Log:Jedi Order: Master of Fate

Jedi Order: Master of Fate

OOC Date: March 10, 2021
Location: Sluis Van
Participants: Jedi Order: Jax Greystorm, Zandra naMuriel, Chani Tahn, Aryn Cortess, Kasia Ashkuri, and Rey Skywalker with Ben Solo

Not much time has passed since the attack on the Jedi temple on Devaron; only a few days since the invaders had blown a hole in the outer wall to assassinate the captive acolyte of the Beyond and vanish into the forests, leaving only a message from the mysterious woman they had encountered on The Pit near Kessel, telling them to come to Sluis Van, the place where they had nearly caught her at the start of all this. Obviously, it was a trap. Obviously, going there was ill-advised. "That's why we're doing it," Ben had announced, declaring his intention to spring the trap and asking for volunteers to accompany him.

Not much has changed here in the dark, dead forest surrounding the heretical temple where the Sith influence had corrupted even the architecture. But creeping on the edge of consciousness, there is a fell energy suffusing the air, an intent of malaise more alive than the raw decay of their previous visit. Zifa, the Dathomiri witch, accompanies the Jedi as they move through the trees. "This place is foul. Can you feel it? They are here, Jedi. The dark ones are here. They mean to do the ma-kala magick. Corrupt. Wicked. It is forbidden by my people, what they wish to do. We cast out the ones who attempt it." Her grey eyes scan the group, tribal garb fitting in with the scenery. "You must do the same, Jedi. You must defeat them. Cast them out."

Ben listens silently, trudging over the sullen earth, dead brown mushrooms clinging to the silin trees.

Silently keeping his own council through the trudge of death and decay, Jax goes. His hood pulled up as he goes. He listens to Zifa as she frets and complains about the darkness around and with in. Then finally he says, "Breath, Zifa. That is why we are here. It is obviously a trap. You are fearful. Fear leads to the Darkside. Repeat to yourself knowledge, serenity, harmony, and the force. These things will protect you."

"Tell me, mistress Zifa, will you fall under the profane spell of their magic again if you are to join us in this confrontation. I ask because I fear for your safety. You were eager to leave the temple when they arrived, afraid they would come for you. What has changed?" Aryn stays near Zifa, walking casually with her cloaked cape lightly shifting with the breeze before they reach the temple. Her hands stay locked beneath the cape and at the small of her back, thus revealing an ornate blaster and a curved lightsaber hilt that bears the white shine of Alderaanian metal.

Zandra listens quietly for the moment. She can feel the malaise, as much as the next person who is force sensitive. It's perhaps not difficult here and now. Perhaps. She listens to the Dathomiri woman, Zifa, trudging along the path. Her grey eyes flick over the scenery such as it is, as they head into the maw of the trap - aware they are doing so. She concentrates, reaching to the Force as she listens. Jax's words bring a gentle smile to her face, recognizing in them the echo of what she herself has heard from the Jedi Holocrons from time to time. She concentrates, focusing on the temple they know is ahead of them, or at least that general area. Concentrating her senses.

"There's more than one person I think, in the temple ahead of us," Zan reports to the group. "It's too far yet for me to sense more than that."

"We should try reasoning with them, not just focus on defeating them." Near Aryn, Chani glances between the noble and Zifa. The Alderaanian woman brings up a good point. This is a far cry of a difference in attitude between what they'd seen on Devaron and what they're seeing here on Sluis Van. Jax's insistence she focus on the Jedi code as a means of protection only solidifies her opinion: there's got to be something that gives, somewhere. She believes it, anyway. "I guess we'll find out," Chani suggests to Zandra, then glances to the others in search of some indication they'll do more than simply stride in there with more of a plan than just springing the trap. Her gaze returns to ahead, situated on their destination rather than the terrain.

Was this the best idea? Probably not. But when the call for volunteers went out, Kasia -- having a long history of questionable decisions behind her -- signed up. Boots on, robes cinched, weapons strapped, and bag packed, she's trudging along not far behind Ben. Somewhere along the way she picked up a small stick, and uses said stick to knock at one of the mushrooms clinging to a tree. "I wonder if these are toxic," she says as much to herself as anyone else, then focuses ahead to the Dathomiri as she speaks. "It's hard not to fee this-- all of it." A distasteful crinkle of her nose follows. "But when you say cast them out, what does that mean exactly?"

Rey is moving through the wilderness with the others. The last time they were here she'd been picking at some of the natural growth for any number of purposes one might gather flora from a strange world like this. Since visiting so many varied worlds, Rey has grown to have a deepening interest in the galaxy's vast array of plantlife.

But here and now, the atmosphere is different, the situation was different. Their home had been attacked, the first attack that the rebuilt Eedit Temple has had to face, and Rey wishes to see to it that none others come again...

"Chani's right." Rey says. "We're not here to defeat anyone. We're here to seek answers, and resolve this as peacefully as possible." She says softly, her eyes looking over the others, but focusing on the woman who'd been guiding them.

"I do not need your Jedi ways," Zifa replies obstinately, growing more agitated at the very suggestion in spite of the fact that she was very much in need of rescue when they found her on Dathomir. "I mean to kill them. It is the only way. Did you see their eyes? Do you forget the way they killed their own and died just to reach him?" The ashen-skinned woman's eyes cut towards Aryn at her question, then drop to the forest floor, swallowing a lump in her throat. "...I do not know. I will wait outside. I do not want to interfere."

"The way we resolved things peacefully with Palpatine?" Ben questions Rey, evidently feeling more at home with Zifa's line of reasoning on the matter. "Sometimes you have to let go of what's right to do the right thing. I hope I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time."

The ruins of the temple, four spires around a central tower, loom ahead, the main entrance open now, the old statues waiting inside for the Jedi's return in the dim half-light. As the group moves inside, the sense of wrongness grows, and Zifa moves cautiously back into the forest to hide. The interior chamber, a large foyer ringed with those statues and the carvings they had examined previously, leads away to both the left and the right, but those passageways are sealed by stone doors, carved with arcane symbols. A central passage lies open, a trail of glowsticks cast down on the pavers that cast an eerie, off-white glow up from the floor.

"If you so wish. Just don't give into your fear." Jax says to Zifa. As Ben and Rey debate on how to proceed Jax says, "They can start the fight, we'll finish it. If that's needed." He looks at the passage way with the chemical glow lights. "It sets a mood. Not as frighening as Exgol or many of the places we've found ourselves but it sets a mood." He closes his eyes for a moment, "At least one of them in there is trained in the force." Then the jedi moves to follow Ben and Rey's leads.

"Here, mistress Zifa. This is powered on. If you get in trouble, or if something happens, please tell us. And here," Aryn pulls out a Theed-Arms S5 blaster pistol and offers it alongside the comm-link. "Be safe," Aryn urges, her voice genuine and kind. "We shall quickly discover the truth of all this." Aryn offers a small smile, then leaves the witch to enter into the temple.

Aryn looks over the carvings again to see if anything has changed this time and finds that the central path is open. "Does our purpose wait in this direction?" A gloved hand accompanies the question by gesturing toward the path. Her free hand rises to tuck back her bright blonde, and she turns to regard Chani. Aryn takes a deep breath, likely addressing her own nerves, then orients herself to stay with the Naboo native.

Zandra watches as Aryn takes care of the poor Zifa, and Jax provides sound Jedi advice for them all. She herself frowns a bit, considering. "It does often seem difficult to negotiate in good faith with some sorts." That's said calmly as Zandra has indeed been listening, and learning. "It is definitely something we can attempt." She eyes the path that's been laid out for them, and then she says, "Why do I wish we'd power armor so we didn't nead to touch the ground. And yet, of course they know we're coming." She too at this point is following Ben's and Rey's leads, holding her own thoughts, but not at all clear on what to say other than, "May the Force be with us."

Chani casts a brief look to Rey, and inclines her chin at a subtle angle if she finds the other woman looking. Once Ben offers his reasoning, Chani's face turns more determined. "That's a line of thinking that will allow you to justify anything," Chani shakes her head. "And that's a dangerous mentality. I will not allow a fallacy to guide what I do." There's a sense here of something delicate. It's a balance beam she feels they're walking on, and this temple is the obstacle to staying on it. She's not been wholly comfortable, but now there's a sense that this is being done for the wrong reasons. "I agree with Rey. Unless we solve the source of the problem, the symptoms of it will remain. We have to discover why."

"I thought that would be the answer." Kasia doesn't look upset at the prospect, though she doesn't look particularly eager either, just accepting. "If what that man they killed said is true about them opening up a vergence to bring back all of the Sith, we have to stop them." She doesn't outright state that she'll use violent means, but it's also clear that said means are not off the table for her. "A sudden surge in Sith seems like a very bad thing for everyone everywhere." As they step into the temple and find the glowing trail of breadcrumbs laid out for them she pulls in a deep breath, and lets out a sigh. "Well, at least they lit the way to the trap for us."

Of course Ben's words draw a sharp look from Rey who stares at hi mwith large expressive eyes as she tries to discern the ins and outs of his question about their dealing of Palpatine.

She looks away and keeps moving. "That was different." She mutters, sullenly before she reaches out and snatches one of the mushrooms that Kasia had been poking at with the stick. They looked different from the ones she'd gotten last time, so she just stuffs the shroom in to the satchel that hangs at her hip, a small pouch on the side of it lined with a plastic for this sort of stuff.

As they advance onward, in to the temple, Rey's eyes wander about as the others speak. She mostly just listens and continues onward, though she does eye the glowsticks, reminded of a previous event in a darkened mine tunnel where glowsticks came quite in handy...

"We won't let them." Rey says to Kasia, with regard to summoning the Sith back to reality.

"How is it different?" Ben presses Rey for a moment, but when she moves past, he drops the point, glancing past at Chani with flat eyes. "It must be reassuring to live in a reality so simple that the right choice is always obvious." Rather than saying more, he moves along as well, following Rey towards the central passage.

Of course, it's a trap, and the scene is set and waiting. A large chamber in the middle of the tower opens up at the end of the passage, the ceiling several stories tall, drifting away into darkness. Here on the ground floor, the stone pavers are interrupted by an elevated slab of rock nearly chest-height, set on both sides by twisting, curving stone scupltures in the Sluissi fashion. For a change, there is no sedated victim on it.

Stepping out of the shadows on the opposite side of the room, the masked woman from the transmissions finally takes shape as a flesh and blood figure, her clothing shades of black and grey, the oval mask that covers her face carved from a sort of wood. Intricate stylings run across the grain, and two circular holes reveal dark, kohled eyes. She claps once, twice, perhaps in praise, perhaps as a signal. "And so you arrive at last, Jedi. I was beginning to think you weren't coming. Traps were made to be sprung, you know." She claps again, and this time the signal becomes clear; four black-clad figures flank her on either side, half carrying black carbines and the other half loosening vibroblades painted red from their belts. "And so many of you. What a pleasant surprise."

As the Dark Acolyte woman goes full on Cheesy holovid villian and team of villains arrive. Jax pulls the force around him, Jax cuts his eyes to Rey for a moment. Then looks back to the woman. "The problem with this trap, you realize is you're trapped in here with us? While we are full trained and armed? As a peaceful lot, we do still have a tendency to protect ourselves. May I suggest we discuss this peacefully. What this particular jedi order has done to you to make you believe returning the dead tyrants of the Sith to this galaxy seems like a reasonable idea. Maybe we can resolve this before something rash happens and we all regret it?"

Aryn had been prepared to speak with this Acolyte to pursue diplomacy and maybe, JUST maybe, negotiate a truce that would yield holstered weapons. This is dashed when Jax speaks out, lacing the monologue in a way that sounds arrogantly Jedi. Trapped with us?! Aryn scoffs, and rubs her forehead. Was there any chance of salvaging this?

CLICK--flutteeeeeerr.

That was the sound of Aryn dispelling her cape with a casual, dismissive brush of her hand to unfasten the brooch and allow gravity to carry the heavy garment down. Best prepare for the worst! Aryn turns her frame sideways, tucking one hand to rest along her lower back, her other hooked to her belt, near the holster and lightsaber she kept oriented out of their opponents' view.

Zandra looks around to see if she can catch any additional people or anyone around. Her hand goes to her waist to her light saber, holding it in hand, but not igniting it yet. She finds herself staring into the darkness outside the light, but not seeing anything but darkness. It weighs in, even if it's expected. Her gaze goes to the signaled incoming bad guys - for so she thinks they are - but all she can see is just the expected. She looks to Aryn though as the cape is dropped, a brow arching. She moves out a bit to one side, though not so far as to be out of range of her companions, just trying to spread the focus of the attackers a bit.

"Trying to demean me won't make the right choice any different." Chani dismisses Ben's condescension with no sense of frustration. She won't be riled up by that. The unfolded scene before them is to be expected. Chani sets a hand on Rey's shoulder when the woman mutters about something being different. She doesn't know what the two are speaking about, but she understands Rey's efforts and thinks the woman should know there are those that support her path. Chani drifts back to being near Aryn, gaze focused on the woman for a few brief seconds before turning it towards the masked individual. Her gaze continues its adventure and floats over the gathered others, all wielding weapons. There are true diplomats in the party. Chani remains quiet.

Kasia's gaze shifts from Ben to Rey, then back again, there's a subtle rise to her brows, but questions or comments on that exchange are reserved for later. At the same time one hand settles on the saber attached at her hip and hidden beneath the folds of her robes. The weapon is pulled loose and held in one hand, kept at the ready but not yet activated. There's a in her preparation to look over at Chani, a sudden burst of laughter escaping, loud enough to ring out across the space. The timing of this sudden amusement might not be the best, but it happens and she only tires to stifle it after it's too late. "My goodess." A subtle shake of her head follows as her focus shifts away, ahead, and then she does much the same as Jax, trying to concentrate enough to gather the force around her.

Rey gives a glance over to Chani at the touch, along with a soft smile before she looks back toward their destination. A glance is given to the others just before the 'trap' is sprung. Jax's words draw Rey's eyes back and she parts her lips to release a light exhale, of disappointment, frustration and a quickly building anticipation. Of trouble.

Rey's head shakes from left to right once, she chimes in. "We're not here for this." She tells their potential aggressors. "I assure you, we've survived far worse than this. Working together can be far more beneficial for all of us... We have mutual enemies in this galaxy, we don't need to build upon that." She tries to warn them.

But ultimately, Rey's left hand is tilting her satchel back to give her LIghtsaber a quicker avenue of being pulled to her right hand with the Force, should a hasty action need be taken..

Despite their effort to defuse this ticking time-bomb of a trap, it goes the way they all thought it might. The attacks come in unison, and Aryn yells out,"Jax," and moves to intercept one of the two foes that close on him. Her lightsaber snaps up to her hand in a blink, and she activates the weapon by pressing its luminescent blue button, a sapphire blade projecting forth at the herald of a SNAP and HISS.

She takes a duelist's stance, swiping elegantly and missing, which produced a WMMMMPH noise, but her follow through finds her intended target and cuts them just deep enough to drop them on the ground, a molten orange seared across their torso. She stays near the Greystorm as a show of solidarity, and holds her weapon off to one side, her off hand/arm still tucked against her back.

As Aryn moves one way to defend against those shooting, Zandra goes a bit to the other side, aiming to defend against the ones shooting at Kasia. She knows these are just the soldiers, so there's adrenaline, certainly. But it's not anger. There's a calm acceptance of the need to defend and protect. The deepening trouble is something that tugs underneath it all, and Zan holds to her calm, but it takes effort. She moves to disable that first soldier, her blade swinging with precision, almost clinical, for that first swing of the green blade. Zan then turns, taking a moment to locate a following target. She finds him. Or her. But there's not enough time or oomph to get to him, quite. She does use her blade, letting it swish through the air with that obvious lightsaber sizzle. Perhaps it will act as somewhat of a deterrent. "I think we need to get to that masked woman with some speed."

"I had much the same thought when you volunteered to kill yourself by going to the Beyond," Chani offers in quiet aside to Kasia. This isn't the time, but Chani isn't surprised after the exchange on Dathomir. Letting out a longer exhale, she views the gathered and the tense posturing. The black-clad figures are all wielding their weapons. Some of the Jedi already have their lightsabers in hand. Chani makes no aggressive moments of her own, but watches Rey, instead, as she attempts to appeal to reason. Even the Paragon is bracing for a fight, though, and Chani feels sadness try to creep in. A deep inhale in. A long, slow exhale out. She settles herself and tries to remove all the tension trying to build up in the set of her shoulders and her stance. They're in a dangerous position. She focuses on the moment they're in.

Then blaster fire erupts. "We all want stability for the galaxy!" It's not quite the same word the woman used. "If we talk, we can find a common ground and work towards seeking the path for peace together!" She does not advance on them, even if she pulls the cylinder off the clip from her left hip and holds its upper half in her right hand. Her thumb depresses its activation switch and she adopts a defensive posture, blade tip raised in line with her vision and feet.

"Child, please don't pretend to have any idea what I intended to do," Kasia chides Chani softly, but further admonishment will have to wait. There's a vibroblade with here name on it, and she just manages to step out of the way. It whispers over her shoulder, not making contact with flesh, but juuuuuust catching her robe and leaving behind some damage in the material. A sweep of her thumb has her activating her own saber, but by the time she has Zandra has stepped in to deal with the attacker. "Thank you." She inclines her head to the Jedi slightly, offering her a quick smile.

At the sighs from the Rey and the knowledge dropped on him by the leader of the bad guys. Jax falls silent and concentrating on the incoming attacks. He dodges the first but the second strikes true. The power of the force stops the damage. Before he can react, Aryns at his side striking down one of his attackers. He gives her a sad smile, "Thank you. I'm fine. The force is with me." He turns to look at the soldier with the carbine that attacked him reaching out with the force to pull the carbine out of the troopers hands. "Please reconsider." Then he ignites his saber.

With the fighting unfolding, Rey doesn't hesitate any further. She darts forward. Their attackers are rushing them, but the Acolyte who started this was her target.

Rey charges right at one of the vibro-wielding soldiers, but she breaks off at the last moment and lunges toward a crumbling statue that she plants her boots upon and leaps off of.

Performing a sideway tumble through the air, Rey is inverted above their attackers when she snaps her lightsaber from her belt to her right hand's grasp!

She lands behind their attackers now, and spins her body around to face the acolyte. It's THEN that the golden blade of Rey's lightsaber comes on. The pointed tip of it extending toward the Acolyte as the Paragon marches toward her. "Call them off!" Rey demands now. "This is the last chance before your people are brought down. Before /you're/ brought down with them." And this last warning offered is now accompanied by the growling blade of the Jedi's shining blade, her eyes staring down it's length toward the Acolyte's face.

"You don't want stability, you want /freedom/ with all its chaos," the woman directs at Chani with a withering scorn. "The Sith will bring /control./ All things in order, as they are meant to be. Every creature in its proper place." She reaches up towards the ghostly figures dancing in the air, barely glimpsed before they vanish away. "Can you feel them?" She might have gone on, but Rey's lightsaber in her face is a bit distracting, and she bats it away harshly with a curious weapon pulled from her side, some amalgamation of metal, electricity, and plasma a few feet long that moves with a semi-flexible snap as she brandishes it fiercely at the Jedi's paragon.

Ben finally activates his lightsaber, lunging into the fight with a snarl as the dark warriors descend on him and the Jedi, the red-painted vibroblades flashing and sweeping through the air, even as the reaching spectral hands begin to become more visible. One reaches for Rey as the attack pushes her back momentarily, a ghostly projection so faint it can barely be seen as a hand, but a chill shiver passes under it.

"So it is," Aryn says, responding to Jax's statement whilst stepping back to defend against another attacker. Aryn swings initially, missing. Then, she side steps their swing, and cuts down to disable their means of wielding the weapon by removing their hand at the wrist, or cho mai! She spins her blade to reorient it after her strike and helpfully kicks the vibroblade away from them. Keeping the space between her and her foe filled with the blade of the lightsaber, Aryn steps back in defense again, lifting the point of her blade to be eye-level with her determined gaze!

It's a bit of chaos as everyone gets into the thick of things. Not everyone using sabers, but folks working on defense none the less. Zan gives Kasia a nod and return smile, catching that reaction from her fellow initiate. She looks to where Rey is, and takes a deep breath. Then she heads for the last ranged attacker, working to disarm or disable, with a couple swings of her lightsaber. Then she moves deliberately to cover Rey's back, making sure that nobody can get in there behind her, while she's facing off with the acolyte.

Chani won't get engaged with this pettiness any further. Not now. Not ever. She focuses instead on the situation at hand and the defense of herself and those around her. Her gaze is fixated towards those wielding blasters and vibroblades, but she doesn't shift out of her defensive stance. She's not here to be the aggressor, especially when the others are attempting to defuse the situation. She won't do anything to jeopardize it. Taking a cue from Jax, Chani also attempts to manipulate the vibroblade out of one of the dark-clad figure's hands, hoping to defuse the situation by removing the weapons in play. Her left hand leaves the hilt of her lightsaber to extend itself, pairing with the exertion of will in her mind to pull the vibroblade from the figure's grip to leave him disarmed. "Yes, freedom. Everyone deserves to have the freedom to make their own decisions. That doesn't mean an existence without consequence, but constant war and subjugation is not the way to pursue that!"

Kasia isn't attempting to aggressively engage anyone yet, but when one of the other warriors once again attempts to do her harm, this time the unusual pink blade is there to block it with a burst of sparks. There's an ominous hum as she presses back against the blade, stronger than expected by the man that she eventually shoves back. Her style isn't as much an elegant dance as others, there's an economy of movement and a brutal efficiency in how she fights, one single slash enough to stop her attacker from doing any of them further harm.

Rey's attention was locked on the Acolyte woman, fiercely so. At least up until a presence in her mind caused her to flicker her eyelids and break her concentration. Rey's eyes look over to the 'source' of the sensation, to her left. Just then she sees the hand reaching out for her and it causes her to suddenly flinch and take a step back.

Cackling. Distant. Familiar.

Rey's golden blade is struck away from the Acolyte's face, the enemy taking a moment of advantage to shove the Paragon's saber away.

Rey stumbles backward now as the ghostly hand of pure dark energy, pure hatred, rage, reaches for her face. She has a look of fear grace her visage fora moment before she steps back out of the hand's range, and then just sweeps herself back around to focus on the woman, the Acolyte.

Rey attacks, her saber growling with swings sent toward the woman with one catching and glimpsing off of her!

MOre cackling. Distant. Familiar. Is it just in Rey's head? Do the others hear it too? She doesn't know... her attention is back on the Acolyte...

"It's the way of the Sith, and it will never die." Again, the acolyte seems like she'd like to say more and is interrupted by Rey's lightsaber, though this time it traces a smoking line down her torso instead of just hovering in her face, accompanied by a bitter shriek of pain. Gasping, she reels backward, clutching at the smoking injury while frantic eyes scan the air for the Sith spirits summoned here. "It's not enough," she murmurs quietly to herself, the first ripples of doubt beginning to spread out from the pebble. "This was the wrong place. They can't- no. It has to work."

Gathering herself for the fight, the masked woman lashes out not at Rey, but the Jedi behind her, swinging wildly with her curious weapon. It's shorter than a lightsaber and it puts her in harm's way to wield it, but she's sold out on the cause.

Jax's banter with one of the black-clad warriors is returned with steely silence and a jealous stare at the bright light of his lightsaber before the figure attacks again, careful still to avoid clashing with the Jedi's weapon.

Aryn moves no closer to the conflict, yet attempts to make use of her command of the Force to halt one of the attackers in place. She can envision it, much like she has in the past, but the cost of halting someone completely is too taxing for Aryn and leaves her breathless. Disgruntled she could not aid in this manner, she watches as the last of the warriors contend with her companions.

Zandra is minding her own business guarding Rey's back, when the Acolyte comes beyond Rey to attack her. "Hey!" Zan yelps, startled by the attack. She gets hit to her shoulder, and staggersa bit. Which brings her a moment of flatfootedness, but she recovers quickly enough to avoid the rest of the woman's attacks. "You won't win," Zan says softly, as she does press forward, now giving Rey cover of a different sort. While Zan's attacks may not hit, they are at least a distraction. Zan takes to Rey's side, working as a team. For the moment, ignoring her injury as much as she can.

"Just because it's the old way doesn't mean it should be the way," Chani tries to insist to the woman fighting a battle on two fronts, now. Her confrontation with Rey and Zandra leaves her too engrossed in defending herself and attacking at the same time for there to be any discourse. She focuses again on one of the woman's entourage, hand gesturing just as it had before and mind picturing the weapon yanking free from the dark-clad figure's hand. That paired with her determination to will it into existence results in yet another of the vibroblade-wielders lacking a weapon. "Please, stop this! Those you lead are dying. There is no need for this bloodshed. For any of it!" The temple is littered with destroyed weapons and fallen robed figures alike.

Kasia manages to evade an attack by one of the warriors with some fancy footwork, moving with the ease of someone who saw the attack coming a mile away. Thank you, Force. Several swift steps brings her closer to Zandra, and the Acolyte that's attacking. She ducks back as the dual bladed saber is swung, and then rushes forward to press an attack from another angle, the first sweep of her weapon going slapped away by the unique weapon. The second bites into the Acolyte, cutting through material that's left glowing molten as the blade is withdrawn. It's only pulled back just enough to sweep up at a slightly different angle, leaving behind an even worse gouge than before.

Jax dances and back and forth with the Dark Warrior. Though the sounds of the arrival of Sith spirts and then the cry of pain from Zandra causes Jax to shift his stance from form 3 to something more agressive and his grip changes on his saber. He looks like he himself is holding a well balance vibrosword. "Funny, the problem with making your blade move to fast to be struck by the jedi to destroy it. It makes me refocus my attempts in other directions." He makes a quick strike at the warrior causing him to dodge Jax's attack. Then with a little flick of the wrist, Jax's blade cuts through the man's fore arm just above the wrist. "And made me focus on your easier to hit body. I am sorry I'm not a more skilled swordsman. But at least you'll live."

The Acolyte has stepped away from Rey and engaged Zandra, which causes Rey to snarl and advance... but Kasia rushes in to assit and this makes the Paragon of the Order step back. her blade hums in her hands, but her eyes go back to where the ghostly figure had reached out to her.

She stared at the source of it, her demeanor changing. She holds her blade up as she waits for any sign of the ghost again, but nothing comes in the immediate moment.

Rey turns back to the fight then just in time to see the light pink blade of Kasia's sear through the Acolyte's torso. She sucks in a breath of air. She didn't want the woman to die, there were so many questions about all of this...

But at the same time, the chances to surrender were offered, and denied every time...

When the dust finally settles, the faint phantasmic images in the air are gone, the thin spot in the fabric between the material world and the Force, what these fanatics call the Beyond, no longer worn down by the acolyte's influence. A sense of relief settles in the air air, the sensation of a ringing in the ears that finally goes still, and in spite of the stench of burnt flesh and the hurting groans of the injured, the pervasive doom fades, replaced by ordinary regret.

Ben stands in the middle of it, looking around at the bodies, fallen in a place where so many years ago, a similar purge had taken place. "Maybe it didn't have to be this way." He walks over to the acolyte where she lies on the floor, rolling her over with the toe of his boot so that her masked face stares sightlessly upward, the curious weapon sliding free and spinning in a lazy half-circle across the pavers, deactivated now. "But I think it had to be this way." The tip of his saber cuts through a portion of the lifeless weapon.

As he's sliding his saber back onto its clip, an ashen-skinned woman appears in the passageway; it's Zifa, the Dathomiri. "I see you have done what you must," she notes with satisfaction, grey eyes skimming over the fanatics still alive. "Most of it. It is enough." It's clear from the tone of her voice she doesn't exactly believe it, but some concessions must be made. Stiffly, she holds out the tools that Aryn had given her for the Jedi to retrieve. "And now I must return to my home, if you will take me."

Ben nods shortly. "We will. But I think my friends have some questions they'd like answered before you go, if you can."

"...I will try," Zifa allows, arms crossing defensively over her chest. "Do what you will here, but do not stay. It is a foul place. A curse can settle on those who remain too long. I have seen it before." She hurries out, and perhaps it would be wise to follow.