Max entered the hangar seeing his deciple and Baruk standing within. He approached them.

"Baruk stay here and await the others. Gavv and I have some business to attend to. I will return shortly."

He signaled for Gavv to follow as he turned and walked back out of the hangar. They both made their way towards the outskirts of the city. Arriving they spotted General Grulong directing the warriors around the city.

"Grulong!!! What's the status?"

Grulong:"I have gathered all 1 million troops and set up a perimeter all around the city. There is no open spot for the jedi to enter without a fight."

Max:"Very good, I don't want you to let anything through you got me. If they come give em all you got to make sure they're stopped."

Grulong:"Yes Sir!"

Max turned and entered a tower climbing the stairs to the top. He looked out on the city, a million warriors surrounded the city. He grabbed the comm to the two clones of Janus that he had made commanders.

"Watch your warriors, instruct them not to let anything through and give them all they've got"

He signaled Gavv to follow him once more as they made thier way to the hangar.

Khar Shian

Luis waited silently and stealthily for his orders. Snow was not his favourite weather condition. He had a perfect overview of the area from his camoflagued position. He had to cut himself off from the force, using a cloak, as he had been taught. This meant he was unable to sense anything, which made him feel just a little insecure and nervous.

He adjusted his snow goggles and looked toward the position of his friend Kale Icarius. Luis held his breath as a Massassi patrolled past, almost stepping on him. He continued to watch carefully through electrobinoculars as Kale stood, and entered the facility. It was Luis' job to make sure the mission went OK from the outside. If any Massassi were to notice that the vent had been removed and welded back on, they would be on Kale like a ton of bricks, or if Kale needed backup, Luis was there to give it.
He flicked on his communicator:

"Good Luck Kale"

He said cheerily, but quietly into it, he knew that ventilation shafts would echo, so it was barely more than a whisper.

Khar Shian

Arkan had shuffled through the numerous Massassi formations that traversed the area surrounding the facility. He noticed a few close-calls in meeting with Jedi, other times noticing a gravitational flux that his friend communicated to him. A few of the Massassi growled, showing the discomfort from the Force nulling Ysalimiri, hidden under his black robe on his shoulder. Arkan smiled, as long as it worked, he would not conform to these creatures' wishes. As two Massassi patrols crossed one another, Arkan decided to split from any group and head off on his own. Malice would be operating from within, Arkan decided to scout outside and neutralize whatever existed as a threat or a counter-measure against the Sith.


"Jedi. You tread the cold as though you knew where to find solace, the goal in which you are here for," the hollow crude voice said, "But in reality, you follow as though you knew what the greater good was. And I know that you may be following the path which I believe is right, but you do it in ways I thought you would be beyond."

He knew the Jedi would be listening, he could derive from the sensation his friend was giving that there was someone in region, a distinct gravity signature. Through his connection with his friend, Arkan levitated up to the Jedi's view, obscuring any view to the facility.

"Mister D'Nubra. Surprised to see me?," Arkan smiled, floating towards him, invading his region with the draining, nulling sense of the Ysalimiri sphere of influence, "I see that the Praxeum has come to visit me. How thoughtful of them. But this is not the job of a standard group of Jedi, this is one for the Shadow Jedi... one to which I have aimed to accomplish. Oho, unless you have gotten the audacity to recieve the aide of fellow Jedi, ones trained to counter the darkness, your own raw, inexperienced Shadow Jedi. In that case, I am compelled to say that you will fail. Why?"

As thought death and life were no longer barriers to him, Jedi and Sith were no longer sides to choose, this galaxy's knowledge and the Yuuzhan Vong's knowledge were one and the same, Arkan amalgamated his entire being into a centrifical vessel of power without power, sight without sight, sense without sense,.... reality without reality. Interlocking each piece into the power of his mind, making them one, a moment's peace, a moment's clarity, releasing his worries, unlearning his life as though it never happened. Arkan pushed himself into the dimension of understanding and made himself one with the creatures that were on his person.

His first action was to compel the Ysalimiri to release itself and bury itself in the snow, deep with its large beak to burrow, somewhere warm for it to go silenced, Arkan gave it the understanding to control its rate of metabolism so that it slowed to a pace where its Force-nulling bubble was no bigger than a foot in radius. Then drew on the amalgam of his being, his death, his life. And compelled it to multiply.

"I feel that I have a connection with you Jedi," Arkan began, "I don't exactly understand how it happened, perhaps my interlacing of the Force during my rebirth, my knowledge in the Light or Dark, but whatever happened is irrelevant at this point. Whatever happened, I believe, happened for a reason. And that reason once escaped me, but now I understand it fully. I am of a balance like none have understood, none that would be mortal in any case or was mortal.

"I was destroyed, Mister D'Nubra, I died, to the satisfaction of sadistic mercenaries who despised Force-user. And in death, I knew the rules, I knew what I was suppose to do... but I didn't... I.. couldn't. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. And now, here I stand, because of the Force, Mister Luis D'Nubra, because of the Force I am no longer a deranged lost bounty-hunter, because of the Force I am where I wanted to be, a Jedi, like you, apparently.

"But as always, appearances can be decieving, which brings me back to the reason why I am here. I am not here because I am free, I am here because I am not free --there is no escaping reason, no denying purpose. Because a life without purpose gives us no reason to really exist."

Someone hovered out from behind Arkan's floating form, glowing with a grey light and stepping down onto the ground. It was an exact duplicate of the fallen Jedi. And this one took of his hood, revealing the face and horns of Arkan, the Zabrak. "It is purpose that created us..."

Another walked out from behind Arkan, the opposite side of the first duplicate and it walked mirroring its duplicate form parallel to Luis. "Purpose that connects us..."

From the obscuring mists of the icy tundra, another form walked into Luis's area. Another Arkan. "Purpose that holds us..."

And another. "That guides us..."

And another. "That drives us..."

Hence, another walked into Luis's region, "Purpose that defines us..."

And directly from behind Luis, "Purpose that binds us."

From the host form, Arkan spoke, "We are here, because the Force willed the Yuuzhan Vong to succeed in bringing me back. We are here to take from the galaxy, what the galaxy tried to take from us... purpose."

From the eight Arkans that surrounded Luis D'Nubra, they all brought out lightsaber handles from under their black robes, igniting the black blade of the fallen Darth Raven.

Luis swore silently as Arkan appeared. Rising to his feet, he listened to the words he spoke. He watched in horror as Arkan began to split. Now, eight forms surrounded him, the hum of their black lightsabers deafened him. Don't know how I'm gonna get outta this one he thought as he grabbed his own lightsaber from his belt, but did not ignite it.

He shook his head in pity of the poor creature, he had been shunned by the Jedi and now had truly fallen to darkness. Glaring at the host form of Arkan, he spoke:

"...Oh. And what purpose would killing me fufill? You were once a worthy Jedi, but you fell to the temptations of the darkside, now you are nothing but a Sith, hiding under the cloak of a Shadow Jedi. Truly, if you are shadow, you would not wish to kill me, for that speck of light in you would forbid it. There is stilll good in you, I can feel it"

He said, stalling for time as he pressed the S.O.S button repeatedly on his commlink, which would alert any Jedi who was paying attention to the flashing red light on their goddam commlink.

Xireon glanced as long as time would allow over his shoulder at Neradia, even as the debris struck him. "Foolish boy," he muttered under his breath, even as the cutting wind flew at him. He felt the ice particles strike his hard, scale-like skin, and while that skin provided considerable protection, it did not wholly block him from the onslaught. Several cuts opened up, relatively unnoticed.

The Sith stretched out within his body, sensing the pain the Jedi Shadow had already caused to him. The glaring sensation of the little pockets of exposed flesh only fueled the fire within, redoubling his anger and thus his resolve.

Xireon once again stretched out his arm, calling forth the fire that embodied the Dark Side of the Force, the golden blaze rushing out towards the Jedi. This time, the fire struck Xireon's opponent -- distracted by fighting both Xireon and Neradia -- fully in the chest, sending him hurtling backwards. The icy wind ceased, the particles melted by the heat of the fire.

“Blasted slime, don’t they ever clean this place?” grumbled Mat as he scrambled into the cross-pipe they had rappelled up to. “I’ll never get these clothes clean.”

“I doubt they ever clean this place,” replied Tobal, helping his friend up. “They probably just flush their waste products from each batch of clones down, and that cleans the sludge away… for awhile.” He looked about at the build up of slime, and continued. “It apparently has not been flushed for a week or so, the liquid they grow the clones in must effect the growth of the lichen somewhat.”

As the two men moved on, parting the now thick lichen growths with their hands, and lights, a tremor moved through the ground. They stopped amongst a particularly thick growth of the down-hanging lichen and listened.

“There.” Said Mat, as another tremor shook the immense pipe they stood in. “There is a battle going on above, the force is like choppy sea.”

“Yes.” Replied Tobal simply. “Let us continue. We are almost there.”

They began to move again, stepping carefully over advanced growths of moss, slime and other plants. Despite the utter lack of light, this flora was flourishing, thriving upon the chemicals used to accelerate the growth of the Massassi.

For more than a hundred yards the lichen was thick, in places almost impassible. Once Mat was forced to use his saber in a quick, controlled slice to part the growth for passage.

“I believe it has been more than a week Tobal, some of the stalks on this lichen are over an inch thick.”

“Yes.” Replied his companion, as he used a vibro-blade to remove some more of the growth. “Be glad they do not attack my friend, as the ferns do on my planet.”

Then, it all ended. Ahead of them was nothing but smooth, highly polished pipe, not a growth is sight. A small trickle of sewage flowed down the bottom, and the light from the two glowsticks they carried reflected and refracted.

“Its all new.” Said Mat, stating the obvious. “It has been replaced… that,” he gestured to the forest filled pipe behind them, “Must be quite old.”

“Yes.” Replied Tobal yet again. “Our entrance is ahead of us, somewhere.”

“Keep moving, eh Tobal?” replied Mat, his tone slightly jovial. “Don’t you ever stop moving?”

“No.”

Khar Shian

Kale could feel the warm air pushing past him. Closed off from the Force, he couldn't sense his way, but that didn't matter. The Noise from each vent that he passed over let him know that he was heading in the right direction.

Sweat dripped down from his face, but luckily the body-suit that kept heat in also kept the heat out. His body's temperature was being kept at a healthy level. As Kale crawled further, he heard something behind him. Frozen... afraid he had failed, Kale swore under his breath. The sound was like gentle, scratchy footsteps. Kale rolled over to his back, and saw the largest Rodent that he had seen in years. An ugly black-furred animal with big teeth and crossed eyes. Kale did not recognize the species, but it didn't appear hostile.

Without the Force to fool the animal, Kale was forced to get creative. He reached into his bag, and pulled out a food supplement. They didn't taste amazing, but it was all he had. He broke off a small piece and tossed it to the rodent-creature. It sniffed at the food, then ate it in one bite. Kale broke off another piece, and tossed it back down the shaft. The animal followed, but Kale's heart stopped as a vent under the animal gave way and fell. Nothing gets to be easy, he thought to himself as he turned back forward and started at a faster pace towards his destination.

Khar Shian


The threat of light inhis world of neverending darkness had awoken Noktu from his recovering sleep. As he role he moved his left arm. It raised then his right raised to finish to stood and moved his back. All healed..."finally... after a week in bed I thought I'd never be able to rise but now I need to find that man and kill him..." then the alert call flew through the force like a sledge hammer... andhis orders came through... "Yes master I will!!!" grabbing his weapons he strapped them to his belt and made his way east... to the cloning facility... "Guard the facility" his orders had said... "Dont let a Jedi destroy the cloning cyllinders... " and that is what I'll do... " Noktu spoke... "the Jedi wont near this place and if they do they will never leave it..."

Arkan's "friend" dictated a transmission signature going through the air. All eight Arkans raised their free-hand toward Luis and focused on the commlink this one possessed, crushing it with the combined gravitational power of all eight entities. Then the primary Arkan compelled the crushed device from Luis's person, casting it aside. There were a number of other gadgets on Luis, but Arkan did not feel the need to do anything unless provoked.

"On the contrary, Arkan smiled, I will not kill you, but rather, the Shadow Jedi who have come to this facility, since the Praxeum does not have the sort of firepower to make a first move against any Sith or Dark Jedi stronghold. I suppose, you are right, I respect the people of the Praxeum except for Master Odon Baas, who has rather... become senile in the Force. Thanks to him, I have chosen to fall deeper in the rabbit hole."

Arkan deactivated his lightsaber and the others followed suit. Compelling the Ysalimiri from its slumber, all of the Arkans started merging back into the primary host form. The ysalimiri slithered back onto Arkan's shoulder. The draining anti-Force bubble going into full effect on Luis and Arkan, although the Zabrak himself only felt an itch.

"But knowing a Jedi would not betray another, that leaves me to the inevitable," Arkan said gravely, "I will have to incapacitate you for the time being, Mister D'Nubra."

Without the Force as either of their allies, Arkan shifted into a hand-to-hand fighting stance. Teras'Kasi was a widespread fighting form and Arkan was one of those who had taken time to study a bit of it, alongside his melee skills.

Darth Legion stood in the back of the room watching his mastewr and another sith knight fight a jedi. He wanted to help but had no way of doing it, which in turn made him angry.