A Den Of Hate Part 5

Canderous was in his element. Flanked by a capable companion who understood his every signal and direction, and with nothing but straightforward blasting to do - no lightsabres to worry about - he tore through the lines of defense droids like any true Mandalorian. To his side, the assassin droid performed adeptly as well, dispatching targets with skill and "unrivaled sophistication". The defense droids, though of an advanced design for their time, could not stand up long to the unparalleled quality and muscle of the Mandalorian-made repeater rifles that both Canderous and HK-47 sported. The inferior alloy of the droids' armor dissolved in the face of the two invaders' firepower.

Getting into the tomb hadn't been as hard as it looked. The sealed entrances, Canderous found, were easily demolished with thermal detonators. The millenia-old doors of stone crumbled under the detonators' searing explosions, opening up an entryway into the tomb.

The tunnels were extensive, but every now and then the lights affixed to their blaster rifles would illuminate a pile of droid wreckage, the remains covered in lightsabre damage, indicating they were on the right track. Given the amount of turn-offs, loop-arounds, and cul-de-sacs, Canderous was glad for the body trail. Otherwise, they could be spending hours just navigating through the endless tunnels.

So far, every door they had passed on the side of the tunnels was closed. Canderous was more than a little surprised when they came to a door that was standing wide open. He peered into the small passageway inside and saw something that caught his attention; a lightsabre hilt. A sixth sense told him to use extreme caution, and his sense of smell confirmed its wisdom. The narrow hall beyond the open door smelled of dissipating nerve gas. Scuff marks on the floor around the fallen lightsabre indicated to him that a body had been dragged off.

Canderous could only come to the conclusion that Juhani had either been killed or captured by forces unknown. Kono was not going to be happy.

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Juhani could do nothing more than lie helpless on the floor of the tomb chamber where she found herself, still feeling the effects of the nerve gas. She couldn't move a single muscle to get up or crawl away. Any thoughts of escape were for naught in any case, for the tomb chamber was lined with more of the deadly droids, and without her lightsabre, she would not be able to hold them all off by herself.

The torture lasted for hours. Her captor, a pale, sickly monster of a man, told her he needed to teach her how to be a real Sith. And apparently, the blue lightning shooting forth from his fingers was to do all the teaching.

Juhani quickly discovered that Force Lightning was about the most painful thing she had ever experienced. She soon ran out of breath with which to scream as the white-hot bolts of energy lanced through her body, all her nerve-endings simultaneously fired with incessant agony.

The Force could not help her, her mind was too dazed by the horrific pain to call upon her power. Yet over and over, she ran the words of the Jedi Code through her thoughts, attempting to draw her mind away from the pain. She couldn't. The Code was hollow solace, its words cold and unsympathetic to her plight. It demanded serenity from chaos, peace where none existed; it brought her no comfort and only reinforced the hopelessness of her predicament.

Juhani realized that she was going to die.

And then, something within her snapped. Through the haze of the pain, one thought stood out loud and clear; fight. It was the basest of all survival instincts, one she recalled was Kono's greatest strength. Seemingly from nowhere, his words came to her:

Anger, when directed at the right things, is not only acceptable but necessary... Our feelings give us the power to continue when all seems lost... Emotion is a tool greater than the Force...

Juhani realized she had plenty of anger; anger at the monster who saw fit to torture her to death merely for his amusement. Her fears of falling to the Dark Side were gone. She listened to the instincts that screamed for her not to let herself die. There was only one avenue left.

Straining weakened muscles and gasping with the new pain of aching limbs - a welcome pain - Juhani managed to clamber to her hands and knees, to face her enemy. The pale man wearing the uniform of a Sith was displeased by her abrupt show of defiance, and raised his hands again to deliver more stinging torment.

Without knowing what she was doing, Juhani gathered up a breath and screamed, putting all her anger and hatred into the vocal blast. Her shriek unleashed a wave of Force energy that knocked the Sith back several paces. Surprised and indignant at having been thwarted, the Sith cackled and drew a red lightsabre, intending simply to finish her off.

Juhani frantically tried to call on her anger again, to bring forth another miraculous burst of power, but it was gone; replaced by dumb terror at the sight of the red lightsabre and the knowledge that against it she was defenseless.

But the killing stroke never came. A sudden spray of blaster bolts hit the Sith, demolishing his face and tearing open his skull. With a rain of blood, the fresh corpse slumped to the floor in front her as she cast her gaze towards where the shots had come from. The defense droids lining the chamber did so as well, aiming their blaster cannons into the darkness and firing with reckless abandon at targets they couldn't see. But still more shots came. Fired with professional precision, the stream of hot bolts surgically gutted one droid after another. Soon the attackers came storming out of the dark hallway, cutting down any droid that took a shot at them.

Juhani had never thought in her entire life she would be glad to see a Mandalorian.

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Kono grimaced at the sight that greeted him at the academy entrance. Hanging above the door by her neck was the body of Lashowe, her shirt ripped open and the word "Onasi" carved in bloody letters across her stomach. Dustil had done his job, of that there was no doubt, and he certainly had not lacked for creativity.

A crowd of Sith stood gawking at the corpse. Kono ignored them and pushed his way through. One Sith, however, saw fit to block his way. It was Mekel, the rat who had threatened him at the academy gate when he was first admitted. He had a furious look in his eyes.

"You put Onasi up to this, I know you did!" Mekel accused.

Kono remained impassive. "Perhaps I did. What is it to you?" He asked in a level voice.

"I'll kill you for this," Mekel growled.

"As I recall you made almost that exact same threat to me a few days ago, right before you turned tail and ran. I hope you don't expect to walk away from this." Kono dripped threat into his words now, giving the arrogant Sith more warning than he deserved.

"I will be the only one walking away from this, Kono. You'll pay for this," Mekel swore again, furiously.

Surprisingly, Kono detected another emotion. "You were sleeping with her, weren't you, Mekel?"

Enraged, Mekel activated his red lightsabre and lunged at Kono, wildly swinging for a killing blow. Calmly, Kono sidestepped him and ignited his own violet blade as Mekel wheeled about, lashing out with the red beam of his sabre.

The other Sith turned to watch.

Like so many other Sith students, Mekel gave no thought to how he would fight, he just did. Random flurries of strikes followed by awkward lunges and desperate parries was all he could do against Kono. His mind clouded by unrestrained hatred, there was no coordination between his movements; attacks came at random, and were as ineffectual as the bite of a mouthless worm.

Kono staved off Mekel's mindless attacks with deliberate and fluid parries, without frivolously wasting energy. He calmly bided his time, waiting for Mekel to exhaust himself. It did not take long before the angry Sith started leaving himself wide open for Kono's vicious counter-attacks, which he delivered with razor-sharp precision. He was taking it easy on Mekel, but it was all the Sith could do to even test him.

Kono grew bored with the effortless combat. Just a matter of hours ago he'd been in a similar fight. However, Mekel was not as prepared nor as determined as had been Dustil, and Kono held not even the slimmest respect for him. When he made his next mistake, it would be the last he ever made.

The Sith lunged too far, exposing his flimsy guard to an all-out assault. Kono sliced him in the side with his lightsabre. Mekel screamed, clutching his seared ribs as he fell to the floor, dropping his lightsabre. Drawn by the Force, the still-active blade flew into Kono's free hand as he stood over the wounded Sith.

There was no mercy in his eyes as he crossed the red and purple beams and sliced off Mekel's head.

The Sith who stood spectating paid him no mind as he stalked off, leaving both corpses behind.

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To his satisfaction, Kono found Canderous and Juhani both waiting for him in his quarters. Juhani looked to have been through several different kinds of doom; her clothes were dirty and singed, burned in dozens of places, and she smelled of seared flesh and blood. But she was alive, and seemed immensely gratified by the fact. The Cathar sat cross-legged at the foot of the room's lone cot, repairing her lightsabre.

True to form, Canderous had found a weapon in need of maintenance or repairs in his arsenal and was field-stripping it on a desk at one end of the room. His armor had a smattering of blaster burns over it but nothing substantial. He and HK-47 looked to have handled themselves well during whatever had transpired while they assisted Juhani.

After taking account of his companions, Kono's stare found the rectangular object sitting in the middle of the cot. It was that which he had sent Juhani after in the first place; a stone tablet containing ancient Sith writings Uthar's late master Jorak Uln had hidden in the tomb of Tulak Hord. Jorak was the only person who had known the meaning of the writing, since he was the only one ever to read it. Uthar wanted it badly, to see what hidden powers it might contain.

Instead of immediately inspecting the artifact, Kono turned his attention back to Juhani.

"Well done, Juhani. You performance was admirable," he praised her, still eyeing the tablet.

She looked up, and there was something in her eyes Kono had never seen before. He wasn't quite sure what it was or what it might portend, but it was definitely different for her.

"Were it not for Canderous and your droid I would probably be dead and the artifact still lost," Juhani said in a quiet voice.

Kono glanced to Canderous, who grunted in agreement. "When we got there, the tomb was full of droids and there was a Sith in there we didn't know about," the Mandalorian elaborated.

"I believe it was Jorak Uln. The tomb was a trap. His trap. There were too many droids to hold off, so I had to keep running. And eventually, I was too exhausted to avoid his snare," Juhani continued. "After his poison gas rendered me unconscious, he took me to the Sith Lord's burial chamber and tortured me for hours." The look Kono had seen in her eyes intensified. "The words of the Jedi Code became as hollow as drunken ramblings in the face of such pain as I endured. In the end there was no alternative; my will to live overrode the comfortless words of the Jedi and I gave in to my anger."

Kono now recognized the light in her eyes. It was understanding.

"It was not the same as the first time - as when I struck down Quatra. I remembered your words and felt the necessity of it. You were right in what you said; focusing my anger on my tormentor gave me the strength to fight for my life," she explained.

"I'm glad you've come to see things this way, Juhani. We must always keep in mind that the Jedi Code has its shortcomings and never think to restrict ourselves to only its fallible perspective."

Juhani nodded. and changed the subject. "Were you successful in your own mission?" She asked.

As an answer, Kono slung the baldric from his shoulder and presented the black sword. "A gift from Lord Ajunta Pall." Eyebrows raised in fascination.

He picked up the tablet from the cot and studied the alien symbols on its face. Not being an expert on ancient Sith dialects, he couldn't decipher the messages transcribed on the stone surface. But they seemed... familiar to him, somehow. He felt as if he should know them, like they had been shown to him a long time ago, and he'd merely forgotten their meaning...

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Uthar was not at all surprised when he saw the Dark Jedi Kono approach him for the fourth time in as many days. It had taken the prospective Sith very little time to start drawing his attention. First by taking to heart the Code of the Sith in a single day. Later by destroying a rampant assassin droid that had tested and killed some twelve other students. Then he had hunted down and executed a group of rogue students. None of the other students had shown him half as much skill as had Kono.

He resisted the urge to widen his eyes at the sight of what it was that Kono carried. It appeared to be a tablet covered in writing. Identical to the one he had once seen his old master with, before he and all his possessions vanished into the mountains.

Choosing to remain in his meditative pose in the center chamber, Uthar allowed Kono to draw near before acknowledging him.

"Yes, what is it?" He asked with closed eyes, not moving a muscle.

The answer confirmed his expectations and carried a welcome surprise. "The writings of Sith Lord Tulak Hord, and the sword of Ajunta Pall."

Uthar opened his eyes and stood, examining the prize Kono held out before him. The writing was genuine, the tablet the same as the one Master Uln had hidden.

"I am impressed by your resourcefulness. You must have considerable influence over the Cathar for her to give this up to you," Uthar remarked.

"She respects my power," Kono responded.

"As she should," the Sith Master commented. "You made mention of a certain sword."

The Jedi drew the black blade and held it out to him hilt first. He could feel the power of the sword even at a distance; a boiling tempest of destructive energy that seethed just below the surface. Caution told Uthar that he should not attempt to take the sword from its bearer; just as reasoning had told him Kono hadn't acquired the tablet on his own, but recruited another for the task. He listened to his caution.

"You may keep the sword. I sense it has been given to you and you alone. I will not meddle in that which Lord Ajunta has decided for his sword."

Kono bowed in gratitude and returned the sword to the sheath on his back.

"You are most impressive, Kono Gansk," Uthar declared. "Therefore, I have selected you to accompany Yuthura and I to the tomb of Naga Sadow, where you will face your last test to become full Sith. Rest well this night, for tomorrow is your final trial."

The Dark Jedi bowed once more and left.

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Though he wore a neutral expression, on the inside Kono grinned with anticipation. In a matter of hours he and Yuthura would be alone with Uthar in the tomb of Naga Sadow, with both the Star Map and control of the Sith Academy within his reach.

To be continued...