Chapter Text
Cere motioned toward the vault.
“Enter that vault and return. If you can do that, I’ll explain more of my plan. But in the meantime, there’s someone out here I think you should meet.”
She gave him a wry smile, turning toward the Mantis again.
“May the Force be with you.”
He continued to stare at the setting sun, listening to Cere’s footsteps tap up the ship’s ramp.
“Am I looking for a Jedi, then?” he muttered to himself. “Why does she need me to open the vault?”
He gave a quick glance over his shoulder. Cere was already inside the ship. A sigh pulled itself from his throat.
Seems I can’t avoid hunting Jedi, after all .
He knelt to the ground, running a trained eye over the mud as he searched for tracks. Pinching a bit of earth between gloved fingertips, he shut his eyes and reached out to the planet’s Force energy. Noises and whispers immediately overtook his mind.
Echoes, he reminded himself. By extending his senses he could feel the pulse of life beneath his hands and the unraveling tendrils of the Force as they bloomed throughout the plants and animals around him. There were definitely footprints and human signatures here, but they were years—if not decades—old. Yet there were tiny tracks — of a kind that felt foreign among the Bogano flora and fauna — that caught his interest. They rippled in a strange way in the natural Force flow - like the runoff from muddy boots being pulled along by a stream. It was the first clue to who this mysterious person was. He was sure of it.
Standing from the ground once more, he set off in the direction of the invisible Force tracks.
As he worked his way down a sloping hill, he found himself pausing to take in the landscape. Sure, most of it was green and beige, but it was a welcome change from the sterilized black and white halls of the Inquisitors. Everything teemed with life, and seemed to emit a haze of color that was beyond the spectrum of his vision.
This wonder was short-lived, however. Out of the corner of his eye he registered shuffling in the reeds. The lightsaber was in his hand before he could even think, and he barely even registered his habitual combat stance as he stared down the offending grass clump. Of course he couldn’t relax. This place was foreign to him, and he was on a mission for a former Jedi. For all he knew, this whole plan could be a setup. A chance to abandon him on a dangerous planet so they didn’t have to deal with him anymore.
He shot a glance in the direction of the Mantis , but it was still perched on its landing place. Unwilling to fully breathe a sigh of relief, he turned back to the bushes and was met with a trill of synthetic beeps. He whipped the blade in the sound’s direction.
The blocky little droid that now found itself at the end of his saber hopped backwards on its two legs, avoiding the boiling blue plasma. It looked up at him, cocking its head as its telescoping sensors settled on his face. A series of angry chirps let him know the droid was none too happy about having a weapon pointed at it. He lowered the blade, holstering it at his hip again. The droid whistled its thanks.
Crouching down in front of it, he could feel the Force gather around its small body. As far as he could tell, this was the source of the strange “pollution” he’d felt in the planet’s signature. It seemed to be a standard BD-model droid, likely manufactured around the time he’d been a Youngling. Often called Buddy Droids for their abilities to compact and ride along with their owners, they were made up of a boxy white head, small connecting body, and two legs. This one was striped with painted red accents, but otherwise seemed fairly average.
“What are you doing out here?” He wondered aloud.
The droid shot back a chirping response that roughly translated to [Darksider. I could ask you the same thing.]
Cal sighed, settling back onto his heels.
“I’m Cal. Kestis. I’m looking for someone. Can you help me?” He held out a hand awkwardly. The droid dipped its head, scanning his hand, then rebalanced its gyros and tapped his gloved palm in a pseudo-handshake.
[ BD-1 ], it trilled happily. [ I can help you. ]
“BD-1 . . .” Cal murmured. “I must be looking for your master. Can you take me to them?”
BD-1 cocked its head again. Its motions were birdlike - in many ways the droid seemed like just another curious animal wandering the planet’s surface.
[ They’re right here, ] BD-1 announced, activating its holo-projector. The faint whirring of servos hummed as a holo-map sprung to life in front of the droid. Parts of it appeared incomplete or distorted, but it looked like a map of the area. Bits of it were highlighted in different colors, marking dead ends or broken machinery, but nothing really stood out to him as important.
“What am I looking at here, BD?” Cal asked.
[ A map .]
He felt a bit of irritation rise at the abrupt response.
“There’s no need for the attitude,” he spat. “I meant how is this going to help me? Most of this map is missing.”
BD-1 paused for a moment, processing. It flicked its projector off and on again, as if surprised the map wasn’t complete. It gave a chirp that Cal interpreted as the droid equivalent of a shrug.
[ Puzzle. Figure it out together. ]
Cal sighed heavily. Even if it didn’t know what it was doing, a utility droid wouldn’t hurt to have around.
“Fine. I guess that map is more helpful than nothing.” He turned his back toward the droid.
“Hop on.”
The droid’s antennae stood straight up in excitement, and it bounded up onto his back, hooking onto the back of his plastoid chest piece.
With trills and clicks the droid directed him toward a nearby cable at the edge of one of the chasms.
[ Jedi. The workshop. ]
From the droid’s directions, he could see a cable -- probably the remains of a transport system -- dropping down across a wide chasm to a man-made hole in the wall. Rusty crates littered the ground around it, and equally rusty pipes snaked out of the cavern like some tentacled creature.
“I can’t get down there,” Cal protested. In response, the droid threw him what he figured was a sarcastic comment and hopped up onto the cable.
[ Darksider -- I will help. ]
He gave the droid a doubtful stare.
“A zipline? Can you even hold my weight?”
BD-1 trilled and he sighed.
“Fine.”
Lifting up his hands to the droid, he grasped its body tightly. Butterflies filled his throat uncomfortably as the cable dipped over the massive chasm. Luckily they weren’t in freefall for long, and sparks flew from the droid’s metal feet as they skidded to a stop at the other end. He staggered, catching himself on the ground, and felt the droid reattach itself to his back. Its trills sounded relieved.
“You didn’t know that would work, did you?” he said. BD clicked angrily at the accusation. He rolled his eyes, turning toward the cavern.
It really did look like a workshop. Crates and semi-functional machines were crammed everywhere, and chalk etchings lined the walls. He could even see a worktable just around the corner in a cavern offshoot, the walls above it plastered with papers and racks of tools. Everything seemed covered in a layer of rust and grime, as if it had been abandoned years ago. Even the floor appeared more mud than metal plating or carved stone.
“There’s no Jedi here,” he muttered, stepping out onto the mud patch.
A mistake, he soon realized. The ground roiled under his boots, breaking open to free two hideous creatures that stood nearly to his height. Their white hide was lumpy and segmented, like some unholy maggot, and their maws stretched wide with rows upon rows of spiked teeth. They swayed threateningly, giving him just a moment to acknowledge their presence before they lunged directly for his throat. He managed to block one with his arm, freeing his other hand to make a grab for his lightsaber. The second creature swiped at him with hooked claws, catching him across the leg. He roared in pain, leg buckling under the weight of the creature he was holding off. Rage boiled in his throat, and he thrust the lightsaber into the creature’s body, tearing it in two. The second quickly earned the same fate as its partner, falling to the ground in pieces.
Fire burned behind his eyes, like it had on the train, and he squinted angrily as his vision blurred. At the same time, the lightsaber hilt hummed in his hand, protesting at the strange black blood that had splattered across its shining metal.
Murderer. Desecrator. Sith.
SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP he shot back. This was not the time for his unwanted conscience to undermine him. Not the time indeed, for another maggot was rising from the mud. Cal barely registered it through his rage, seeing simply another cause of pain to eliminate. But his rampage ground to a halt almost immediately as his injured leg buckled beneath him, sending him crumpling to the ground. The shock of pain cleared his vision fully as an agonized screech tore itself from his lungs.
At least he’d landed on stone, which was much easier to recover footing on. But the creature had locked onto his movements, and now loomed over him at an awkward angle. Jabbing with his lightsaber was more likely to cause injury to himself than the monster.
Then a red and white blur lept in front of his eyes. BD had attached itself to the maggot creature, jabbing at the singular orange eye with its little feet. The monster gave an unearthly squeal and swiped at BD with its claws, catching the little droid and sending it flying across the workshop. But the distraction had given Cal just enough time to regain his footing, and he drove his lightsaber through the maggot with a loud war cry, splitting it in two from chest to head.
His breath was fast and heavy, his once-perfect black armor splattered with flecks of entrails and bits of swampy mud, but even so he felt a grin stealing across his face as he looked over the smoking carcasses of the defeated creatures. He had forgotten how exhilarating battle could be. It wasn’t an intelligent battle by any stretch, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins was proof enough that the spirit of the fight still lived in every cell of his body.
Cal’s gloating thoughts were interrupted by the pained trills and beeps of BD-1. He scanned the room, finally catching sight of the little droid as it limped toward him. One leg sparked and crackled, the metal foot half-disconnected from its socket. BD was trying its best to keep the sparks away from the standing puddles on the ground as much as possible, but it was slow going. Cal sighed and holstered the lightsaber.
“Come here,” he grumbled, scooping the droid into his arms and limping slowly toward the workbench. Once on the table, BD-1 slumped like a small child, legs out in front of itself as it stared at the still-sparking foot. Cal lifted the leg with a finger, inspecting it.
“Scomp link is busted, but I can definitely snap this back in place for you.” He pulled back a bit and stared hard into the droid’s optical sensors. BD stared back.
“What were you doing jumping in like that? I can handle myself.”
[ Sure, ] BD retorted. He could practically feel the sass, but rolled his eyes and pulled a miniature welding gun off the wall. After flicking the ignition a few times to ensure that the years of disuse hadn’t degraded it, he set to work on the leg.
“You’re the only connection I have to finding the Jedi on this planet,” he reasoned aloud, heating the metal around the joint so he could realign the balancing mechanisms. “Can’t have you breaking down on me.”
In just a few minutes he had managed to get the mechanical joints back in place, reconnecting a few sliced wires as he did so. Finally he pulled back, letting the droid stand up. BD contorted into a ball and pushed itself upright, hopping back and forth to test the leg.
“Not perfect, but it should hold for a while,” Cal said, leaning against the worktable. He winced as the sliced fabric of his uniform brushed against the open gashes in his own leg. It hurt like mad. The murky water and the creature’s claws had been a bad combination. Hopefully it wouldn’t get infected.
“Too bad you can’t fix humans as easily as droids,” he joked, eyeing BD with light amusement. The droid tipped its head at him, flicking its antennae almost quizzically.
With a series of beeps and trills, a panel slid out of the side of its head, tossing something in Cal’s direction. He caught it instinctively, feeling a cold cylinder through the leather of his gloves. Opening his palm, he was greeted with the glowing green ambience of an emergency bacta stim. It wasn’t quite the same as an instant fix, but it was pretty much the next best thing.
“A medical stim? You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you.”
BD-1 trilled the droid version of a laugh. Cal weighed the stim in his hand, then gritted his teeth and stabbed it into the skin next to his gashes. Immediately the area was flooded with a chill, and the pain began to recede. Cal breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over to BD-1, who was now scanning the pages of notes hanging on the wall. Several had sketches of the vault on them, with barely-legible notes on the structure and its origins.
“That’s where I’m supposed to go,” he said, pointing to one such sketch. “You’re a handy little droid -- think you can get me into it?”
BD traded hops between its legs, chirping in the affirmative.
“Alright. Let’s get to it.”
----
After finding a way through the workshop and back to ground level, the two set off in the direction of the vault. But even with BD’s visual scans and attempts at guidance, it was slow going. The planet was a maze. Over every rise was a steep drop, hundreds of feet wide with no connection to the cliffs on the opposite side. He often had to travel down and around the rocks to even begin working his way higher and forward. What technology and bridges were left on the forsaken landscape were rusted and mostly inactive — or only active from the opposite side. The vault seemed further and further away.
To make matters worse, every patch of mud offered an opportunity for one of the large maggot-like monsters to burst out of the ground and make a lunge for him. It was infuriating. And the sun had set, leaving him in cold darkness as he struggled to navigate the confusing terrain.
BD did its best to light the path with its scanners, but even that wasn’t able to pierce the inky darkness enough to see well.
The stars were fully visible against the night sky as they approached to a long, thin chasm sandwiched between striated cliff faces. Cal couldn’t see the bottom of the gap, but on the other side a hill rose unbroken up to the base of the vault. He was within reach of his goal.
“Finally,” he muttered. BD gave a triumphant chirp.
He took a breath and examined the gap. It was definitely crossable -- at least for a Force-user. A few steps backward gave him enough of a running start to launch himself toward one of the rock faces, and he wrangled the Force into submission around his body as he touched against the wall and pushed toward the other side.
But the Force pulled away from him as he flew, and he felt its push weaken and fade, then drag downward. He was left stranded in the air only halfway to his goal, and wind filled his ears as he began to plummet into the foreboding fog below. BD-1 was detached by the strong wind, and he watched as it used its minuscule boosters to reach a tiny outcropping in the sheer wall.
I will not end my days on this awful planet , he thought angrily, struggling to control his fall.
He shot out a hand, snagging a sharp outcropping to stop his fall, but the ever-waterlogged white stone crumbled under his grip, sending him deeper into the fog.
Cal hit the ground hard, and for once was glad of the boggy planet’s ever-present mud for its soft padding. He groaned as water seeped between his armor plates. No doubt he’d be shivering later in his soaked uniform.
With a grunt he pulled himself upright and dusted some reed pollen from his black pants. Examining the space, he could see steep vertical walls all around, enclosing him in a smooth stone cylinder about 40 feet across. He ran a gloved hand over the stone, worn smooth by water. No purchase at all to climb out. He scanned the cylinder for any sort of pockmark or hollow he could get to, but there was nothing. Just a blank white wall. And above him, an opaque wall of cloud that blocked his view of the sky.
Cal felt a growl growing in his throat and kicked at the wall angrily. His toe stung from the impact, and he gritted his teeth as he leaned heavily against the wall.
“Why?!” He cried out, knowing there wouldn’t be an answer to the echoing call. It seemed even the little droid had abandoned him.
Think, Cal. Think. There has to be a way out.
Slowly he slid onto his knees, feeling cold seep into them from the damp ground. He hadn’t truly mediated in ages, but perhaps it would reveal a way to escape his predicament. Breathing deeply, he fought to calm his mind. Thoughts swirled furiously, driven by his anger at the situation, but he wrangled them back into submission. Once he was sure the roiling thoughts were silenced, he opened his mind, allowing the energy of the planet to flow in.
It came like a rushing river, battering against his anger and the shards of his Inquisitor training like rapids against the rocks. Pain shot through his skull as he fought to resist. It was too much. Too much--
But the planet’s energy was unfeeling, and dragged him under its flow. He could feel his body gasping for air, but in seconds everything darkened to void. Slowly he began to feel the darkness pulse with life. Insects moved along the ground, plants crept slowly out of the earth . . .
. . .but he was not there. Before him was an empty black plane, which slowly began to fill with the sharp corners and hard angles of a Republic cruiser. A ship he knew well.
Out of a newly-constructed side passageway stepped a red-haired Jedi who paused, back turned to him.
“YOU.” Third Brother hissed under his breath. The Jedi from his dreams. He ignited the lightsaber at his waist, illuminating the hall with red light. For a moment the color seemed wrong to his eyes, but he brushed it off. The figure turned slightly, but not enough for him to see the face.
“You’re not getting away from me this time,” Third Brother said, stalking down the hall. But the Jedi spoke, halting his steps.
“You continue to hunt me,” the Jedi said calmly. “Why?”
It took him a moment to answer. The Jedi had never spoken directly to him before.
“You’re a traitor,” Third Brother spat. “Scum of the earth. You deserve to die.”
“Mmmm. And it’s your job to kill me?”
“Don’t mock me. You know what I am. What this lightsaber means.”
The Jedi sighed.
“There is a way out of this -- for you, at least.”
Third Brother clenched the lightsaber hilt tightly, heat rising behind his eyes.
“That’s impossible! I’m trapped here.”
“It may seem impossible,” the Jedi responded, his voice morphing, deepening to one that rang familiar and authoritative in Third Brother’s mind. “But with persistence, and the Force as your ally, you can overcome any obstacle.”
“The Force is the reason I’m in this situation,” he retorted. “It left me.”
Tears welled in his throat, fueled by an emotion he could not name as the sound of blaster fire echoed in his mind.
“It left us. I wasn’t strong enough.”
The Jedi suddenly turned, face obscured in strange light and shadow. They strode toward him with irritated steps. He raised his lightsaber, but with a single motion of the Jedi’s hand the hilt was wrenched from his grasp. Strong hands gripped his shoulders, and the light from the Jedi’s face blinded him.
“You will never be free if you remain like this!”
“I am stronger than you’ll ever be!” Third Brother screamed, struggling to free himself from the Jedi’s unyielding grip. “I am an Inquisitor! The hunter, never the hunted.”
The Jedi’s voice filled with frustration, volume rising.
“I am not your enemy! Now do what you must to reach me!”
As the Jedi stepped back, Third Brother felt an incredible weight replace the Jedi’s hands. It pressed into his shoulders, driving him into the ground with its unrelenting power. It was unbearable, and it seemed to be coming from the Jedi.
The air was thick with tension, and his ears rang from the force holding him down. At any moment he feared the ground would surely crack beneath him, sending him deeper into the floor.
He strained against it, feeling an animal cry push past his lips. The Force gathered around him, and he hooked it beneath the pressure, pushing up and away from himself. But the Jedi was stubborn, and their power wasn’t so easily bypassed. The two of them were locked in a battle of energies. Third Brother felt sweat break out across his forehead as he continued to push back, breathing heavily. But the Jedi did not budge. They didn’t seem at all affected by their massive release of Force energy. Desperate, Third Brother grasped at the Force, his hands contorting into claws under the pressure as he shoved back against the Jedi.
“RRRRRRAAAAAAAUUUGHHH!” He cried, releasing as much of the gathered Force energy as he could. The Jedi was blown backward, and Third Brother’s vision went white as he felt the floor shatter beneath him. He was plummeting into silence, wind whipping past his face—
And suddenly he was on his knees once again in a pit of white stone. Tremors shook the ground, and Cal rose to his feet. Chunks of white stone rained down from above, and he pushed away from the wall, watching from the center of the pit. After a moment more, the commotion of falling rock finally calmed. The ground around him was littered with blocks of white stone, torn from the even layers of the smooth wall around him. As he looked up toward the sky, he could see the walls were pockmarked with rectangular holes, and stubby sheets of stone now jutted out from the once-flawless surface. Glancing down at his hands, he could see the slightest of muscle tremors, and he crushed them in a fist. The Jedi’s distorted voice echoed in his mind.
With persistence, and the Force as your ally, you can overcome any obstacle.
It was almost as if the Jedi stood beside him, breath hot on his ear. His hand fell habitually to the lightsaber hilt at his waist, and he shuddered, scanning the pit. But the Jedi was nowhere to be found. He scanned the wall again, eyes tracing a path towards the top of the pit. It would be difficult, but it was definitely possible with some creative bouldering. That was fine — he could figure this out on his own. He definitely didn’t need the little traitor droid to find the Jedi hiding out on this planet.
But even as he thought this, the clatter of rocks and the synthetic chirping of a droid descended into his prison. With tiny thrusters blazing, BD-1 was slowly making its way down the wall, balancing on the newly-uncovered chunks and divets to conserve energy. As it neared head height, it dropped from the wall, did a little roll, and bounced upright in front of Cal. He stared down at it in disbelief.
“Have you been trying to get down here this whole time?” He asked it. BD-1 trilled happily. He shook his head, mouth agape at its tenacity. The little droid had a death wish, it seemed.
“I think that monster busted your processors,” he told it, walking to the wall. BD-1 flicked its antennae in protest and hopped onto his shoulders again.
[ I know the way up. ] it chirped. [ Guide. ]
BD’s holo-projector flicked on, highlighting several indents and extrusions that comprised a glowing path up the wall.
Guess it wouldn’t hurt to have insurance for this climb, Cal thought to himself. He grabbed onto the first couple highlighted handholds and began to pull himself up.
It wasn’t easy, but BD’s thorough scans of the wall from its descent definitely eased some of the discomfort of the two-hour climb. There were several times he had to make calculated leaps to other areas of the wall, but with a bit of Force boosting and BD’s analysis, they were always within reach. And, once again, Cal found himself grateful for the long hours of training he’d endured in the Inquisitorius program. It had saved his life several times now.
----
After ages of climbing, his arms aching and body fully exhausted, Cal pulled himself over the edge of the pit . . . to find the vault staring him straight in the face. It rose majestically from the ground, backlit by the barest of sunrises peeking over the horizon.
It seems the night is as short as the days here, Cal thought to himself.
And best of all: before him lay an unbroken stretch of grass and mud that ran directly up to the base of the vault. He was finally at his destination. As he stood, BD-1 leaped from his shoulders and skittered up toward the vault, daring him with chirps to race the final stretch.
“Oh you’re on,” he muttered, a smirk creeping over his face. This was his prize, and he was going to be the first to stake his claim on it.
With the rush of a second wind coursing through his muscles, he sprinted up the hill. He slipped on the mud several times, adding to the stains on his uniform, but he didn’t care. He’d made it to his elusive, stationary prize. BD-1 bailed from the race halfway up the hill, latching onto his back once again. He laughed at this, but continued until he stood even with the vault’s entrance.
Soaring walls rose on either side, enclosing a thick pillar-like structure at the center. The ground was mossy and overgrown, the central stone pillar crumbling at the top. Set into this middle pillar was a tall bronze door with rows of round-edged squares cut into it from top to bottom. Everything was traced over with circular designs and curving edges, strangely familiar . . .
In fact, he was fairly certain he’d seen that pillar’s shape before. He slipped the Jedi’s lightsaber from his belt, holding it up so it aligned with the vault door.
His hunch had been correct. The lightsaber’s hilt, activator switch, and the wings of the blade guard mimicked the shape of the vault structure. It wasn’t a perfect match, but it was definitely close enough to intrigue him.
“Huh. Interesting,” he murmured, slipping the lightsaber back onto his belt. Maybe this mission from Cere would bring him closer than anticipated to the answers he sought.
He cracked his neck and stretched a few of the muscles that ached, eyeing the vault door.
“Alright BD,” he told the droid. “Let’s crack this vault.”