Senate Building, Coruscant [at the same time as Ben's aboard Ship]
Anyone who was anyone--and a few people who weren't--were packed into the offices of Senator Luewet Wuul. The air had gone stale with the smell of nervous sweat and half-eaten sandwiches, and the ventilation system was struggling to remove the heat of all the bodies packed into the meeting room. The gleaming cylinder of the Galactic Justice Center, visible through the floor-to-ceiling viewport, was now swaying. Since Coruscant’s skytowers were designed to withstand tremors far more violent than what they were seeing, it was probably Not a Good Sign.
The last--and newest--member of the Jedi Council, Master Jaina Solo, promoted by Luke while they'd been fighting for their lives inside the Temple, slid into the last chair placed in a semi-circle at the front of the meeting room. Luke, purple circles beneath his eyes and a face clouded by fear and uncertainty based in no small part on the distinct lack of a redheaded Jedi among their number, was listening intently to a briefing already in progress:
"The Sith who've escaped the Temple are spreading out across Coruscant and launching soft-target terrorist attacks,” Dumper was saying. “Of course, BAMR News is blaming the violence on ‘Jedi spice cartels,’ and they’re urging their viewers to take arms against the Jedi and any ‘corrupt’ security personnel aiding the ‘spice smugglers.’ It's not really working. There have been a few civilian attacks against Jedi, but most of the other news outlets are taking a more balanced approach, attributing the violence to a rogue sect of Force-users.”
“They’re not even using the term Sith?” Kyle Katarn asked.
“There has been some speculation,” Dumper said. “But most of the public doesn’t really understand what Sith are, and those who do are accustomed to thinking of them as loners-either Jedi gone bad, or sinister geniuses hiding in plain sight.”
“So the population isn’t doing anything to help us, either?” Kyp Durron asked. Dumper shook his head. “Not much,” he said. “We’ve been getting a little cooperation through the security forces-primarily reports of suspicious behavior. But most Coruscanti don’t seem to know what to believe. They’re just keeping their heads down and trying to stay clear of any trouble at all.”
“Which is difficult, now that our fight with the Sith has spread beyond the Temple,” Luke said, reaching up to rub at the bridge of his nose. “How bad is the violence getting? Are we starting to contain it at all?”
Ender
"We are doing very little," Ender said.
He'd been packed up near the back of the table, but somewhere halfway through the conversation he'd leaned forward. "My people have managed to put out some fires," he continued, and nodded towards Dumper. "Thank you, Dumper, for the invaluable intel you've been collecting for us. It's been helpful."
Dumper
Dumper lit up like he'd just gotten a pat on the back from God. "Just following orders, sir," he said, and quietly sat back, opening up the floor a little more for Ender's benefit.
Ender
"People are dying," Ender continued. "Ever since the Jedi left, the Sith have been treating Coruscant like their personal playground - and now that there isn't anything keeping them balled up in one place anymore, that playground has become significantly larger. We've been trying to move people from the areas where the Sith seem to be most active, but they're moving fast, and we can't always predict where."
Luke
Luke looked a little heartsick. "How many civilian casualties?" he asked quietly.
Ender
"Closing up on two million," Ender said, just as quietly.
Luke
"And how many Sith have we taken out?" he asked.
Ender
"Close to thirty," Ender said, "But it's cost you fifteen Jedi, it's cost the Coruscanti security force thousands, and I have no idea how many volunteers of different stripes have lost their lives in the process. Coruscant is an absolutely terrible planet to hunt on - even when your prey doesn't consist of Sith Sabers."
Luke
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room as those numbers sunk in. Luke's attention flickered back to Galactic Justice Center, which was beginning to sway so wildly now that the deck of Fellowship Plaza could be seen buckling around it. He asked, "What do the reports say about how the skytowers collapse?"
Ender
"Explosions, fires," Ender said succinctly. He followed Luke's gaze. "No localized earthquakes, though."
Luke
"In that case, we need to evacuate the Galactic Justice Center," Luke decided. "Now."
Ender
"Should I?" Jane asked.
Ender's head inclined forward in a gesture that could be interpreted as a Yes. And with that, he knew it would be done.
"We have to be very careful what steps we take next," Ender said, "My people and I will be encouraging as much evacuation as we can. Coruscant isn't safe."
Tara
"How are you going to get the word out?" Tara asked, after tentatively raising her hand as if she wasn't certain she was really allowed to talk.
She wasn't sure what she was doing in the room at all, but no one seemed inclined to throw her out bodily, so she figured she should do something besides sitting like a mildly shellshocked lump.
Ender
"I have my channels. Don't worry about it," Ender said.
Even if he'd wanted to reveal Jane, explaining her right now would be complicated.
Wynn Dorvan
"The Jedi Temple's computer core hasn't been captured?" Wynn Dorvan interrupted. His voice was pitched high and his eyes were bulging. "Then you have captured nothing."
He glanced around the table. "Does no one understand? The Beloved Queen is living in the computer, too. She is the computer!"
That was nice and sane sounding. Really.
Jaina
And yet Jaina had heard worse lately.
"If you say she’s living in the computer core, I absolutely believe you," she assured him, and addressed the others at the table. "Unfortunately, Abeloth can inhabit more than one body at a time."
An uneasy silence fell over the room, and at least Jaina didn't have to worry about keeping people's attention?
"On the way over here, I spoke with Tahiri Veila," she continued. "It turns out that, at the same time we were fighting our Sith Abeloth in the Temple ventilation ducts, Tahiri and Boba Fett were fighting another Abeloth on Hagamoor Three. They destroyed theirs with a thermal detonator... at exactly two minutes before midday GST."
Luke
Luke and Corran's eyes lit with comprehension. "The same time ours suddenly lost her strength and fled the fight," Luke said. "So they're linked--kill one, weaken the other. Every other time I've killed her--" and that had been more times than he cared to think about, "--she's fled the planet shortly thereafter in a new body."
And he'd thought he couldn't get more scared for where Ben was.
Jaina
Jaina nodded. "We might be running out of time then. If she stays true to form, she’ll be leaving Coruscant any minute now-if she’s not already gone."
Wynn Dorvan
“I saw her take her most recent body,” Wynn said tentatively. “Would it help if I tried to describe the process?”
All eyes swung toward him, and Cilghal said, “Very much, Chief Dorvan.”
Wynn’s face went pale and blank, the way torture victims’ faces did when they relived their torment, but he swallowed hard and said, “I’ll do my best. Abeloth was using Roki Kem’s body at the time, but it wasn’t holding up well. The skin was starting to peel, and her eyes were starting to bulge. Kem grabbed Pagorski--she was a midlevel Imperial officer--by the head and locked gazes with her. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air started to shimmer between them, Pagorski’s eyes opened, and she looked terrified. Kem’s fingers started to grow, then her arms suddenly dissolved into tentacles, and I could see Abeloth's real nature.”
He swallowed hard. “Well, Pagorski started to scream, then Abeloth’s tentacles shot down her throat,” Wynn said, closing his eyes, "and into her ears and nostrils. After a few seconds, Pagorski just collapsed and hung from the tentacles, looking terrified.” Dorvan fell silent, no doubt lost in a memory more terrifying than any nightmare, then rallied. "After a while, the terror finally drained from Pagorski’s face--I thought maybe she had died--but then her face turned so pale that I could see the tentacles writhing around under her skin, pumping something dark and viscous through her nose-up into her sinuses-and down into her throat. I didn’t think there was any way she could live through that, but she did. I could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed, and she never-well, she never went slack, the way dead people do. Finally, she seemed to get stronger, and she sort of looked at me and smiled. But it wasn’t just Pagorski looking. She was still in there, and I could see in her eyes that she was going crazy with fear. But Abeloth was in there, too, and she was enjoying it. She was living off the fear."
Jaina
There was so, so, so much wrong with this, but Jaina was still listening carefully for details.
“When I spoke to Tahiri, she mentioned that Pagorski’s body was deteriorating, too," she said. Yes, she'd had multiple conversations like this today. "In fact, Tahiri said the only reason she and Fett survived was because Abeloth didn't want to kill Tahiri. She wanted to trade Pagorski's body for Tahiri's."
And let's all be glad that hadn't happened.
Luke
Luke looked like he deeply regretted putting this theory out there: "Do we think that Force-sensitive hosts last longer for her, then?"
Jaina
Jaina didn't much like thinking about that herself. "I suppose," she answered. "Pagorski and Kem weren’t Force-users. Their bodies probably couldn't tolerate so much Force energy."
Wynn Dorvan
"And it could explain why she set everything up in the Temple so she could capture Ben," Wynn added.
Luke
"But why Ben?" Luke asked. "There were dozens of Jedi in the Temple. Is it because he withdrew from her as a child? Is this revenge?"
“Sorry, but no,” Kyp said, shaking his head. “Ben's the grandson of the Chosen One. Jaina is Han’s daughter just as much as Leia’s, and that means only one parent is a Force-user. Ben is the son of two parents who were both very strong in the Force. No offense to Jaina, but Ben has Special Destiny written all over him.”
Ender
"He's powerful in the Force," Ender said mildly. Very mildly. "Everything else is conjecture. Powerful enough conjecture for Abeloth to give it a go, perhaps. But conjecture none the less."
Tara
Tara was still stuck back on the part about the tentacles going down the throat to suck out the life force.
"There should be some way to shield," she finally mused, once she was done with ohgodsgonnathrowupnow."It's ... basically p-possession that the, uh, Abeloth is doing, right? And there are a couple magic ways to protect against that, so..."
Ender
"It might be worth giving a shot," Ender said, glancing her way. "Of course, we don't know how the Force and magic will interact with one another, so it should probably not be our only line of defense..."
Tara
Tara's smile was fleeting but genuine.
"It's not something I'd trust our entire plan to," she nodded. "But ... add-ons can't hurt."
Petra
Petra cleared her throat. "I'm not an expert on anything we found," she said. She was making a good effort of not looking at Ender - throttling him could happen later. "But given the time constraints, I thought I could give a summary of our findings. Or rather, what we've heard from your-- Killiks."
And hadn't that been a strange experience?
"We found some panels from their histories," she said. Behind her, one of the Jedi snapped their fingers, and a picture appeared. "They detail - among many other things - the birth of a family of Force entities whom the Killiks call the Ones. The young woman on this panel's called the Daughter. She's supposed to be some kind of symbol of the light side of your Force, or an embodiment-- I'll leave that up to you to discuss."
She wasn't very good at theology. Never had been.
"The Son is associated with the dark side of the Force, and the Father is supposed to keep the balance somehow. So that's three. To grasp Abeloth, from what I gather, we have to think about who's missing from this family - the Mother. Abeloth was some kind of servant who became their Mother, who once brought happiness to the family. But she was still aging. With time, she seems to have become resentful because of it. So she ran off to take a dip in some--"
She threw a questioning look at the Jedi behind her. "...Pool of Knowledge," she said. "It twisted her. Turned her into what the Killiks call the Bringer of Chaos."
A new panel appeared. In the heart of the temple’s courtyard stood Abeloth, her hair now coarse and long, her nose flattened, and her once sparkling eyes so sunken and dark that all that could be seen of them were two pinpoints of light. She was raising her arms toward a cowering Daughter and a glowering Son, with long tentacles lashing out from where her fingers should have been. A furious Father was stepping forward to shield them, one hand pointing toward the open end of the temple and the other reaching out to intercept her tentacled fingers.
Luke
Luke looked outside again to the destruction happening to Coruscant. "So she's bringing chaos," he said. "How did the Killiks say we could stop her?"
Petra
Petra hesitated. "They weren't very helpful in that regard," she said.
She'd had trouble restraining herself from yelling.
"They managed to imprison Abeloth the first time because the Daughter and the Son combined their efforts, and gave the Killiks all the tools and guidance they needed to build your Centerpoint and Sinkhole Stations. Apparently the Son and the Daughter have always taken an interest in the state of the galaxy - or at least more so than the Father. But that's all we know."
Luke
Poodoo.
“Took, I’m afraid,” Luke said. “If the Killiks can’t imprison Abeloth without the Son and the Daughter, the hive will be waiting a lot longer than a century for a call to service.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “When Yoda was training me in the swamps of Dagobah, he told me about a strange mission that Obi-Wan and my father had undertaken during the Clone Wars. Apparently, they were drawn to a free-floating artifact called the Mortis monolith and transported to a world very much like the one we just heard about. At the time, I thought he was just making up a story, trying to make a point about not refusing my destiny. Now it seems slightly less esoteric.
"In Yoda’s story, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker encountered the Father when he was dying. The Son and the Daughter were at odds because the Son wanted to take the Father’s place. The Father told Anakin that he had been chosen to assume the Father’s place-and keep the balance between the two siblings. When Anakin refused, matters came to a head. The Ones fought, all three were slain, and their world died with them.”
Petra
Petra's eyebrow had shot up. "You people do love your parables," she said, "But what does that mean?"
Jaina
"I think it explains what Abeloth wants with Ben," Jaina said. And while she'd like to at least think this was just a theory, with something like that she'd better explain her reasoning. "Abeloth took Ben- and Vestara- because she intends to re-create the... well, the Family of the Ones, for lack of a better name... on her own terms. Look, it doesn't matter whether the Killiks are right about the Ones- or even whether Yoda is. The only thing that matters is what Abeloth believes. She's trying to rebuild the family she lost."
Tony
"...seriously?" Tony asked, helmet retracted into the suit for now. "I mean... seriously? The big bad tentacle thing that can't be killed has kidnapped people to make a family? Does this make sense to everyone but me?"
Ender
"It makes sense to me," Ender said quietly. "She once turned herself into a monstrosity in order to stay with her family. What's twisting the lives of two more people to bring it back, in the grand scheme of things?"
Tara
"Does it make anybody else feel a little sorry for her?" Tara wondered. "Other than the ... tentacly and kidnapping part, I mean. But she mainly wants something she loves back. Just, the way she's going about it..."
She sighed, there, and trailed off.
Ender
Ender offered Tara a little smile. "I don't think that's such a strange impulse," he said. "It's... tragic, that something hurt her this badly, drove her to this kind of desperation."
Luke
The conversations could have gone in circles for hours, except that there was another bone-rattling boom from the Galactic Justice Center. All eyes turned toward the sound-just in time to see the gleaming cylinder vanish behind a kilometer-high pillar of boiling magma and billowing ash.
Realizing that the eruption made a very effective diversion, Luke slid his gaze back toward the Jedi Temple. Amid the cloud of speck-sized blastboats still circling its gleaming pyramid, he caught a glimpse of a single-winged orb streaking away from Pinnacle Platform, ascending through the smoke on its way out of the Coruscanti gravity well.
Ship.
Luke silently headed for the door, pausing only to catch Jaina's attention, then Ender's and the rest of the Fandom contingent. Abeloth had Ben, and they had just departed for the Maw. That wasn't going to be allowed to be true for very long.
[OOC: Adapted from Troy Denning's Apocalypse. Preplayed with the lovely endsthegame, life-inshadow, solo-sword, and hoorayimrich. Warnings for discussion of gross torture-y stuff. WTF, Troy. WTF.]
The last--and newest--member of the Jedi Council, Master Jaina Solo, promoted by Luke while they'd been fighting for their lives inside the Temple, slid into the last chair placed in a semi-circle at the front of the meeting room. Luke, purple circles beneath his eyes and a face clouded by fear and uncertainty based in no small part on the distinct lack of a redheaded Jedi among their number, was listening intently to a briefing already in progress:
"The Sith who've escaped the Temple are spreading out across Coruscant and launching soft-target terrorist attacks,” Dumper was saying. “Of course, BAMR News is blaming the violence on ‘Jedi spice cartels,’ and they’re urging their viewers to take arms against the Jedi and any ‘corrupt’ security personnel aiding the ‘spice smugglers.’ It's not really working. There have been a few civilian attacks against Jedi, but most of the other news outlets are taking a more balanced approach, attributing the violence to a rogue sect of Force-users.”
“They’re not even using the term Sith?” Kyle Katarn asked.
“There has been some speculation,” Dumper said. “But most of the public doesn’t really understand what Sith are, and those who do are accustomed to thinking of them as loners-either Jedi gone bad, or sinister geniuses hiding in plain sight.”
“So the population isn’t doing anything to help us, either?” Kyp Durron asked. Dumper shook his head. “Not much,” he said. “We’ve been getting a little cooperation through the security forces-primarily reports of suspicious behavior. But most Coruscanti don’t seem to know what to believe. They’re just keeping their heads down and trying to stay clear of any trouble at all.”
“Which is difficult, now that our fight with the Sith has spread beyond the Temple,” Luke said, reaching up to rub at the bridge of his nose. “How bad is the violence getting? Are we starting to contain it at all?”
Ender
"We are doing very little," Ender said.
He'd been packed up near the back of the table, but somewhere halfway through the conversation he'd leaned forward. "My people have managed to put out some fires," he continued, and nodded towards Dumper. "Thank you, Dumper, for the invaluable intel you've been collecting for us. It's been helpful."
Dumper
Dumper lit up like he'd just gotten a pat on the back from God. "Just following orders, sir," he said, and quietly sat back, opening up the floor a little more for Ender's benefit.
Ender
"People are dying," Ender continued. "Ever since the Jedi left, the Sith have been treating Coruscant like their personal playground - and now that there isn't anything keeping them balled up in one place anymore, that playground has become significantly larger. We've been trying to move people from the areas where the Sith seem to be most active, but they're moving fast, and we can't always predict where."
Luke
Luke looked a little heartsick. "How many civilian casualties?" he asked quietly.
Ender
"Closing up on two million," Ender said, just as quietly.
Luke
"And how many Sith have we taken out?" he asked.
Ender
"Close to thirty," Ender said, "But it's cost you fifteen Jedi, it's cost the Coruscanti security force thousands, and I have no idea how many volunteers of different stripes have lost their lives in the process. Coruscant is an absolutely terrible planet to hunt on - even when your prey doesn't consist of Sith Sabers."
Luke
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room as those numbers sunk in. Luke's attention flickered back to Galactic Justice Center, which was beginning to sway so wildly now that the deck of Fellowship Plaza could be seen buckling around it. He asked, "What do the reports say about how the skytowers collapse?"
Ender
"Explosions, fires," Ender said succinctly. He followed Luke's gaze. "No localized earthquakes, though."
Luke
"In that case, we need to evacuate the Galactic Justice Center," Luke decided. "Now."
Ender
"Should I?" Jane asked.
Ender's head inclined forward in a gesture that could be interpreted as a Yes. And with that, he knew it would be done.
"We have to be very careful what steps we take next," Ender said, "My people and I will be encouraging as much evacuation as we can. Coruscant isn't safe."
Tara
"How are you going to get the word out?" Tara asked, after tentatively raising her hand as if she wasn't certain she was really allowed to talk.
She wasn't sure what she was doing in the room at all, but no one seemed inclined to throw her out bodily, so she figured she should do something besides sitting like a mildly shellshocked lump.
Ender
"I have my channels. Don't worry about it," Ender said.
Even if he'd wanted to reveal Jane, explaining her right now would be complicated.
Wynn Dorvan
"The Jedi Temple's computer core hasn't been captured?" Wynn Dorvan interrupted. His voice was pitched high and his eyes were bulging. "Then you have captured nothing."
He glanced around the table. "Does no one understand? The Beloved Queen is living in the computer, too. She is the computer!"
That was nice and sane sounding. Really.
Jaina
And yet Jaina had heard worse lately.
"If you say she’s living in the computer core, I absolutely believe you," she assured him, and addressed the others at the table. "Unfortunately, Abeloth can inhabit more than one body at a time."
An uneasy silence fell over the room, and at least Jaina didn't have to worry about keeping people's attention?
"On the way over here, I spoke with Tahiri Veila," she continued. "It turns out that, at the same time we were fighting our Sith Abeloth in the Temple ventilation ducts, Tahiri and Boba Fett were fighting another Abeloth on Hagamoor Three. They destroyed theirs with a thermal detonator... at exactly two minutes before midday GST."
Luke
Luke and Corran's eyes lit with comprehension. "The same time ours suddenly lost her strength and fled the fight," Luke said. "So they're linked--kill one, weaken the other. Every other time I've killed her--" and that had been more times than he cared to think about, "--she's fled the planet shortly thereafter in a new body."
And he'd thought he couldn't get more scared for where Ben was.
Jaina
Jaina nodded. "We might be running out of time then. If she stays true to form, she’ll be leaving Coruscant any minute now-if she’s not already gone."
Wynn Dorvan
“I saw her take her most recent body,” Wynn said tentatively. “Would it help if I tried to describe the process?”
All eyes swung toward him, and Cilghal said, “Very much, Chief Dorvan.”
Wynn’s face went pale and blank, the way torture victims’ faces did when they relived their torment, but he swallowed hard and said, “I’ll do my best. Abeloth was using Roki Kem’s body at the time, but it wasn’t holding up well. The skin was starting to peel, and her eyes were starting to bulge. Kem grabbed Pagorski--she was a midlevel Imperial officer--by the head and locked gazes with her. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air started to shimmer between them, Pagorski’s eyes opened, and she looked terrified. Kem’s fingers started to grow, then her arms suddenly dissolved into tentacles, and I could see Abeloth's real nature.”
He swallowed hard. “Well, Pagorski started to scream, then Abeloth’s tentacles shot down her throat,” Wynn said, closing his eyes, "and into her ears and nostrils. After a few seconds, Pagorski just collapsed and hung from the tentacles, looking terrified.” Dorvan fell silent, no doubt lost in a memory more terrifying than any nightmare, then rallied. "After a while, the terror finally drained from Pagorski’s face--I thought maybe she had died--but then her face turned so pale that I could see the tentacles writhing around under her skin, pumping something dark and viscous through her nose-up into her sinuses-and down into her throat. I didn’t think there was any way she could live through that, but she did. I could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed, and she never-well, she never went slack, the way dead people do. Finally, she seemed to get stronger, and she sort of looked at me and smiled. But it wasn’t just Pagorski looking. She was still in there, and I could see in her eyes that she was going crazy with fear. But Abeloth was in there, too, and she was enjoying it. She was living off the fear."
Jaina
There was so, so, so much wrong with this, but Jaina was still listening carefully for details.
“When I spoke to Tahiri, she mentioned that Pagorski’s body was deteriorating, too," she said. Yes, she'd had multiple conversations like this today. "In fact, Tahiri said the only reason she and Fett survived was because Abeloth didn't want to kill Tahiri. She wanted to trade Pagorski's body for Tahiri's."
And let's all be glad that hadn't happened.
Luke
Luke looked like he deeply regretted putting this theory out there: "Do we think that Force-sensitive hosts last longer for her, then?"
Jaina
Jaina didn't much like thinking about that herself. "I suppose," she answered. "Pagorski and Kem weren’t Force-users. Their bodies probably couldn't tolerate so much Force energy."
Wynn Dorvan
"And it could explain why she set everything up in the Temple so she could capture Ben," Wynn added.
Luke
"But why Ben?" Luke asked. "There were dozens of Jedi in the Temple. Is it because he withdrew from her as a child? Is this revenge?"
“Sorry, but no,” Kyp said, shaking his head. “Ben's the grandson of the Chosen One. Jaina is Han’s daughter just as much as Leia’s, and that means only one parent is a Force-user. Ben is the son of two parents who were both very strong in the Force. No offense to Jaina, but Ben has Special Destiny written all over him.”
Ender
"He's powerful in the Force," Ender said mildly. Very mildly. "Everything else is conjecture. Powerful enough conjecture for Abeloth to give it a go, perhaps. But conjecture none the less."
Tara
Tara was still stuck back on the part about the tentacles going down the throat to suck out the life force.
"There should be some way to shield," she finally mused, once she was done with ohgodsgonnathrowupnow."It's ... basically p-possession that the, uh, Abeloth is doing, right? And there are a couple magic ways to protect against that, so..."
Ender
"It might be worth giving a shot," Ender said, glancing her way. "Of course, we don't know how the Force and magic will interact with one another, so it should probably not be our only line of defense..."
Tara
Tara's smile was fleeting but genuine.
"It's not something I'd trust our entire plan to," she nodded. "But ... add-ons can't hurt."
Petra
Petra cleared her throat. "I'm not an expert on anything we found," she said. She was making a good effort of not looking at Ender - throttling him could happen later. "But given the time constraints, I thought I could give a summary of our findings. Or rather, what we've heard from your-- Killiks."
And hadn't that been a strange experience?
"We found some panels from their histories," she said. Behind her, one of the Jedi snapped their fingers, and a picture appeared. "They detail - among many other things - the birth of a family of Force entities whom the Killiks call the Ones. The young woman on this panel's called the Daughter. She's supposed to be some kind of symbol of the light side of your Force, or an embodiment-- I'll leave that up to you to discuss."
She wasn't very good at theology. Never had been.
"The Son is associated with the dark side of the Force, and the Father is supposed to keep the balance somehow. So that's three. To grasp Abeloth, from what I gather, we have to think about who's missing from this family - the Mother. Abeloth was some kind of servant who became their Mother, who once brought happiness to the family. But she was still aging. With time, she seems to have become resentful because of it. So she ran off to take a dip in some--"
She threw a questioning look at the Jedi behind her. "...Pool of Knowledge," she said. "It twisted her. Turned her into what the Killiks call the Bringer of Chaos."
A new panel appeared. In the heart of the temple’s courtyard stood Abeloth, her hair now coarse and long, her nose flattened, and her once sparkling eyes so sunken and dark that all that could be seen of them were two pinpoints of light. She was raising her arms toward a cowering Daughter and a glowering Son, with long tentacles lashing out from where her fingers should have been. A furious Father was stepping forward to shield them, one hand pointing toward the open end of the temple and the other reaching out to intercept her tentacled fingers.
Luke
Luke looked outside again to the destruction happening to Coruscant. "So she's bringing chaos," he said. "How did the Killiks say we could stop her?"
Petra
Petra hesitated. "They weren't very helpful in that regard," she said.
She'd had trouble restraining herself from yelling.
"They managed to imprison Abeloth the first time because the Daughter and the Son combined their efforts, and gave the Killiks all the tools and guidance they needed to build your Centerpoint and Sinkhole Stations. Apparently the Son and the Daughter have always taken an interest in the state of the galaxy - or at least more so than the Father. But that's all we know."
Luke
Poodoo.
“Took, I’m afraid,” Luke said. “If the Killiks can’t imprison Abeloth without the Son and the Daughter, the hive will be waiting a lot longer than a century for a call to service.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “When Yoda was training me in the swamps of Dagobah, he told me about a strange mission that Obi-Wan and my father had undertaken during the Clone Wars. Apparently, they were drawn to a free-floating artifact called the Mortis monolith and transported to a world very much like the one we just heard about. At the time, I thought he was just making up a story, trying to make a point about not refusing my destiny. Now it seems slightly less esoteric.
"In Yoda’s story, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker encountered the Father when he was dying. The Son and the Daughter were at odds because the Son wanted to take the Father’s place. The Father told Anakin that he had been chosen to assume the Father’s place-and keep the balance between the two siblings. When Anakin refused, matters came to a head. The Ones fought, all three were slain, and their world died with them.”
Petra
Petra's eyebrow had shot up. "You people do love your parables," she said, "But what does that mean?"
Jaina
"I think it explains what Abeloth wants with Ben," Jaina said. And while she'd like to at least think this was just a theory, with something like that she'd better explain her reasoning. "Abeloth took Ben- and Vestara- because she intends to re-create the... well, the Family of the Ones, for lack of a better name... on her own terms. Look, it doesn't matter whether the Killiks are right about the Ones- or even whether Yoda is. The only thing that matters is what Abeloth believes. She's trying to rebuild the family she lost."
Tony
"...seriously?" Tony asked, helmet retracted into the suit for now. "I mean... seriously? The big bad tentacle thing that can't be killed has kidnapped people to make a family? Does this make sense to everyone but me?"
Ender
"It makes sense to me," Ender said quietly. "She once turned herself into a monstrosity in order to stay with her family. What's twisting the lives of two more people to bring it back, in the grand scheme of things?"
Tara
"Does it make anybody else feel a little sorry for her?" Tara wondered. "Other than the ... tentacly and kidnapping part, I mean. But she mainly wants something she loves back. Just, the way she's going about it..."
She sighed, there, and trailed off.
Ender
Ender offered Tara a little smile. "I don't think that's such a strange impulse," he said. "It's... tragic, that something hurt her this badly, drove her to this kind of desperation."
Luke
The conversations could have gone in circles for hours, except that there was another bone-rattling boom from the Galactic Justice Center. All eyes turned toward the sound-just in time to see the gleaming cylinder vanish behind a kilometer-high pillar of boiling magma and billowing ash.
Realizing that the eruption made a very effective diversion, Luke slid his gaze back toward the Jedi Temple. Amid the cloud of speck-sized blastboats still circling its gleaming pyramid, he caught a glimpse of a single-winged orb streaking away from Pinnacle Platform, ascending through the smoke on its way out of the Coruscanti gravity well.
Ship.
Luke silently headed for the door, pausing only to catch Jaina's attention, then Ender's and the rest of the Fandom contingent. Abeloth had Ben, and they had just departed for the Maw. That wasn't going to be allowed to be true for very long.
[OOC: Adapted from Troy Denning's Apocalypse. Preplayed with the lovely endsthegame, life-inshadow, solo-sword, and hoorayimrich. Warnings for discussion of gross torture-y stuff. WTF, Troy. WTF.]