by Jude Watson
fire, though the stinger had barely licked him. Anakin flipped his
lightsaber to his other hand, cursing his luck.
The tuk'ata struck, no doubt following up on his advantage. While its
prey was immobilized by the poison, the beast would finish him off. But
Anakin was able to flip backward and strike, this time burying his
lightsaber in the middle of the creature's head. He heard the sizzle and
smelled the smoke. The yellow eyes rolled, and the creature fell dead.
Ry-Gaul and Tru had been outflanked by two tuk'ata. Obi-Wan had his
hands full with one massive beast, bigger and fiercer than the rest. Anakin
leaped on the back of the tuk'ata bearing down on his Master, hoping to
distract it. The beast reared up, both stingers waving, while Anakin did a
quick and elusive dance to avoid their sting.
Obi-Wan advanced, striking the tuk'ata with a series of hard blows.
The creature staggered. Anakin was able to slash at the creature's neck
before he was thrown off. The tuk'ata screamed, rearing, and Anakin and
Obi‑Wan leaped out of its way. It toppled and thrashed and then was still.
They were already moving, turning to charge one of the tuk'ata who was
after Tru. With a roar, it turned on them instead, circling and striking,
trying to get claws and teeth embedded into Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan used his
liquid cable launcher and anchored it on the creature's horn. Using the
cable, he swung up and out, his lightsaber a blur of motion as he attacked
again and again. The creature howled, trying to claw Obi-Wan away. Anakin
was able to deliver the death blow in the chest.
Obi-Wan swung off the creature and landed, his boots thudding on the
dirt. The cries of the tuk'ata mingled with the buzz of lightsabers as the
Jedi met their attacks with moves and counter-moves. The tide of the battle
was turning. Five tuk'ata lay dead, and two were mortally wounded. Anakin
and Obi-Wan were able to team up with Ry-Gaul and Tru first alternately
feinting to confuse the creature, and then slicing it into several pieces.
Soara and Darra, working together in their usual flawless teamwork, had
somehow kept two tuk'ata at bay. Wounded, the two counterattacked, but
Darra and Soara were too fast, too agile, and too strong.
At last all the tuk'ata lay dead or dying, their cries echoing off the
stones of the mountain.
"So much for legends," Anakin said, sheathing his lightsaber.
Now they were able to simply walk through the narrow passage and enter
the valley. But the dark side slammed into them, a body blow. For a moment,
they paused to fight the feeling, pulling in the Force to cushion it.
The mausoleums marched down the valley. Hewed from slabs of the
mountain, polished by slaves, and then battered by the elements over
hundreds of years, they were still enormous, high and wide, with columns
and turrets. Mammoth statues, similar to those in the landing hangar, posed
like guards outside the tombs. On the cliff summits, ancient statues of
horrible creatures perched, appearing ready to strike. It was a valley
designed to strike fear into every heart.
"We'll have to search every tomb," Soara said. "Oh, good," Darra
breathed under her breath. Obi-Wan glanced at Anakin. "You're hurt," he
said, concerned.
"It's nothing."
"This is only the beginning of the battle, Anakin," Obi-Wan warned
sternly. "Let me treat it."
Anakin bared his arm. Quickly, Obi-Wan administered bacta. The burning
sensation lessened somewhat. Anakin felt the coolness of the medicine on
his skin. Gratefully, he shrugged his arm back into his tunic. He thanked
his Master with his gaze.
He heard something - whispering voices, just as he'd heard upon his
arrival. He could see that the others heard them, too. Low, guttural,
insistent. Yet what were they saying? It was impossible to tell. Something
evil. Something he did not wish to hear.
"They are waking," Ry-Gaul said.
"They know we're here," Siri agreed.
The dead Sith Lords, slumbering inside the huge stone mausoleums, had
felt the Jedi presence. The dark energy poured out of the tombs. Anakin
could taste it all, anger and cruelty and pain.
"Let's try the first tomb," Obi-Wan said.
He's not there! Anakin wanted to cry. But he didn't know how he knew
it. He couldn't trust it. It could be the Sith, trying to confuse him.
Frustration coiled inside him. He hated this feeling. He wanted to be
able to trust what he knew. And he wanted to know everything. That would be
true power.
"Stay together," Soara said.
The tomb was massive. Two stone creatures guarded it, teeth bared,
claws in attack position. Now Anakin recognized them as tuk'ata. Obi-Wan
pressed against the stone door, and it groaned as it opened. They walked
inside, keeping close together, their lightsabers held in position, serving
as illumination as well as defense
The tombs ran along the wall, slabs of stone with life-sized carved
stone figures resting on top representing the dead Sith Lords. The whispers
in the air grew louder. Anakin felt them against his skin like little puffs
of foul air.
Trespass don't we power Sith darkness command merciless...
Anakin heard random words, hissed in hate. He called on the Force to
help him turn the words into meaningless static.
The darkness was absolute. The glow of their lightsabers barely
penetrated it. They walked another few steps.
Suddenly, Darra cried out. A human skeleton rose out of the dark
corner and slammed into her, knocking her to the floor. The bones trapped
her like a cage. She tried to slash at them with her lightsaber but
couldn't move her arm.
Soara's lightsaber whipped through the air. In seconds, the bones were
dust. She stepped forward to help Darra.
"Careful - " Obi-Wan began.
It was too late. An energy net fell from the ceiling, trapping Soara
and Darra. At the same time, blasterfire pinged throughout the tomb in a
zigzag fashion. They couldn't tell where it was coming from.
Obi-Wan leaped to protect Soara and Darra. Tru and Ry-Gaul moved
forward, trying to detect the source of the fire. Anakin followed while
Ferus and Siri slashed at the energy net, trying to release them.
From the rear of the tomb, a fireball erupted. It rolled toward them,
fast and deadly.
"We have to get out of here!" Obi-Wan shouted.
Soara began to kick free of the net, grabbing Darra's arm and hauling
her out. The Jedi hurtled toward the door. It was sealed tight.
They were trapped.
CHAPTER TWENTY
There was nowhere to go but up. The heat of the fireball singed them
as they leaped. It hurtled under them and smashed against the door. The
Jedi were able to hang in the air, using the Force, for the crucial seconds
they needed. They watched in astonishment as the fire blasted through the
closed door. Corrosive, annihilating, the fire ate through stone.
The Jedi landed on the still burning ashes and made it outside. The
fire burned itself out until it was just a pile of ash on the floor.
"Are you all right?" Soara asked Darra.
Darra nodded, but she still looked shaky from the electrical pulses in
the stun net.
Obi-Wan knew one thing. They could not search every tomb like this.
They would lose their energy, lose their focus.
He faced the tombs. He reached out, feeling each dark place, sending
his concentration to every corner.
He felt him again. Omega was close now to his goal. Obi-Wan smelled
his triumph.
He turned. "There." He pointed down the row. "Zan Arbor and Omega are
in there. They've gone to meet the Sith."
Singed by the fire, bloodied by the tuk'ata, they moved as one body
toward the tomb Obi-Wan had indicated.
Anakin knew he was there. The Sith was somewhere in the vast tomb. He
was waiting. He was watching. But Omega didn't interest him. The Jedi did.
When they entered, it seemed even darker than the first tomb had been.
The air was close and smelled of decay. The tombs here were in worse shape,
crumbling, some of them decayed so much that they could see the bodies
inside wrapped in shrouds.
Obi-Wan held up his lightsaber. From its glow they could see
pictographs on the walls, images scrawled in red that had faded. Images of
deeds done by the Sith. Wars. Massacres. Anakin turned his face away.
Join us darkness conquer dominance glory..
Anakin saw one of the shrouds rise. The layers of gray, shredding rags
fell away. He gasped in shock. It was his mother, Shmi.
"Annie," she called. "Annie."
"Mother." The word was wrenched out of his belly. How much had he
longed to say that word again, to see her again? It was the Jedi who kept
him from her, the Jedi who had taken him away....
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan's voice was sharp. "It's a vision. Nothing more."
Anakin swallowed. The shroud was back in the crypt. He gazed at the
others, embarrassed. Ferus looked at him with pity. Pity! His hatred for
Ferus flooded him again. He had embarrassed himself in front of Ferus!
The visions came to all of them then. Sith Lords rose and walked
toward them, their mouths gaping, their hands grasping, and then
disintegrated onto them with foul smells and tastes. The Jedi walked on,
through the corpse visions, through the whispers, through the taunts.
You are blind and you are fools and you understand nothing....
The dark side of the Force was like a thick curtain Anakin couldn't
draw aside. It got in his mouth and eyes and felt as though it could slow
his hands, stop his legs. Still, he kept on walking, kept on moving. There
was nothing else to be done. They had to get to the end of it.
The creatures carved from stone that sat on the ledges took flight in
shimmering images of fire and destruction. Tru ducked as one of them flew
directly in his face, but the creature became nothing but particles of
dust. Anakin saw Tru grip his lightsaber more tightly.
Tru's lightsaber! He had forgotten to tell him to check the readout
for the flux aperture! He had walked away, angry and hurt. Why hadn't he
remembered?
Had he wanted to forget?
He couldn't do it now. If he did, the Masters would know that Tru's
lightsaber had broken and he hadn't told Ry-Gaul. He would get himself and
Tru in trouble. And Ferus probably had fixed it perfectly, the way he did
everything else.
What you are and what you do mean nothing next to what we are and can
do....
Thinking of Ferus made anger spurt through Anakin. It was something
hard inside him. It filled him up. It felt natural, it felt right, to allow
his anger to grow. Why had he tried to quell it? He had every right to feel
it! Just feeling it now gave him strength.
Obi-Wan held up a hand. "Stop. Energy trap."
Anakin could see nothing. Everything was dark except for the light
from Obi-Wan's lightsaber.
Obi-Wan spoke in a hushed tone. "Concentrations of dark power. They
are capable of immobilizing a Jedi for a time."
"I don't see anything," Ferus said.
"Look away, then look back. Use the Force," Siri instructed.
Anakin looked away, then looked back. He caught the faintest shimmer
of purple in the air. It appeared and disappeared. You could miss it if you
blinked.
"I see it," Darra said.
"There will be more," Obi-Wan warned. "The Padawans must be very
careful. You most likely won't be able to escape alone. Stay close to your
Masters."
They moved forward, avoiding the trap.
The chuckle split the fetid air.
"I would expect no less of you, Obi-Wan." The voice came out of
nowhere. Mocking, sure of himself. Granta Omega.
Obi-Wan stopped.
Slowly, Omega walked out from behind a tomb, just meters ahead.
He tapped a finger on his utility belt. "Did you really think you
could avoid a few traps and catch me?"
"Get back here, you fool," Zan Arbor hissed, appearing behind him out
of the darkness. "Why must you always talk to him?" In her blue
shimmersilk, she looked as well-kept as ever, her blond hair piled in a
profusion of neat braids on her head.
"Because I'm enjoying myself," Omega said. His handsome face creased
in a wide smile. He appeared utterly at home in the terrible tomb. "I have,
let's see - one, two, four, eight Jedi, all sent to capture little old me!"
"Are you forgetting I'm here, too?" Zan Arbor snapped. "Typical. I was
a Jedi enemy before you were born, Granta."
"My father was their enemy before me," Omega said.
Xanatos. Omega's father, the former Jedi who had tried to destroy Qui-
Gon. Obi-Wan had told Anakin about him. His son maintained the same
arrogance, the same cruelty, the same howling need to hurt the Jedi, to
make them pay for everything they lacked themselves. Honor meant nothing to
either Xanatos or Omega. Only power. Only revenge.
Zan Arbor waved a hand. "This isn't a contest. I'm going on. Sith or
no Sith, I can't wait to get off this planet. Come along. He's waiting for
us. Come on," she urged sharply. "He'll take care of the Jedi - he promised
us that. He's about to give us everything we worked for. Resources. Secrets
of the galaxy. Wealth. An army of our own, Granta!"
But Omega didn't move. Here would come his downfall, Anakin thought
suddenly. The reward he was about to receive meant nothing in the face of
his personal revenge.
"I can take care of this," Omega said. "With his help."
"Can I remind you of something?" Zan Arbor exploded in exasperation.
"You are not a Sith!"
"I have surprised you every step of the way, Obi-Wan," Omega said,
ignoring her. "And I didn't even know the secrets of the dark side! Can you
imagine what I'm capable of now, in this place, where the very walls are
your enemy?"
Obi-Wan held his gaze. Anakin glanced at him. He saw that Obi-Wan had
no desire to speak. In his gaze Anakin detected no anger, no response to
Omega's taunts. There was simply the grim will to get this done. There was
no way Omega was leaving this tomb unless Obi-Wan led him out.
"Don't want to talk to me, Obi-Wan? Givi
ng me the silent treatment?
You're spoiling my pleasure." Omega gave a theatrical sigh and raised his
hand, revealing a KYD-21 blaster. Anakin recognized it. Fast, precise,
compact.
"I must admit, it's inconvenient that the Jedi found me here. But in a
way, it's such a delicious end. I'm invincible now, you see. I fight with
the power of the Sith behind me. And that means I can watch you die, Obi-
Wan. You and your apprentice. I can't wait. Do you want to follow me back
there, or are you too afraid to finally meet your defeat?"
He had gotten no further than a flex of one finger muscle to fire
before Obi-Wan exploded in movement. He raced toward Omega, his lightsaber
held in a classic offensive maneuver.
The blaster bolts came fast and furious. Obi-Wan deflected each one,
swinging his lightsaber in a wide arc.
A horrid stench suddenly rolled out from behind Omega. He smiled, as
if he knew what was coming. No doubt he did.
Then the undead came. Korriban zombies, revived by the Sith to guard
the tombs. Anakin had read about them, but never thought he'd see them; the
Sith must have activated them to defend Omega and the sacred Sith ground.