16

Avner's right shoulder took the brunt of his fall as he leaped from the rapidly ascending dais, rolling to better absorb the impact as the platform cracked hard against the roof high above his head. He was left in a daze, lying still for a few moments while he breathed through the pain racing through his body; every ache and injury he had received over the past few weeks was now throbbing angrily. He got to his feet slowly, eyes darting about at every wall or stone block, expecting them to shift at any second and send him tumbling back into the murky depths below or possibly crush him to a bloody pulp. The floor beneath his feet had resealed itself around the dais, making returning to the level below impossible. He shined his maglight around in a wide circle, the light catching a doorway on the far side of the room completely swathed in darkness. He moved cautiously through the door and the ensuing passageways. Everything seemed solid, but then again, so did the room he and Bastila had been in earlier.

Bastila… damn, he hoped the Jedi was okay. She may be a pain in his arse, but she was still under his protection, and even though he would never admit this out loud, she had saved him from the Vulkars. Again, not that he would ever let her know that. She would never let him hear the end of it. The passageway he found himself in was like all the others, bleak and gray. The only sound he heard was the echo of his feet hitting the stone, or could it be the pounding of his heart in his ears? Everything seemed to blend together the further he went like he had been walking for hours but getting nowhere. But he didn't stop, he couldn't stop; instead, he just continued on through the endless passages, sometimes doubling back while other times feeling like he was just walking in one giant circle, round and round and round, and round…

He stopped at a junction, one path leading east while another cut west, and cursed. Which way? Which would take him back to the real world or, at the very least, lead him back to Bastila or Canderous? Were they even alive at this point? Was there even a path that led away from this dark pit, or was he doomed to walk the endless caverns till he collapsed? Could this be some sort of divine punishment for all the wrongs he had committed in his life, losing Trask, the destruction of Taris?

He shone his light down each corridor but could see nothing beyond a few feet of stone. Avner tried to sink back into his training as a soldier, but nothing the Army had taught him could have ever prepared him for this. Supernatural Force bullshit was something well outside of their wheelhouse and his. He was stuck… completely lost, and running on whatever little charge was left in his maglight. When that went out, he would be finished. He flicked his light back and forth rapidly while he closed his eyes. He was at the end of his rope here; doing something as crazy as relying on an invisible energy to choose his path clearly showed how far he had been pushed. He tried to go back, back to the forest where he had let his senses first drift, where Bastila had told him the Force was, in all things… a powerful ally to those in need. Well, if there was ever a time when he was in need…

Minutes passed and nothing happened.

He cracked open one eye, hoping there would be some visible sign of his path forward, but only darkness greeted him. Frack, he knew this would be a waste of time, getting his hopes up, for once, giving the Force a chance to prove it was something more than just an overinflated myth propped up by arrogant monks and black-clothed psychopaths. The fucking thing was useless; he was useless! He slammed his fist into the wall before him; pure anger, fear, and hopelessness wrapped around his chest like powerful steel bands squeezing his lungs to the point where he felt like he couldn't breathe. What could he do? He was just some stupid grunt who couldn't save anyone, not Trask, Sarna, or Doc Forn… Gadon… Zaerdra…

'Bogan; the Dark Side draws upon negative emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy, and fear. It consumes and twists beings who fall under its influence. When one submits to the Light, there is a death of self, a sacrifice of one's being to the Cosmic Force.'

Bastila's words echoed through his mind unbidden. A sacrifice of self…

What had he given of himself to expect the Force to help him? He had been critical, jeering, a near-complete disbeliever of the universal entity… selfish… angry… too prideful to admit that perhaps the Force was more than he believed it could be. Perhaps… it was time to let go.

A sacrifice of self…

This time, when he closed his eyes, he centered his mind, pushing back the disbelief, the nagging doubts that plagued his brain, screaming at him that this was all insane – he was insane. He instead focused on dropping his breathing into a slow rhythmic pace. His nerves settled, and his very body itself seemed to drift outwards, his mind not completely banishing the anger and fear still enclosed around his heart but rather embracing it. He held those emotions close, using their energy to bolster his own as his senses searched ever further, looking for anything to latch onto. A warm heat began to burn low in his chest, reminding him of the raging inferno that had ripped through him when Trask had died or when Canderous had nearly been killed by Calo. It was all so achingly familiar but also wildly foreign. It scared and excited him all at once. He was standing at the precipice of something… something that would shape his life going forward in unexplainable ways. It urged him to jump… to trust… to believe… and the familiar spike of fear and doubt pricked at the back of his mind. There would be no going back if he leaped. He would no longer be just a soldier, seemingly untouched by the Force. His life would change forever.

A sacrifice of self…

He jumped.

The fall was frightening and exhilarating all at once, like his consciousness was suddenly linking with a trillion others, the warm burn now a raging fire, but unlike before, it did not scare him. The inferno did not consume nor scald but merely engulfed him in its overwhelming presence, embracing him like a long-lost prodigal son that had finally returned home. The Force surged through his body, the last vestiges of whatever had kept it chained deep within his soul, shattering wholly. Every nerve ending, every fiber of his being, was blazing with untapped power, a power that had been lost to him for an insurmountable time. It was startlingly recognizable but also completely alien at the same time. What he had denied for years, brushing off as luck or coincidence, suddenly slipped back into his life like it had been there since his inception. The Force, something he had pushed away at every chance before, now he embraced like a lost part of himself he didn't even know was gone.

There was no going back now.

His senses surged forward, taking grasp of a small inkling of life far below him, and he took off. It was as if an unseen guide was leading him through the twisting corridors of the temple, his maglight bouncing off the walls as he ran at a full sprint towards whatever he had latched onto. He could only hope that it was Bastila and that she was okay. He wanted to tell her of his revelation, show her what the Force had done, what it had given him. Close, he was so close now, and as he rounded the corner, he skidded to a halt. He had found himself in another large room with a domed ceiling soaring high above his head. Flames sputtered in shallow bronze bowls casting long shadows that crept over a series of steps that led up to a stone altar where Canderous stood before it, hands braced on the flat surface, and head bent low.

"So you found me." His voice was still that guttural growl that scraped against Avner's ears like a knife to a whetstone. He turned, and confusion flitted across his twisted features. "Where is the Je'daii?"

Whatever spirit was possessing the Mandalorian thought he was Bastila. He felt the Force wrap around him as the spirit lashed out, probing his defenses and trying to pry into his mind. He pushed back clumsily, and the wraith easily swatted aside his rebuttal.

"Not a Je'daii but teeming with far more potential than this wasted vessel." A sickening smile snaked across his lips, and in an instant, he had crossed the room and driven a knee into his gut. Avner felt the air forcefully leave his lungs as he doubled over. Canderous drove his elbow into his back, once, twice, the third time slamming his face into the floor. His armored boot connected with his side repeatedly, leaving Avner no room to even draw a breath. He rolled, trying to scramble away, but Canderous followed, raining down vicious blows relentlessly. He caught the other man's foot and twisted it sharply, forcing the spirit to stumble while giving the Kiffar a chance to jump to his feet. He threw several punches into the human's ribs while trying to wrap his arms around the Mandalorian's neck in an effort to subdue him. Canderous thrust out a hand, and he was thrown back several meters, flipping once through the air before landing unceremoniously on his face, completely dazed.

Arms encircled around his neck, squeezing tight. "Your soul is mine."

Avner threw a punch back at Canderous' face, but the wraith only tightened his hold, cutting off his airway completely. He struggled to take a breath, hands digging into the Mandalorian's thick forearms but finding no purchase he could use to slip away. He gasped, black spots blurring his vision as he tried desperately to reach out for the Force. Something drilled into the base of his skull like a dark smog invading his mind, something completely insidious intent on consuming him whole. He fought to push it away but could barely find the strength to keep his eyes open… everything was fading…

"Let him go!"

Bastila came leaping from the shadows, her lightsaber, a blazing light, held firmly in her hands. He felt the grip around his throat ease, and he gasped as his burning lungs filled with air. He noticed that his one hand was firmly wrapped around the gauntlet on Canderous' right forearm. If he could just loosen it…

"Stay back, Je'daii, or I'll snap this one's neck," the spirit hissed venomously.

Bastila stopped and lowered her weapon slightly. "Let them both go, and maybe I'll allow you to return to your cage intact."

Cold laughter erupted from the Mandalorian. "You have no room to barter, Je'daii. No, I'll never return to that prison. I think I'll just bleed this dead fool dry and then take this one's body as my own. His raw strength in the Force…"

Bastila's eyes flickered to him and then back to the wraiths. "You don't want either of them, spirit; they are both nearly dead to the Force."

Again, laughter overtook the warrior, and he shook his head. "You lie! I have felt his power; it eclipses my own!"

"He is untrained; any strength he has is found completely by accident. You won't be able to control what he cannot; it will consume you!"

"It is a chance I am willing to take; besides, what more can I possibly lose?" Pain erupted inside his head, but Avner couldn't even shout because Canderous had crushed his windpipe within his grasp again. He thrashed, but nothing seemed to loosen the other man's grip.

"TAKE ME!"

The assault on his mind ceased instantly. "What?"

Bastila tossed her saber away and sank to her knees. "Take me instead and leave them alone. I'm well trained, my senses honed to perfection. I can offer you the vessel you seek."

"You are strong in the Force…"

"Let them both go, and I will give you what they cannot."

"Bastila, no!" Avner wasn't about to let her sacrifice herself to save him. That was not how this was supposed to go. He attempted to drive an elbow into Canderous' side, but the wraith just threw him aside. He approached Bastila and pulled the gauntlet free from the Mandalorian's arm, holding it out to the Jedi before him.

"Take it, Je'daii! Do not force me to do anything regrettable to my current host."

Bastila slipped the bracer onto her forearm, and all at once, Canderous collapsed, a great gust of wind escaping from his lungs and whipping around Bastila, the crystal upon the gauntlet now blazing crimson. Her back snapped backward at an unnatural angle, eyes rolling into the back of her head as the great maelstrom disappeared inside her body. She slumped forward, gasping for air, her slight frame trembling uncontrollably before stilling all at once.

A sinister laugh escaped her throat as she rose. "Yes, this body will do just fine."

The spirit outstretched her hand, curling and uncurling her long fingers before turning abruptly and thrusting out her palm. The altar above them shattered into dust as chunks hit the walls with a resounding bang. "Such power!"

Avner rose and crept forward. Perhaps if he could take her by surprise-.

Invisible hands wrapped around his throat and hoisted him high into the air twisting his arms at sharp angles and putting so much pressure on his body that he felt as if his bones might shatter. "Fool! Do you think you can take me! I have the power of this Je'daii and the knowledge of the Sith." The spirit pulled Bastila's lightsaber into her grasp, but it did not ignite. Her face screwed up in confusion, then suddenly twisted into terror. "What…"

A single blade of gold erupted, and a scream of utter fear tore free from the Jedi's throat. "NO! T-this isn't… your body… y-your soul-."

"Is mine." Bastila's voice broke through this time, and in a flash, she sliced the gauntlet from her arm, completely dissolving the crystal with the heat of her blade. Avner was dumped onto his back, the crushing weight now gone. A great vortex ripped free from the Jedi's body, the howling shrieks of the doomed apparition swirling around them before silence fell. Bastila fell to her knees, dropping her saber to cradle her head in her hands as Avner scrambled to her side.

"Bastila! Are you-."

"I'm fine; check on Canderous."

The Mandalorian was still out cold, but he was breathing, chest rising and falling rapidly. He appeared to be mostly unharmed, and as Avner pulled back his eyelids, he felt a rush of relief that they weren't the sickly yellow of a crazed man but rather his own steely gray.

"He appears okay unless he's still possessed."

Bastila shook her head as she slowly got to her feet. "It's gone; since the tether holding it to this world is destroyed, the spirit can no longer manifest. Still, this place isn't safe, and we should leave now."

Avner slung the Mandalorian over his shoulders and followed close on the Jedi's heels as they dashed through the darkened corridors. Bastila led him without fail out of the temple and into the blazing sunlight, the darkness that had been clinging to him within the sanctum falling off of him in the light's warm glow. They were free of that dark pit, the spirit long trapped within its walls, hopefully forever. He slowly slid Canderous from his shoulders and sat down. Bastila joined him on the ground, her eyes studying him closely.

"There's something… different about you. I sense that-."

"I've changed," Avner finished shooting her a crooked grin.

She didn't return it. "What happened to you?"

He looked at the dark temple sprawled before them. The door was still open like the gaping maw leading down into the cavernous stomach of a great beast intent on devouring anything that dared to approach. Intent on devouring him. "I guess you could say I came to terms with a few things about myself and what's happened."

"It's more than that. That spirit wasn't wrong when it said… the Force… it flows from you."

"As I said, I came to terms with some things… I let go."

"And how do you feel?"

Avner ran a hand over his head and shrugged. "Different, but also the same. I feel… I don't know, connected to everything, like I'm suddenly in tune with the world."

"The Force, as I said before, binds every being in the galaxy together." She paused, scrutinizing his face carefully before continuing. "Do you feel… anything else?"

He returned her gaze with a hard one of his own. "I don't know. Should I?"

If Avner hoped that the Jedi would let something slip, maybe a clue to his past, he was mistaken. Bastila took the accusatory question in stride, face remaining completely neutral. "Sometimes the Force reveals things to people under extreme duress. An untrained Force-sensitive may see things and experience feelings completely unknown to them."

"Like a vision?"

Her left eye twitched ever so slightly. "Maybe. Did you have one?"

Perhaps now was the time to lay all his cards on the table, or at least his first hand. "Back at Forn's clinic, when our hands touched… I… saw things."

She was too still now, eyes unblinking, watching him with rapt attention, pupils dilated to where her iris was nearly swallowed whole. "What did you see?"

"You… you were fighting, I don't know, some dark Jedi named Revan. Everything was on fire, and… you killed him."

She glanced away and looked down at her hands. She was quiet now, and he didn't press her to answer right away; instead, he took the chance to trace her delicate features trying in vain to force his mind to elicit some kind of response instead of just dredging up murky dreams he had been having for months. Finally, she looked back at him, but only for a second before settling her gaze on the temple. "What do you know about Revan?"

"Not much. He fought in the Mandalorian Wars, defeated Mandalore the Ultimate, then disappeared before coming back and attacking the Republic. A Sith… right?"

She nodded. "Yes, a Sith, but before that, he was a Jedi."

"A Jedi?"

"He was a great warrior of our Order, strong in the Force, but arrogant… full of anger at the Council, and impatient. He wanted action, convinced other Jedi that they, too, yearned for war, and led them away. Many died, but he saved far more by ending Mandalore's bloody campaign. The Republic called him a hero, but the Council saw him for what he truly was… a killer, a beast hiding amongst their flock who had finally shown his teeth. So they sent him away."

"But he came back."

She nodded again. "With an army intent on destroying those who would hold him accountable for his crimes. He nearly succeeded, but the Jedi stopped him."

"You stopped him," Avner pointed out, vividly remembering Bastila's face amongst the fire, gold clashing with red over and over again. "I saw you fight him aboard a burning ship."

"His flagship, the Sovereign. I was one of the members of a strike team tasked with bringing him in. These things you have seen may be a result of your untrained Force abilities feeding off of my own. You may have been experiencing one of my more… intense memories after our fight with the Vulkars."

Her explanation for his most recent vision was reasonable, but it hardly explained all the other strange dreams he had been having for months before meeting her. "That wasn't the first time I've had a vision."

"The Force is complicated, Avner; even I, with all of my training, cannot fully understand it. My masters will be able to better explain your visions when we join them on Dantooine," she replied, giving him a small, strained smile that did little to comfort him.

He shook his head. "I'm not going to Dantooine."

She blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I don't have time to take another extended furlough. Now that you're safe, Carth can escort you the rest of the way to Dantooine while I return to my unit. I've been gone for too long anyway."

"You can't leave! We – I mean Carth and the others need you! Besides, it's dangerous for you to be on your own now. Your burgeoning Force powers will attract the attention of the Sith, and unless you learn how to control them, you'll only be a threat to yourself and everyone around you," she argued back vehemently.

"I can take care of myself."

"No, you can't, Avner. What happens when you run into a Sith who has tracked you down because of your connection to the Force, or you hurt someone because you can't control your power?"

"That's not gonna happen, I've killed Sith before, and I'm not going to fly off the handle like some lunatic." He stood up and checked on Canderous, wanting anything to end this conversation with the Jedi. He was leaving, and nothing she said would change his mind.

"You nearly died in that temple." She was on her feet, and in his face now, gray eyes flashing like lightning behind thunderclouds. "If you think that some ancient spirit trapped in a relic is the worst thing in the galaxy, then you are severely mistaken. There are beings out there who could tear you apart without so much as blinking, and you think it's wise to go running back to your old unit to play soldier."

That last comment snapped across the back of his head like a well-aimed slap, and he turned, face contorted in anger. "Look, Jedi, I don't need your lectures on what you think is best for me! I've been fighting my whole life, and I know how to take care of myself!"

Canderous groaned, effectively halting their argument. Avner gave the girl one last harsh look before kneeling at the other man's side. He was slowly regaining consciousness but was not entirely lucid yet. They needed to get him back to the station and away from this place. He pressed a sequence into his communicator, the one their pilot had given, and then sat back with the Mandalorian to wait. All the while, Bastila stood away from him, eyes filled with only one emotion.

Pure unadulterated fear.

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"So there were no survivors."

"No, I'm sorry. And after everything that happened, we weren't able to recover your salvage either," Avner explained, watching as the elderly Rodian sat down heavily. He looked troubled, weary as if the news of his crew's death were like some great stone blocks pressing down on his aging back.

"I understand. You had a duty to help your friend." He turned to stare out the viewport where Yavin IV was fast disappearing behind Yavin Prime, night undoubtedly falling upon the moon's surface by now. "I cannot give you my hyperdrive, Avner."

"I know, and I don't expect you to, Suvam. I will find a way to buy it from you."

"I'm sure you will. In any case, Vero will still need a bit more time to finish his repairs."

Avner nodded and turned to leave but hesitated. "Suvam, are any ships stopping here that accept passengers?"

The Rodian shrugged as he picked up an old hydrospanner. "A few, but only those vetted by San are allowed to run. Why?"

"No reason. Who is San?"

Suvam grimaced and looked away. "Someone you don't need to worry about."

The man clearly wanted to discuss this no further, so he didn't press him, only nodding as he exited his shop. His feet carried him back to the Ebon Hawk, where he found Canderous up and about but grumbling about a fracking headache. His words.

"You okay?"

The Mandalorian nodded. "Yeah, nothing a few shots of bourbon and a night's sleep can't fix. Heh, possession; guess there's a first time for everything."

"You can say that again," Avner agreed as he sat beside the other man.

"That's twice I owe you now. You're making me look bad, Marek."

"Not my fault; blame the ancient schutta tied to a piece of junk."

They both shared a laugh then Canderous' face turned thoughtful. "That Jedi… there were times I could hear what was going on… what she did."

"Yeah, she saved both our hides." No matter how infuriating the woman could be, he couldn't deny the fact that she was the only reason he and Ordo were still breathing. She had risked everything for them… and he hadn't even thanked her yet. Neither had Canderous.

"Never thought I'd see the day where a Jedi…" the warrior trailed off and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I found something that I want to show you, Marek."

He followed Canderous through the cargo hold into the supply and ordnance compartment. It was a tight room lined with cabinets on every wall and racks in the back holding several rifles and a conventional beam splitter. Canderous stooped low and ran his fingers along the seam of the floor by the door before flipping a small hidden switch embedded behind the frame. A panel opened to reveal a small keypad on the floor.

"What is that?"

"My guess, a smuggler's compartment. Any gangster worth their salt has some built into their ship in case they need to run some… less than legal goods by the authorities. It's possible Davik may have some goods stored within, perhaps something that we can sell to help pay for that fancy hyperdrive," Canderous explained while tapping on the keypad. "Just need to figure out his passcode."

He squatted down beside the other man and ran his hand over the keys. Davik Kang's wrinkled fingers replaced his own, pressing four numbers quickly before the entire floor slid away to reveal an empty and spacious compartment beneath. He repeated the same sequence, and the keypad chimed once before sliding open as it had in his vision. Only this time, the space was not empty but instead packed full of credit cases. He pulled one free, its weight heavy, and cracked open the top. Inside were numerous credit chits stacked to the brim, each numbering an account in the thousands.

"There must be thousands of credits in this one case alone," Avner murmured in complete awe.

"And millions more in here," Canderous grunted, nodding down at the secret compartment. "Davik Kang's fortune. The damn bastard was going to skip out on Taris and take his money with him. Now it's all yours."

He glanced at the Mandalorian in confusion. "You're not going to lay some type of claim to any of this?"

"Consider this me paying back one of my debts to you, Marek, and leave it at that."

"Fair enough. I guess I should go let Carth know the good news."

They found the pilot and Bastila in the cockpit, exchanging heated whispers that ceased the second they entered. Bastila looked away while Carth only shook his head and rubbed a hand over his eyes; stress and lack of sleep clearly contributed to his face's dark rings.

"How are the repairs going on the ship?" Avner asked as he leaned against the communications console while Canderous stood in the doorway behind him.

"Good, the engine is nearly running again, but we can't leave this system without a hyperdrive, so we're still stuck. Are you sure there isn't any other way to get that drive from Suvam?" Carth asked.

"We could always buy it from him." He flipped the credit chit at the pilot, who deftly caught it midair and studied it briefly.

"Where-." Carth shook his head in clear disbelief and then continued. "Where did you find this?"

"In one of the storage holds in a secret smuggler's compartment Canderous found."

"And you're just bringing this to our attention now? When you've been sneaking around this ship since we got here," the soldier accused, throwing a hard look at the warrior, who only shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't report to you, Onasi. Besides, it's Avner's ship, so he deserved to know first."

"What?"

"It's Avner's ship," Canderous repeated, enunciating every word in a patronizing tone. "He was the one who got it, flew it out of that hellhole, so everything onboard is his by hunter's rights."

"Yeah, sure, hunter's rights…"

"You wanna try and stake a claim, little soldier? Go ahead, but you won't get anything from me or Marek," Canderous growled, coming to stand beside the Kiffar.

Carth's eyes flashed with anger at the both of them. "So you two are a team now, then? The washed-up merc and runaway soldier against everyone else onboard, is that it?"

"No, it's not like that; we're all on the same side here, Carth," Avner said, trying his best to de-escalate the obvious rising tempers in the cockpit and ignore his callous insults.

"Are we, Marek? Can you even call yourself a member of this team when you plan on leaving?" Carth snapped back, and Avner felt that familiar sickly hot feeling of rage bubble low in his stomach. He sent a glare in Bastila's direction, but she was purposefully looking anywhere but him.

"The missions over, Onasi; you don't need me anymore."

"No, the mission is not over, Marek! It isn't over until we get Bastila back to the Jedi and the Republic, so until then, you're staying put. Unless you want to give me another reason not to trust you."

"Carth-."

"Do not make me pull rank on you, Sergeant, or cite you for going AWOL."

The anger grew. He needed to leave before he did something he would regret.

"I need to go speak with Suvam." He turned to leave, and Carth grabbed his arm, but he jerked free, glaring back at the other man coldly. "Don't worry, Lieutenant, I'm not going anywhere."