All That Remains: Cenotaph

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"A tool and nothing more... "



They were words that echoed through her thoughts, consuming her entire being, almost even. Such a betrayal in the face of the lies that had been told to her for so many long years... had she truly known that his words were false? In the darkest recesses of her heart she had, and yet she chose to ignore the inevitable conclusion. She had let herself fall into his thrall. She had given herself to him in the place of their daughter that he'd said he would take as his own acolyte. His own pawn in this great game of chakesse that he considered his own. Her life and allegiance to the Dark One, to the Man in Black that had pursued her and chased her and sought her, in exchange for that life that had been created because of...

... because of her weakness... ?

Was Teagan a testament to her own weakness? And Markos? Were her two children the manifestations of her need for familial closeness and the desire for an heir to the Losstarot Bloodline?

No.

Her husband... her master... her tormenter... he had woven this tapestry. He had given her the illusion of a life that she had always wanted. An existence that she had craved from her earliest days.

He had known the very things that she most desired, and had given them to her in return for the things that he desired.

But now, with her return, the Lupine found her resolve. She was whole once more. Her fall had been a tragedy, a failure of her own will and resolve. Yet she had known that it would happen... known that she would be taken. And in those moments of her clarity she had done what she could to prepare her old friends and give them the tools they would need to stand against the evil that was Darth Decepis.

And... Darth Acera.

Yet, Acera had been purged. Turned upon by her own Master and left to die an agonizing death, buried beneath the wreckage of Echo Base's destroyed ion canon.

A finger reached up then, to gently press against the top of the scar that bisected her right eye. She let her thoughts return her to the cold of Hoth, and the pure betrayal of her Master. He had left his mark upon her, and as her fingertip slowly ran down the length of his old 'gift', the Lupine prepared herself.

She had one last task to perform.






* * *





The destroyed hulk of Dauntless - General Dan Thrule's seemingly precious ship - smoldered and burbled halfway beneath the waters of the shallow sea that lay to the west of a small mountain chain. Beyond that to the east was a small forest that gave way to Sanctuary. Still in a fledgling stage, the Jedi's new home was still so fragile and delicate. Yet, it had teeth all the same, and those teeth had delivered further damage to the already falling Dauntless, sending it off Decepis' original intended target to instead crash into what had once been a peaceful, beautiful bay.

Previously white sands and crystal blue water were now blackened and littered with twisted metal, destroyed sections of the ship that had broken apart, and the unmistakable mangled flesh of so many bodies. It was a landscape of death, the bay's waters discolored with muck, lubricants, debris, and destroyed life. There was no silence in this new hellscape of despair and death. The screeching of durasteel as it settled, the hissing of so much steam releasing from the bay's waters that'd been boiled by the wreckage, the beginning siren of helpless and stricken voices - the voices of those poor souls who had been lucky enough to survive the collision between ship and planet... it was all a chorus of despair, destruction, and heartbreak.

There was one among the survivors though that could not be heard, however.

But she knew that he was alive.

She knew that his presence still clung to the world of the living with such tenacity and determination.




* * *




The wreckage on the beach was largely ignored, and the woman who walked through and around it was quiet. She took in the sounds around her with grim determination.

She had shed her duty jacket, leaving it in the old Nu-class shuttle that had ferried her down to the planet. She had no blaster, having left that in the shuttle as well.

Instead, a gauntlet. In the other hand, a bent-hilt saber. All three emitters were silent and lifeless.

For now, she was looking and searching.

She could feel him still, feel his life within the Force pulsing with so much hate and rage.

She slowed to a stop, casting her gaze to either side of her. Such destruction, such death. All for one man's desire for control.




* * *


Ten minutes later found her standing on a small outcropping of rock, overlooking the wreckage of Dauntless.

Such a waste of life.

[Darth Decepis]

He had been mere moments away from victory. Just a minute longer, and the destruction of the Jedi would have been complete. He had been close enough to feel the shared fear at the communal knowledge of their impending destruction. But in the moment of observing, it shifted. Like a river, it redirected over and around the boulder in its path. The fear became steadfast resolution. It became an instrument, reaching across the impossible expanse to shoulder the hurtling half-molten burden of the Dauntless in the peak of her terminal dive. What agony, to watch the fruits of multiple lifetimes die on the vine before you.

The Lord of the Sith's eyes opened slowly, looking fruitlessly through the greasy smoke. The bridge was destroyed. That he was even in one piece was the fruit of a bargain with the dark side. Bulkheads and bodies alike were ruined in the periphery, destroyed and contorted by the impact of millions of tons of durasteel against the most raw intention of the Force. In the tumult of the crash, the urn had left his grasp. His feet stepped tentatively over the rippled decking, hearing the tell-tale tinkle of pottery crunch between boot and metal.

Shafts of sunlight poked spears through the dark where the hull had been exposed to air, looking as substantial as lightsaber blades in the contrast. The Dark Lord took weak but purposeful steps towards whatever served as an exit. A klaxon overhead got one last surge of power from an emergency battery, croaking out a death rattle of an alarm. Darth Decepis paused in the center of a sunbeam, grimacing against the sudden brightness. His bloodied hands turned upwards, and the durasteel canopy began to obey in a wailing of distressed metal as the hull peeled back, allowing him a way out.

Hundreds of years worth of work - ruined. This was not how it was supposed to be. Now, he would have to start over. He would learn from this mistake. There was time. He always had time.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She heard the peel of twisting and deforming metal, further taken past the breaking point. It screeched and protested at having to continue to endure so much abuse.

From her vantage, Loklorien s'Ilancy stood motionless. She watched and waited, knowing the monster would emerge from the wreckage. He did not disappoint her, either. His herald was the sound of tortured durasteel plating that folded itself back to widen a hole large enough for a body to escape through.

There was no other ceremony, no other fanfare other than the ambience of destruction and devastation all around. The Lupine finally let her gaze lower to the bent-hilt saber she held, and she couldn't help the grimace that tugged at her expression. The thing was an object of terrible hate and evil, elegant lines and age-old craftsmanship consumed by ugly intent and even uglier deeds. She had brought it with her because she knew that it would be only fitting. It would be... the right thing to do. It was a vague notion she had sensed through the Force, with no specifics, but she obeyed regardless.

Lifting her eyes once more, she continued to watch and wait. Her senses reached out then in that moment, pouring over the wreckage.

[Darth Decepis]

A boon of the force carried him through the opening, and Decepis leapt unnaturally, finding his footing on the outer hull. The spray of sea water carried thick in the air with saline scent, mingling with the heavy acrid choke of chemical smoke that he left behind. The strangely-organic lines of Dauntless's hull made the way down a series of gradient descents with the occasional hill where one shouldn't be. There wasn't much time. While the ship had barely missed Sanctuary, it was still maybe a kilometer from the shore, and maybe another one to the Jedi landing. He would need to close that distance quickly, find a ship, and leave.

Just as a kernel of a plan was beginning to form in his mind, Decepis caught sight of Her. She occupied the vantage, far ought enough to pass below a lay person's observations, but the Lord of the Sith would certainly know to feel the presence of their pupil.

So then. There was one more thing left to do.

The Dark Lord's posture changed, as he squared himself to face Loklorien s'Ilancy, letting her know that he saw her in kind. Though the distance between them still required negotiating, she might be able to perceive his appearance changing to another that was perhaps once more familiar.

However this confrontation went, it was the last way he intended her to see him.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

He had seen her, and his posture spoke enough about the intentions that they both now shared. Their last time together would be here, on Ossus. The fiction and the lie of what they had once been was washed away now, cast off and discarded.

From her vantage, she watched him for a few lingering moments. His evil was ancient, age-old. He himself had existed through so many hundreds of years. Her own lifespan thus far was like some small speck in comparison to his own. And yet it was within her small window of existence that she intended to end his.

A few steps forward, and almost lazily, she allowed herself to drop from the overhang. The landing was tempered by the Force, and she connected with the sand below with ease. She hesitated a moment, as if lost in sudden thought, but it was only the slightest of pauses before she stepped around a fallen hulk of twisted durasteel. It was certainly not the only piece of debris that lay scattered about. Dauntless had shed a good portion of herself in the barely controlled dive that had ended here, in the bay. Her superstructure was certainly still present, but there was so much that had been lost in the descent regardless.

The Lupine let her gait remain a meandering one. She was in no hurry. What would happen, would happen. And she knew that he would be unwilling to leave without tending to what would most assuredly be their last encounter.

The mask he wore now... it was so familiar. The face of a man that she had loved for so many years. Decades. And yet, it was a deception. Everything had been so many falsehoods layered over the tops of others to weave the cruelest of tapestries.

As the distance between them slowly closed, she let out a long breath. Her body remained loose, as though she was taking a leisurely stroll across a pristine and beautiful beach, an imagined scene far removed from the reality of the situation that she found herself in now.

[General Dan]

"Well." Dan raised his brows, taking a few meandering paces along the hull as he kept his attention on Lok, "This puts us in an interesting position."

He didn't have to gesture to the literal gulf that stood between them. It stood as an imposing enough metaphor on its own.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She had stopped at the water's edge, her gaze locked with his.

"It is a position that you placed us in," she answered.

His poise was noted, the tone in his voice unmistakable.

A half-step back, and the Lupine gestured to the bank. Her invitation was plain.

[General Dan]

The rebel leader took a glance at the broken hull he was perched on.

"They say that a Captain ought to go down with their ship. As foolish as the idea is, you can't deny it's romantic."

The wry smile on his face cooled slightly.

"You came all this way, and for a reason. You can come a little bit farther."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She frowned, then.

"You are neither a captain, nor a romantic. And I am no longer willing to acquiesce to you."

And she truly wasn't. Looking back, she had done everything that he'd both outright asked and implied. She had been the one to come to him.

This was the one time that she would resist him. In the past, she had given to him everything that he had wanted and done everything that he desired of her. All for his affection - for some fiction of a love that was never truly there.

Now however, she was a whole being, and unwilling to bend.

As such, she remained as she was.

"I am here, now, waiting for you."

[General Dan]

With a shrug, Dan began the approach, a slope that quickly began to steepen as the curvature of the hull approached the waterline. Without a break of momentum, boot heels shifted from a walk to a run, to a slide, and to a leap. Dan sprang off the hull, lifted free by the force. He cleared the distance in a half dozen strides, skipping off the breakers until he touched down in water that came up to mid-ankle. He slowed his gait as he waded through the receding tide.

"If that's how you want to end it."

For a moment, Dan sized Lok up. They'd been intertwined in each others lives for so many years. Even in his long-lived span, it was a significant relationship. He knew so many things about her. Her fighting style, her history, her wants, her emotions. But there was always something left undiscovered. Obviously, as he had been mistaken about her place in things. Confronted with that mistake, he viewed her in a different light.

"Are you going to kill me?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

He was studying her, and she allowed him that much. There was a lot that he knew of her. His knowledge was intimate and exhaustive. She had once shared most all of herself with him, and she saw that in his gaze. And yet, there was also something new in his eyes that she recognized. It was fresh discovery... seeing something that he'd not seen before. It gave her hope, of a sort. It also hardened her resolve.

Finally, she answered him.

"I believe that it is what I am expected to do."

It was a backhanded remark, spoken in reference to his own words that it was the way of the Rule of Two.

But...

"I am not Acera, however."

The bent-hilt saber in her hand lifted then, as she regarded it for but a moment. In the next, it returned to her side. It was the weapon that she had constructed while under his tutelage, and with his permission. Her grip tightened then, and with the aide of the Force, she crushed the handle. It broke into two pieces, falling to the sand below.

"I am the Jedi you met on that old freighter so long ago (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?16096-Adagio-for-Strings)."

[General Dan]

The Lord of the Sith watched the wrenched fragments of Darth Acera's weapon fall to the ground. The sun peeked behind the smoke and clouds, catching enough of the exposed denatured khyber crystal to amplify a light glow over it. His eyes went from the crystal, to her face. There was no wavering in her expression. There was no sign that she was in danger of being overtaken by her emotion.

He smiled. Barely a turn of the corners of his mouth. It didn't seem malicious or happy or anything so causal. Perhaps it was some kind of ambivalence. Maybe there were many feelings coming to him at once.

"I can see that you are."

For a moment there was no sound between them but breakers on the sand. Dan turned his eyes to the Jedi camp, not too far away.

"You think they can help you? Help you keep Markos and Teagan safe? Help you to keep the name of your house alive?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

He seemed to call upon the old words that had once pulled her back close to his side. They were words that now, made her grimace. He was attempting to tug at the strings of her inner core. Of her innate need for continuance.

Except that right now, here on this ground that they both inhabited... it was immaterial.

"Our children... " in that moment there was a lowering of her gaze, but it was not out of shame. She had brought forth two shining beacons of light, despite the fact that their father was a master of the Dark.

"... they are safe enough."

She followed his own gaze.

"And my House... "

A long inward breath, followed by an equally long exhale.

"... my House is my own. It is not yours. You held that over me for so long, the promise to return it to prominence."

The look that she gave him next was a strange one. Something that existed between a grimace and a look of pity.

"I will at the very least, tell your children that you loved them. Even if you truly did not."

[General Dan]

Dan canted his head in a soft sigh. He spent a moment looking up, the cloud and smoke cover allowing him to easily stare at the sun. When his eyes returned to Lok, there was another slight, complicated smile.

"You know, it sounds self explanatory, but the best lies are the ones that you believe. But if you say a really clever one, you can believe it yourself.

I spent a lot of time on you, Lok. More than any of my other apprentices. I invested my time, my energy, my passion, and my imagination. I created a lie; I created a spectacular lie. A lie that would seduce you, a daughter of a Lupine house. You, a Jedi Master. You...you. Because we both know that you are more than those two things. More than their sum. There will only ever be one of you."

Dan reached down, plucking the crystal from Acera's ruined saber. With a casual toss, the crimson gem disappared with a small splash almost obscured by the ebbing tide.

"A clever lie. I poured myself into being a part of that lie, into being the man you see. Being the person who stood with you in the good times and when times were hard. It had to be good enough to convince you. It's difficult to not believe it. Perhaps, in moments of my own weakness, I also believed it."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Only ever one of me," she mused aloud. Her tone was soft, however.

She watched as the stone he tossed disappeared easily into the waters.

"And yet... " her eye went back to him. Back to the man that had claimed for his own her heart, her will, and her deeds. "... you left me to die on Hoth."

She inhaled deeply, pulling in the salty sea air that was now mingled with burning oil and every other scent associated with a wounded ship that had fatally kissed the surface of a planet.

"The lies you tell," she breathed out. Was there sadness in her tone, in that moment? Perhaps. It was a strange timbre to her voice then, that spoke of depths unsaid. Nothing that she wished to speak of in the moment however.

"In the end those lies always unwind."

Her free hand came up then, and she called the thrown crystal back to her hand. It smacked into her palm with the grim finality of saltwater droplets. Tears and regret. She turned it over in her fingers, then held it up. It was now a singular point between their gaze.

Her next question was one asked with a strange sort of earnestness. Of a desire to cut through so much chaff.

"What did you hope that I would do for you?"

[General Dan]

"The same thing every Master wants of their Apprentice. To make them become their best. That's how the Sith live forever, after all.

But when the lie was particularly convincing, I enjoyed being a part of the story. I even wanted to be there. You became a pleasant possibility."

Dan took a few steps closer.

"If I'm the one to tell Markos and Teagan, I'll tell them that no one ever fought harder for their children than you did. They deserve to know it."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

A pleasant possibility.

The crystal in her hand lowered then, and she broke her gaze with him to send her eye to the roiling waves.

He came closer, and she made no move to keep him from doing so. They were intertwined in this moment. They were two halves of a whole. For her own perception, at least.

"What you would tell them... "

The hand that had held the crystal now let it fall into the sand between them, and she beckoned him close. An invitation at one last act of closeness.

"... would you truly mean it... ?"

[General Dan]

"Not everything I've said is a lie."

It was a feeling unguarded in that moment, and he let her feel it.

"You may no longer be mine, but you earned the truth this time."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was truth in his words, and the Lupine allowed herself a moment of half-trust. It did not matter that his words were of the sort to be scrutinized and poured over with a fine-toothed comb. She could sense the candor, and allowed him that, at least.

A partial turn, then, and she held her hand out to his, offering the chance of one last time of closeness. One last look over a literal sea of devastation.

"Is it still folly that I think of you as one close enough to me to share myself with?"

[General Dan]

After some time of thought, "Maybe." He looked from her hand, to her eyes, and back.

"I wouldn't hold that against you if it is."

He reached his hand to hers. Fingers meeting fingers, then parting and intertwining. Dan watched the waves with her.

"It was a pretty good story for a while there, wasn't it?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

They were like some hopeful couple, standing upon a beachfront and watching a glorious sunrise.

Except the sun was already halfway above them, and the land it bathed with its light was a horrendous scene.

She felt his hand take hold of her own, felt his closeness. He was an oppressive creature, with his desires and intentions. And yet she still held firm. She let out a long breath, looking from him to the wreckage of Dauntless. His tool. Much as she had been his tool.

This scene now, with so much tumult roiling beneath the surface.

"We could have been the best, you know," she finally breathed out.

Her gaze was sent outwards, to the end result of so many years of his hard work.

[General Dan]

"We were both our best selves. Would've been one hell of a match."

He held her hand, watching the hull of Dauntless begin to list as enough compartments began to flood to pitch it further below. The lie was easy to believe. Darth Decepis, the Lord of the Sith, almost believed his own.

A heavy breaker crashed on the shore, rushing water up to their ankles in a surge. Through the roar of water in motion, an energetic hiss almost passed unheard. With the blade held out of her sight, the Dark Lord brought his weapon around quickly, pouring all his focus into a fast, decisive strike.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

In perfect concert with his own strike, the twin orange blades of her saber sprang to life, rising up to meet his killing blow with a block. She had half-turned to face him, maintaining her hold on his hand, and held him at bay for the briefest of moments. It felt like seconds that stretched into hours. In the next breath her body tensed ever so slightly, and she heaved both of their weapons to the side. Her grip on his hand was like a beskar trap, keeping him from moving away even as she countered another swing from his familiar serpent hilt. The Lupine wrenched his arm and pulled him even closer, feeling as the two occupied the same space in the sand.

Another rapid deflection, and as both weapons traveled up and dangerously between them to crackle together over the tops of their still clasped hands, she let her entire being grow calm. The Force pulsed all around, giving strength and resolve.

In the next moment her blades extinguished, and she caught his backhanded swing with the two emitters, trapping both his hand and his hilt between them.

It was then that she gave a twist of her wrist, sending his now useless weapon spinning from his fingers. In the same moment she grasped his now free hand, and her body moved swiftly, drawing them fully together as her lips met his in one last kiss.

And yet, it was a kiss that drew from him everything. All that he was, all that he had once been, and all that he could've possibly been in the future. She felt the Force pool around and through her, giving her the strength that she needed even as she continued to pull from him every last shred of his own connection to the Force. So much of his being was rooted in the ethereal powers, drawing life from it and sustaining his years far beyond what were natural. Every layer, every facet, every tenuous thread that held him fast was severed and taken away until there was nothing left.

Until it was just... Dan Thrule.

Slowly, she parted her lips from his. She still held both of his hands, and as she opened her eyes there was a sorrowful look of finality that she sent up to him.

[General Dan]

He'd been fast. As fast as he needed to be, fast enough to strike his former pupil down. It was fast enough, until it wasn't. She disarmed him and drew him into embrace. Instead of her own blade, she struck in a way he had not anticipated.

And then it was done.

They parted lips, and Dan's breath exhaled in a ragged rush. He'd counted on the Force as his tool for centuries. In a moment, senses that seemed second nature were now leaden and dulled. There wasn't even time to lash out and stop it. He'd been so perfectly undone. Now the only thing that kept him here was the connection to her, and her own willingness to maintain it. Darth Decepis, the Lord of the Sith who's reign had lasted longer than all others, was now watching the last chapter in his story being penned. What was left to be said by him?

"That was pretty fast, kid."

He felt tired, weak, and yet somehow relieved? Without the Force to command and control to his whims, the novelty of endings and finality captured his attention and he could no longer look away from it, or her.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was the first time she'd ever heard him speak in such an unguarded tone, and her features pinched as she felt a tumult of emotions threaten to overtake her.

Relief, elation, sadness, loss, triumph... they all washed over her even as she still held fast to him. Her eyes remained locked with his, and the Lupine blinked away the onset of a tear.

"It kind of was, wasn't it."

It was all she could think of to say in that moment.

It was easy to see though, that the strain of holding him in his current state was a taxing endeavor, and she let out a hissed exhale even as her shoulders slumped. But still she held his years at bay, still refusing to let him go just yet.

"I... "

Even after everything he had done to her, done to twist her about, and done to try and reshape her into something evil, she couldn't help but feel so terribly for him in this moment. She couldn't break his gaze, and gave the slightest shake of her head.

"... I'm so sorry."

[General Dan]

He shook his head.

"It's what you were meant to do. Maybe it's even what I deserve."

He was aware of his ambitions and all of his machinations. It would be hollow to apologize for that.

"It's funny. I've had all this time. Never once have I given much thought to how it would end. I probably would have changed a few things, but in a way, I'm glad it was you."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I would've been upset if it wasn't me," she whispered.

One of her hands released, traveling up the length of his arm, and over his shoulder to rest her palm along his jawline. His features were familiar, and she gave a smile that was also a grimace.

Cut away from the Force and all of its power, she knew that his ability to lie was severely diminished. He could certainly try, but in his severed state, she would know. To that end, she spoke once more.

"What would you like me to tell our children... ?"

[General Dan]

"I haven't taught you everything I know, Lok. That's not how it works. But you know enough. You can create a lie big enough to live in. But maybe with a certain point of view, it might even be true."

The wistfulness of his smile now eclipsed the secrecy of his previous expression.

"Tell them a good one. They deserve the best."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Even now, he deflected. It made her give him the smallest of smiles, and the Lupine stood on her toes to deliver a gentle press of her lips to his cheek.

"I will do my best," she breathed. Was that a lie of her own?

Pulling back, she gave him a concerning look, watching as the lines of his face gradually deepened, her hold on his life beginning to slowly falter.

Another minute passed in silence, and she couldn't help but send her hand further up, undoing his hair to let it fall to his shoulders.

"The one thing that would have saved you," her fingers toyed with a thin lock of his hair for one last time, "... was the one thing you could never do."

He was a creature of finality and avarice, however, and she conceded him that, at least.

"But I suppose you wouldn't be you if that was the case."

[General Dan]

Dan said nothing to that, except to raise his eyebrows as his head canted, an unspoken admission of the truth in her words.

"If they ask about me, truth or lie, I trust that to you. You won, so you get to say. But if there's anything I can tell them that they ought to know, you know, a father's advice, I'd tell them to not make any excuses or apologies for who they are or who they choose to be."

As he spoke, Dan looked here and there. To their feet standing next to one another on the beach as the waves barely touched them. To the land, the sea, the sky. He took it all in like a person who knew that was going to be the last look.

"That's the one power everyone starts off with, and too many people give away."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She gave a silent nod, her own eyes turning to the water. In the distance, Dauntless let out a rumbling groan, the cruiser further listing to her side as the waves began to more fully consume her.

There were no words spoken as the minutes passed, and she looked skyward, to the jutting clouds and the blue sky. Even despite the trail of debris that still fell, there was no denying what had once started as the loveliest of mornings on Ossus.

Finally, the Lupine let out a long breath.

"It is a beautiful day."

[General Dan]

Still taking it in, Dan's eyes at last returned to the smoldering keel of Dauntless, still fighting the losing fight against the sea.

"Red sky at morning..."

When there was a bit of a pause, Dan added, "you know, that old proverb? Red sky at morning, sailor take warning."

He glanced up, chuckling.

"Nothing but blue and white. Funny."

The slight smile on his face began to ebb, and he squeezed her hands slightly.

"Guess I get to go down with the ship after all."

He paused, eyes closing for a moment. He opened them again, looking at her.

"Goodbye Lok."

His grasp on her hands began to wane, until at last he let her fingers slip from his grasp. Turning slightly, Dan began to walk to the sea. Towards Dauntless. Towards his destiny.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Goodbye... "

The word was barely above a whisper, and she felt as his hand slipped from her own.

And then he turned to the sea, taking his first steps down a road that he would never return from. She watched him, straining to continue holding back the Force even as it pulled at him. It demanded he return so many centuries of stolen life, and she could feel each one of his footfalls.

The further from her he moved, the more her hold waned, and slowly she sank to her knees in the sand, unable to take her eyes from his departing form.

[Darth Decepis]

The steps he took from Lok drew away by degrees his last connection to the Force, and the tether that allowed him to live beyond his years. He could feel the strength leaving him; his body betraying him with each stride. He began to wither, atrophy turning to decay and dust, which settled like ash in the foamy surf. As the water rose up to meet him, Darth Decepis poured the last of his effort into shoring up his pride and sense of dignity, until his will was no longer enough. He faltered, stumbled, and righted himself for one more step before being unmade, his form turning to nothing and disappearing into the waves.

So ended the reign of Decepis, Lord of the Sith. He could not, it turned out, outlive his own story. The end would not be penned by his hand, but of another.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The Lupine watched as he passed beyond her influence. Watched as he stumbled, then gathered himself for a last step. Watched as he was reclaimed by the Force.

The tear that had threatened to escape her eye before, now broke free to travel down her cheek. She felt her body release so many years of tension and heartache. Countless memories paraded through her thoughts then, and she let them wash over her.

She wept, then. Tears of elation, utter relief, and at the same time acute loss.

Both hands came up to cover her face, and still on her knees, she let herself lean forward until her head nearly touched the sand.

It was over. And for the briefest of moments she held onto a sliver of disbelief at that fact. It was a notion that was dashed away swiftly however, with the knowledge that she had watched with her own eye, the end of her tormentor. Everything that he had been to her...

Her shoulders heaved in silent sobs.

After so very many long years, she was finally free.