The Final Showdown

  "You all right?"

  Tru smiled wanly, but didn't look up. "Just a few bruises. Ferus fixed

  me up."

  Ferus tucked the med kit back into his utility pouch. He didn't look

  at Anakin, either. Darra studied the hilt of her lightsaber.

  "I saw someone trying to escape, so I had to go after him," Anakin

  said. "It turned out to be a Sith. Obi-Wan is sure of it."

  "Well, that's not surprising," Darra said. "We're on Korriban, after

  all."

  There was an unfamiliar hard note in Darra's voice, as if she resented

  Anakin.

  "Our mission is to find Granta Omega," Anakin said. "You had things

  under control, so I went after him - or, who I thought was him."

  "So you were sure we had everything under control?" Ferus

  straightened, wiping his hands on his tunic. "That's what I said."

  "Tru was wounded, I was helping him, and Darra had to face off against

  a dozen droids, but everything was under control?"

  "Obviously I made the right call," Anakin said, gesturing at the

  fallen droids.

  "And you were only thinking of the mission, of course," Ferus said.

  "Of course." Anakin knew what Ferus was getting at. He felt his neck

  heat up, and he turned away before the flush could reach his cheeks and

  betray him. The truth was less certain than his words. He was thinking of

  the mission, but he was also thinking of himself. He had been in a position

  to capture Omega without help. He had left Ferus behind with a secret

  satisfaction. He had wanted to win.

  He sneaked a look back at Tru. His friend looked strained and unhappy.

  Anakin resolved to talk to him as soon as he could do so privately. Tru's

  friendship was very important to him. But Tru had to understand what was

  important to Anakin, too.

  Anakin joined the Masters. Ry-Gaul and Soara were examining the battle

  droid wreckage.

  "These are the super battle droids we've been hearing about," Soara

  said. "A complete violation of Republic regulations."

  Obi-Wan looked grim. "We are lucky to all be standing. This could have

  been much worse. I think our next step is to trace the route of the Sith if

  we can. He most likely used the exit that you used to get inside, Ry-Gaul."

  Ry-Gaul nodded. "That's why he blocked it." "There's another

  possibility," Siri said. "The landing pad could be functional."

  Anakin shook his head. "Auben said it's buried." "So maybe it just

  looks buried," Siri said.

  "Let's ask Auben," Anakin said. "She can show it to us, at least."

  They walked inside the service bay. It was empty. "She was hiding

  behind the old cruiser," Soara said. "Where could she have gone?"

  "I doubt she'd return to the monastery," Ferus said. "She was afraid

  of the Commerce Guild army."

  "She must have sneaked behind us when we were tending to Ferus," Siri

  said.

  "Most likely heading for the other exit." Ferus swallowed. "She went

  toward the Sith."

  The Jedi exchanged glances.

  Without a word, they moved back to the dark front of the hangar. Using

  the Force, they searched each service bay as they ran, making sure Auben

  hadn't hid there. Finally they ended at the pile of vehicles and debris the

  Sith had used to block his escape. Grimly, they set to work with their

  lightsabers and cleared a smoking hole through the pileup. One by one, they

  crawled through.

  They walked into the last bay on the line. A new cruiser stood there,

  its ramp down.

  "Did you see this when you came in?" Obi-Wan asked Ry-Gaul.

  He shook his head. "It must have landed after I left." As they moved

  closer, they saw a body on the ramp. It was Auben.

  She was dead.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Anakin rushed forward. He checked her vitals, even though he knew she

  was gone. "What happened?" he asked. "There's not a mark on her."

  "Her heart just stopped beating," Siri said. "It's said that the Sith

  were capable of stopping a heart without even touching their victim."

  "The question is, what was she doing here?" Obi-Wan asked.

  Ferus had climbed up the ramp into the cruiser. He poked his head out.

  "That's easy to answer. Stealing." He held out two thermal capes. "She told

  Anakin and me that she could get her hands on some luxury goods."

  "While you check out the ship, Darra and I will see if we can find the

  landing platform," Soara said.

  Obi-Wan ran up the ramp. Quickly, he moved through the ship, searching

  for clues. It was evident that the ship had been left bare of everything

  except essentials or items that couldn't be traced. He quickly checked the

  nav computer. Even the archives were wiped.

  "This is the Sith ship," he said.

  "Expensive tastes," Ferus said, dropping the thermal capes with

  distaste.

  "Auben must have found the ship sometime earlier," Obi-Wan guessed.

  "She wanted to nab some items on her way out."

  "Never got the chance," Ferus said.

  "Maybe," Obi-Wan murmured.

  He started out of the cruiser. "Something I learned from Qui-Gon. When

  you catch a thief, he'll always pretend he was on his way in, not out."

  Anakin followed closely on Obi-Wan's heels. Obi-Wan bent over Auben.

  Gently, he reached underneath her body and withdrew her hand. He uncurled

  her fist.

  "We just got lucky," he said. "The Sith was in a hurry. He didn't

  check."

  "What is it?" Anakin asked.

  "A holo-recorder," Obi-Wan said, holding it up. "One of the micro

  versions. She'd get a good price for it on the black market. And there's a

  received message here in the archive."

  He pressed a button, and a miniature image of Granta Omega appeared.

  Omega bowed. "Greetings, Master. We are grateful that our failure to

  complete our mission at the Senate did not disappoint you. As you

  generously said, the intent to disrupt and demoralize was achieved. The

  Senate is more divided than ever. It gratifies us that you have decided to

  entrust us with your secret. We have received the coordinates for our

  meeting. At last you will reveal yourself to us. We will then truly be able

  to further your cause throughout the galaxy." Omega bowed again. "Until we

  meet, I, Granta Omega, and Jenna Zan Arbor, servants to no one in the

  galaxy, remain servants to the Sith."

  The hologram fragmented into a shimmer.

  "Whew," Anakin said. "What a toadying dungcreeper."

  "So they came here to meet the Sith, just as you thought," Siri said.

  "He's going to reveal his identity to them."

  "Which means if we can find out where the meeting is, we'll find out

  as well," Obi-Wan said.

  Siri pressed her lips together. "We have a whole planet to search."

  A faraway look was in Obi-Wan's eyes. "No. There is only one possible

  place for them to meet," he said softly.

  Soara and Darra appeared. "We found the landing platform," Soara said.

  "It's still completely functional. We found new access controls hidden in

  the ruins. Works like a charm. There's evidence of a recent takeoff. By the

  looks of the scorch marks, I'd say it was a small airspeeder."

  Obi-Wan
looked back at Auben's body sprawled on the ramp. He tried to

  reconstruct what had happened. "He's been using this place as a hideout. He

  bumped into Auben - and he killed her. Then he left the cruiser and took

  the airspeeder. More maneuverable. Harder to track." And the airspeeder,

  Obi-Wan thought, would get him where he needed to go.

  Obi-Wan felt a tug, as though a string had been tied to his

  breastbone. He walked down the ramp, across the remains of the hangar, and

  stood out on the landing platform Soara and Darra had found.

  The chill wind knifed through his clothes as he stood outside. He was

  deep in the mountain. He could see the valley far below, and a vast expanse

  of gray sky.

  He felt Omega. For the first time, he felt his energy. Though he

  wasn't a Sith, Omega had sought out the dark side of the Force. He had been

  unable to harness it for himself, but he had lived in it. Obi-Wan was tied

  to him, energy to energy. He could track him now without instruments. He

  didn't need clues, or tips.

  "Master?" Anakin drifted to his side. "What is it?"

  "I know where Omega is," Obi-Wan said. "He's in the Valley of the Dark

  Lords. And the Sith has gone to meet him there. We can uncover them both."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEEN

  Obi-Wan contacted Jocasta Nu. They needed more information on the

  Valley of the Dark Lords. Superstition, legend, anything that could help

  give them an edge. The problem, of course, was that no one had dared to

  enter the valley for centuries. Or, at least, had lived to report on it.

  Soara and Darra saw to Auben. They couldn't move her yet, so they

  wrapped her carefully in the thermal capes.

  Anakin looked for Tru. He had disappeared, and so had Ferus. Feeling

  uneasy, Anakin headed off to see what they were up to. Would Ferus try to

  steal his best friend? He might fill Tru's mind with his version of why

  Anakin had left them to fight the droids alone. He would twist the facts to

  make Anakin look bad.

  Tru and Ferus were sitting in one of the service bays, talking

  quietly. Ferus was busy working on Tru's lightsaber. Anakin paused in the

  shadows. Were they discussing him? He thought he heard his name. He

  concentrated fiercely.

  "I noticed it," Ferus told Tru "That droid must have pulverized your

  power circuit."

  "It slips back into half-power without warning," Tru said in a worried

  voice.

  Tru's lightsaber must have been damaged in the battle. But why hadn't

  Tru told Ry-Gaul? An apprentice was obligated to tell his or her Master if

  a lightsaber was damaged.

  As if Tru had overheard Anakin's question, he said, "I know I should

  have told Ry-Gaul. But he's so correct. He might leave me out of battle

  situations, or even send me back to the Temple."

  "If your lightsaber is permanently damaged, Ry-Gaul would be right to

  do so," Ferus said.

  Typical, Anakin thought. Ferus always had to inform you of rules you

  knew by heart already.

  "After all," Ferus continued, "you don't want to meet a Sith without a

  lightsaber."

  "No kidding," Tru said. "This mission is crucial. That's why I can't

  be sent back. I just thought if I could fix it without having to tell Ry-

  Gaul..." Tru wound one flexible arm around his back to hug his opposite

  elbow, a gesture Anakin knew well. It was something Tru did when he was

  especially nervous. "Look, I know I wouldn't be the first or second

  candidate to enter the acceleration program - you and Anakin will be the

  first. Maybe Darra would be third. But I don't want to be left behind."

  Ferus frowned. "Tru, your advancement is not the reason we're here."

  "That's not what I mean!" Tru said, upset. "I want to stand with my

  fellow Jedi because we all know that the darkness is growing. We need every

  Jedi. I want to be there."

  "We all do," Ferus said. He bent over the lightsaber, fine-tuning it.

  Anakin couldn't see what he was doing, but he was itching to get his own

  hands on the lightsaber. He was sure he was a better technician than Ferus.

  "All right, I fixed it." Ferus put the handle back together and handed

  the lightsaber back to Tru. "You shouldn't have any more problems. Your

  power cell is boosted."

  Anakin started to step forward. If Ferus had worked on the power cell,

  that meant that Tru needed to check the flux aperture again. Anakin had

  tweaked it before, but it might need an adjustment to compensate for the

  power boost. Anyway, it would be wise to double-check. Anakin had better

  tell him. But he stopped when he heard his name.

  "Why didn't you ask Anakin to fix it?" Ferus asked. "He's better at

  this than I am."

  "He was busy with Obi-Wan," Tru murmured.

  Anakin realized that Tru had evaded the question. He could have asked

  him to help. He frowned as he watched the two Padawans, their heads close

  together.

  Tru was drifting away from him. He could feel it.

  Ferus stood. "I don't see any reason to tell Ry-Gaul, now that it's

  fixed. We'd better get back."

  Angrily, Anakin retreated back into the shadows, then turned and

  headed for the others. He felt betrayed. Tru had chosen Ferus to confide

  in. He was Tru's best friend - he should have been the one to help him!

  Obviously, Tru was holding a grudge against him for not coming to his aid.

  Well, if Tru didn't want his help, he certainly wasn't going to offer

  it. Most likely Ferus had done a perfect job. After all, he was almost a

  Jedi Knight.

  What was strange, Anakin reflected, was that Ferus had agreed to keep

  Tru's secret. He would have expected Ferus to tell Ry-Gaul about the

  damaged lightsaber, or at least encourage Tru to do so. Instead, he had

  fixed it himself. Technically, it was a breach of the rules, and Ferus

  never broke the rules.

  Anakin smiled. So the perfect Padawan wasn't so perfect after all.

  He paused by the wreckage of the vehicles that the mysterious Sith had

  moved so easily. There was a disturbance in the air, as though the dark

  energy of the Force still pulsed around the wall of debris. As if the Sith

  had vanished, but left a pool of his darkness behind.

  He felt something new inside him, but he couldn't put a name to it. He

  looked out into the grayness of the valley, just visible past the dark

  outlines of his Master and the other Jedi as they conferred on the landing

  platform. He concentrated hard. What was he feeling?

  A beating heart. A being out there - somewhere - reaching out to him?

  It wasn't a connection... it was a call. It was something he didn't want,

  but something that drew him, pulled him....

  Granta Omega? Did he have the same connection as his Master did? He

  didn't think so. Not this time. It didn't feel right. It felt... bigger.

  Hidden.

  The Sith.

  Anakin faced out to the valley. He felt the cold wind blow against his

  face. The Sith was calling him.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Obi-Wan turned to the others. "We need to get to the cruisers. It's

  too far to hike to the valley. We only have about an hour of dusk left. We

  don't
want to go in at night. Madame Nu gave me coordinates for the best

  approach."

  Obi-Wan saw both relief and trepidation on the faces of the other

  Padawans. They all wanted to go. They wanted it and feared it.

  He saw no fear on his Padawan's face, however. He wasn't sure how

  Anakin was feeling. There was something going on... underneath. Korriban

  had unsettled them all, Obi-Wan knew.

  Even the Masters were not eager to enter the valley. They knew they

  were heading into great trouble. They knew there would be difficulty.

  Traps. Attacks. Surprises. The dark side of the Force could snare them,

  confuse them. But they each felt strongly that this was their only chance.

  The hidden darkness every Jedi felt was here. They could find it and expose

  it. End it. Here. Now.

  Back at the Dreshdae landing platform, they hurried to their cruisers.

  Anakin sprang into the cockpit. He entered the coordinates Obi-Wan had

  given him for the Valley of the Dark Lords. They would have to find it

  through instruments, since it would not be visible. Then they would survey

  the area before deciding on a landing point.