Powerrrr...much...bad."
"Power isn't ALL bad."
"Bad." Chwuq insisted with another headbutt.
"Well, you can say it's bad, but we're going whether you want us to or not." Both Tuk'ata growled in a low, throaty manner, but backed away from the cockpit.
"At least we know they love us, right? In their own protective, grumpy way." The nav panel chirped twice, indicating that they'd be entering the mysterious moon's atmosphere in a few minutes.
"Want a chance to clean up? I can get us down on the ground just fine...and I'll shout if I need help."

___

The topographic scanner displayed a number of overlapping circles and flat squiggles, which correlated with the flat, swampy land that was visible at low enough altitude. The higher altitudes were coated in thick, heavy clouds that mirrored the apparent griminess of the ground beneath.
"Right...so if I were a dead True Sith Master, where would I be hiding?" Yerbol mused, finding no remarkable rock formations or ruins that would give him a remote clue as to the location of their soon to be host. It took about fifteen minutes of searching before his voice filled their minds:

The memorial tombs. Stone columns jutting up from an enclosed garden. Hurry.

More searching revealed stone pillars that stood out blatantly from the bland, grey environs they were embedded in. The pillars were directly in front of a cavernous opening that, once they landed, sloped downward into a yawning chasm filled with darkness. Chunks of stone and marble littered the area around the opening along with bleached bone fragments, a few skulls visible right in front of the cave.
"Charming." He commented flatly, standing up and taking in a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
"Let's meet our host, shall we?"

Aria had frowned in concern as he mentioned the bruising, rolling up her own sleeves to check her wrists. Sure enough, they too sported angry purple fingers shaped bruises. “Tell me about it...I thought she was gonna break my wrists.” her concern for the state of his ribs meant she took little notice of his jest at how hard she could hit, instead asking: “Are you sure your ribs aren't broken? Cause we might need to think about getting you back to a kolto tank as soon as we're done with Renso…”
Force forbid they should ignore it and a broken bone end up puncturing his lung or….STOP IT. She knew it was her brain catastrophising and tried to push the terrifying thought it had brought aside, squeezing his hand in return as she commented on some of the questions he raised. “ ‘Xiis’. That's what the woman said to me. I don't know if that's someone's name or a species...I guess we'll have to ask Renso.” rising from her chair, she nodded gratefully and slipped off to shower and change quickly as Yerbol brought them back down again
______________

They had to pick their way through a vast expanse of horrible, swampy ground to get off the edge of the loading ramp. It wouldn't get any better the further away they went in search of Renso with only one dog in town (Taral had taken one look outside, tucked his tail between his legs and cowered refusing to leave the ship. She hadn't taken that as a good sign, even if he was slightly less brutish than his mate he still wasn't one to startle easily). With Renso's clue in mind it didn't take them long to find the pillars that stuck out like sore thumbs from the rest of the landscape.
“Well, I'd bet it's a tomb alright.” Aria chuckled wryly, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before they ventured forward into the cave, Yerbol conjouring another of the blue light orbs to illuminate the path in front of them.
“You've got to teach me how to do that sometime.” she murmured, breaking the eerie silence that seemed to permeate the entire tomb but for their footsteps and their breath. “How deep do you think this thing goes?”
Well, it WAS a tomb after all….

It could have been only a few minutes later, or closer to a whole hour (Aria lost all concept of how much time had passed as they trudged through the cold stone passageways) before they glimpsed a dim orange-ish light from up ahead, the narrow tunnel they had been in opening out into a chamber with a cavernous ceiling. She couldn't begin to think what it would have been used for. Some kind of rite to put the spirits of those buried in the tombs to rest? She shuddered at the thought.

Her attention however would be immediately drawn to the frail figure perched against the stone slab in the middle of the room. He looked frail, and old. Very old. His skin closer to sickly pinkish-grey in tint than the vibrant red they had witnessed in the mysterious projections in Quensu’s temple, and well weathered with age; the tentacle projections sagging so far down on his chin and eyebrows that it looked as if they would fall right off his face at any moment, a few whispy white strands were all that was left of hair on his otherwise gleaming, bare skull. The yellow eyes which may have at one point been sharp and alert had become slightly sunken back in their sockets, glassed over with pain and yet still reflecting many years of hard-learned wisdom. And very, very much alive.
Chwuq’s hackles bristled, the Tuk'ata's lips peeling back to show her glistening white teeth as she studied the man with wary eyes.
“Power bad.”
“We don’t know he's bad.” Aria reasoned, patting her head soothingly as the trio advanced closer in unison. “He helped us before…”
“You're Renso?” It was nerves really that had prompted it to come out as a question, or perhaps surprise when she had been expecting that they would be conversing with a Force spirit rather than a several several-thousand-year-old (from what they could infer of Roan's previous studies of the dates and lore they had uncovered) man. Or alien. Or whatever. How could ANYONE physically live that long, Force sensitive or not?! The question stuck in her throat despite her desperation to voice it out loud.
A thin smile cracked further wrinkles into the alien’s face that made Aria worry it might shatter from the effort.
The familiar voice that had spoken through the bond before confirmed what the duo had already known for themselves.
“It's good to finally meet you both in person. I had worried you would not arrive in time.”
“We were...delayed.” Aria apologised, taking another step forward despite an anxious grunt from Chwuq.
“Yes, so I was aware. I can feel their mark on you already.”
“Mark?” she echoed. Roan had said the same thing about the True Sith after picking up the duo from Manaan nearly a year ago. “What mark?”
“Powerful beings, or beings strong in negative emotions that draw heavily on the dark side, leave a Force signature, an imprint, behind on everything that they come into contact with. Rock, tree, animal, person.”
“The creatures we encountered can use the Force?” Aria frowned in confusion. “But we couldn't feel anything...we didn't even know they were there until they jumped out at us.”
“Perhaps some of them can, we're not sure.” Renso answered. “Most of them don't. But they don't have to be Force sensitive to leave echoes in the Force. The same way that it shifts when things die, so it can change when you come into contact with strong presences. And they have grown very strong in the years that they spent festering their hate.” the old Master sighed, shaking his head slowly. “Yes, there is much hate in them…”
“Why?” Aria asked carefully.
Renso was silent.

Exactly one of the questions Yerbol had wanted to ask himself. Why were these blue creatures so intent on eviscerating them on the spot? How were they automatically tied to the Sith in their minds? And how on all that was holy and true in the galaxy could they just break out of a wall without prior notice? Thankfully Renso's frail, rail-like frame was standing tall and not near as wobbly as just a few seconds ago, which he hoped would mean answers that were longer than a few fragmented sentences.
"They are products of my own egotistical approach." Renso spat out angrily, his voice condemning and harsh.
"The 'Xiis', they call themselves. Botched attempts at trying to cull out genetic weaknesses in a race that desperately needed it." He shook his head.
"But why speak when I can show you?" He motioned for them to sit, following his own gesture by planting himself in the center of the chamber, legs folded. After the duo took their positions, he closed his eyes, a soft, deep humming coming from his throat for a few moments. And then...

Then they were standing in a verdant grove, lush trees and foliage serving as the surroundings to blue humanoids, their eyes tired, muscles weak. Across from the humanoids was a hardy Renso, yellow eyes blazing with determination, waves of black hair emanating from his scalp down to his shoulders. Flanking him were two men, human in form and appearance.
"Keep at it!" The humanoids limped towards them, saber hilts lazily wafting into their hands as they shuffled forward.
"They're not going to survive another thrashing..." One of the men commented, his hands tensing into fists.
"They have to! They must if they are to overcome their weaknesses!"
"Renso, this is-"
"Enough! We MUST test them!" When the humanoids were within a few feet, their sabers were raised for just a flicker of a second before Renso and the two humans delivered a series of swift, methodical strikes that were loosely parried, but in the end the humanoids laid still on the ground, chests barely moving, eyes closed in welcome respite from the trials they had endured.
"No, no, not good enough."
"Crusading to save them isn't a good use of your time. We knew they were weak; why allow them to suffer any longer? Leave them be, Renso."
"And miss our chance to have their potential for good fully realized? No! We carry on with the trials, we weed out the ones who can't survive and then begin to breed."
"The way you speak of them..." One of the men's faces contorted in disgust.
"They're like animals to you, aren't they? Any speck of sentient, thoughtful life that they might have possessed gets replaced in your mind by what? Scientific curiosity masked as a noble race against the ravaging plague of genocide?!" The man turned away from Renso before adding:
"We won't support you any longer. This is madness. The Council will ensure these experiments don't carry on further."
"SHORT-SIGHTED MORONS!" Renso helped one of the humanoids to her feet, looking her over carefully.
"This ONE Xiis has more good in her bones than the lot of you combined! I WILL prove this to you, no matter what the cost!"

Suddenly they were in a darkened chamber lined with cylindrical tubes, each containing some kind of viscous fluid that occasionally jostled by the breathing patterns of the occupants, which were more of the humanoids, except their bodies were strong, laced with toned and thick musculature. From their right, a worn Renso emerged, taking a worried look back from where he came, then down to his hand, dripping with blood and viscera. Horrific screams trailed in from where Renso had come, followed by a handful of blaster wielding, armored humans, panting.
"There are too many of them! Squads Echo and Omega are taken out!" Renso grimaced, brushing the gore on his left leg before grabbing his saber hilt with both hands.
"Leave them to me. There's a passage behind us that will lead out to the hangar. Go now."
"Master Renso, we-"
"That was NOT an invitation for discussion." Cackling. Sickening. Chilling. Renso stepped backwards a few feet, readying himself for the oncoming battle. A moment later, screams of command:
"SLAUGHTER HIM! SMEAR HIS BLOOD ON THE WALLS! CONSUME HIS HEART!"

Their forms laid on the ground, blood soaking the stone chamber. Renso stood gasping for breath, various wounds covering his now almost naked body, clothes that he had once worn torn to smithereens. He looked at the tubes, their occupants and nodded.
"It is for the best." He wheezed out, walking to a control panel embedded at the other end of the chamber and slammed a protruding button, the already dim lighting shutting off, leaving nothing but blackness.

When they finally returned from their visionary trip, Yerbol's stomach felt like it had been turned inside out, nearly falling over if he hadn't straightened his spine and closed his eyes, recentering his focus. Those visions, while out of context, told the whole story. Nothing else needed to be said. The self-righteous pity Renso had on creatures from another world, his quest to cull their best genetic dispositions to further the explosive potential these being had with the Force, his relentless tests despite other members of the Council furiously rejecting his attempts, the corruption of those "Xiis" who refused to bow to Renso's Sith philosophies and desired power over their self-proclaimed savior, the vicious rebellion that led to hundreds dying, the stasis pods that left the last of the Xiis in hibernation, their reawakening...it all made sense.

"You see now?" Yerbol could only nod.
"The Xiis, just like Bracknell, was a product of my ego. I thought I could better the galaxy through the Xiis and I didn't learn my lesson very well. Bracknell's communion with me proved this." He stood up.
"The chaos I caused, the lives that were snuffed out due to my own short-sightedness, the imbalances that were so blatantly prompted my actions...my self-actualization cost much. And for this I will never forgive myself. I will not permit myself to be one with the Force, but I can give you two the skills and the teaching necessary to ensure that others will find the peace I cannot."
"You can...control that? Being one with the Force?" A knowing, sad smirk formed on the old Master's face.
"I've used the Force to sustain my life energy for thousands of years, an ancient meditative technique known only to a small few. Exploiting the Force as I have leads to consequences, one of which...well, there will be much more to explain later."
"So you want to teach us all you know?"
"As much as I can in the period of time I have left. I've expended almost all of my energy and my time draws to a close. You two can help rebuild what I have torn down, using the teachings of the Sith as a foundation for true peace across the galaxy."
"Why not talk to the Council now? You know they're more powerful than we are."
"But they do not have the blood flowing through your veins, the raw power that the both of you carry simply due to your heritage. You are True Sith. Embrace that." Yerbol looked to Aria with hesitance.
"What do you think?"

Renso stood again and beckoned them to the center of the room, the duo taking up positions as Chwuq muscled her way to lie down between them. Aria could feel the tomb beast’s muscles quivering in her flanks with each minute growl or grunt she emitted, her crimson gaze not leaving Renso as the Sith Master exhaled softly and shut his eyes. Aria and Yerbol did the same, slowing their breathing rates and allowing the bond that existed between them to open up fully.

The images Renso showed them were horrifying enough to make Aria break out in a cold sweat, her dark eyes flying open at around the same time that the two men both surfaced from the visions themselves. She could feel Yerbol’s gut churning almost as if it were her own and was silently grateful that she had a strong stomach due to growing up on Korriban.
“You...you experimented on them.” Aria pointed out, trying to keep the skepticism out of her tone so as not to anger the ancient Sith. “...you could hardly expect them NOT to get angry as Force about it…” though to go down the full route of mass genocide as Bracknell had attempted before...that of course, was overkill. Renso made no initial acknowledgement of her comment, and instead began to explain why he had called them all the way out here to Wild Space again, imploring them to allow him to tutor them so that they could pass on the teachings to others in known space.
She could feel his guilt, his desperation to repair the mistakes he had made before his time ran out, which Renso was painfully (literally) aware was drawing closer with each passing day, his contempt at himself for not being able to see past his own youthful ignorance to prevent all of this from occurring…

Aria and Yerbol were his LAST chance to put things right before he had no physical grasp on the world any longer. As her partner looked towards her and asked her opinion, she let out a sigh of her own:
“...We have to help him.” shaking her head, Aria added. “It’s not like we’d be going against our beliefs or what we learnt working together to stop Bracknell, so why not?”
___________________

Renso’s teaching methods were...intensive, his urgency came across in the way he barked instruction at them every time they made a mistake or did not grasp a concept as quickly as he had hoped they would. Despite being in such close proximity to the Sith, which meant that their connection to him through the Force bond should have felt stronger than before, the link seemed to grow weaker with each passing day. It didn’t take them long to figure out why. He was dying. Somehow, that spurred them on to work even harder to try and soak up every bit of knowledge the Sith alien could offer them. They HAD to. They would be the only ones left in the galaxy, once he was gone, that would remember it…

Their lightsaber skills he polished even further, correcting errors in their footwork and berating them for sloppiness of form:
“Are you trying to get your own hand sliced off? Put your grip backwards like that again and I’ll start zapping your wrists with lightning until I’ve trained you out of it!” he had scolded Aria, who thought he was simply over-exaggerating, and paid the warning no mind until she had in fact received a sharp shock to both wrists during the next morning’s scheduled work through of lightsaber techniques.
When she glared at him and made a vehement protest to the treatment (which was somewhat backed up by a flustered Yerbol), Renso simply grinned back at them and proclaimed:
“I warned you.”
In retort, Aria vehemently protested that Roan had used a very similar grip and never come up short before (until the duel with Bracknell, of course…).
“Well, your father’s not here now, is he? Not even Shien Masters use the reverse grip anymore because is IS flawed. I’m trying to teach you a lesson, you’d do well to stop being stubborn and follow it.” she had sighed and let him off for the snide comment because he was getting frail and he was doing his best to teach them as patiently as he could.

Their Force combat skills he expanded upon vastly. Though they had received quite extensive training from Roan and Voldon in particular during their short training sessions on Zinuthra, even those techniques were nothing compared to the vast trove of knowledge that Renso had to impart to them. Not only did he tutor them in ways to sharpen their current skills: such as properly directing her previously uncontrolled Force screams to make them even MORE effective (Force help anybody who ever tried to win an argument with either of them by the end of it!), how to channel the flows of the Force even better to give them even MORE speed or strength, better ways to work together as a team to do various things including remaining unseen if they so wished, or how to stretch their senses out further and to be aware of the life forms moving around them even if they were further away (to hopefully avoid any more Xiis ambushing them again!); but Renso also imparted NEW techniques to them that were so old and long-forgotten that no other Master alive would have any inkling of them. To Yerbol he taught techniques even Aria admitted she didn’t fully comprehend, something to do with severing or lessening a being’s connection to the Force, something like simulating the effect that strong sedative drugs had on a person, and sharpened the barrier ability he had already picked up which they had used to defeat Bracknell. To Aria, he taught the ability to use her powerful emotions to fuel her fighting strategies, to allow determination and passion to fuel her when her own stamina seemed to be failing or her muscles ached so much she doubted they could move another inch. She had attempted such techniques before under Roan and Cheriss’ urging but had found the process altogether unachievable, but with Renso’s methods….this could become something she could use.

On the fourth day, Chwuq had coaxed Taral off the ship and persuaded him to join them once again, the two Tuk’ata watching the training sessions with quiet curiosity from the sidelines until they became bored and leapt between teacher and student to break the intense concentration and initiate some form of play (which usually involved snatching Renso’s lightsaber and running off with it...they seemed to delight in testing their boundaries with the Sith alien). Renso had at first been quite annoyed with the whole display but after a further forty eight hours had passed he was more interested in studying them at closer quarters. The Tuk’ata had been hesitant to approach the powerful being, their ability to sense his strength in the Force warning them that he was even more powerful than Roan had been, and for that reason something to be feared.
“They’re the last of their kind, too.” Aria murmured one evening when Renso had enquired what the dogs were. “Beasts that prowled the tombs on Korriban, my father said they must have been there when your people still populated the planet. They were with him when the planet blew up, so they survived.” she shrugged. “We haven’t found any others…”
Renso smiled indulgently as he watched Taral snuffling at a knot of fur between Chwuq’s shoulderblades.
“Well, perhaps there may still be more Tuk’ata in the galaxy yet.” She hadn’t grasped what he was implying at first, the realization only dawning on her after the next days’ training session.
Aria had attempted to encourage Chwuq and Taral closer by suggesting that she and Yerbol sit on either side of Renso during mealtimes, though the two dogs would eye any food offerings held out towards them by any of the trio with wary mistrust before slinking off to hunt for their own food. At the end of the first week, they had returned carrying specimens of the strange blue-feathered birds Aria and Yerbol had seen on Zinuthra before. As had become habit, Taral had nudged the dead bird with the end of his muzzle and looked in their direction, only wolfing it down after Aria and Yerbol both insisted that they had eaten more than enough of their own meal already. Chwuq, however, had dropped her kill directly in Renso’s lap and sunk down to lie at the Sith Master’s feet, ears perked upwards as she stared intently at him until Renso had cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Stifling laughter, Aria sniggered:
“...She’s going to be VERY upset if you don’t eat that. You should feel honoured, Master, they don’t hunt for people outside their pack.”
_________________

The final lessons Renso taught the duo were to understand the philosophies he had sharpened in his years of seclusion and teaching others like Bracknell and Soto. Even though they had already begun to put them into practise by working as a team despite their initial differences, there was much that they had to work to further understand. Most importantly, he stressed a focus on the FORCE itself rather than trying to segregate it into teachings of “Light” and “Dark”. So he would tell them:
“The Force must be perfectly balanced or it could not exist. That is why there IS a Light and a Dark, because without one the other would have no meaning and no purpose. The codes of honour that your former Orders followed were twisted representations of it’s true nature at best. Because both vehemently denied the existence of the other. What I want you to make sure, when I am gone, is that the others you teach understand this concept of balance that you have learned from me.”
They were able to comprehend what he was saying only because they had both chosen to cast aside their differences at the moment their Force bond had formed on Quensu and to acknowledge that differing opinions didn’t have to be viewed as WRONG just because they were different. Renso kept stressing the importance of the Force, to let it guide one’s actions and to use it in a way that was natural and almost primal, without fearing of straying too far along one part of its spectrum. “Any part of the Force can be a tool to aid you when you know how to use it. You have begun to understand this and now you must teach it to others.” he urged the duo.
Ensuring they could pass that knowledge on would be much more difficult; trying to construct some kind of mantra that acknowledged both approaches without being too confusing seemed impossible to Aria, though Renso had implored patience and insisted that they meditate on the matter and the answer would come to them. In the end, it turned out that they had simply been focusing TOO much on keeping the written expression of the philosophy exactly the same as the previous codes had been, and not enough on presenting it in a way that would echo the simplicity of what they hoped to teach:

The Force is all things, and I am the Force.

The phrase had come to the pair suddenly in the middle of a meditation session, they hadn’t been able to explain how they had both thought of it in unison but had agreed that it clicked and would serve the purpose. Neither Aria nor Yerbol could confirm whether Renso had had anything to do with the phrase’s appearance and if they asked the Sith would simply smile indulgently and reply in some cryptic phrase that insisted he “would do no such thing”.

Train. Eat. Settle Chwuq and Taral down. Sleep. Train some more. It became a continuous cycle that went on for fourteen days, Renso seeming more frail each time they rose from a short period of rest to return to their training. The days blurred into one another until it became hard to distinguish where one started and the other began. They became so focused on their learning that they almost didn’t notice their tutor’s fatigue, until on the last day he became so weak he could hardly rise from his meditation to speak with them again….

Yerbol had thought that his Masters at the Academy put him through the proverbial wringer until their first day of training with Renso. He warned them, of course, before they had begun early that morning. Training would be rigorous, intensive, like nothing else you two had ever experienced. Acknowledging what Renso said was extremely different than actually experiencing the conditioning runs he had them doing, sprinting through the pitch black tombs with nothing but their senses to guide every footfall, every subtle stride that avoided a fallen skeleton or skittering creature that called this morbid monument their home. Every fall was punctuated with a correction of mechanics("Feet need to be striding in FRONT, not the side!" "Focus on the environmental cues! Everything is obvious if you use that brain of yours!"), the falls not limited to just their physical conditioning runs; they were also instructed in saber techniques and Force abilities that gave them both new ways to tackle the "growing darkness" that Renso continually mentioned in their training. The first couple of days were aggravating due to Renso's constant correction on Yerbol's form, which the latter thought was serving him just fine thank you very much, but Renso was awfully good at convincing the both of them to listen. Unfortunately for Ari that meant lightning shocks, to which Yerbol protested vehemently. Those protests, however, were quickly silenced when a few moments after the punishment Aria swept through the air, slicing through the manufactured targets that Renso conjured(they were in the form of obsidian colored spheres that dissipated when struck) with a kind of fluid aggressiveness that Renso had been preaching to her. His partner was growing more powerful by the day and so was he. His defensive forms were sharpened by Renso, refined to cover glaring weaknesses that he would have never noticed until Renso pointed them out by striking him with gusts of Force energy that almost made his lungs shrivel into nothingness. Their combat and physical training culminated every day in application, Renso pitting them against Force projections of faceless forms armed with quarterstaffs that HURT when they connected. After the first week of fighting those, Renso pitted the duo against each other in a sparring match that he said was necessary due to their "opposing styles. It would be good for the both of you to know how to effectively deal with foes that are diametrically opposite from yours." It was odd to have Aria opposing him, even if they were just sparring, but her competitiveness and their mutual desire to refine their skills helped him set aside his reluctance.
"Not made of glass, right, honey?" Yerbol said teasingly when they began, their sparring matches proving that his partner was indeed a ferocious combatant even against her lover(he KNEW she was skilled, but having her knock him to the ground with a leg sweep followed by a ferocious leg scissors reinforced the idea).

Combat was paired with the teachings of the Sith, which was a breath of fresh air for the Champion, hanging to the words of Renso for dear life. The philosophy of Balance, of harmonizing the Force and maintaining control while knowing when to unleash it's full power was everything Yerbol had craved to hear on Tython. Before falling asleep on their ship with Ari nestled against him, he would pore over the few texts Renso had preserved from Quensu, attempting to absorb all the information presented. They were to be teachers, after all, arbiters of a new era that would hopefully establish the kind of unifying harmony that was only a pipedream just a few months before. It was thrilling, but sobering as well; Renso made sure to remind them that the Xiis were out there, hungering for the power that they believed Renso stole from them through his zealous idealism. It was on the fourteenth day that the Xiis became his sole focus, barely able to rise from his meditation when the duo walked in the chamber when he breathed out:
"They are growing in number."
"The Xiis?" They came close to him, helping him straighten up as he nodded.
"I could feel those who awoke leave this part of the galaxy. They were silent, but just now...now there are more." He walked shakily to the exit of the chamber.
"They will stop at nothing to devour the galaxy." He motioned for them to follow, hanging a right at the exit of the chamber and descending further into the tombs, a path familiar now to the duo.
"Chaos is their primary focus, to destabilize. With your government already in a fragile state, they will take advantage of this." Sighing as he continued:
"Their very presence constitutes a threat to the existence of the Force. You must stop them."
"There are only a few left though...with our numbers-"
"It's not about the strength of your forces, Yerbol!" The Master snapped knowingly as they curved left, heading slightly upward, the air hanging damp and heavy.
"Has anything sunk in that I taught you? Strength of number is less important than strength of will. These creatures will outlast any large contingent of forces by their tenacity and power. Throwing wave after wave of soldiers against them will do nothing but feed their bloodlust, which will only make them grow stronger." The path was now illuminated with flickering blue flames emanating from scones on both sides of the hallway, which abruptly ended a few feet later with nothing but a square pedestal.
"This will be my last gift to you both." He curtly observed as the pedestal sunk into the floor, gently clicking in place. The once solid wall facing them opened up in two spots at shoulder height, serving as hiding places for two very special objects.
"Two halves of this crystal, when embedded in separate lightsabers, create an electric field around the blade. Focus hard enough and you can project bolts of lightning every time you swing. Careful not to injure friendly parties, though." He finished with a smirk, handing Aria the two glowing halves before retrieving a silver hilt embossed with navy blue circles across the surface.
"Your strength and power is too blunted by a single saber. This double bladed saber will serve you well in the times to come." Yerbol took the heavier hilt with caution, examining the etched grooves right as Renso collapsed to both knees, jaw slack. He pushed the duo away when they tried to help, admonishing them:
"Finally...pea...c..e.." He groaned, hands on the ground.
"Th...e..f...o..c...e..balanc..." His weakened body collapsed to the cold tomb floor.

____

"YUN!" Her neck craned towards her brothers, their arms laden with the bodies of those in front of the ruined temple. She cackled gleefully, bounding towards their kills, grazing her fingers over the flesh with eager anticipation.
"Sleep has only made us stronger, has it not?!" She jubilantly proclaimed, eyes cast towards the entrance, moving to the high ceilings, memories flooding her mind. The torturous needles, the countless beatings, the indoctrination that this place stood for...she swore they would pay; and although the last of their kind is gone in this strange new world, there was still opposition. Blood sport. Bodies to eviscerate, humans to feed on, a government to topple. They would re-establish their dominance, starting with this decrepit excuse of a world. Such cowardice! Shuddering in alleyways, shooting each other with blasters from afar, pathetic groups attempting to impose themselves on even weaker parties.

Yes. This would be the perfect starting point.

"Dispose of these?" One brother asked, sharpened teeth chattering.
"For now, let them be a warning." She ran a hand down his muscular chest, tongue running over her lips.
"The fat slugs above need tending to."
"Slugs!" Another repeated.
"Patience, brother." Her hands ran over the form in front of her, tracing down his lower back. He would do as her first in a LONG time.
"We will strike when our sisters have returned with favorable news."
"When?"
"Soon. Very soon."