All That Remains: The Breath of Life

[Byl Laprovik]

(OOC: Thread takes place two days after All That Remains: Trio (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?55370-All-That-Remains-Trio))

Dac to Hoth was clear across the galaxy. Even slipping along the Hydian Way meant it took a good couple of days. Ever since Byl had received a mysterious message (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?55371-All-That-Remains-The-Answer) promising answers, he'd been singularly focused on his task. They'd left that night, gathering what supplies they could aboard an old Incom A-23 Treeduster that he'd been able to wheedle out of the fleet's motorpool, thanks to a favor he'd cashed in with Jane Starborn.

Now that they'd cut into sublight and were beginning atmospheric descent to the ice planet, Byl's cagey nature started to take over. He kept on top of his instruments, his eyes flitting about as thin cloud cover gave way to a white-blasted landscape.

"James, we're coming on approach to the old Echo base."

Even that name sounded familiar, even if the memories that might tie him to the spot didn't exist.

"I'm gonna do a quick pass. If it's hot down there, we need to be ready to leave in a hurry."

She'd come with him. It meant so much to him, even though he hated that solving this mystery meant possibly putting her in harm's way. She would've taken it hard if he'd turned her away.

[James Prent]

"Right. Hot." James was in a cream colored parka, the fur lined hood resting on her shoulders as she sat in the co-pilot's seat with the crashwebbing holding her in place. "Hot on Hoth. And y' say y' don't have a good sense of humor." She pulled on a pair of gloves and wiggled her fingers to make sure they were in all the way as the shuttle looped lazily around the old Rebel base.

She sat up straight and peered out the transparisteel window. "Looks pretty quiet from here. T'me." James looked over at Byl, watching how intent he was on what he was doing, and her heart clutched a little in her chest.

[Byl Laprovik]

He smiled at her observation of the unintentional joke. Levity was so rare for them to enjoy.

"Well, relatively speaking, I suppose."

His heart was racing. They were so close. And that's when he saw the smoke on the horizon. Byl's smile vanished.

"There!"

The Alliance operative jammed the atmospheric accelerator, and they picked up speed to head towards the thin grey plume easily visible through the white. As they got closer, he could see the source of the smoke - an immense sprawl of ruined durasteel rained down from a cliffside. This had been where Echo base's ion cannon was situated. The twisted rubble they could now plainly see looked as if the enormous weapon had simply crashed down from its perch. Byl couldn't see any tell-tale scorch craters to indicate a turbolaser barrage or any other capital ship bombardment.

"What the hell happened down there?"

[James Prent]

She looked away from him reluctantly, the acceleration pressing her back into her seat as she looked out the window. "Nothing good." As she said it, her stomach lurched, and she pressed her hands against her belly as nausea washed over her. "Something bad," she winced. "Feels real bad, like spoiled seafood leftovers for dinner. Ugh."

With some effort she shut away the strange sensation, the sick feeling disapating as Byl looked for a place to land.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl turned to look at her with concern. He knew these feelings she got. Knew it wasn't as mundane an explanation as she offered up.

"Hang on, I'll find us a landing zone close to the base.

The plains before the cliff of echo base were largely flat and unremarkable, and Byl was able to easily put their shuttle down just fifty meters from the outskirts of the rubble. He opted not to power down, running the ship hot in the chance they had to beat a retreat from the planet. Nothing about this made any sense yet, and the Alliance Operative was on edge. Retrieving a blaster from the storage locker next to the cockpit, he punched the gangplank, only to have the air nearly wrenched from his lungs by bitter arctic blasts of air. Drawing his parka hood tight and making sure his goggles were snapped to his head, he took James' hand in tow and trudged ahead.

From their vantage below, it didn't look any better.

"It looks like the entire superstructure of the cannon collapsed inwards on itself!"

Byl shouted over the whipping wind, heading for the wind break that the debris offered.

[James Prent]

"If you say so!" She shouted back, her face obscured by the fur lined hood and goggles. Her slight frame buffeted by the wind, James was happy to cling to Byl's hand as if he were a tether holding her to the ground, struggling with her free hand to replace the weather tech fabric that was supposed to be protecting her lower face.

As they drew nearer the wind lessened, blocked by the twisted durasteel. James released Byl's hand, stamping her borrowed boots in the snow a bit and adjusting her cold weather gear so that it hugged her body more tightly. "Have you been here before?" she muffled through the scarf.

[Byl Laprovik]

"I..."

Byl stopped in his tracks, looking back at James and her question.

"...I realize this might sound daft, but it feels like I have. I don't remember a bloody thing, naturally. I know this base, however. Like the back of my hand."

Why were they here? What was he to even look for? Byl slowly turned back to the wreckage.

"We're here. I thought...I don't know what I thought. That there would be some kind of answer in plain sight."

There was no one but them. The damage to the cannon looked fresh, however. There was smoke, and no accumulated snow on the wreckage.

[James Prent]

"Might as well check it out then," she said, trudging forward. James bent over into the wind as she rounded a piece of durasteel, staggering sideways and then falling into a snowdrift that had built up against a few other bits of broken ion gun. She struggled for a minute, flailing energetically to attempt to leverage herself out, then stuck her hands into the snow, trying to find something to push up against.

She touched something soft. "Byl!"

[Byl Laprovik]

He rushed to where she'd fallen, offering a hand.

"Are you okay?"

But she was. That wasn't why she'd called for him. He saw where her hand had disturbed the snow, and saw the contours of a almost completely hidden leg amongst the drift. Wordlessly he helped her up, working with rising frenzy to pull away metal plates and twisted debris from around them.

He'd been too late.

The feeling welled up in the pit of his stomach. A terrible panic threatening to overtake him.

[James Prent]

She fell to her knees in the snow, on her own terms this time, and helped him clear the snow away from the leg. It was attached to a hip and to head... There was another person draped over the first, face down in the snow. Byl was moving efficiently, and gently pulled the smaller body off the first. Her heart sank as she recognized the man underneath. "Jedi Vymes," she said, tearing the bothersome scarf from her face, stripping off a glove and going for his neck in a useless display of checking for life.

James looked up and saw a streak in the sky. She pointed wordlessly for Byl's benefit, but he was arranging the other... the other... It was Loklorien. James had a flash of the twisted evil she'd seen layered over her friend's face so long ago, the sense of it strong and thick in the air, and she froze in shock, her mouth falling open. She barely even registered the faint throb of a heart beat against her fingertip.

[Rev Solomon]

The previous night, in a tiny cell of an ancient monastery on Generis, Solomon's dreams were troubled. He'd seen a desperate duel that raged through caverns of snow, a brutal exchange of power that shook the ice mount to its very foundation. He'd seen the flash of a hidden blade, a spreading slick of blood across the snow, a creature of darkness crawling over her prey to hear his last, gasping words. He'd seen the grim visage of a man in black, a figure so dark he obscured everything around him. He'd seen the moment of betrayal, the savage onslaught of crimson lightning, a great sphere of metal rolling down like a stone covering the mouth of a tomb.

He'd awoken in a sweat with his brothers and sisters surrounding him - only then did he realize he'd cried out in his sleep. And he knew then that the time had come for him to leave Generis.

The shuttle Exodus was still in orbit awaiting his signal. He'd called it down to the monastery and set for the Hoth system with all available speed. He'd emerged from hyperlight mere minutes after Byl and James, and, detecting their ship skimming the surface near the old Rebel stronghold, he trusted his instincts and mapped his own approach to the same site.

As the agent and the adept dug at the loose, powdery snow, the roar of repulsorlifts shouted down the howling wind. A Theta-class T-2c shuttle, emblazoned with stripes of medical blue, sent up a whirlwind of snow as it descended over the mountain and landed a hundred meters or so down the slope from the ion cannon's crater.

[Byl Laprovik]

He pulled her free and looked at her face. The face he knew only by dossier. The one who was supposed to hold the answers he was looking for.

She was broken and bloodied every bit as Zem Vymes. Byl felt for a pulse that was feeble and flagging. Her color was as pale as the snow she was couched in. All Byl knew was how to survive.

As if it was his own life on the line, Byl hooked his arms underneath Loklorien's own, cinching her up so that he could drag her to the ship.

"She's alive!"

But not for long. The panic shook in his chest, mingling with the reverberation of a shuttlecraft swooping overhead. Someone else was coming. Again, Byl survived.

"James, get to the ship!"

Byl pulled his blaster from its shoulder strap, approaching the shuttle with intent to kill.

[James Prent]

Lok flopped back into the snow as Byl abandoned her to face the new threat, and James jerked upright as he ordered her back to the ship. Her first instinct was to run -

- then she turned back to the bodies in the snow. She stepped over Zem, kneeling between the two, and put her hands on their foreheads. They were cold, so cold... James opened herself up to the Force.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon stepped onto the boarding ramp as it descended and was met immediately by a storm blast of icy wind. He was wrapped tightly in robes and scarves underneath his beaten nerfskin overcoat, and still he felt the chill cutting straight to his skin. But the cold was not the only threat to meet him on Hoth.

Another man, similarly shrouded, marched toward him through the snow with a blaster aimed at his heart. Solomon raised his left hand to calm him, but the first bolt was already flying.

Three blaster bolts in quick succession burst harmlessly into sparks against the preacher's palm. He tugged through the Force, and the blaster twisted out Byl's grip, hurtled through the air, and smacked into Solomon's waiting, three-fingered hand.

As he continued to approach, Solomon held the blaster in plain sight and pointed it to the sky. "I am not your enemy," he shouted over the wind. "I'm looking for Loklorian s'Ilancy."

[Byl Laprovik]

Disarmed nearly effortlessly by a man who had the appearance a Jedi, Byl stopped in his tracks. He didn't have time to play his cards close to his chest. Looking back, he saw James huddled over each of the two broken Jedi, and the Alliance agent turned back to Solomon.

"She's dying."

How she'd even lasted this long in the state of her injuries and the desolation of Hoth's bitter cold, he had no idea. But he did know they were a long way away from anything resembling a medical center. Byl didn't have time to explain any further, and rushed to James' side. Her eyes fluttered closed as she laid hands on each of the Jedi before her.

"James?"

[James Prent]

The cold had induced hypothermia, which was likely how there was still life in the cold bodies. Zem had a grievous wound through his abdomen but the cold had slowed and stopped the flow of blood. Loklorien's injuries were more complete, an overall short circuiting and burning of her nervous system and internal organs. James didn't know how she knew this, and she didn't know where to start and what th' hell am I doin' gettin' involved is how I get hurt but it was right and the Force was flowing through her and into them and back into her.

The snow around them whirled up into the air, and James bent low over the two in the snow, her forehead touching her knees. Connections were made, mysterious intricate connections that she couldn't even begin to understand but they were knitting together as she emptied herself into first Zem, and then Lok.

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon tucked the blaster into his belt and ran across the snow field to where James was crouched beside two stricken bodies. Panic and despair welled up inside him at the horrific sight, but he drove them both away - he didn't have time for either.

"Zem," he said, seeing the Jedi master's gray, frostbitten face. "Merciful God..."

Cautiously, he drew closer and knelt beside James, careful not to disturb whatever she was doing. When he opened his senses to the Force, he saw to his surprise that the diminutive woman was channeling energy into both of them, extending her consciousness into their broken bodies. A new arrival to Ossus, perhaps? He certainly didn't remember seeing her around the Wheel.

"My shuttle is configured as a medical transport," he said over his shoulder. "I've got some emergency supplies, and two beds. We should get them in out of the cold."

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl nodded. It was a pragmatic suggestion and even if they could save Loklorien and Zem, exposure to extreme sub-zero would be doing them no favors.

Still, James didn't move. Fixed to the spot she was absorbed in the moment.

"James?"

She didn't so much as flinch. Byl eased a bit closer.

"James. We can't stay here."

He reached to place a hand on her shoulder, drawing back nearly instantly as a tingling sensation shot up his arm the moment he'd made contact with her. It was like touching a live wire. No pain, but a distinct sense of power and warmth. He turned to the other Jedi.

"What's she doing?"

[Rev Solomon]

"It's a healing trance," Solomon replied. "Has she ever done this before?"

Byl's expression was such that he needn't have asked. What the young woman was doing was instinctual, and though it was common for latent gifts of the Force to manifest in times of dire need, it was dangerous. If she extended herself too far into the wounded, she might no longer realize where her energies ended and theirs began; she could pour her entire self into their injuries, and then there would be three Jedi dying on the ice.

Gently, Solomon pressed his hand against James's shoulder, and he felt the same current of warmth, which turned to heat at the stubs of the fingers that had been sacrificed to Loklorien's saber gauntlet.

"James," he said in a calm, firm voice. "You've got to pull back. Let's get them to safety, and we can treat them together."

[James Prent]

Zem's innards needed attention; the liver had been perforated by a sharp weapon but with encouragement the cells reached out for each other, the tissues weaving back together. A small electrical current to the cardiac muscle returned it to a normal rhythm, and then Loklorien's body received her full attention. The nerves and muscles were heavily damaged, bones were broken from the convulsions, skin was burnt from contact with electricity.

James... you've got to pull back.

Bones were last priority, first the most sensitive areas were touched, the restoration beginning at the spinal cord and blossoming outward along the nerves like spring flowers opening in the sun. James could still feel Zem's heart beating, the cold lungs expanding and drawing in a frigid breath. Outer, superficial injuries like frostbite would wait, but she encouraged the warmth in the center of their bodies, the Force whispering and guiding, making everything obvious.

Let's get them to safety, and we can treat them together.

She couldn't let Lok die, and now she'd started she didn't know how to stop without causing the fragile systems to collapse completely. James' mouth opened but no sound came out, her lips moving.

[Byl Laprovik]

He reached out to her again, pausing just before coming in contact. A healing trance? What if she was pulled free? Could she be? He watched her face. Her eyes fluttered back, exposing their whites while her lips moved with no sound. Help me.

"She's in trouble."

Byl looked back to Solomon, desperate for a solution.

"Help her!"

He hated himself now. He'd allowed her to come with him. Even if she were hurt doing something noble, he'd never be able to live with himself.

"Please!"

[Rev Solomon]

Carefully, Solomon broke his connection with James and reached into his coat, to a pouch slung around his shoulders above his robes. Then he pulled out something precious and, holding it fast against his palm, pressed it down over James's hand where it rested on Loklorien's brow.

"James," he said, "this is a Healing Crystal of Fire. Take it. Focus your energies through it. Let it guide you back to the light."

If James would not extricate herself, the only other option was to separate them by force. James would likely survive, but, in their perilous state, the other two would not.

[James Prent]

Her hand turned over and closed around the crystal, and she gasped. What had seemed clear was shown to be just a view through dirty glass in comparison to the clarity she now found. Loklorien's body convulsed, back arcing, and Zem's eyes flew open. James' eyes streamed with tears at the beauty she felt, leaking around the edges of her goggles to freeze on her cheek.

She suddenly lurched back from the pair in the snow, falling against the voice she'd heard in the trance. An older man. She flailed a bit, feeling empty and off balance, but he took her hand, holding her steady. Keeping the crystal safe, she noticed. "I don't - I don't know what I jus' did..."

[Zem Vymes]

"ghhhaaaaaaa...."

Zem's chest heaved as his eyes opened, blinking away the bright sky above as he took eager breaths of frigid air. Yet, he no longer felt the cold. The pain remained, but met in turn by warmth and peace. For a moment, the Jedi Master lay in the snow, looking neither left nor right, but at the sky above.

"Am I dead?"

As a Jedi, you often considered many mysteries of the force. One question that went unanswered until the end was what was the end? Becoming one with the force was spoken of in many ways, from the literal to the figurative. Zem felt most assuredly corporeal. He could feel everything that he felt before. The cold, the pain. The grief of loss. Only then did he turn his head to see her. Lok's body fought against death's embrace. He could feel her teetering on the edge.

"What..."

Feebly, Zem rolled to his side, reaching for her hand with his own as he sought her life force within. It was there, but only just.

"Loklorien."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon stared in wonder as Master Vymes came around. But only for a moment, because time was still precious, and the cold was grinding away at the five of them.

He turned and realized he didn't know the name of the craggy-faced blond who had fired on him. "You should take James back to my ship," he said. "You'll find a pair of hovergurneys in the back. Bring them out and we can get Zem and Loklorien inside and out of the cold. Wait--"

The preacher reached into his coat, removed Byl's blaster, and handed it to him. "Show of good faith. We're all on the same side here."

He looked back down to where Zem-il pawed desperately at s'Il's motionless form and thought, I hope.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl stared down at his blaster, retrieving it cautiously with a nod. They had an understanding. It was a start, at least. He turned back to James, who still seemed a bit in shock from it all. His gloved hands found her own, and he lent his shoulder for support as he helped her up.

"We have to get out of the elements, James. It appears we're not alone. A Jedi has come to help."

Byl looked back at the pair still lying in the snow. Zem was awake, if still understandably out of sorts. s'Ilancy was moving, but not exactly the sort that indicated any lights were on upstairs.

James still faltered, in a daze, and Byl shook her at her shoulders.

"James! Come on!"

[James Prent]

She blinked, and nodded, letting him lead her to the ship. What had she just done? She stared at her hands for a minute while Byl began shoving hovergurneys back out into the snow. James found a seat on the floor, concentrating on breathing and trying to fill the emptiness in her head. She'd used the Force. On purpose. Maybe she'd throw up.

No, she didn't feel nauseated. She watched Byl and the other man, the Jedi, bring the gurneys back over the wind swept snow. James shook her head a bit, and then pushed herself upright, tentatively reaching back out to the Force and feeling it respond gently to her touch.

[Rev Solomon]

There wasn't a lot of room inside the shuttle Exodus, but there was plenty of light, and once the boarding ramp had closed and the atmospherics had forcibly cycled out the cold air with a roar of rushing wind, there was warmth as well. Solomon and Byl collaborated in moving Vymes and s'Ilancy to the surgical beds that occupied most of the shuttle's cargo compartment, and Solomon wheeled out a pair of IV trees to start replenishing their vital fluids. Then he turned his attention to the deep and ragged wound in Master Vymes's abdomen. He had little bacta on hand, but there was enough to make a compress that would prevent additional bleeding and encourage the remaining cells to repair themselves.

"Try not to move," the preacher said. "You're stable, but just barely. I've given you something for the pain. The only way I can do more is to put you under completely."

[Zem Vymes]

"No!"

Zem grit his teeth, his resolve barely showing in his voice as he protested weekly. Shaking his head took effort.

"I have to be here. Be here for her."

His wits were slowly returning to him, and Zem's dawning realization of who he was speaking to...

"...Solomon?"

[James Prent]

James stood next to Lok's bed while Solomon bent over Zem. She had worked in a doctor's office briefly, and recognized much of what was arrayed around the medical beds, but had no idea how to use any of it. The crystal in her hand was warm to the touch, and she lifted it up, letting the light shine through it. It looked like a flame was burning inside it, flickering through different orange-red hues.

She let her arm fall, and took Lok's hand, the crystal between their palms. "What happened...?"

[Rev Solomon]

The recognition in Zem's eyes was heartening - it meant he was not just aware, but alert. Solomon smiled in relief and touched the Jedi master's arm with his own maimed hand.

"In the flesh. But it was a close thing. We almost lost you both, but it seems we have a healer in our midst."

He turned to see James hovering over the stricken Lupine in the other bed. Whereas Zem's skin had regained some of its color in the warmth of the Exodus's atmosphere, Loklorien's was still frosty gray, and she had been deathly still ever since they'd laid her there. Only the monitors above her head showed any evidence that she was still alive, and only just. The reverend moved to stand beside the young woman.

"It's hard to believe you've never done that before. You have a natural gift for it. How long have you known about your connection with the Force?"

[James Prent]

She flushed, and looked down at the hand she was holding. "A few years. It's a... long story. Last time I really used the Force I blew a bunch o' shipping crates up and nearly got killed. It's not th' sorta thing I like t' think about, y'know."

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl watched her as she explained. This wasn't some obscure mystery of the force that he couldn't see or comprehend. Byl had seen the condition of the two Jedi. Even on a medical ship with bacta and doctors, they were nearly certainly staring death in the face. Yet with a touch...

He reached over to hold her free hand. She still felt warm to the touch, and he felt somehow at peace from the embrace.

"James..."

Bewildered and amazed, he could only shake his head in awe. Miracle was a word all too often used cheaply. His eyes, however, drifted down to the pale and motionless Lok s'Ilancy, and he drew quiet again.

"...can she?"

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon lifted his own hand toward the bed, but he hesitated to intrude on whatever connection James had established with Lok. For all he knew, it was all that was keeping her from sliding into the abyss.

"James, the Healing Crystal of Fire can focus your natural gifts, amplify them. It's how you brought back Master Vymes. But Loklorien is in a much darker place. She needs more than just healing of the body - she needs healing of the soul."

Cautiously, he laid his own hand over James's, enveloping it.

"If you can keep her stable, keep her body alive, I'll do my best to bring her spirit around."

[James Prent]

She nodded slowly, hesitantly, and then with more conviction. "I think - yes. I can." It was somehow invigorating to not feel afraid of the Force and what it might do to her.

James looked at Byl. "I love you." Then she closed her eyes, Lok's cold hand in hers, and Solomon's much larger hand covering them both. She opened up to the Force like a flower to the sun and felt the crystal warm in her hand, drawing her essence into her old friends body.

[Byl Laprovik]

There was nothing he could do, but maybe there was? He only knew how to face a threat in front of him, how to plan for the one around the corner. For the Jedi, and it would seem for James, there were other rules in play. She had opened herself to him, and he thought about her words. Who was James? She was more than anyone in his life. More than himself. She came across the galaxy for him. It was just the most recent of humble sacrifices she'd never hesitated to lay at his feet. Byl's hands tightened over her own.

"With every bit of me..." His jaw tensed as he started to turned his head from her to blink away a tear. But there was no need. He didn't have to put up his guard around her. That was the whole point.

"...I love you too, James Prent."

He kissed her tenderly, pulling away just a moment later.

"You've got a gift I don't understand and could never have. But I taught you how to fight. So you fight. For them. Because you can."

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon politely averted his eyes from the tender display, which was borne out of an interpersonal history he had no part in. But he was glad for it all the same, and he could sense its effect on James's confidence, her resolve. With Lok's life riding on the edge, they needed every scrap of goodwill they could muster.

The reverend took a deep, stabilizing breath, closed his own eyes, and opened himself to the currents of the Force, just as he'd practiced hundreds of times since his fateful duel on Generis. But this time, instead of sinking into the tranquility of his own thoughts, he plunged feetfirst into the twisted, turbulent vortex of blight and misery that was Loklorien s'Ilancy.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

* * *


Everything was dead. Desolation, ruin, decay… it was all so final and gone.

What had once been the great manor of her house had fallen into nothing but broken stone and rotted wood. Once great courtyards, alive with so much vibrance were now in a state of neglect, tangled and horrid. So much life had once been here, but now…

Now, there was nothing but forgotten greatness and lost light. So much brilliance snuffed out to be replaced by oppression and death. Who could imagine what it had once been like? Who could see the once magnificent structures of the old ages, so wonderful and majestic in the morning suns? Figaro and Favoura had once rained their light upon a flourishing and rich world. It had been so grand, so immortal at the time.

But time was cruel, and had been merciless to the moon of Schwartzweld. It had stripped away the old glories, had cast off the ones that had once lived upon its’ surface. It had been left alone to rot and fall into nothing. So much wonder had been replaced by so much decay.

The home of her House stood now, like a dark and foreboding creature, inviting her into its’ depths so that it could consume her fully.

Standing on the dry and browned grass of the front courtyard, Loklorien s’Ilancy looked upon her ancestral home with so much sadness. It was what she had created, and what she deserved. The Darkness had come calling, and she had answered. It was a final blow, a final twist of the knife that made her look down, resigned to the end that she had crafted for her own self. She had passed through the Gate of Souls, and this was to be her punishment.

[Rev Solomon]

“Loklorien.”

The voice came from behind her, clear and strong like the peal of a bell. In the midst of the darkness and ruin there stood a man in a long, nerfhide coat whose edges swayed in the dusty wind. His dark face was staid and solemn, a fitting companion for the sepulchral halls.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her gaze, still on the ground, slowly tracked upwards to the figure of the one who had called her name.

Her body seemed to shrink, to recoil in a small sense from him, and the elder Lupine felt a wave of shame engulf her entire being. Hands went up, clasping together and meeting with the point just below her neck as she took a half-step back.

“Sol… “

What more could she say? What more could she offer in the face of the apparition before her; the embodiment of so great a transgression?

[Rev Solomon]

His eyes met hers, and then they roved around the broken columns, the shattered paving stones, the statues and reliefs standing defaced and in pieces.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was a long pause, a silence that hung between the two like a thousand pounds of duracrete. Her shoulders sagged as she cast her eye up to once again pass over the remnant of something that had once been so glorious. Something that had once fired her imagination as a young girl, yet now filled her with heartache and sadness.

“I am… “

There were no words that came immediately, and the Lupine finally tore her gaze away, letting it fall once more on the one before her.

“I have passed through the Gate of Souls,” her voice held a finality that was absolute. There was such resignation, such sorrow lacing her tone, and she heaved a sighing breath. She stared at him, long moments filled with quiet and contemplation as her mind worked to parse the vision before her. It made little sense, unless the madness had returned and her mind was simply bringing to life the sins that she’d committed.

“You’ve no cause to be here… “

Or did he?

“... unless it is to torture my conscience.”

[Rev Solomon]

“I came through the same gate,” Solomon replied, “but to a different country than this.”

He looked up at the dead sky rolling above, and his nose wrinkled as if offended by some noxious stench.

“You should not be here, Lok. This place has no future, even for the dead.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was a land that she had inadvertently crafted, the land that her actions had created. The land that had sprung up from each and every horrid deed she’d committed. And now, she was resigned to the world that she would now be made to inhabit. The world that her greed and misplaced passion and emotions had built for her. It was a dead world, populated with those she had sent before her into the dark. They would torture her mind, as she had done to them.

It was only what she deserved, and the Lupine could not help but turn away from him; from Sol Iman.

She set her back to the manor house, unable to look upon the desolation any longer.

“I am where I deserve to be.”

[Rev Solomon]

“You think you deserve this? You think this is a fitting punishment for your crimes?”

Solomon moved toward her, and the paving stones crumbled like dust beneath his boots. His long, angry strides ate up the distance between them, and he seized her by the shoulders.

With both hands.

“No, Lok. You haven’t earned your rest yet.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

His hold was unexpected, and the Lupine shrank from his touch even while maintaining a small bit of resistance.

Her brow furrowed, her next words shaking.

“This is not rest, this is torture.”

A tear began to form, but she remained resolute in the face of her accuser.

“This is my punishment for my crimes.”

To see such sights, to see the great statues and architecture in a state of disrepair and neglect, it was too much.

“My crimes… “ her eyes screwed shut as each and every terrible action played out before her.

“They are irredeemable.”

[Rev Solomon]

“This is not punishment.”

Solomon’s words were like stone grinding on stone, a proclamation from deep within the heart of the world.

“This is the result of your crimes. As night follows day, this is where your actions have led you. Look at me.”

She opened her eyes, one seeing, one not, and he stared into both as if mining their secrets. “Your punishment has yet to be decided. I offered you my help before, as a friend. Now I offer it as a surgeon. And this time, you do not have the option of refusing.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She locked her eye with his, unflinching yet terrified all the same. The undertones of worry and apprehension carried with her gaze, and the Lupine found herself unable to look away.

“I never had a choice to begin with,” she countered, her voice holding the first tinges of anger and resentment.

“Any options that I had and now have are a farce; they had always been a lie, and because I chose to accept those, I am here now.”

An arm came up in attempt to brush away his hold.

“Leave me be. Let me accept my reward.”

[Rev Solomon]

“No.”

Solomon took her chin in his left hand and turned her head to and fro to examine her, and he paid particular attention to the bloodshot sclera of her dead eye.

“There is a beast inside you,” he said. “It is decrepit, engorged, and diseased. I’m going to take it out.”

He released her and turned to shrug his coat from his shoulders. It landed in a pool at his feet.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Was it a sort of fear that held her in place? Perhaps. And yet the Lupine shrank still, seemingly huddling within herself as half steps put distance between herself and Sol Iman. Why would he not understand? Why could he not see? Where she was now was what she had made for herself. It was what she had sown, and now she was reaping the sad fruit of her labors. She was bearing the burdens of her fall.

Dead grass crunched beneath her bare feet, and s’Il reached up to wipe away the single tear that had formed, threatening to cut a thin river down her left cheek.

She let out a choked sob then, her features imploring of the ghost before her.

“Please,” she begged, “... just let me be… “

[Rev Solomon]

“In the name of mercy,” Solomon said, “I must be merciless.”

On his left-hand side at the far end of the courtyard stood the statue of a rampant vornskr, mostly intact, spoiled only by tendrils of dead ivy. He thrust an open palm toward the statue, and it exploded into dust and marble fragments.

He turned to his right and pushed again, and a delicate bas-relief caved inward and crumbled to the ground.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

“No!!”

There was angered desperation in her tone, as the Lupine surged forward.

“Do not take from me all that remains,” her voice was bold, a far cry from the creature that cowered before him.

And in that moment she flung herself upon him, tears from her left eye flowing freely.

“It is all I have!”

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon whirled and caught her by the wrists. There was not an ounce of pity on his face.

“It is an illusion!” he snarled. “A product of your twisted memories! On the real Schwartzwald, these halls will crumble and be reclaimed by new life. But here, they will be forever frozen in a parody of death, a world embalmed by your own delusions. I will relieve you of it.”

He threw her aside and, with both hands together, drove a hurricane of force through the doors of the manor house. Its edifice cracked like a peal of thunder, and chunks of masonry the size of speeders rained down inside.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

“No!”

And yet, her cry was wasted even as she watched his act tear open the door to her shame. The door to her every transgression and sin.

What she saw now was destruction heaped upon destruction, the efforts of a spirit to demoralize her further, and the Lupine gave him a violent shove.

“What my House is now is what I make of it,” she cried in defiance, tears streaming from her eye as her hands reached out, grasping at his wrists in the hope of stopping the destruction he was causing.

“You’ve no right to do this!”

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon rocked beneath her, but he planted his feet against the scorched grass and would not be moved.

“It’ll be over soon,” he said, breathless with exertion. “Better to rip it off at once than to draw it out, and languish forever in its shadow.”

He spread his hands and pulled like a vast bellows. Windows exploded into constellations of colored glass. Walls disintegrated, dropping paintings and urns and priceless treasures into the rubble. The whole house lurched upon its foundation, buckled, and disgorged a vast cloud of dust that overran both of them. Then the House of Losstarot fell, and great was its fall.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

”No!!”

She watched as the manor of her House sagged, as it fell into itself and imploded, destroying itself from within.

s’Il started with desperation, moving forward with a single outstretched hand as if to stop the destruction. And yet she was caught, taken up in the arms of Sol Iman even as she watched over his shoulder at the crumbling stone walls and edifices, her tears uncontrolled now.

“My home,” she sobbed, arms caught up in his hold so that all she could do was embrace him. And embrace him she did, clutching him tight.

[James Prent]

James breathed shallowly, following the warmth of the crystal as it coursed through Lok's body. Her heart skipped a beat and James concentrated there, bolstering and strengthening. The more she propped up the other woman's systems the more they seemed to be crashing around her, and she pressed harder, pushed more, felt her breathing match Lok's as she seemed to become one with her.

The Jedi flatlined, and James' eyes flew open, her own heart seizing for a moment before she managed to extricate herself at least enough to keep from joining her in death. "Shit shit shit," she said, hardly knowing she was speaking, using the Force to zap Lok's heart back into rhythm. Once.

Twice.

Her eyes sought Byl's. "I'm losing her."

[Byl Laprovik]

"No..."

Byl held her hand tight, watching the exertions take their toll on James. She was weary and weak, and her own hand barely squeezed back when he held tight.

"James..."

The three-fingered Jedi was lost within himself, or within her, or wherever he was. Either way, he wasn't here. Zem was in and out of consciousness behind him, and Byl felt helpless once more.

"Stay here! With me! Come on!"

His blue eyes frantically looked back to Loklorien s'Ilancy's dying form and to the woman he loved. It wasn't a choice for him to make, but if it were, it wasn't a choice at all.

"I won't lose you for her. Don't. It's not worth it!"

[Rev Solomon]

***


Solomon held Loklorien tightly, shielding her as dust and debris from the ruined manor house pelted his broad back. It flooded the lawn they stood on, then rippled back toward them like breakers on a beach, until they stood ankle-deep in destruction. Schwartzweld was gone, leaving only an infinite plane of dust. The moaning wind picked up streams of it here and there and sent it hissing past them, built it up into little mounds that grew and melted away. Then the wind died, too, and all was still.

“Your home still stands,” Solomon said, nearly a whisper - the tenderest tone he’d spoken in since he had arrived.

“Your House lives on in your daughter, and in your son. Would you abandon them for an empty grave?”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was pain in her voice, pain and anguish.

“My daughter and son are now his,” she whispered, her voice so defeated.

She clutched him, able to do nothing else, and her desperation spoke so many volumes of that.

“Whatever I wished them to be, they are now his.”

She buried her face into his shoulder then, the thought too much for her to bear.

[Rev Solomon]

“Those were his lies,” he said. “You don’t need to speak them anymore.”

Gently he stroked her hair, cleaning the dust out of it.

“Your children still live. That means their fate is yet to be decided. You live as well.”

She lifted her face toward his, and he could see the disbelief written in her eyes.

“But just barely. You spoke of the Gate of Souls. We stand just beyond its threshold. And we must be sure that the beast you carry is abandoned here.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was hesitation as she looked up at him, her eye searching for some sort of truth in the words that he spoke. Some sort of truth to the fact that she was not - in fact - dead.

The Lupine cast her eyes downward then, and she let questioning fingers trace his right arm, down to his own fingertips.

“You lost this,” she whispered, and her next words held so much shame and sorrow.

“... I took this from you… “

[Rev Solomon]

He grasped her fingertips in his own, twining in a phantom embrace. “I lost this arm,” he said, “when I sensed the life growing inside you. Had I struck you down that day, I would have ended that life. It is a sacrifice I would make a hundred times over.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

“Sol,” her voice was a sob, a choked sound that held nothing more that sorrow and regret.

Finally she took her eye away, letting her gaze fall before closing her eyes tightly.

“The sacrifices you make; the trials that others have weathered because of me… they are wasting so much time when their efforts could be so much better spent on those who deserve their efforts.”

She would’ve looked over his shoulder at the nothingness, but instead simply burrowed further into the rock that was Sol Iman.

“The one man that loved me through everything,” her voice was a whisper now, shaking and unsteady, “... I killed him as I killed you.”

The tears came unbidden then, her sobs and cries unchecked as she clutched him, holding him close.

“What have I done… ?”

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon embraced her again. “You’re remembering,” he said. “The passions that lay dormant within you are returning.”

He breathed deep and let her feel the swell of his chest. Let her wonder at the marvel of a ghost who breathed.

“Do you know what forgiveness is, Loklorien s’Ilancy? It is not the erasing of sins. Every sin has a cost, and that cost is too dear for you to pay. Forgiveness is when someone else bears the cost on your behalf.”

He exhaled, letting her feel his breath toss her hair, its warmth on her skin.

“Zem-El and I, we took the brunt of your wrath. It nearly destroyed us. But by the grace of the Force, we both live. The Dark Side has been denied its prey. It will not have your children. It will not have you.”

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

“... You… you live?”

She pulled away then, wiping a hand across her eyes yet unable to look up, unable to meet his gaze.

It was then that her legs gave way, and the Lupine felt herself fall, felt her body collapse to the dusty, lifeless sands. She brought both hands to her face then, burying her sorrow into her palms as a fresh wave of tears came unbidden.

He had said that he lived; that both he and Zem were alive…

Whatever sins that she’d committed was it true that the two that would’ve hurt the most, had gone unfinished?!

She looked up at him then, tearstains running down her left cheek.

“Then you are both alive… ?”

[Rev Solomon]

“We’re both alive,” he said, relishing the sound of it, letting the news sink into her skin. He lifted a forefinger - one of the fingers he’d lost to her saber gauntlet - and wiped away the tears from her eye.

“And so are you. But we need to act quickly if we’re going to keep you that way.”



***

[Zem Vymes]

On his gurney, Zem's eyes again opened. He drew in his first confident breath of air, free from the burden of death's door. Through his senses, he could feel that most familiar presence. It wasn't just the body next to her.

"Lok..." he whispered. Could she hear him? The feeling was so faint, but he'd sworn it wasn't there a moment ago.

With his feeble strength, Zem Vymes sat up, straining against his injuries to do so. He reached out to her and she was just beyond reach. He saw Solomon standing over her. He felt them both. Both here, and there.

Zem eased back onto the gurney, his eyes closing again. But he was still there. Still cogent. Searching.

"Hear me."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

* * *



"Hear me... "


It was so soft, as a sigh in the wind, carried from some place beyond her reach. It was like the gentlest ring of a faraway bell, sounding like the barest of whispers.

And yet, she heard it still, and the Lupine gave a sudden start. A hand came up to grip Sol's wrist, and she craned her neck to the side. Her thoughts blossomed outward then, traversing the unseen as she gave herself blindly to her desperate search.

"I hear you," came the small answer, her voice nothing more than a breath.

[Zem Vymes]

Eyes still closed, Zem reached through the mysteries of the force to his closest friend. To the one he loved. He'd carried that burden for so long. A Jedi shall not know Love. A mantra easy to recite, but once known, love was not easy to forget. It caused a man to do so many things. To make sacrifices that seemed otherwise too costly. It caused Zem Vymes to walk the wilderness when the path was darkest, for fear of leading her astray.

"I forgive you."

Zem's parched lips mouthed the words without sound. They carried to a place where she could hear.

"Please forgive me."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

That his distant voice asked for any sort of forgiveness from her nearly caused a fresh welling of tears, but she merely clenched her jaw shut lest emotion overtake her once more. Her brow furrowed as so many memories paraded themselves before her, and the Lupine closed her eyes tightly.

She had become a fraction of what she had once been. Torn free from the evil that had taken hold of her, s'Il was a small creature now. Wrenched from a cruel being that had given to her so much yet so little, the Lupine was a raw thing that collapsed beneath the weight of the wretchedness that had once so utterly consumed her. And now? Now she was incomplete, and left to barely tread above the sea of her own past sins. Sol's efforts, while successful, had reduced her to a state that showed how broken she truly was; how fractured and pulled asunder she had become. Her very soul hung in tatters, so plain to see just as if her heart had been ripped from her chest with clawed hands that left only tattered and mangled remains behind.

Loklorien s'Ilancy was not a whole being, and her hunched form showed that fact with sad clarity.

The evil had been removed, but what it left behind were nothing but the shattered pieces of a woman whose mind had been stripped raw. It was a mind that had withstood so much, yet in the end fell to the Darkness that was relentless in its' pursuit. Yet even while it was a fractured mind, it was a mind that was not whole. It had been separated, pulled away and sent from the one who had sought so tirelessly to dominate it.

She was an echo. A pitiful, miserable being.

Releasing Sol, the Lupine fell forward to strike the lifeless ground with weak fists. Her head fell to the dust, and she felt the grains of sand displaced beneath her brow, her hair shifting forward to obscure her face.

She did not cry out, she did not wail in helplessness.

What was done was done. What horrid crimes that she had committed had been committed. Her shame was born for all to see, and her shoulders convulsed as a silent sob wracked her body.

"A'ss'ar'eh'al ra a'khar'as, sa'mari na'ss'aneh."

Whispered words spoken with a trembling voice that betrayed her.

Forever and always I would forgive you.

[Rev Solomon]

To forgive and to be forgiven - these are the seeds of salvation.

It was one of the central tenets of the Faith, and the first that Solomon had learned and taken to heart when he had crashed on Generis all those years ago, a twisted and broken creature full of rage and despair like the woman who lay crumpled in the dust before him. But Lok's despair was much deeper, much sharper, and though it represented the last vestiges of power the Dark Side held over her, it was jealous in defeat, and would pull her down with it into the Abyss if given its way.

The reverend lifted his eyes and saw that what light remained in the stormy gray sky was waning, and the horizon began collapsing in on them as Loklorien's spirit faded. "Whatever you're going to do," he said to the voice in the sky, "You had better do it quickly."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem faintly nodded, continuing his communion through the force.

"Lok, there is a part of you, hidden in a place where you could not see. You did this to protect yourself. To protect us all."

It was likely she had no idea exactly what he was referring to.

"You took the memories from Byl Laprovik, and in his mind you placed the key to your redemption. It's time to set things right for everyone."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She lifted her head to stare up at a sky growing darker, and letting out a shuddering breath, the Lupine parted her lips as a fleeting image danced before her eye. It was so faint, so bare, so indistinguishable.

"I... "

It pulled at her mind, picking apart the flayed strands that'd been left behind in search of a word that she had once spoken. A word that both knew. A word from the ancient days of the old religion, as Zem had once called it.

There. Nestled so deep, s'Il let out a gasp even as she wrestled with herself, trying desperately to comprehend.

"A'yane'ra... "

[Zem Vymes]

Zem strained to sit up on his cot, gritting his teeth as he expended the effort to rise under his own power. The pain returned sharp as ever, but he wouldn't be defeated. His feet slid to the floor, and he tested his weight, taking shaky steps toward Lok's cot and the trio around her. Solomon kept Lok's spirit from fleeing into oblivion. James poured her energy into keeping her alive. All had a task to do. All a part to play.

Zem reached to Byl, placing his hand on the man's shoulder.

"I need your help, son. You came here for answers, but you brought something with you as well."

[Byl Laprovik]

Interrupted from comforting James, Byl looked up at the old Jedi with confusion plain on his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about, old man. I didn't bring a thing."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem gave the man a knowing smile.

"You just don't know you did. Each of you carries a part of each other. Hidden, tucked away, and unseen. Loklorien took from you your past; your identity. And in its place she placed in your mind a piece of her. You were her refuge against evil she could no longer defend herself against. Her last sanctuary. It's an old Lupine transference technique she taught me long ago."

What he was going to ask involved not only Byl, but also James.

"I can set this right, but it won't be easy, and I'll need your help."

[James Prent]

She could hear them talking, but the marvel that was the human...not quite human body of Loklorien was keeping her attention. The Fire Crystal illuminated the way, and she followed it, damage from electricity and cold melting away. She was starting to feel so very tired.

Some of the words sank into her subconscious. Your past. Identity.

James opened her eyes. Lok was stable. She looked at Byl, unable to hide the stab of fear that raced through her.

[Byl Laprovik]

His hand tightened around hers as he listened to what the old man had to say. So it was more than lost memory. His fate and the fate of Loklorien s'Ilancy were tied together. This was what he'd come here to do. If he turned away now, not only would there be no answers, but it sounded like the Jedi's life hung in balance as well.

Byl's eyes returned to Zem, and he nodded.

"What must I do?"

[Zem Vymes]

He was willing. That was the first step. Zem took a deep breath. Calm. Clear of mind.

"Free your mind from fear and doubt. You may see or hear things you can't explain. You have to allow yourself to believe. I will be the conduit. Once we begin, I cannot intervene. You must find each other."

Byl's face reflected the storm of doubt that was to be expected, but he closed his eyes, and in a moment, his expression relaxed. The Agent nodded.

Zem looked to James, giving her a deliberate nod. He knew what was at stake. He would not put Byl in danger. Zem's eyes closed, and the Jedi Master placed a finger to Loklorien's forehead. A deep breath...and another finger went to Byl.

Zem's body stiffened, his mouth opening wide for a scream that never came. Two minds became one through him.

[Byl Laprovik]

He was flying.

It was impossible, yet still, he felt a flood carry him away from his body, screaming through a torrent of water, a river that flowed upwards into heaven. The sky gave way to stars, the river kept storming along. Everything he knew demanded that he shut it out, but he kept his eyes open, screaming as the deluge carried him to the light at the center of the galaxy.

A flash...

He fell to earth on a waterfall that turned to nothing. A different world. Gone was the chill of Hoth. Byl felt a cold in his soul instead. A dying planet. The light faded from this place as ruins crumbled to dust.

Two figures stood in the distance, silhouettes against the twilight. Byl took his first tentative steps across the dreamscape, his pace quickening.

"Loklorien s'Ilancy!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still kneeling, the Lupine let her head snap in the direction of the voice. The voice that called her name. The voice that she knew; had once known.

Her eye made out a figure in the distance, and she felt her heart skip a beat. Hands went to the ground once more then, fingers raking lines in the dirt as she felt her body lumber upwards, her legs slow to move, but rise she did. Like a puppet she stood, chest heaving as she breathed in deeply before exhaling.

Her lips moved to form a word, though no sound came out.

Byl...

So many lost fragments, so many unfinished memories that'd once been whole...

Loklorien s'Ilancy took a worried step back then, as her features clouded over in apprehension. She grasped at half remembrances and felt a small panic begin to spread through her. She had taken so much from Byl Laprovik, that much she knew. Had he come to enact vengeance? Had he come to repay her in kind? Was this the punishment that Sol had spoken of?

But there was more to the memory, there was more that she could not recall, and that unknown caused her to stop, standing rooted as Byl's clipped stride brought him ever closer. He had something.

Even across the distance between them his eyes seemed to glow, and the closer he came, the brighter they became. In that moment of dawning realization, the elder Lupine felt warmth. She felt heat sear its' way through the inner corners of her own eyes to lance through her optic nerves. And then the fire exploded behind her eyes, and her head rocked back. The closer he came, the further the fire spread, racing through her mind like a raging storm. And yet, rather than destruction, she felt...

... rebirth.

In that moment, s'Il took a step forward. One step turned to two, and two to three. She moved past Sol like a woman possessed. And perhaps she was. Her stride was quick now, and in the next moment she fell into a slow run which in turn became a sprint.

"Byl!"

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon had not expected to see the stone-faced man intruding on Loklorien's consciousness - he realized he hadn't asked Byl what his stake was in finding Lok, whether he was a friend, a relative, or a lover. As the Lupine sprinted toward the man, Solomon followed after her with a long, purposeful stride, watchful in case the joyful reunion turned sour.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl closed in, meeting the Jedi in the middle of the dreamscape. His eyes had seen too much absurdity for disbelief to rise up now. He accepted it for what it might be.

"You took everything from me. Everything I was."

His fists balled at his side, and he looked at s'Ilancy. She was a shell of a person. He could see the weariness and doubt on her face. It occurred to him that he knew as little about her as he knew of himself. Just a shadow. An absence.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Slowing to a stop, the Lupine kept herself from reaching out, from placing a hand to his face. What she could not grasp, he held within him, and she so desperately wanted it back. But there were so many layers to sift through, to interpret. They were layers that she could not reach. They were layers that Byl Laprovik held.

Her mouth opened as if to answer, only to clamp shut just as quickly at his accusation.

"I took... "

A pulling at the back of her mind gained purchase, and s'Il cast a look back, to Sol as he followed at his own swift pace.

She blinked, turning her eye back to Byl as jagged memories pieced themselves together.

"I took from you," the fire behind her eyes still burned, and she felt her fingers curl into her palms.

"I took from you so that I could give you something."

It was a final finished thought, as small realizations began to reconnect. Standing before him, she could smell and taste each unfinished thought and half-formed memory, each only just beyond her grasp.

Now she did reach out. If only she could touch him, if only she could feel his skin, let her fingers graze his temple as her thoughts called out to what he held within his mind...

[Byl Laprovik]

"I know."

He had to believe what Zem had said. If it wasn't true, he was completely undone. The only way to know was in front of him.

Byl watched her hand reach for his face. He trusted unfounded intuition, reaching out to her as well.

"How do we set this right? They said you're...dying. That you're missing something you need to come back."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She needed to give no answer, as each placed a hand to the other at the same moment.

The gate flew open then. Like a white, blinding light it flashed into existence, bridging a gap between Byl Laprovik and Loklorien s'Ilancy that had been furrowed deep. It encompassed her entire world in a single moment, and the Lupine cried out even as her grip on him seemed to tighten. She could feel his hand stiffen as well, as the two became a creature of one. Their shared memories, their existence in time and space itself overlapped.

And then she knew.

She could remember.

She was whole.

Each and every connection that was made became a new and complete pathway. The frayed and stripped half of her being was reconnected, and in the throes of regained knowledge, the Lupine closed her eyes tight, throwing her head back as she let her body, mind, and essence push into Byl's.

[Byl Laprovik]

Everything that was veiled and hidden. Everything unseen. It all returned to him in a rush. Byl gasped, even as he questioned the very air in his lungs, he could remember everything, as his past returned to him in an avalanche of faces, events, and histories. Hoth. He remembered that place alright. Remembered the days being abandoned in the cold. Everything he'd done to survive.

The things he'd done...

His knees buckled under him, and Byl fell to the ground. Every lie he'd told. Every face he killed.

He'd gotten back his past.

He remembered everything. And wished he could forget.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her first breath.

Her first inhalation that brought with it a resurgence. A resurgence to life.

In the confines of the Exodus, Loklorien surged upward as she sucked in the first breath of a renewed existance, pulled from the dying world in her mind to inhabit a body that'd been taken from the cold, sheltered and healed.

Her eyes flew open in that instant, and the elder Lupine felt the warmth of a song and a finger at her temple even as she felt the breath of life coursing through her lungs.

[James Prent]

James was watching Byl's face, and when it contorted in sudden anguish she released Lok's hand, pressing her now free hand to his face. "It's going to be okay," she said urgently. It had to be okay.

Lok was responsible for what had happened to him?

[Rev Solomon]

Solomon came to himself, blinking, and swayed a spell before he found his balance. James had withdrawn her hand, but his hand still rested on Lok's, and his eyes went to hers as they fluttered open.

"Welcome back," he said in a weary voice, just before he noticed the commotion at his feet.

[Byl Laprovik]

Byl awoke in a start, gasping breath as if he hadn't been breathing. He blinked hard as he recoiled from Zem's touch, deep breaths drawing out and slowing down slightly as he found his bearings. He looked to James, but his expression was full of grief and despair, and he looked away just as quickly. Rising to his feet, he paced the shuttle, trying to make sense of what he could now fully remember.

[James Prent]

She let her hands fall limply as he recoiled from her, and James blinked rapidly, backing up as Solomon spoke to Lok and Zem returned from whatever Force trance he was in. She backed into a bulkhead, listening to Byl's footsteps up the passageway. She was so tired. James slid down to the floor, her head in her hands.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem fell, catching himself at the side of the gurney. The connection had drained him, exacerbating his injuries. Around him he felt a tumult of emotion. Elation, to joy to longing to despair. It was all so strong around him, and Zem could barely hang on in the midst of it all. All he knew was that they were successful.

Though Darth Decepis remained, they'd redeemed his apprentice. Loklorien s'Ilancy was back.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

And in the moment of her renewel, the Lupine felt something expelled. Something shunted from her body like a parasite, unwanted and undesired.

Her body convulsed then, her hand momentarily clutching Sol's as she felt every muscle within cast the demon... the dark... out.

Her entire being pushed and flailed, unwilling to hold within it the evil that had so completely taken hold at one point.

The Lupine shook violently, turning to the side as she let the oozing, black, and oily liquid spill from her mouth. It fell in a continuous stream, pooling on the floor. And even as she expelled the evil, her eye watched in semi-fascination at the display. The oily blackness seemed to pulse, to cry out to her, and then...

Then it withered. It wasted away. without a host, the darkness had nothing, and Loklorien s'Ilancy watched in half-lidded fascination as what was left of Darth Decepis's teaching and writings began to dry. They cracked, becoming pale imitations of what they once were, and in the next few moments they had become nothing at all. Lies told to the wind, lies exposed. Lies spoken to lead her astray. Lies fed to her so that she would remain his.

And as each crusted black flake was brushed away in an unfelt breeze, the elder Lupine let her eye track to the one.

To Zem-El Vymes.

A sharp breath, and a single tear heralded her return to the light.

[Byl Laprovik]

Shame.

It was the first thing he felt. Shame for memories he now felt that were a natural part of him. He'd never felt this way before. He couldn't look at her. Byl was afraid she'd know.

What a monster he was.

[Zem Vymes]

He regained some of his strength, drawing up to stand, and to hold her hand. Her hand. Not the hand of Decepis's puppet. Not the hand of the thrall who'd tried to kill him. He could feel the change within her. See it on her face. Redemption was not a grace granted lightly to a Jedi, and only a few could fall from the light and return.

She had.

Zem's grip tightened, and he drew her into an embrace.