Relics & Rivals

[Symm]

"...teach?" Kathar guessed as Karn trailed off. A brow quirked slightly in confusion before he let it go. "I didn't realise there were people the Force outside of the Jedi or the Sith," Kathar admitted. "I guess it makes sense. The galaxy is a big place." Still, it was something worth investigating when Kathar got back to Coruscant. He knew there were grey Jedi, but the idea of a Force user that was taught by neither Sith nor Jedi was an intriguing prospect.

Unluckily for Karn, Kathar noticed the redness in the other's cheeks as he asked for help looking for wounds. Luckily, Kathar was too sheltered to understand and thought it was just a side effect of exhaustion. The smile from Karn and mumbled statement gave rise to another puzzled look. He didn't catch the entire sentence; something about being a Jedi? Perhaps Karn was curious about life as a Jedi since the younger man had never experienced it. So when Karn commanded that he would get to ask some questions, Kathar was ready to answer anything he could about the Jedi.

When the question ultimately turned out to be about his necklace, Kathar looked lost. For all his foresight, he didn't think that the query would be about that. "Oh," Kathar shrugged, turning away and pulling on the tunic once more. "It's from my parents, I think." He knew the qualifying remark would raise more questions, so he continued, "I was very, very young when the Jedi found me, so young that I don't even remember. Pirates attacked, and the Seeker didn't get there in time; my parents died protecting me. Guess this was the only thing I had with me?" The man raised the item on the necklace up, fingers brushing over the mess of metal.

"I don't know why they let me keep it, guess they felt bad? Anyway, I use it to remind myself why I'm a Jedi. So that nobody has that happen to them again." Kathar fell quiet for a time, awkwardly shuffling through the pack to retrieve something to eat. "Sorry, a little morbid, I know."

He started to deflect, pointing to the pin on Karn's collar, "I know what that means. What about your earring?" Dropped his hand back in his lap, waiting for Karn's answer.

---

To an outside observer, the scene was almost unthinkable. A Jedi and a Sith, sitting down for what was, essentially, a picnic. Occasionally, Kathar would even laugh at some of the things the other said - other times, he seemed downright disturbed. The dichotomies of their religion were far too stark to be ignored completely. Still, Kathar found it challenging to hate - or even dislike - Karn. He would have to meditate on this at length.

After the conversation came to a natural close, Karn settled down to sleep and Kathar faced the door to meditate. Or try to. It wasn't the evil nature of the citadel that kept him from reaching a state of zen, nor the wound that occasionally pulsed pain through his body. No, his issue lay behind him, sleeping.

Frustrated, Kathar moved and inspected every inch of the room they were in, curious to see if there was anything more to it. Nothing. He bent down and rifled through the remains of the droids, hoping to find something interesting there. Nothing! Kathar paced back and forth, managing to wear a millimetre off of his soles. Finally, he sat back down next to Karn and took up his lightsaber. Kathar closed his eyes and reached out with the Force, lifting the metal cylinder into the air in front of him. Tiny cracks appeared in the shaft as Kathar started to make minute adjustments - essentially servicing the blade.

That was how Karn found him when he woke up - eyes closed, blade partly dismantled. When Kathar heard the man moving about, he put the pieces back together and secured the sword on his belt.

He hefted his bag, which contained in the pocket the cube harvested from the droids, and let out a breath. "Ready."

[Rugs]

“Good.”

Karn set about gathering his pack and clipping his long-hilted saber at his waist. For a moment, he considered what to do with his waste — the used-up meal ration and utensils that came with it. It wasn’t as if there were garbage bins around. After some thought, he moved them over near the fallen droids. Maybe whatever mysterious presence cleaned the place would see to their disposal.

Not like there’s anyone living down here to see the shit, anyway. No one but Kath and himself. Kath. Karn’s brow furrowed. He cleared his throat as he turned around and nodded toward the Jedi to signal his own readiness.

This place has got to be doing something to me.

Yet as they walked on, returning down the long corridor through which they’d entered the chamber with the droids, Karn’s thoughts kept drifting back to the red-headed Jedi. Not five minutes after meeting Kath, he’d been ready to run him through with a lightsaber. He’d irritated Karn nearly to the point of fury.

But now?

It’s because we have to work together if we’re not both going to die. We had to fight those things together. That was what he kept telling himself, anyway, that this was all born of a temporary need to band together to survive.

Yet that need didn’t necessitate that they spend Force only knew how long talking to each other, or that they trade Holonet IDs to, presumably, keep contact after leaving the citadel. It didn’t necessitate that Karn tell Kath about his upbringing, or his earring, or any other number of things, or ask about the Jedi’s life.

It didn’t fully explain the odd comfort he felt walking next to Kath as they reemerged into the central chamber, from the corridors branched off to their trials.

And yet...

“Hold on,” he said as they passed through the threshold. Turning around, Karn ignited his lightsaber and cut a quick mark into the left side of the passageway from which they’d emerged. “So we know that we’ve been this way and bested the test,” he said. “I don’t think we will, but don’t want to get turned around.”

As for their next destination?

“How about that one, Kath?” Karn pointed to their left. “If we move to the left each time, that gets us around in a circle.”

He stared down the corridor. It looked much the same as the one from which they just emerged, lined with torches and stretching on far enough that whatever awaited at the end was hidden from sight.

“I wish we knew what else was in here,” he grumbled.

[Symm]

This time as the two men walked, Kathar walked at Karn's side. It was a subtle difference, showing that he trusted Karn enough to take care of himself, and didn't distrust him to need him in front at all times. Of course, this situation emerged from a subconscious thought rather than any deliberate decision, so Kathar missed the significance.

Unknown to both, Kathar and Karn found themselves on the same wavelength. This place was doing something to him. Karn is only friendly because they have to survive together. It was all a trick to lull him into lowering his guard, and then the Sith would stab him in the back. Kathar was in the middle of that particular thought when Karn ignited his lightsaber. A moment of surprise squashed rapidly by understanding. "Ah, great idea." The idea was a smart one - they had no idea if this place could change around at a whim.

Then Karn suggested they move around to the left, and Kathar nodded. It took him an extra few moments to realise that Karn hadn't called him Kathar. He mulled that over in his mind as Kathar moved to the hallway - half tempted to call it out. Instead, though, he nodded and began to walk down the corridor in silence. They reached the end of the path, just before the hallway opened up into a larger space. Kathar glanced at Karn, set his hand on the hilt of his lightsaber, nodded and stepped inside.

This room looked remarkably like the last test chamber: Same size, same barren layout - with one exception. In the centre of the room, a square pool of liquid, the surface completely flat - and at this distance reflecting the roof. Kathar frowned and, cautiously, crept forward, ready to ignite his blade at any moment.

Something was wrong about this room - even more so than the rest of the citadel. Still, Kathar pressed on, muttering a warning back to Karn, "Keep your guard..." Kathar's voice trailed off as he reached the edge of the pool, his eyes drawn down into the depths. The Jedi fell silent and oddly still, as in his mind, he found himself transported somewhere else.

---

Kathar found himself tumbling into the water as something shoved him from behind. The depths pulled him down, inconceivably deep, as the man struggled against the currents. The small breath he had managed to take before plunging in already burned within his lungs, desperate to escape. As he opened his mouth to scream, resigned to his fate, the water opened up beneath him and dumped him onto a rocky, barren surface.

It took nearly a minute for Kathar to cough out the last vestiges of the pool, almost vomiting onto the surface of this...planet? He drew in a shaky breath and pushed to his feet, immediately looking up from where he fell. Yet, instead of the pool, he found the vast starfield of space spread out above him, bright and sprawling as far as he could see.

He drew his eyes away from the infinite to look at his surroundings. It appeared he was on a barren planet, the nothingness punctuated only occasionally by large plinths of stone that soared high into the heavens. The man spun around, looking for something, anything - and his eyes locked on a lone, bright light in the desert.

The cold crept into Kathar's wet clothes - for there was no sun in this world. Just the light cast by the sky and the beacon of hope he stumbled toward. It seemed to take Kathar hours to close the distance, and by the time he got close enough to see a figure standing next to a fire, his teeth chattered uncontrollably.

"Thank the Force, Karn." He assumed it was the Sith, "Where are w..." Kathar trailed off as the figure turned to face him.

It wasn't Karn. This person was shorter, more muscular. His skin was less pale, and he counted five fingers on each hand. He held himself with the self-assured grace of a master duelist, and at his hip hung a lightsaber - a very simple smooth cylinder that found Kathar grasping to see if he still had his.

By the time the light fell in such a way to illuminate the other figure, Kathar already knew who it was. "Finally," said the figure. Kathar looked upon himself, who smiled in a way that sent chills down Kathar's already shivering body. "Now we can talk."

[Rugs]

Karn thought as they entered the second chamber, that they’d somehow returned to the first. The room was a near-exact replica of the one in which they’d fought the pair of automatons, save the broken chases laying on the ground. A moment’s closer inspection revealed a key difference — a pool of some sort of liquid in its center. The surface was unnaturally placid, smooth as glass.

The Force was different here. It wasn’t thick and smothering, as in the first chamber. Something called to him. A siren song, just at the edge of hearing. Drawing his steps onward.

Toward the pool.

Karn barely registered Kath’s warning as he looked at his reflection and lost himself.

---

Karn was drowning.

Falling, falling into an abyss. His lungs ached. His body screamed for air, for anything. He couldn’t move. Relentless pressure closed in from all sides, holding him motionless. Forcing the last air from his lungs.

Down. Down into the abyss.

A massive, shadowed shape rose before him, illuminated by a sickly green light from below. Karn saw a faceless, pockmarked head before the spiderlike limbs spread wide. He screamed.

Water rushed into his lungs

Darkness enveloped him.

---

Karn’s eyes fluttered slowly open. He took a slow, long breath. The air was cold, damp. He coughed. The coughs came softly at first, then grew violent as he vomited swallowed water. When finally, the coughing fit passed, when finally Karn’s vision stopped swimming in and out of focus he looked around. He was in a cavern of some sort. A shallow pool of water — undisturbed and smooth as glass — lay behind him. The cavern stretched on and on before him, to a narrow mouth through which he could see stars against a clear night sky.

Mushrooms, glowing pale green and blue and violet, lined the cavern walls. Some grew by crystals jutting out of the rock, making it look as though they, too, glowed.

Where am I? Karn had never seen this place, or anywhere like it, before. “Kath?” The Jedi was nowhere to be seen. Karn stood, unsteadily, and checked his person. He was tired and cold, and his body ached dully, but he seemed otherwise okay. His attire was as it had been in the citadel. His lightsaber still swung from his waist. His fingers brushed briefly against the elegant songsteel hilt, but he refrained from freeing the weapon from its place on his belt.

“Kath?”

Something felt wrong, like a ball of ice in the pit of Karn’s stomach.

“Look at you now.” Karn’s blood turned to ice. A woman’s voice, from behind him where before there had been no one. “Calling to a Jedi? Oh, Karn...”

Time seemed to drag out as Karn turned, one agonizing inch at a time to see her before him.

Lady Colubus.

His throat and chest tightened as grief nearly overpowered him. Tears blurred his vision. “Ma... Master?”

She was stepping from atop the pool’s surface. Her boots were not wet, and the water’s surface remained unperturbed.

Colubus was noticeably shorter than Karn, but seemed to be looking down on him. She was slender and lithe, and each motion carried a serpent’s grace. Her green face, lined with black tattoos, was drawn to a disappointed scowl.

“Where were you, Karn? When I needed you, when I relied on you to watch my back, what did you do?” Colubus stopped a few steps shy of Karn. He wanted to move back, but couldn’t--it felt as if he was stuck in place. “You hesitated. You let fear overwhelm you, as you always have.”

“You failed.”

The cavern boomed on the Mirialan woman’s last word. Karn felt dazed, as if he’d been punched in the gut, then kneed in the face.

“Master,” he started, pleading, “please, I-”

“No.” Colubus’ green lightsaber matched her skin. “I’ve no need for a coward’s excuses.”

Karn didn’t move as the lightsaber lunged for his heart.

[Symm]

"Who are you?" Kathar demanded of his doppelganger. "How did you bring me here?" He placed his hand against his sabre, ready at a moments notice to draw the weapon.

The other laughed, a genuine sense of amusement in the action - yet something about it struck daggers in Kathar's brain. Perhaps it was the undercurrent of malicious intent that shook him to his core? "I'm you. Well, I'm the you you could become." The smile that crossed his mirrors expression chilled him to the bone.

"Kath?" The voice whispered from behind the other before rapidly blown away on a sudden breeze.

A look of annoyance erased the smile from the other man, and he raised a hand as Kathar stepped forward. "Don't."

The warning hand did little to slow Kathar, pressing forward. "Get out of my way!" He yelled, igniting his orange blade and lunging forward. The doppelganger's sabre flew to an outstretched hand, extending out a red beam to intercept Kathar's. Kathar's eyes narrowed at the colour as their weapons locked, "No." There was only one reason for the crimson blade.

Other Kathar grinned, "Ah, you see now." The two began a dance in earnest as he pushed their blades apart; unfortunately for Kathar, it was one that lasted only three steps. A deft motion saw him unarmed, orange glow extinguishing as the cylinder flew away. To make matters worse, the other Kathar stepped in and slammed the hilt of his weapon into Kathar's face, then swept his legs out from under him and sent him tumbling to the ground. Kathar landed with a grunt, with the wind knocked out of him. He felt the weight of the other as they planted a knee in his back, then one hand grabbed his hair and jerked his head back while the red blade rest millimetres from his neck.

"Pathetic." The Sith version of Kathar whispered into his ear. "Watch." He found his head wrenched to one side and eyes set onto a pool that had been hidden by his other. In it, he saw Karn standing before a green woman with a green lightsaber. He watched, helpless, as the weapon plunged towards the Sith's chest.

"Karn!"

Dark Kathar twisted his head away before he saw what happened next, forcing him to look into his own eyes. "The Jedi made you weak. They stole so much from you, prevented you from reaching your full potential." Green eyes flicked back and forth between green eyes, and then the other let go of Kathar with a sound of disgust.

He turned back to look at the pool, but the surface reflected nothing but the endless sky above. The man plunged a hand in, hoping it would drag him down and out of this nightmare - and heard mocking laughter behind him. "You can't leave here until I say so. So you better get comfortable."

Kathar stared at the pool, willing it to show him something else. Eventually, with nothing appearing, he turned and stood up, looking back at the doppelganger. Eyes flicked to where his blade lay, discarded, and then back again. The physical manifestation of the dark side raised familiar brows, "We can keep doing that forever if you like. The outcome will not change until you listen to me. Sit." He gestured across, and a small section of the ground raised.

There was little else he could do. The Jedi knew that this thing would best him in combat at every turn. It was stronger, faster, more skilled. He took one last glance back at the pool, then moved to sit - though unlike the cross-legged stance his other took, Kathar sat with both feet beneath him, weight balanced on his toes and knees, ready to spring to action at a moments notice. He said nothing and just glared at his companion.

The Dark side, for its past, laughed with Kathar's voice, "I can feel your hatred. Good. Hold on to that. We'll need it."

[Rugs]

Karn’s scream echoed through the cavern as Colubus’ green lightsaber burned into his chest.

He tried to move back, tried to recoil away from the weapon’s burning bite, but Colubus pressed relentlessly, mercilessly forward until his back met the uneven rock behind him. She pressed on, even then, until the lightsaber buried itself all the way to the emitter shroud.

“Disappointing. But I shouldn’t have expected more from you.” Colubus spoke clearly, calmly over Karn’s screams. She twisted the lightsaber, rotating her wrist so that her palm faced up. “I thought I could mold you, bring out the full potential I saw in you, Karn, but no, choosing you was a mistake.”

The lightsaber disengaged. Karn slumped to the ground, clutching his chest, as Colubus pulled her hand away from him. Agony overwhelmed his senses; his vision blurred violently as he searched for something, anything on which to focus.

Why am I alive? His brain fired frantic, broken thoughts, but one rose to the surface in a fleeting fit of clarity. I should be dead.

“Master please...” he gasped. “I’m sorry...”

“What will your apology gain me now, Karn?” Colubus grabbed him by the hair and began to drag him backward. He groaned as the rocks scraped against his back. “You have failed.” Colubus stopped at the pool’s edge. She turned Karn onto his stomach and held his head out over its calm surface.

He saw himself, face a rictus of unspeakable pain, eyes red from the tears that dampened his cheeks. Behind him, Colubus still frowned in disappointment.

“You’ve failed me again, Karn.” He felt himself being hoisted from the ground.

“Wha-What’s happening?” he began to stammer.

“You’re running out of time.”

Colubus plunged him into the pool.

---

Karn was drowning.

The abyss’ water surrounded him again as he drifted down, ever down.

“You’re running out of time.”

That sickly green light glowed brighter now. He wanted to turn his head, to see its source, but something told him he shouldn’t even if he had the strength to move. Another shadowed shape moved above him. Small and fishlike, he couldn’t make out what it was. Was it coming toward him?

“You’re running out of time.”

There were stars above him now, as he drifted down, ever down. He could see a campfire, the scene waving and blurred through the water. He saw Kath there, on the ground, with a shadowed person over him. Gripping his head by the hair, a crimson lightsaber held at the edge of his throat.

No!

“Kath!” He screamed, the last of his air escaping his mouth in a frenzy of bubbles. He found the strength to move, to flail and grasp and struggle in vain to push himself up toward the surface, toward Kath and his assailant. The vision faded between his outstretched fingers.

“You’re running out of time.”

The shadow was closer now, green eyes piercing the murk as it hurtled toward him. Karn would have screamed if his lungs weren’t already empty. The being hit him in the chest, pushing him down into the depths, faster and faster. It was a small, humanoid shadow. It wrapped slender arms around him.

Karn felt something leave him--some strength, some life. A part of him, gone, as the world faded to nothing.

“You’re running out of time.”

---

Karn coughed up water as he came to.

A trio of black stone pillars in varying states of ruin rose to his left. A wall of the same material, crumbling in places, rose behind him. If there had been a roof to this place, it was long since gone — a clear, perfect night sky stretched out above him.

He pushed himself up slowly, first to hands and knees, then to his feet. It was difficult now. He felt sluggish, tired as if he had gone too long without rest. His clothes were soaking wet, dripping water onto the ground around him. His shirt, already cut to fit close to his slender frame, clung to him, emphasizing the lithe musculature of his chest and firm stomach.

Karn huddled against a cold breeze that blew through the broken pillars. His coat offered scant protection from the chill.

Where am I? The cavern, and any sign of it, was gone. With a gasp, Karn reached for his chest, and found the pale skin perfectly whole and clear. If Colubus had struck him with her lightsaber, there was no evidence — nothing beyond a faint burning that lingered where her blade met his sternum.

“Kath?” called, shivering as he stepped through the small doorway into the ruins of whatever building had once stood behind him. “Where’d you go?” They were supposed to be working together. Karn remembered, through a haze, seeing the Jedi pinned beneath some stranger, a lightsaber blade at his throat.

The ruins were barren on the inside. If there had once been anything of worth, it was long gone. Some symbol Karn didn’t recognize was carved into the dark stone floor, centered around a square pool. He looked through what might have once been a window and saw a distant spot of light, just on the near side of the horizon. It flickered occasionally. A fire, perhaps? Hadn’t Kath been near a fire?

“Still calling for the Jedi, I see. What has become of you?”

Karn did not freeze this time, as Colubus’ voice grated against his ears. His lightsaber was in his hand and light before he started the turn, teeth bared as he snarled. The crimson blade cut clean through Colubus’ chest. Her form muddied and blurred as she looked down at the burning mark, then... solidified.

She stood as if he’d never touched.

“But... No!” Karn yelled at her. “I killed you! You should be dead!”

“Oh, dear Karn,” Colubus said sweetly, pityingly. “You still don’t understand what faces you. Allow me another lesson, then. That,” she pointed at his lightsaber, “doesn’t mean a thing here. Not if I don’t want it to.”

Colubus raised her hand and Karn was airborne, seeing stars as he punched through the stone wall and landed roughly on the desert ground beyond. Karn lifted his head, dazed, to see Colubus stepping through the gap his unexpected flight left in the wall.

“There’s only one way from this place, Karn, and you must learn it before your time is up. Before you’re here with me,” she said, lighting her viridian blade. “Forever.”

[Symm]

Every Jedi padawan faced the dark side at one point in their training. It could be the simplest of tests, such as the flickering of anger during a sparring lesson, to something that harrowed them to the bone. It was the latter that sometimes ended up willingly disconnecting themselves from the Force. The trial brought awareness that they would be unable to resist the temptation of power, and so they make one of the ultimate sacrifices a Jedi can make to protect themselves and others.

Kathar, for his part, had never faced the great winnowing. His trials were minor inconveniences, frustrations, and anger. So it was that he found himself wholly unprepared for the dark side version of himself that sat and stoked the fire.

"What do you want?" He asked of his shade, eyes still narrowed in suspicion. Briefly, he thought he heard something above him, in the air, but when he turned to look, there was nothing there. A trick of this place, he assumed.

The other version of him sighed and, with one last poke at the fire, threw the stick in; blazing ash billowed up into the sky and blew away on a silent wind. "I've already told you. I'm trying to make you become what you should have been. To show you that the Jedi have never had your best interests at heart. To reveal the great lie that they told you and that you've hidden behind your entire life."

"You're wrong," Kathar countered, a zeal in his tone, "they've never lied to me. They've always been there for me." He truly believed in the Order and their mission.

The shade growled and clenched a fist, slamming it into the dust beside him. The ground shook in response, the blow more potent than Kathar had guessed. Slowly that hand unwound, and the doppelganger allowed a small chuckle to escape. "Blind loyalty. I remember that. But even now, you know it's not true. Here." A finger clicked.

---

Suddenly Kathar found himself back at the Jedi Temple, standing on an observation platform masters would often use as they oversaw students in training. Speaking of masters, he stood behind a pair who were observing exercises below.

"He's never going to make it," one of the masters said, shaking their head.

The other nodded in agreement, "No. He's just not keeping up with the rest of the peers."

Kathar edged forward to try to see who the masters spoke about, but a pit in his stomach revealed he already knew. He peered over the edge and saw a flash of red hair before it disappeared as the younger Kathar fell face-first into the dust of the training ground. Kathar's hands clenched the rails of the platform, knuckles turning white, as he watched the painful memory. He remembered this. He remembered standing up time and time again, only to be pushed back down by his opponent. He remembered feeling humiliated and utterly defeated - but he didn't remember hearing this conversation.

"He can't even win against the worst duellist. He won't make it past the next trial, and he'll have to leave the Temple." The master looked about to say something else when another click sounded.

---

The memory - if Kathar could call it that - ended and he found himself sitting back near the firepit, hands clenched and knuckles white, as in the vision. He shook with the humiliation of the past.

"They were ready to discard you, simply because they didn't understand you. Does that seem like the wise, patient, and caring Jedi Order they told you about? The lie they sold you on?" Other Kathar clicked his tongue and shook his head, "Sure seems like to me if you're not useful to them then they will happily throw you away."

He wanted to respond, to argue that soon after they had discovered the issue holding him back. That vision seemed to paint a clear picture though that they were willing to send him away. "But...I made it through."

The doppelganger smiled, "Yes, you did. Barely." There was more there, Kathar knew, but the shade pressed on, "That wasn't the only time the Jedi tried to steal your future from you. To take something dear from you." Another click.

---

Once again, Kathar was back in the Jedi Temple. He walked the familiar hallways, oddly quiet and empty. As he passed a window he looked outside and saw why: It was in the dead of night, the only light in the sky the piercing glow of Coruscant's many buildings. All the students were in bed, and the masters retreated to their quarters to meditate.

A hushed whisper broke the silence, and Kathar saw two shadowy figures dart from one hallway to another. Kathar quickened his pace, running down to the intersection and looking down. The timing allowed him, at the last moment, to see a foot disappear into an alcove about halfway down. He stepped out into the hallway and began to creep down it; whoever these intruders were, he needed to stop them. As he got closer, he heard the same whispers, then a giggle followed by a hushing noise.

"Kath, be quiet." A boys voice continued after the hush, "A master might hear. Especially Master Loshak. Those ears must be good for something." Another laugh. Kathar looked around the corner, and his heart sank.

Another moment he remembered, though he hadn't thought of it in years. In the alcove, two boys sat, hands intertwined. The brown-haired boy held his other hand up to his ear, a mocking emulation of Lannik ears as the red-haired boy laughed and covered his mouth with his hand.

Please be quiet, he silently urged. He knew what was coming.

Yet his warning remained unheeded. The boys continued to laugh and giggle, making jokes about other masters and students. Finally, the two boys quietened and started to lean towards each other, eyes fluttering closed and lips pursing.

Kathar closed his own eyes, mentally preparing himself for what came next - but the bark of the Temple guard still made him jump. The white armoured figure pulled both struggling boys out and started marching them down the corridor.

A click.

---

"The guard took you to a master who punished you both. The next time you saw him, he ignored you." The doppelganger sighed, watching as Kathar wiped tears from his eyes. "Stolen moments of happiness." A silence fell as they stared at each other. Kathar was the first to break the gaze, eyes sweeping over behind the others shoulder. There, in the distance, he saw a flash of green. He wiped his eyes again, and when he re-opened them, the light was gone.

"And that's not even close to the worst the Jedi have done to you."

[Rugs]

A frantic battle erupted between Karn and Colubus. It quickly became apparent for the young Arkanian that this shade, this apparition was not his former master. No matter how well it wore her face. No matter how well it mimicked her voice, or how much it knew of him and his time under her.

Colubus had been a master swordswoman, only bested — in Karn’s view — by his new mentor, Darth Viren. She had been the one who set him down the path to learning Juyo. She had been the one to teach him the ways of the lightsaber so that he quickly caught up to his peers, despite beginning much later than those who fortunate privilege of first learning in the Jedi Temple’s hallowed halls.

This ghost — this thing — was not Colubus. It fought lazily, sloppily. Stupidly, with broad, slow sings swings and lunges from too far out to ever have any hope of success.

Just as soon as Karn realized this did he realize it did not matter. His lightsaber, blurring crimson in the dark, sliced through Colubus again and again. Every time, she laughed. Every time she taunted him as she reformed and threw brutal counteroffensives his way.

Karn should have been winning. He should be free of the accursed spirit, free from whatever twisted hell she’d dragged him to. But he knew, to his core, that he was losing. That he was wasting precious time.

Another wave of the Force — or whatever passed for it in this strange place — sent Karn hurtling back through the wall, landing with scattered rock around him within the ruins, next to the reflecting pool.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Colubus was, once again, stepping through the hole left by Karn’s passing. “Your martial prowess, such as it is, means nothing here. The only thing that matters is your will, your resolve. But you never were strong-willed, were you?” She stopped about a dozen feet from him and smiled sadly. “You wear that mask of arrogance, but I know what lurks below. A scared little boy, wondering if he’ll ever be proved worthy of the weight of expectation piled atop his shoulders.”

“Shut up.” Karn’s fingers clawed, ripping stones from the ruins behind him and hurling them at Colubus. They passed through her as though she were a hologram.

Colubus shook her head. “And when those doubts rise to the surface, you falter. You fail, because you know you are unworthy.” Again, the world boomed, as if a giant bell tolled out of sight. Suddenly Colubus was upon him, her lightsaber buried in his stomach. Karn grit his teeth, trying with what strength remained not to yell out in pain. The effort failed as she dragged her blade slowly up, through his stomach into his chest.

“You fail again, Karn. Just like Nar Shaddaa.”

He didn’t see the shadowy hands that reached from the pool and dragged him under.

“Your time is almost up.”

---

Karn was drowning.

He’d not taken a breath as hands dragged him under. He didn’t fight against the shades clutching their thin arms around his chest and stomach and neck. He didn’t struggle or yell as he felt more energy, more life dragged from his person.

Not much longer now. Once the green light took him, he’d be finished. Karn wasn’t sure how he knew that. He just did.

“Your time is almost up.”

What little remained of the darkness above faded, showing Kath again. The Jedi was seated near a fire, talking to that shadowed being again.

“Your time is almost up.”

“Kath...” he whispered as the world went dark.

---

“...help me...”

Karn did not cough up water this time. His clothes were still wet, still clinging to his slender frame. He had to fight for every fitful breath, every gasp of air. He lay on his stomach, head looking to the side. Infinite night, dotted by stars, sprawled across the sky above him. Barren desert stretched out in all directions. Soft light flickered from behind him, offering warmth against the night’s chill.

“Your time is almost up.”

Karn began to push himself up, or tried to. His body, pushed beyond exhaustion, rebelled and he slumped to the ground. It’s over. A fire crackled behind him, comforting in a way he couldn’t quite place. She’ll show up again. And then it will be over.

One last failure. Then it’s over.

[Symm]

The moment stretched on and on between the two identical men, green eyes matching green eyes. Kathar's mind raced over what the visions meant, what they revealed. A smile once again flashed on the doppelganger's face, and he began, "The Jedi stol-".

"That's not how it happened," Kathar said suddenly, a memory sliding into place. "Not exactly. Yes, the guard found us, but on the way, they apologised. They understood."

"What does it m-"

He cut the thing off again, slowly pushing up. The shade, wary, rose to their feet, "The master punished us, but it wasn't for...that. It was because we were out after curfew. And the next time I saw him, he didn't have a chance to say anything - he was leaving with his master. I saw him again years later, and we laughed about it."

"That means n-"

"No!" Kathar stepped forward, "You don't get to talk. Not anymore. What else have you been lying about? That vision with the masters. Was that even real?" The man closed the distance, and the shade stepped back, igniting its red blade. An idea came to Kathar, and he raised his hand, thumb and forefinger together. "Why don't we find out." He clicked.

---

The scene in the training ground replayed, and Kathar watched it with a discerning eye. Everything happened as it did before. He watched as the masters discussed his ability - or rather, lack of; he watched as he ate dirt, over and over again. Still, there was something here. Something just wasn't right. Yet the memory drew towards the end and Kathar spotted nothing strange. Was it true?

"He can't even win against the worst duellist. He won't make it past the next trial, and he'll have to leave the Temple." The words cut through him again - but this time, something else happened. The master kept speaking, "There must be something we can do to help the boy. We can't cast him out."

The other master looked thoughtful as he watched young Kathar, "Yes. I think I know what we can do."

---

The vision faded away, this time without a click - simply ending of its own accord. Kathar stared across at the thing across from him, who shied from his gaze, "They wanted to help me. They tried to help me." He stepped right up to the projection of himself, "You're not me. You're nothing but a lie, a deception."

Just then, a voice weakly cried out - begging for his help. He spun on his heel, paying no heed to the doppelganger. He knew that voice, and he knew this time he wasn't hearing things. "Karn!" He yelled back, "Don't listen to it! I don't know what you're seeing, but it's not real! It's a lie! You can beat it."

Kathar began to walk to the voice, but the dark side jumped in front of him, red blade ready to pierce his chest. It snarled and narrowed its eyes, "To get to him, you'll have to get through me."

The Jedi stared at the sabre, then up into the face. A face that was melting, revealing the shadow beneath. "You're not real." With a breath, Kathar pressed forward - onto the blade. Or rather, through it. The shadow screamed as the Kathar continued, stepping straight through the being. The blade flickered out, and the shadows fled.

"Karn!"

[Rugs]

“Karn!”

“Kath?” Karn wanted to turn to the Jedi’s voice, but he was too weary. Too weak. “Is that you?”

"Don't listen to it! I don't know what you're seeing, but it's not real! It's a lie! You can beat it."

Not real? Karn heard footfalls on the rocky ground behind him, heard Kath saying more, but he couldn’t focus. Shadows, pitch-black even against the dark of night, swirled above the ground. Out of the rolling miasma stepped Colubus, her green face faintly lit by the edge of the flickering light from the small campfire.

“So this is the Jedi you’ve called to?” Colubus snorted, a wry little smile tugging at the edges of her lips. “I suppose we all have our vices, don’t we?”

Her green-eyed gaze turned to Kathar. “I am the manifestation of the manifold failures of the broken boy before you, Kathar Maiavel.” There was a weight, a twisting to the way she said his name that went along with her little smile that suggested something more, some hidden joke. Whatever it was, she said nothing else of it. “Those failures, those shortcomings and mistakes, are very real, regardless of what words of comfort you’d try giving him.”

Colubus’ smile grew malicious as she looked at Karn. “Would you like to see?”

Here it comes. Karn braced himself. It’s almost over.

Colubus spread her arms and raised them skyward. All around them, the barren desert gave way to a crumbling city, with fountains of fire throwing thick plumes of smoke into the sky. The clear, starry sky gave way to one choked with haze, with glimpses of laser fire visible through the gaps as starfighters and capital ships roared overhead.

Karn didn’t have to see it to know what this was. Nar Shaddaa.

“No...” he begged weakly as tears gathered in his eyes. “Please, anything but this...”

—-

Karn and Colubus, followed by a knot of Sith soldiers, raced through the ruins of a city block toward a warehouse the Archeri had turned into a crystal nursery. The warehouse, a big, blocky structure, loomed at the end of a broad avenue. The branches of one of the Archeri’s strange trees had burst through the windows, bearing violet crystals that glimmered in Nar Shaddaa’s long twilight.

“They are coming,” Colubus said as her green lightsaber blazed to life in her hand. Karn’s came to his grip and ignited in a flash of crimson. They fought as the Archeri descended upon them in a wave. Karn and Colubus cut them down, but it was a doomed effort.

One of the beasts threw Karn away from Colubus with a blast of the Force. It attacked him as he tried to stand, battering his armor with its limbs, until his lightsaber tore it apart from neck to waist.

As the Archeri’s body fell apart, Karn looked to Colubus to see her surrounded by Archeri. Her green blade was a whirlwind — as beautiful as it was terrifying — as she cut through one after the other. But it couldn’t last; he could see dents and dings in her armor, and blood leaking between the light plates at her shoulder and side.

“Master!” He began to run toward her, ‘til heavy thumping from behind alerted him to a new threat.

A Conductor — one of the large Archeri tasked with overseeing and defending the Chorus’ nurseries — charged at him. Karn hesitated, frozen with his blade half-raised for an instant of instinctual fear. Here and gone in a heartbeat, but it didn’t matter.

The Conductor threw him aside into a pile of rubble. As Karn lifted his head, he saw the creature attack Colubus from behind, driving a long, sharp limb through her back and out the front of her chest as she slammed to the ground. Her scream echoed across the avenue.

—-

“No!” Karn yelled at the apparition. “Stop!” The scene around them blurred, changed.

—-

Karn fought on into the warehouse. The band of Sith soldiers had been whittled to three. Then two. Then one. The last one fell to a crystal, as thick as Karn’s forearm, sticking through his chest.

Karn stood alone, beneath the heavy, crystal-burdened boughs of the Archeri nursery tree, battered and bloody. His helmet’s mask was cracked, showing a face smeared with blood from a cut just above his left eye. The Archeri swarmed from all directions. He fought as fiercely as he could, cut down one, then two and three and four and on.

A blow from behind sent him staggering. His lightsaber clattered away from him, useless. He screamed in horror as the Archeri raised a sharp limb to impale him against the tree.

Then the Jedi came. A green lightsaber cut the Archeri in half as Republic soldiers flooded into the warehouse.

—-

The scene faded away, returning Karn, Kath and the apparition to darkness. Only Karn’s sobs and the crackling fire broke the darkness.

“Now do you understand?” The Colubus shade knelt next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You are no Sith, worthy of this place’s secrets. Again, you turn to a Jedi to see you through your own failings, because you know you lack the strength to carry yourself.”

“No, you are no Sith.” She smiled darkly at him. “You are weak, Karn Albrecht. You are nothing.”

“No,” Karn said, his voice wavering. “You were weak.” The Colubus shade recoiled, staggering backward as if struck.

“It’s a lie! You can beat it." Kath’s voice echoed in Karn’s head. He found some lingering vestiges of strength and stood slowly.

“I died because of you, boy,” the shade hissed.

“Colubus did not die because of you.” Now he heard Viren, from their first meeting atop the Sith Academy. “She died because she was weak.”

“Maybe that’s true,” Karn admitted. It was hard to stand on his own. He leaned on Kath and hoped the Jedi understood. “But maybe that’s not the whole of it.”

“Whether you choose to believe that or not is entirely up to you,” Viren had told him, “but the sooner you understand the truth of it, the sooner you will be free of the past that tethers you to your own weakness."

“I survived,” Karn did. “Sure, I needed help, but I survived even after you fell.” Again, the shade recoiled. Colubus’ face began to distort and blur, as if coming apart. Karn pressed on. “Master, you did so much for me. You recognized me when no else did. You taught me more lessons than I can ever thank you for. You made me who I am, and I will forever be grateful.

“But you merely revealed to me the path to the summit. Now Darth Viren will lead me to it. The truth of it is, Master, I’m better for having lost you.”

The shade recoiled a third time, howling as Colubus’ visage dissipated. In her place remained one of the small shadow creatures from the abyss, glowing green eyes watching Karn and Kath.

“Very well,” the creature said, its voice grating on Karn’s ears. “Very well. You may leave this place. But as you do, take this gift.” Karn had the feeling that the shade was smiling, despite lacking a mouth.

“Three futures,” it said. “One that could be. One that should be. One that must be.”

The shade lunged forward and pushed them into the pool.

---

Karn was falling, but not drowning.

The water was gone, and he drifted slowly down as if on air. He was aware of Kath beside him, but his attention was held by the vision playing across the infinite sky above.

—-

Karn and Kath walked through a city of gleaming white stone. It sat on a rise above a sea of brilliant blue, beneath a perfect sky clear of all but a few thin, wispy clouds. They smiled as they hurried to a wall at the city’s edge, hands together. There they sat, one leaning on the other, and watched the sunset over the placid sea.

—-

A war raged. Karn and Kath found themselves on opposite sides of it. A yearning existed between them, a desire for something more than the hands fate dealt them. In quiet moments, they talked across the stars. On distant worlds, untouched by the fire sweeping the Galaxy, they met for moments of fleeting peace, each shorter and more treacherous than the last. They yearned for more, but duty stayed their steps. Duty dragged them slowly apart, just as the war dragged on toward inevitable disaster.

—-

An inferno swirled around them. They fought, ferociously, hatefully, orange lightsaber and red throwing sparks with every collision. Both were battered, bleeding, and bruised, with burns in their clothes where lightsabers had touched and signed skin, but not burned through to sever limb from body. Yet it was obvious at a glance who held — and pressed — the advantage. Karn fought defensively, desperately trying to stave off Kath’s onslaught. But Kath’s orange blade danced around Karn’s red, flicked across his thigh, tore Karn’s lightsaber away as the Arkanian stumbled from the pain. He grabbed Karn by the throat, lifting him to pin against a wall as his lightsaber drew back for a killing blow...

---

Karn returned to his senses. He was back in the citadel, in the same torchlit chamber with the reflecting pool in its center. Or.... it had been at the center. The pool was gone and in its place a short pedestal in the center a shallow, square depression. A small stone ring with a single, twisting edge sat atop the pedestal.

“What happened?” Karn asked, looking around. “Where-?”

The weight of the visions hit him at once. The drowning, Colubus’ shade, Kath and the shadowed man. The final three visions after the shade pushed them away. He felt to his knees, tears blurring his vision. “I... What happened?"

[Symm]

There! He saw Karn ahead, and Kathar lunged forward to reach the man before the place saw fit to steal him away. Even as Karn's nightmare emerged from the shadows, Kathar stepped up to stand beside him. He didn't reach for his weapon, which still lay discarded in the dark; he knew it would be of no use. In Kathar's mind, he knew that this was something Karn needed to get through himself. So, he chose to stand next to the Sith and remained quiet - intending to be a silent bulwark of support.

Then the shade of Colubus addressed him, knowing his name - yet hearing it from her lips sounded false; something about the way she said it. Quickly though, Kathar pushed that feeling down, as a proper Jedi would. Right now, this was about Karn, not him. Any other feelings were useless.

'Would you like to see?'

As the presence lifted their arms, Kathar looked to Karn. He watched as the tears started to gather, as Karn tensed for whatever was coming next. The Sith pleaded with the shade and Kathar began to reach, to put a hand on the man's shoulder; before he could the scene changed, and he found himself on a world he'd never been.

---

He watched, an observer to a horror he'd never experienced. He watched as the beasts ambushed the Sith soldiers, tore through their ranks. He saw the moment Karn froze, the moment the young Sith kept replaying over and over in his mind - and the moment that followed. Kathar forced himself to watch every moment, and only when the scenes faded away did he close his eyes.

---

They were back at the fire, and the shade continued its mental assault. Kathar wanted to say something, anything more, but instead, he looked at Karn and willed him to respond. He wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that he'd done everything anyone could have possibly expected; yet he held back on a feeling. A rare moment of foresight out of battle whispered to him, and the words died stillborn in his mouth. Soon, his silence rewarded, Karn refuted the shade.

The Sith leaned on him, and Kathar stayed still - an anchor in the mental hellscape. He brought his hand up, reaching to clasp around behind Karn - to provide more physical support, Kathar told himself. Karn looked physically and mentally exhausted, after all. Karn railed against the dark, but a name the man let slip caused the Jedi a moment of doubt: Darth Viren. He knew that name, even if he didn't know the person.

"Very well. Very well. You may leave this place." To Kathar's ears, something strange occurred. The creatures voice took on a metallic sound as if filtered through a respirator. This sound snapped Kathar's attention back, something about the noise digging up familiar feelings in the man. "But as you do, take this gift."

Kathar had the feeling that the shade was smiling, despite being covered by a helmet.

"Three futures. One that could be. One that should be. One that must be."

He stared at the mask: all grey except for a black visor that ran ear-to-ear, from the bridge of the nose to chin. A voice, in that same mechanical drone, whispered in his ear, "Seek us when you learn the truth."

Kathar reached out as they fell into the pool, "Wa-"

---

"...up." He finally finished the sentence, begun so long ago. The Jedi shook himself suddenly, reaching desperately for the Force to wrap around like a blanket. The experiences exploded in his mind, one after the other, and he found himself collapsing alongside Karn.

Kathar reached out to grab Karn's shoulders, to steady both himself and the Sith. "I don't know. I don't know." He took in a shuddering breath and looked up into Karn's eyes. Suddenly, looking upon the others face, the memory of the helmet gave way to the visions of the future - possible futures. "Karn," he said, mouth suddenly dry, "I'm. I'm." For once, the Jedi didn't know what to say. So he said nothing.

[Rugs]

“I...” Karn trembled as Kathar gripped his shoulders. “I...”

Too many emotions came rushing on at once. Karn had ever been a creature of emotion; they were his strength and, often, his weakness. The torrent that came flooding to his mind at once — borne of a forced reckoning with his dead master, of glimpses of futures he could not even begin to understand — paralyzed him.

He fought. For a few futile moments, he tried to keep it all at bay, tried to stammer out something, anything to the Jedi sitting in front of him.

In the end, all he could manage was a weak smile as a single tear rolled down his pale cheek.

“So much for guarding information, huh?”

Then the dam broke.

He crumpled forward as sobs wracked him, crying into Kath’s shoulder. He did not care about their opposing allegiances. He did not care about what Kath thought of him, or his own weakness on display.

He could only cry, sobs echoing in the dark, uncaring chamber.

---

Some time later, Karn sat, chin on knees and arms wrapped around his legs, at the edge of the depression where the reflecting pool had once been. The stone ring still sat atop the pedestal, waiting for one of them to take it. Karn presently lacked the will.

An uncomfortable silence stretched on between him and Kath. Karn felt embarrassed over his breakdown. He was a Sith — apprentice to Darth Viren, at that — and he’d fallen apart like a child. Though, he had to admit he felt better, after letting the emotions out.

He turned to look at Kathar. A million questions ran through his head. How long had they been in the dream world, or whatever it was? What might have happened if they failed the tests the shades posed?

What were those visions at the end? Three futures. One that could, one that should, one that must. Karn frowned. Are any of them set? Could none come to pass, or must one? It was possible, he supposed, that they were all lies, as Kathar warned before the Colubus shade’s final test. But the memory she’d dragged forward had been very, very real.

Where to begin? he wondered.

“I’ve heard,” he said, finally breaking the silence, “that the Jedi face trials before rising to Knighthood.” His voice was slightly hoarse, scratchy. He didn’t bother to get any water from his bag. “Skill. Courage. Flesh. Spirit.” He lifted one of his hands, raising each of its four fingers as he named the Trials. “Never took them myself, of course, but lots of Sith are former Jedi. You learn things, through talking to them. Pick up on things you’d never know otherwise. Some of them call Spirit ‘facing the mirror.’ Is that what that Trial is like?”

He watched Kathar with earnest curiosity, and after a brief hesitation added, “What... What did you see?”

[Symm]

There was that moment, that moment of shared silence as they both tried to keep it together. Then Karn cracked a joke, a reminder of their initial animosity, and Kathar laughed; it wasn't full-throated, but rather something dredged up to help them get past this shock. Quick and short. As the Sith broke down, Kathar drew in a breath and did what any good Jedi would do: He shoved his doubts and fears way down, out of sight and mind, and wrapped his arms around the other man. Kathar closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, cheek against Karn's hair.

He said nothing, for there was nothing to say. No words of consolation for what they'd gone through. So he sat there, very lightly rocking the two back and forth.

---

After disentangling himself from Karn, Kathar slowly walked the edge of the depression where the pool had been. He pretended as if he was looking for traps, but in reality, took the time to go over what he saw. The helmet seemed important, but the other scenes kept flashing into his mind. Kathar looked across to Karn and the visions of the future overlaid themselves on the man: He flinched, the wound from the last possibility showing on Karn's thigh; he saw the pool between them as the gap in the second vision. Yet those two weren't the most concerning to the Jedi. No, the scene of them leaning against each other, hands interlocked, contented smiles on their faces: That worried him more than the others. He remembered the name Karn spoke, Viren, and he hardened his heart.

Suddenly Karn spoke, and Kathar looked up from his internal conflict. He listed the Trials of the Jedi, and Kathar couldn't help but be surprised; short-lived as it were. Karn explained his knowledge as Kathar sat on the edge, letting his feet dangle into the pool.

"Yes, in some ways, no in others. It is very similar, though." He looked at Karn, then away as the other asked what he saw. "I saw..." He trailed off, fighting a war in his mind; should he lie, or should he tell the truth? Kathar brought his eyes back up, "I saw myself. Only it wasn't me. It claimed to be what I could become if I, if I just left the Jedi behind. I tried to fight it, but it beat me badly."

He drew in a breath, then continued, "It showed me scenes from my past, things it thought could shake my faith. Jedi Masters talking about expelling me, getting caught with another p...getting caught after curfew and being punished. It was all true, but," he shook his head, "not true? It twisted things, made them seem worse than they were."

Kathar trailed off, then began again, "Then I saw what happened to you. With the Chorus, and your master. I'm sorry." A pause, as a little niggle of doubt, crept it's way in: Maybe if you'd been there, you could have helped. "Then I saw a Mandalorian helmet on that thing in there? I don't understand that part."

Once again, he fell quiet, but it was apparent he wasn't done. He looked away, then back, "And then three more visions. Of the future, apparently. Did you...?"

[Rugs]

So similar, but not quite the same. Karn merely nodded. That was to be expected, he supposed. What they’d faced was borne of the Sith — whatever traits it shared to the Jedi Order’s trials would only go so far.

Karn found himself more interested in what Kath had to say of his own trials. His question of the test — while genuine — had, perhaps only been a way to break the silence. A way to renew conversation when he wasn’t sure how to otherwise.

“Yours beat you too?” He offered a rueful smile. “My... whatever that thing was was my master. My former master, but it wasn’t her. It knew what she knew, knew things about me that only she did, but when she fought it wasn’t the same. But it didn’t matter. I could have killed her ten times over and she just didn’t care.” He shrugged as if it were of little consequence now, despite the churning in his stomach. “Still got stabbed though,” he pointing first at his chest, then stomach.

Karn fell quiet as Kath continued on. He tilted his head slightly as Kathar stumbled over his recounting of one of the things he’d seen. Another p...? His eyes narrowed very slightly, in thought. What could that have been?

As Kath made it around to what he’d seen of Karn’s test, of the trauma from Nar Shaddaa that still plagued his mind, Karn shrugged again. “Thanks,” he muttered. His pride wanted to say that he didn’t need the Jedi’s sympathy, that he should have bristled at it from Kath as he did from anyone else. But he was thankful. The Jedi saw him at his weakest, at his lowest, in that terrible nightmare world.

What use was the mask now?

“A Mandalorian helmet? I didn’t see that.” Karn shook his head as he spoke. Strange. He might have said more, but Kath was not done.

He felt something like a hand clenching his stomach when Kathar brought up the visions.

“‘Take this gift...’” he said quietly, voice trailing off as he quoted the shade’s final words. “‘Three futures.’”

His mouth felt dry. He didn’t know where to begin.

“Well,” he said, giving a chuckle that sounded about as forced as it was, “I saw you killing me.” He tried to smile wryly, but a trace of sorrow--real and geniuine--broke through. He’d only seen a glimpse of the fight. While they both appeared to be rather banged up, the battle’s end didn’t appear particularly competitive.

Karn knew little of Kath as a fighter, beyond what he'd seen in the earlier test. He always preferred to seize the initiative and go on the offensive; if he was forced to defend — and as desperately as the vision showed — things were going poorly. “Maybe it’s for the best I didn’t try to attack you at the entrance, huh?”

What could have spawned such a clash? Kath was a Jedi, and he a Sith. They could fight for any number of reasons, but there was something different about what the vision showed. Something deeply, profoundly personal.

He winced at the memory of being lifted by the throat to die. He rubbed his thigh — in the exact spot the vision showed — without realizing it and kept on.

“I saw us, um...” he trailed off again, not sure what to say, “wanting each other but being unable. Secret meetings across the Galaxy, keeping in touch from a distance when we could.” That was troubling in a different way. They had exchanged contact information, during that long conversation after dealing with the automatons.

Karn smiled at Kath. This attempt was a little more earnest, though a shadow of sorrow clung to it. “‘We all have our vices,’” he said, again quoting the shade from when it still wore Colubus’ face.

“And I saw us together. On a beautiful world I’ve never seen before. We seemed...” Karn licked his lips, mouth still dry. “We seemed happy. Everything in the world seemed right, in that one.”

Another silence. Karn, so used to plainly speaking his mind, was at loss. “Kath I-” he started, then stopped, considering. “I don’t know what to think about any of it. Sadow was a master of illusions, so it’s possible it was all a trick. I’m no expert on temporal studies and splitting timelines, but it stands to reason that if there are three possible futures, there could be more.”

For the first time since they entered the dream world, Karn cracked a wry smile that was as boyish and cocksure as any he’d ever given. “Who knows, maybe I beat you in a different one. If not, I’ll make one. Sith make their own destinies, after all.” He laughed, shaking his head.

“But as much I want to say that there’s nothing to them, I don’t think that’s true. When I met you — and it wasn that long ago, I couldn’t wait to get away from you. And now I-” he stopped abruptly, shaking his head. He frowned slightly as he visibly worked around what he’d been about to say.

“Everything else we saw in there struck at a truth of something. A fear, a failing, struggles of the past. Twisted however it might have been, there was some grain of truth it sprang from.” Another silence, as Karn appeared to brace himself physically for what he was going to say.

“That being the case, I find it hard to believe the final visions would be any different.”

[Symm]

Karn's admission of being beat by his illusion reaffirmed Kathar's belief: They couldn't have beaten the shades in combat. That, seemingly, wasn't the point of the trial.

He followed Karn's hand as the other touched their chest and stomach. So, no physical damage out of the illusion. Come to think of it, Kathar's nose, which got smashed in the vision, felt perfectly fine. It made sense, he supposed, but he still remembered feeling as though he had broken his nose.

So, Karn hadn't seen the helmet. Strange. "It was right before it pushed us into the pool. The voice even sounded like it was going through the respirator. I thought it was part of your vision since I've never seen a Mandalorian in anything except holos."

Then they proceeded to the subject Kathar dreaded. Everything else, all the experiences at the Temple, the fight he'd seen on Nar Shaddaa - all of that he was more than willing to talk about. This, though? The 'gift' the visions bestowed upon them? Kathar didn't know what to say.

He looked away as Karn spoke of the fight, of Kathar looking ready to strike Karn down. Like Karn, he'd seen the same subtext. It was not just that Kathar was a Jedi and Karn was a Sith; that was something Kathar understood. There was hatred in the battle - on both sides. He closed his eyes as the memory moved on, where he picked Karn up by the throat and drew his saber back; powered by rage.

Karn brought Kathar back through a light joke at his own expense, and Kathar nodded. He put a small, fake smile on and looked back, "Maybe."

Then Karn continued, explaining the two remaining visions, including the one that bothered him the most. Once again, Kathar looked away - down into the depression between them.

He wanted to speak up, to dispute the visions, to call them out as the lies they surely had to be. But Karn's next point rang true, for it was Kathar's assessment of the trials as well. Truth and lies.

'I find it hard to believe the final visions would be any different.'

Kathar allowed the silence to wallow between the two, the only sound the flickering of torches in their sconces. He waited long enough for the silence to be defined as 'uncomfortable'. Then he made a noise, clearing his throat, before saying, "I agree." Of course, he couldn't bring himself to look at Karn.

Instead, Kathar dropped down into the depression and inspected the small plinth on which the artifact rest. "Everything we saw was true, and everything we saw was twisted. The visions, the futures..." He shook his head and reached out to grab the artifact, bringing it up to inspect. "They must be the same. There must be more to them that we didn't see."

The Jedi sprung out of the pit in one smooth motion, landing lightly on his feet with his back to Karn. "Because none of them make sense to me. I'm a Jedi; you're a Sith. I wouldn't let my anger control me, like in the one where I kill you." He hid his face, leaning down to put the artifact away in his bag. "And the other two..."

Kathar hefted his bag onto his back and started walking back towards the exit, "We should keep moving."

[Rugs]

Karn watched Kath as the silence stretched on. He wondered, not for the first time, what was going through the Jedi’s head.

He wondered, not for the first time, what was going through his own. To say that he accepted a thing might be true was not to say he liked it. But by the test’s own logic, he could see no way around the inescapable conclusion that their fates — their lives — were inextricably linked. To what extent, he could not say. Why, he could not say.

The visions had shown what they had — if only one held that element at its being, perhaps it would have been easier to throw it away. But that wasn’t the case. As far as Karn could reason out, they were either bound to be true, or completely false.

He laughed softly, a gentle chuckle in his throat, as Kath spoke while retrieving the stone artifact waiting for them in the middle of the depression. “I’m sure there is,” he said, watching the Jedi as he deposited the relic in his bag. Kath’s leap from the pit was smooth, graceful. If what the visions showed was true. If he and the Jedi were to be, well, he could certainly do worse.

But they were a long way from that, as Kath’s next words spelled out. Jedi and Sith. Forbidden, and not only for the Jedi’s stance on romantic affairs. “That is true,” he said simply as he rose, dusting the seat of his pants off and calling his sack to his open hand with the Force. For now.

“And I’d like to say I’d never let you push me around like that, but we saw what we saw.” Karn jogged a few steps to fall in behind Kath. “Let me offer you some free advice, Kath,” he said. “The Sith Temple is full of ex-Jedi who said they’d never do this or never do that. I think you’ll find your morals are as firm or as malleable as you want them to be when push comes to shove.

He watched Kath from the side of his eye as he walked, stopping on the verge of asking another question. Would you never allow yourself happiness, if you faced the other outcome? But he left that unspoken for now.

“The visions must have drawn from some inflection point,” he went on, thinking out loud. “I mean, if you think about it, what are the odds that we’d even be here, together, at the same time? Two Sith, maybe. Two Jedi, maybe, as an expedition. But a Jedi and a Sith? It’s a long shot.”

A silence settled over them for a time as they walked side-by-side along toward the central chamber. “Wonder if Sadow ever envisioned playing matchmaker,” he said idly, to break the silence. A coy smile, a little nod of the head; he could at least have fun with it, even if Kath wouldn’t. “I can’t imagine he did.”

“But there was something else I noticed. The shade of my master, when she said your name, there was something to it that didn’t seem quite right.” He looked at Kath. What was supposed to be a glance lingered perhaps a moment longer than it should have. “Did you notice that?”

[Symm]

We saw what we saw.

There was no denying the truth of that statement, yet Kathar actively avoided thinking about the implications of it. The Sith spoke of the Jedi that fell to the dark side and joined the Empress' ranks, and Kathar couldn't help the flicker of annoyance. He threw a look over his shoulder as he offered up a reply, "Those Jedi were weak-minded or tricked. I think you'll find when push comes to shove, that I might disappoint you." Kathar looked back down the hallway. "I won't fall," he said, some finality in his tone - hoping that it put an end to this particular line of discussion. Whether he said it for his benefits or Karn's, however, was up to interpretation.

As far as Kathar was concerned, there was no chance that he would ever fall to the dark side. And that was that.

They passed the entrance to the hallway and Kathar gestured. His lightsaber spun off of his hip, guided by the invisible hand of the Force. In moments it scored a mark against the wall and re-attached itself to his belt. He nodded back to Karn and then proceeded to the next hallway.

The point raised about them being here at the same time was a good one, and Kathar nodded once again, "It does seem unlikely. But the Force works in mysterious ways." He believed sincerely that the Force had a plan, yet he couldn't reconcile that with the futures shown. "Maybe that's why the visions were so strange. Not even the makers of this place could have predicted such a peculiar thing. It probably just got confused..."

He shot a look at Karn as the other said the word matchmaker. The smile on Karn's face frustrated him in more ways than he could describe, and more ways than he liked, so he responded more rashly than he would have liked, "Sadow envisioned little but his own aggrandisement, like all S-". He caught himself and cut off, stalking down the hallway in a huff. Why oh why was he letting Karn get to him like this?

The topic changed then to another mystery, something Kathar almost had forgotten about in the ensuing conversation. "Yes," he said, allowing a breath to push away the aggravation. "I did notice that. I don't understand why, though. It's just my name?" And yet, when Colubus said Karn's name, there was no such strangeness to it. "Perhaps just another mind game of this place." Like the three futures.

He left that last part unsaid.

Kathar slowed, reaching the end of the corridor before it opened up into another room. "After you?" He gestured forward.

[Rugs]

So Kath had noticed the weight the shade put on his name. Karn wondered at the why, but perhaps Kath was right — perhaps it was a game. Or perhaps, as if everything else they’d seen it that realm, there was something to it.

He couldn’t begin to fathom what that might be, and he had little else to add to that other than a nod f agreement.

Instead, he returned to something Kath said earlier, about Sadow.

“Self-aggrandizing like all Sith?” Karn grinned at Kath before putting on a hurt face. It was mostly to tease, but easier than it should have been; the words stung a little. “Kath, you wound me. After what we’ve been together down here, after what you’ve seen of my past?” He sniffed as if offended but couldn’t quite keep the stupid grin back as he shifted the sack’s strap across his shoulder and front of his chest. “Why, I’m the least self-aggrandizing person I know.”

It was all nerfshit, of course. But Karn couldn’t resist needling his Jedi companion over it. Besides, he thought as they emerged into a new chamber, you were the one just speaking in absolutes.

“Those Jedi were weak-minded or tricked. I think you’ll find that when push comes to shove, I’ll disappoint you.”

“I won’t fall.”

Karn took a couple of steps forward, then hesitated, looking back to Kath. His gaze was searching, thoughtful, and lingered on Kath's green eyes before he turned away. Oh no, Kath, you misread me. If that’s what awaits me after your fall I want no part of it. He set his sack on the ground and ventured deeper into the chamber. But there’s more than one way to fall, and more than the Dark Side to fall for...

The new chamber felt distressingly ordinary compared to the prior two. There was no smothering presence--other than the Dark Side miasma that clouded the whole of the citadel — no siren song calling them onwards to grapple with the darkest parts of their past and unwelcome futures.

In short order, they reached a wall that barred progress deeper into the chamber. A pair of heavy doors, each one half of a diamond, was cut into its center. Karn could see no way to open them. The force revealed no hidden mechanisms as with the entrance.

Upon closer inspection, he saw subtle gold gilding arrayed in a pattern across the doors’ face. It was a broad circle, with lines connecting from its outer edge to a long, unblinking eye at its center. Karn’s breath caught in his throat.

“This is Sadow’s sigil,” he said, looking back to Kath. “The same on his armor. The statue up top wore it, if you noticed.” He raised his fingers to the stone, tracing along the eye’s gold outline. He closed his eyes and reached out through the Force, straining his modest senses as far as they’d go.

Something lurked beyond the wall. Something of great significance.

“I think this is the Vault,” he said slowly. “Look.” Shallow engravings on either side of the doors matched two of the relics — one a ring, one shaped to hold the fused cores from the droids. A third engraving, smooth and round, didn’t match either of the relics in their possession.

“Looks like we have to turn back.”

[Symm]

'The least self-aggrandizing person I know.'

Okay. That cracked a small smile, but Kathar quickly pushed it away in annoyance. No, he can't allow the Sith to get under his skin like that. So he hid it with an exaggerated frown. Still, the statement wormed its way in and began to eat away at the resentment he'd been so carefully curating since the previous chamber.

They entered the vault antechamber, and Kathar stood back while Karn examined the wall. He folded his arms across his chest - perhaps both a thoughtful and defensive gesture. Eyes tracked around the room, but he allowed Karn space to investigate.

Kathar sucked in a breath, about to say something about the visions when Karn looked back. One eyebrow rose, and the Jedi walked forward, looking where Karn gestured. He raised a hand and followed Karn's tracing hand, nodding, "Yes. I remember." Interesting. Similar to Karn he reached out, probing along the lines of the wall, the sigil, anything. He too felt what lay beyond, a looming presence of something important: Perhaps what he'd come here to collect.

"You're right," he nodded, drawing his hand back. "At least we know there's only one more trial, then. Three spots."

So turn back, they did. Kathar headed back down the hallway, letting his hands fall relaxed at his side. About halfway back to the main intersection, Kathar let out an annoyed sigh as he decided he needed to talk. "So those visions. Say they are all true, all possible." A concession he didn't want to make, but he found himself doing so anyway. "The only one I could even imagine happening is the second one unless you turned away from the Sith." He glanced at Karn, "And I suppose you don't see that happening, do you?"

What did Kathar expect? The Sith man to suddenly turn to him and say 'yes, I renounce the Empress and all her dastardly and evil ways'. He held out hope - but it was a dream he knew could never happen.

"So, with you not forsaking the dark side, and me never embracing it, that leaves us with the other. But I barely know you, and honestly, after this, we'll probably never see each other again." It was a big galaxy, after all, and there were a lot of Jedi and a lot of Sith. "And Jedi do not have attachments. So there has to be something we're missing."

By the time Kathar reached this point, they had approached the end of the second hallway. He pushed on into the chamber, prepared to react to whatever the citadel threw at them.

This chamber, unlike the others, was not a perfect square. It stretched far away in the distance, and at the other end, Kathar could barely make out what looked like a window, framed in gold. He couldn't see what was behind the 'glass', but he could guess. He noted two slightly raised sections of the floor close to the entrance, left and right of the door, with symbols etched into their surface.

"So, what do you think this is?" Kathar said, walking forward.

As he passed an invisible line, suddenly the floor fell away, and only a quick warning from the Force stopped the Jedi from tumbling away with it. He snapped his foot back and stumbled, slightly, before regaining his stance. Kathar watched as every tile between the two ends of the room disappeared into a dark chasm below. He peered into the darkness, but couldn't see the bottom. A moment later, the walls and roof of the room crackled with the same red energy that powered the mechs from earlier.

"Too far to jump. Can't grapple on the walls or ceiling, unless we want to get fried." Kathar frowned and looked at the two raised sections, the only thing out of place on their side of the room. "Any thoughts?"

[Rugs]

Kath agreed, and that was good enough for Karn to call his bag over with a tug of the Force and head on back the way they’d come. For a while, they trudge back down the long hallway in familiar, uncomfortable silence that came and went in spurts ever since they’d left that second chamber. Something troubled Kath. Karn could feel that much through the Force, even if the presence clinging to the citadel muffled his senses with its weight.

He was sure he could guess, but he didn’t have to mull over it for long. The Jedi spoke.

“So those visions. Say they are all true, all possible."

Karn couldn’t help but allow a little smirk as Kath once again raised what they’d seen. Not the whole of it--only the final three. “Alright,” he said, nodding as they walked along.

Kathar’s question coincided well enough with them reentering the main chamber. Karn paused, ignited his lightsaber and marked the side of the doorway with an Aurebesh yev symbol, for the Vault. Something to stand out from the others and guide their way, should they need it.

“I don’t see that happening, no,” he admitted as they continued on down the final corridor. Kath kept talking. Karn listened, for once letting the Jedi speak uninterrupted until they arrived at their destination. Just as he was preparing to open his mouth and speak, Kath stepped forward and triggered something. The floor fell away, giving way to darkness that even Karn’s vision couldn’t pierce.

He felt a pang of shock — a fist of fear gripping his stomach — as Kath at first came perilously close to standing atop one of the segments of floor that dropped away. Before he knew it he had a hand thrown out, a guttural yell forming in his throat as the Force surged into him to catch the Jedi.

But by then, Kath had stepped back and was perfectly fine.

“An annoyance,” Karn grumbled, making a show of wiping his hand on the side of his pant leg as if he’d intended to do that all along. No there was no way they’d get to the chamber’s far end — unless they risked plunging into the dark would somehow drop them out on the other end.

Karn wasn’t willing to bet his life on it.

“But for what you were saying, the one piece we’re missing is simple,” Karn said as he walked over to inspect the platform on the left. Some symbol was etched into it, though he couldn’t fathom what it was. “Time.” He looked at Kath, both for reaction and to look at him as he walked to the raised platform on the right. The same symbol was carved into its surface. Hmmm...

“We don’t know how far away those visions the future showed are. Change can come quickly when you, or fate, or the Force, or whatever you choose to believe propels your decisions and shapes your life, decides it must be so. What was it you said earlier?” He turned that grin to Kath again as he returned to the left platform and stepped on it. Something rumbled in the darkness.

“‘The Force works in mysterious ways,’ I think it was, like a good Jedi. What if it's all the Force's will, hm?”

The floor returned from the darkness as Karn stood atop the raised platform, but only some of it. There were considerable gaps between the portions that rose up, and they didn’t each reach the same height. Some of the portions that returned titled drunkenly, sloping at wild angles that would make simple walking impossible. On the right side of the room, the impossible chasm still yawned wide between the platform and the chamber’s far end.

The nature of the test awaiting them quickly became apparent.

Karn motioned Kath toward the opposite platform as he continued speaking. “But if resisting the Force’s will and carving your own destiny is something you’re so interested in, then you might as well come back with me to Korriban.” Karn laughed. As if that was going to happen. He was as likely to see his own mother at the Sith Temple when he returned as he was Kath.

“But I do wonder,” he said, stretching to limber up his muscles as portions of the floor rose on Kath’s side of the chamber, “why they disturb you so? I mean, I died in one, not you. Is it because you disliked what you saw? Or maybe,” his voice dropped just so, taking on a secretive tone, “just maybe, a part of you likes it, hm?”

“Though, if you’re set on trying to ensure those futures doesn’t happen, you could cut me down before we leave this place,” he said, taking off his coat and tossing it behind him. He rolled his sleeves up slightly, to the middle of his forearms. “After all, you aparently have the capacity, and nothing here is yet afire. Though if you think I’ll go as easily as in that vision, you’ve got another thing coming. But whatever you do,” he grinned wryly at Kathar from his side of the chamber as he motioned to the obstacle course before them, “remember you said you won’t fall.”

Karn spared a moment to wink at Kath and lunged into motion.