Tara stared out the viewport at the landscape of Viscara as her shuttle began to lift off. She could still see her friend, Iradtoki who had come to see her off. Back to Coruscant was where she was headed. There were some things the council wanted to debrief her on, as well as discuss about her former master Karnz’s death. It would be a long trip from the rim to the core, but it would be nice to get away from the troubles of this system for a while.
Part of her wondered if the council was only recalling her to offer a reprieve to a padowan who had been in over her head for some time. A lot had happened since she came to Viscara. She’d made some discoveries, uncovered enemies, and fought for the life of a fellow padowan and lost, losing her arm in the process. Such a thing had to take a toll on a padowan, or she’s sure that’s what the council thought. And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling that by going and leaving the fight before it was over meant she was failing yet again.
Tara closed her eyes and took a calming breath. The council knows best, she thought. But then, that’s what she thought when they split her and her first master up. What if by leaving again, Master Verrac gets in trouble and she is not there to help him when he needs it? The padowan shook the thought from her head. She could not fall prey to such doubts. She needed to trust in the wisdom of the council in recalling her from Viscara.
She let out a sigh as Ira became little more than a speck in the distance through the viewport as the shuttle made for high orbit. The force willing, she would see her new friend again, and her new master. Tara headed back into the hold and retreated to her quarters, laying down on the small bunk, and it was not long before she drifted off to sleep.
“That’s right Verrac, how can you protect…when you can’t even protect yourself!” The dark figure loomed closer to her master and seemed to grow before her eyes. “Who is going to help you now that your student is gone,” the sinister voice echoed as she seemed to be pulled farther and farther away from them. “No,” she tried to call out, but the word wouldn’t form in her throat. Farther and farther away they drew and she could see flashes of lightning followed by an agonizing scream!
Suddenly she was awake, breaths coming hard as she sat upright in the bunk. What could that have been? The force had to be telling her something! The figure, it was Acaadi, she knew it. Was this a vision of what would happen if she left as the council ordered?
Tara tried to catch her breath and she got up out of her bunk and paced around the small room. Surely if the force was sending her a vision of what would happen if she left, then she had to do something about it. Now was no time to leave at all, not when her master was facing dark jedi and needed her help!
That was it, she knew what she had to do. Now was no time for running away. She would not lose another master because she couldn’t be there to back him up! She exited her quarter and headed straight for the cockpit where she found the pilot.
“Turn the ship around,” she ordered.
“What?” The man gave her an incredulous look as he turned to regard her.
“Turn the ship around. I have to go back.”
“But…” he started to say before being cut off.
“But nothing. I need to return to Viscara now. Jedi business.”
The pilot gave her an annoyed look then turned back around. “Fine, but I’m still charging for the full trip.”
Tara let a breath out as he started to comply and she went back to the hold to wait.
The shuttle’s outgassing played noisily in the background as the ramp extended to Czerka’s private landing pad. At the bottom awaited her Master as she headed down.
“Tara, what are you doing back here? You were supposed to be halfway to Coruscant by now,” Verrac said.
“I know master, but…” she regarded him resolutely, “I split off from my master once before, and could not be there when he needed me. And I think you need me just as much as I need you, master.”
“You understand how arrogant that sounds, Padowan?”
“I do…”
Verrac flashed a smirk, but grew serious again. “There’s something else, isn’t there.”
“Yes Master…I saw something…”
“Something?”
“Acaadi…you were fighting him alone…and losing…”
Verrac frowned at the mention of his old acquaintance and pondered. “There is more to this that you’re not seeing, but I can’t put my thumb on it,” he said as the shuttle began to lift off.
Tara turned to look at the departing shuttle, then back to her master. “Well I’m here now. Might as well use me?”
Verrac sighed with some trepidation. He was clearly troubled, whether by her mention of Acaadi, or her determination to stay, she wasn’t sure. “What else can you remember about this vision?”
“You both were fighting on top of a cliff or mountain, and he was telling you you couldn’t win alone.”
Her master’s frown deepened. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it almost sounded like a taunt.”
“Probably, but that’s why…”
“Not at me,” he cut her off. “At you.”
“At me?”
He nodded an affirmative. "We’ll both need to meditate on this further for clarity, but in the mean time…we’ll be on our guard.
Tara nodded.
“Alright, come on.” He waved her to follow him back into the tower."
Tara snuck down the dark corridor. It was the middle of the night and she had not been the only one to awaken prematurely. She’d heard Verrac make his way out of his room. She did her best to hide her presence in the force as she shadowed him, though she had never been very good at that. She followed him down the tower and outside. He moved with a purpose and seemed preoccupied, which was probably the only reason he didn’t detect her.
She kept a fair distance from him to make sure she wasn’t pressing her luck. Where could he be going all of a sudden in the middle of the night? Out the city gates and due west. Was he heading for the mountains?
Suddenly he sprung forward in a force aided sprint, and before she knew it, he was out of her sight. She cursed under her breath and ran after him. Stealth was pointless now. She moved as fast as she could, but even at a run, it was some time before she got to the mountains. Pausing once she got past the valley, she closed her eyes and calmed herself, stretching out with her feelings to sense for her master. Once she had him, she sprung off at a run again. Climbing the mountain as fast as she could, she noticed a glow up above. Unmistakably lightsabers, she redoubled her efforts. Then she heard clashing. She needed to hurry!
Once she got close enough, she made a leap for the summit and pulled herself up. The lightning crashed and lit up the sky as rain began to pour down. And there they were, her master pressed in a pitched lightsaber battle with a dark figure…no, not a dark figure, the dark figure! Acaadi!
She instantly ignighted her sabers and lept in to flank the dark jedi, but he jumped back out of the way and refocused into a defensive stance.
“Tara! No, you’re not supposed to be here!” Verrac yelled over the downpour.
A sinister laugh emited from the dark figure as he looked on the two.
“You’re my master, my place is by your side!”
“Yet another protege here to fall. It must be hard, watching them all leave like your master did. Like you should’ve. Now you train this backwater effete in an attempt to right your wrongs. You cannot right them… Not without me. Not without us. Stop fighting, Verrac. She dies, just like the rest, because of you.”
“I won’t hear your taunts, Acaadi!” Lightning crashed again.
“No? Then defend yourself if you can!” The dark figure lept at them both making a wide sweep at their legs with his saber. Verrac lept out of the way and Tara caught his blade in a cross-block between her two blades and held him there, but he executed a spinning jump over the sabers and caught her with a kick to her head, sending her flying. He was about to press his attack when Verrac lept back in, forcing him to shift his focus back to her master.
Their blades clashed again and again, and the sabers lit up their faces in blue and red as they each tried to overpower the other.
“You can’t protect her, Verrac!” Acaadi planted another kick this time into her master forcing him back just as Tara stood to her feet and reset her stance to continue her attack. “How can you protect your padowan when you can’t even protect yourself!” He yelled as she began her charge back into they fray, then turned to her and thrust his palm at her, carrying with it a powerful forceblast!
Tara was sent flying over the edge of the cliff, still watching as force-lightning lit up the cliff followed by a chilling scream and suddenly in that moment as she plummetted towards the ground, she understood her folly. The vision wasnt a warning of what would happen if she left. It was a warning of what would happen if she stayed! She had played right into Acaadi’s plan, charging full force into it like a fool.
Yet in that moment of clarity, time seemed to slow down for her and she knew she had to try and slow her descent or this would be the end. She desparately called the force to her, trying slow herself down, and it seemed to be working, until she slammed into the side of another rockface, bounced away, slamming into another outcropping, and her concentration was lost, and she tumbled down, down into the darkness of the ravine below.
And then darkness was all she knew.
She awoke to more rain beating down on her. Wincing at pain that seemed to come from all over, she sat up with a grunt. Her head pounded and already she felt dizzy.
Verrac… she thought of her master and looked up the side of the cliff that had nearly been the death of her, and immediately she cringed at the daylight shining through distant clouds. How long had she been lying here?
She closed her eyes and tried to call the force to her to give her strength, but she had trouble concentrating. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to her feet and stumbled against the rockface, leaning against it for a minute.
The pounding in her head beat harder and she felt sick to her stomach. No doubt she had a concussion, but she wasn’t going to get better lying at the bottom of a ravine. She looked around, trying to get her bearings, and spotted her lightsabers lying nearby on the ground. She grunted as she made her way over to them and nearly fell over trying to bend down to pick them up.
She panted at the effort of such a simple task and returned the hilts to her belt, then grunted painfully as she forced herself back up again and braced a hand against the stone. She took another minute to catch her breath and then began her painful trek out of the mountains. It was all she could do to avoid the cairnmogs and raviors, but she pushed herself on. She forced herself to focus and all she could see was continuing on. One foot after the other.
She barely even noticed as she emerged from the valley into the grasslands, and then there was something barking at her. She forced herself to focus on it and nearly stumbled again as she turned to see the kath hound charging her. She tried to get away from it, but was in no condition to run, and toppled over, falling down onto the bank of the lake and getting a facefull of wet sand.
The Kath stood at the ledge and barked at her as she clawed away, making it to the pier as the hound tried to find a way down from the ledge. She made it all the way to the edge of the dock when she couldn’t stand any longer. For a moment she wavered, then stumbled, and tumbled over into the lake. And once again, darkness took her.
