Private Love and Corruption: Shadows of the Past

[Hawk Hinata]

The slope of the mountains built into an enormous escarpment, which, at first glance, gave the impression of being an insurmountable climb without mountaineering equipment. There was however a set of roughly hewn steps carved into the stone itself, with their beginning hidden behind a copse of tall conifers.

"This stone has melted," Thistle commented as she ran her finger across the smooth surface of the first step.

"It took a long time even with my lightsaber," Hawk said, stretching his back subconsciously as he remembered the hours he spent labouring on them.

"Always planning one step ahead uncle Hawk," Thistle fixed him with a look, but it was beyond him to fathom it's meaning.

"Well, it's actually closer to three hundred steps to the top."

As the three of them climbed, Hawk glanced over his shoulder and back towards the homestead where he and Kat had lived these last few months. The small building glowed with tendrils of organge flame leaping into the air, chasing after the billowing black smoke the rose high above.

The sight saddened him. It had only been for a short while, but it was the closest thing he had come to living a normal life in such a long time. With an inward sigh, Hawk turned back to the climb.

At the top of the steps the mountain receded several meters, creating a ledge for them to rest upon. The hike to the mountain and the climb had taken up the best part of the morning, and this was as good a place as they were likely to find to sit and break into their provision packs.

 

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So... when are you going to tell the Jedi?​

Katarine closed her eyes as if she was praying for patience. She did not answer the voice in her head, choosing to concentrate instead on the stone steps that Hawk had carved into the mountain. She counted them as her black boots hit each one. Thistle and Hawk were walking in front of her but she was concentrating only on the ground. Still her twin persisted.

The Witch Boy figured it out on his own. I give him credit.

What are you talking about?

Your games Katarine. Your siren song that's brought so many to their death. Half the time you don't even seem to have a tune in mind.

If you are trying to make a point just spit it out.

You don't love the Jedi. You are using him, just like you used the Witch.​

Katarine felt a pang in her heart as her mind drifted towards Christian Draclau. The tall man had fallen hard for Kat, but she had been so consumed with grief she couldn't see straight, let alone realize the damage she was causing. But that had been completely different than now. The darkside made Katarine dizzy and weak, almost like a high and she had been exploiting that in Christian, but there was no darkness in Hawk.

If you think Hawk Hinata is a darksider maybe I hit you a little too hard last time. You also fail to realize it's not my song that's killing people, it's your hands.

Idle hands are the devils play things.

You know.. it's annoying to be both running from you and unable to escape you all at the same time.

Then why not work with me? Together we could learn the true secrets to our destiny.​

"ENOUGH!"

Katarine spoke the last word out loud with a sudden surge from the Force and winced as a few rocks from behind her fell down the stairs. She was aware that eyes were upon her and she didn't blame them. Talking to yourself and losing control wasn't a fun party trick. She took the backpack off her back and sat it on the rock, then took a seat beside it. Her deep green eyes roamed over the surface below where their most recent homestead was going up in smoke. She could feel how messed up everything was, both around them and inside her own mind. She was confused and exhausted from a tedious path that didn't seem to make any sense. Not the one Hawk had carved. It was actually pretty good considering he had done it by hand with a lightsaber. She only wished she could carve her future that easily.



Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

A surge in the force was Hawk's only warning, and he braced himself mentally; holding the image of the door to Kat's power in his mind as he threw his will against it. A crack of light appeared and nearby rocks fell as a sliver of her power seeped out, yet this was nothing next to the energy he had experienced upon the strange octahedral ship when they had faced the Lord Artificer.

Subconsciously, Hawk's fingers gripped the hilt of the new blade that Kat had forged for him from her own power, and he directed this escaped energy through it like an earth wire in a faulty circuit.

The door closed.

Hawk's fingers tingled with the residue of the energy as he relinquished his hold on the lightsaber. Without a word, Hawk set his own backpack down and began to unpack their provisions. It was unlikely that the townsfolk would follow them into the mountains or find Hawk's hidden stairway, but it was probably still for the best not to light a fire to cook anything until they were out of sight of the homestead.

"We should start our training." Hawk said, passing Kat a small bowl of soup, that had been kept hot in a flask, and a wedge of bread to go with it. His tone suggested that he had more to say, but that it could wait until they were alone.

 

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Kat had a brief feeling of relief when suddenly her twins voice was muffled in her head. It was almost as if he was on another side of a door and wanted very much to pick on her but couldn’t. She could feel how angry that made him but again the effects felt far away. The relief was fantastic but quickly replaced with her own embarrassment.

Kat had finished her Jedi training under Spark Vallen and Jessari Tanelorn almost a century ago, yet she felt like an out of control padawan who was just beginning. That in itself was frustrating but the entire situation was doubly mortifying because it was happening in front of Hawk Hinata, one of the greatest Jedi of all time. What must he think of her? This entire situation had gotten so much worse since Tenebris but for all she knew Hawk thought she was this out of control all the time.

She drank her soup and nibbled at the bread but didn’t have much of an appetite. Anorexia was a battle Katarine fought since birth. As she looked at the food she half smiled. It was so human to struggle with food and right now she felt so inhuman.

She sat what was left of her food over by her pack and pulled her long brown hair up into a ponytail. The light caught the dark Jedi runes etched around her now exposed neck but luckily there was no mirror to attract her deep green eyes to them.

“Where do we start?”

She wasn’t sure it was wise to do this in front of Thistle or really even why Thistle was with them. Then again the list of things she was sure of these days was growing shorter by the day.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

"We start with this," Hawk plucked the lightsaber hilt of the blade Kat had forged from her light from his chest. "The crystals within our lightsabers form a part of us..." Hawk continued as he led them to a small outcrop of rock that formed a passable able for them to sit either side of. "You forged the crysyal within this one, so it is a part of both of us. That was no accident."

Hawk unclipped his other two blades and set their hilts upon the table in a line and indicated for Kat to do the same.

"Lightsaber lore is a sadly neglected part of Jedi teaching. The crystals contain their very own memories; they traverse the past, present, and the future."

Hawk had studied such crystals in great depth, after all, the Jedi Brotherhood had been situated upon enormous versions of them within the Crystal Hall. Kat's twin, Dax, had even discovered their power and attempted to use them to return to their realm.

"The one you forged is special, it's connection to the both of us allows it to be used to siphon away your power safely. So long as we both touch the hilt, there is no danger in exploring your power."

Hawk sat upon one side of their makeshift stone table and indicated for Kat to sit opposite. He then placed one hand upon the hilt of the light forged blade, and his other upon his others. He would use them as an anchor to himself incase he were to become lost within Kat or within the light.

"Take hold of the hilt with me," He instructed. "I will slowly unbar the door to your power, but you must not let go, and most importantly, do not be afraid."

 

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Katarine took a seat on the other side of their makeshift table and listened to Hawk. She had to admit the lesson started off well. As a teacher who had trained several padawasn she could recognize an expert when she saw one.

She took her own lightsaber off her belt and removed both crystals. Her lightsaber had a duel phase mechanism which allowed the two crystals in the chamber to be switched. One of the crystals was tainted with the darkside, and as Katarine held it in her hand she felt herself growing dizzy. The darkside had always effected her this way, almost like an allergy.

"Take hold of the hilt with me," He instructed. "I will slowly unbar the door to your power, but you must not let go, and most importantly, do not be afraid."

Katarine huffed, trying to hide her own fear in sarcasm, a lifelong habit of hers. The truth was she didn't know how to feel. She wanted answers to her heritage but she also desperately wanted to ignore it and pretend to be normal. The issue was Daxium did not want that and sooner or latter he would come for her. Her life always seemed to orbit his, even when she didn't want it to.

She took a deep breath and took the hilt of the intricately carved lightsaber. At once a soft white glow spiraled up her arm and on the other side up Hawks arm as well. The light slowly got brighter and brighter and brighter until it was blinding. Katarine closed her eyes against the flash and when she opened them she was standing in an empty white space, with Hawk beside her. It was like everything around them had faded into nothingness, or perhaps they had simply entered nothingness. The table was gone and even though her hands were free she could still feel the lightsaber in her right hand, though she could not see it. It was almost as if they were still sitting at the table holding the lightsaber but at the same time they were in this void that existed outside of realty.

"Why can't I just be an old lady who shops at the grocery store and looks after her grandchildren?"

She sighed and looked around, but it was all just white and blank.

"Any idea where we are?"

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk looked around himself as if his emerald eyes could pierce the white void. Kat had asked if he knew where they were, but where was the wrong adverb to describe the plane of existence where they now found themselves. It was a place that was nowhere while also simultaneously everywhere. It existed beyond time and space, yet within every living thing in the universe.

"You've seen it before, but only a glimpse through a pierced veil. This is the same white void that illuminated the Crystal Hall." Hawk replied, placing a gentle hand upon the shoulder of her astral self to indicate that she should not move.

"This is an incredibly dangerous place. If you were to walk three steps and turn, you could well find yourself lost and alone. Distance and direction means nothing here, and if you allow it, the void will make you forget that there was ever anywhere else; it will make you forget who you are, or even that you are at all."

It had been within the Crystal Hall that Hawk had first learned of this plane of existence. For want of a better description, it was the very fabric of force itself. When a Jedi spoke of becoming one with the force, it was to here their essence came; to do as Hawk had just described to Kat, to lose themselves within the great fabric of the universe. Of course, many Jedi had since learned to maintain their individuality within the force upon death, and this was what was needed of them now.

"You must focus your will upon the aspects of your life that are most important to you. Powerful memories. People you love, or this place will consume you..." Hawk began, explaining what this place was to Kat. "Do not let go of my hand," His fingers sought to entwine with hers.

It was more than a mere romantic gesture to make her feel safe. Contact between them was the surest way that simply turning away from one another for a moment wouldn't see them separated, or even simply forgetting they were there with someone else.

It was no coincidence in Hawk's mind that Kat's power channelled through the lightsaber crystal should bring them here. It was the same power that coursed through the Crystal Hall and Dax had used that power to escape whatever hell Kat had imprisoned him in and return. The cogs of understanding continued to turn within Hawk's mind as the picture to the puzzle of Kat's power became ever clearer.

"Look," Hawk pointed with his free hand to where a darker shadow was forming an indeterminable distance ahead of them. "A house...I know that house. That's Phoenix's house."

The last words gushed out of Hawk as if the recognition of the house had winded him.

 

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As Hawk spoke an incredible desire to just let go overwhelmed Katarine. She could just stay here and be nothing. All of her trouble and all of her worries would disappear. Daxium wouldn’t even be able to find her here. She would never have to worry about her power corrupting her. She would never have to worry about another person she loved being taken from her. All she had to do was stay here and drift into the endless void.

Hawk laced his fingers with hers and she glanced and him and felt her heart stammer. There was a shadow behind the Jedi Master, one she supposed was making itself known only to her. She felt tears well in her eyes but fought them. She couldn’t stay here. Hawk might be in trouble. She had brought this trouble to him when he was just a child. She couldn’t abandon him.

She glanced away from the shadow and focused instead on the dark area Hawk had pointed out. With every fiber of her being she focused on the house, willing herself to master this crazed desire to run off into nothingness.

“I think that’s where we need to go.”

She was sure he suspected as much. Together they started, hand in hand, and oddly feeling as if they were not walking at all. The only indication that they were covering any ground at all was how the white beneath their feet changed color. As they approached the house the ground around them had black veins and small purple patches. It looked like Phoenix’s house was poisoning the very ground it sat upon.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

The house was just as Hawk remembered it, except for the grotesque black veins that crept like corrupted lianas across the surface of the building and the patches of purple resembling the mottling of bruises. In reality the house had been merely the tip of a much deeper and more twisted iceberg. It mirrored the pleasant and respectable face with which Phoenix had presented himself to the wider galaxy, and spoke of the status of the man who lived there - Senator Phoenix Hinata. At least now it better resembled who Phoenix truly was.
It had been many years before the truth was revealed. Phoenix' links with the Kaminoan cloners; their illegal experiments; the use of the Galactic Aid Agency as a front for moving funds, medical equipment, and the sourcing of specimens to experiment on. Those he required could only hope they died before the experiments began.
It was here that Phoenix had finally unlocked the secrets of immortality, only to learn too late that in his pursuit of eternal life, he had wasted the one he had. His wife and children had all grown old, and he had missed every special moment that makes a life worth living.

Hawk knew now that to discover the secrets of immortality, Phoenix had reached beyond the veil of the mortal world and been tricked by Tenebris. He also knew that Phoenix had finally come to his senses and betrayed the Dark God. Phoenix had tried to hide, using his vast wealth to become a vigilante clad in Mandalorian armour, but Tenebris had found him and he had been dragged into an eternal purgatory where he was forced to relive the final hours of his wife's life over and over again.

"I was part of the task force sent to storm this building," Hawk told Kat as he pushed open the double doors and stepped into the reception hall. "I thought I might find answers here, but I found only more questions. Phoenix himself never spoke at his trial. I could not penetrate his mind when I tried to question him myself, and he disappeared before his sentencing was carried out."

It had been very puzzling at the time. Phoenix was not force sensitive, and though he was no doubt strong of mind, he should not have been completely beyond the ability of Hawk to read. Since then, Hawk had learned much that explained Phoenix, but there was still much he did not understand. However, Phoenix had helped them to defeat Tenebris before, and if the threads of his and Kat's lives were as intertwined as they seemed than perhaps he could help them again.

The corruption that besieged the house had a disturbingly familiar feel to it. Even though Tenebris was once contained once again, his power still persisted here. A testament to his hatred for Phoenix.

"When I saw him last, he had confined himself to his study. It was the only place he could hide my mind from Tenebris' sight. I suspect the study is a manifestation of a part of his own mind. The part he has somehow hidden from Tenebris, and the part he kept hidden from me all those years ago. Where he keeps his secrets."

 

[Thistle Hinata]

Thisle's eyes rolled in exasperation as, having finished her meal, she sought out the two Jedi. They weren't hard to find considering they were putting out enough power to run a small city, but what caused her eyes to roll was their complete ignorance of the dangers involved in spirit walking into other realms of reality. With their spirits gone, their physical bodies were left unprotected.
Had she wanted to she could have easily killed both of them and left their spirits to walk wherever they had gone forever. Fortunately for them she didn't murder people right after a meal.
What concerned her, was the possibility of other spirit walkers or otherworldly entities coming to inhabit their bodies. She wasn't entirely certain the body of the woman, whatever she was, could be inhabited, but it would not be a good day for the galaxy if the body of Hawk Hinata were to be possessed by some demented ghoul, although she did have a soft spot for demented ghoul.

Even as she though it, two shadows crept closer to the sitting Jedi. Thistle rolled her eyes again and shed her mortal shin with a mental shrug. Entities of shadow could not be harmed by lightsaber, and only stalled with the force in physical form, but in her own spirit form she could destroy them.

"I don't normally kill right after a meal, but then I've not fed my spirit for quite some time," Thistle spoke to the two shadows that she could now clearly see as beings of darkness with her spirit eyes.

"Why do you protect their bodies dark sister?" Rasped the closest of the two, as the other slowly drifted to flank her.

"Well, that one's my uncle, and I'm pretty sure he's having...relations with the other...oh, and if you inhabit their bodies they can't stop the coming galactic apocalypse and I just can't bring myself to die with everyone else."

"We don't care about your galaxy..."

"Honestly, I had hoped you'd say that."

Thistle closed her spectral eyes and conjured her will, solidifying it into a blade of darkness, and wreathing her form in armour formed of her own fury.
The two dark entities also summoned blades and attacked her, but their forms were weak and slow while she was a storm of power and quick as lightning. Thistle's dark blade cleaved through their spectral bodies one after the other, tearing their spirits apart and deleting them from existence.

Thistle knew that these two low level chancers were only the first, and that there were much more powerful and dangerous entities our there just waiting to fill such empty vessels. With a grimace, Thistle slipped back into her physical body. It always felt like putting on a glove made of warm moist meat after she had experienced the freedom of her spirit, but it was the only way she could cast the necessary protections around Hawk and Kat.

 

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Katarine was not sure they wanted to discover the secrets Phoenix was so apt to hide. The man had some good qualities but it sounded like he had played with fire and Hawk had already been burned. The alien device that was helping his mind could only do so much. What if she had started something that only ended in the death of another friend?

“Are we sure we want to go poking around this place?”

As if in answer to her question the study door creaked open just a few centimeters.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Kat was not alone in her misgivings, but Hawk's mind was made up for him as with the door cracking open, the evil that held the house within it's grasp awoke.

"Quicky, inside!" Came the voice of his grandfather.

The rage coursing through the house had grown palpable in just a few seconds, and the dark vines that crept along the walls had swollen and sprouted new growth. A low rumbling emanated from somewhere below them...and then Hawk felt it.

"He's coming, inside now Kat!"

The door was flung open just wide enough and long enough for the two Jedi to slip inside before it was slammed shut once again.
No sooner than had the door closed, something dark and formless crashed against it from the outside. It raged and crashed against it again and again like waves against rocks in a storm, before subsiding with a wail of fury. Despite this, Hawk felt none of it. The room was completely cut off from the corruption and evil that infested the rest of the house.

"Phoenix?" Hawk called into the dark study.

Phoenix appeared at the top of a spiral stairway arm in arm with Hawk's grandmother. They appeared a strange couple, with Phoenix seemingly near Hawk's own age and his wife sporting wispy white hair, a slightly hunched back and needing the aid of a walking stick.
Hawk already knew what was happening. Phoenix was forced to relive the last days of his wife's life over and over as some sick form of torture. By this point in their lives, Phoenix had achieved his lifelong ambition, hence his youthful looks, but his wife refused to take his formula. Hawk could hear her words as the two spoke.

"We had our life together fee fee, the fact you spent most of it here doesn't change that. I'm tired and I have no desire to outlive my own children, or theirs. You have found the answer to eternal pain and suffering, and the only way to protect yourself from them is eternal loneliness."

The old woman pulled her arm out of his, leant across to lightly kiss his cheek, and slowly walked away and up another flight of stairs.

"That was the moment I truly understood my own folly," Phoenix said now looking down upon them from the stairway. "I find her in an hour in my solar just up those stairs. I always wondered if I could have done something if I had gone after her now, and I've tried a thousand thousand times, but I can never make it up the stairway."

"She died a long time ago, Phoenix. There's nothing you can do now, even if you could get up those stairs."

"You disappoint me Hawk. This place exists beyond time. These are more than mere memories. My wife is upstairs dying right now. You are stood right where you were stood then."

Phoenix's words slammed into Hawk like a Corellian freighter and he raised his hand subconsciously to the place on his head where the alien device should have been. It was not there.

"Yes, that's right, your temporal inhibitor hasn't followed you into this reality. Things have changed. Time is always tricky to work with."

"This has happened before?" Hawk asked incredulously.

"I have watched your grandmother die a thousand thousand times, and I have seen you standing there and had this conversation many times."

Hawk lofted a single brow.

"Our meeting is always slightly different. I remember one time you only had one eye. Another time your eyes had turned orange and you rambled about how they had killed someone called Kat. The vast majority of the times you appeared, your mind had crumbled so badly due to the temporal rift in your brain that it was a kindness for me to shoot you. Once in a while a Hawk who had the temporal inhibitor appeared and we had this conversation...but this is the first time you've brought a friend."

Hawk remembered now why he hated time travel. With Phoenix's house now existing outside of time and within this realm of the force, it appeared that the old mad had witnessed millions of Hawks as his choices changed the outcome of potential futures.
A very disconcerting thought occured to him just then. What if he were just another possible future? A shadow of what might be, and not as real as he felt?

"To answer your question. You are real. Every Hawk I've seen has been real. I may have witnessed them in my own perceived time, but from an outside perspective you all existed in the same moment." Phoenix confined, answering the question that Hawk had not yet put to voice.

"We need to know everything. What you did to my DNA, and why I can channel Kat's energy. I won't believe it's a coincidence."

It was Phoenix's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh, so this is the Kat for whom grief drove you mad in a failed future. Her energy you say?" Phoenix licked his lips and focused his piercing emerald green gaze, that was so much like Hawk's, upon Kat. "You brilliant boy...you finally did it!"

Phoenix closed his eyes as emotion overtook him and a tear traced down his cheek.

"I will tell you everything, but we must leave before I am forced up those stairs again."

"How can we leave now that he knows we're here?"

"This was never Tenebris' prison for me. It was my penance. I have been kept here this whole time by my own guilt, able to leave at any time if I could forgive myself for the things I did. The fact that she stands before me means there is still hope and I haven't destroyed everything. I...I can go...if she will take my hand?"

 

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As she walked through the house next to Hawk she could feel an unnatural darkness pulsing around them. It seemed to be growing stronger and sure enough a few moments latter they were rushing into another room to escape a dark presence.

As soon as they stepped into the study Kat felt the darkness fade away. She felt lighter than she ever had and different somehow. Her mind felt free and she could feel a warm glowing light deep inside her. But she didn’t know what it meant and before she could ponder this Phoenix and his wife offered a distraction for her.

Time travel was a confusing beast and Kat was dismayed to hear all of the futures Phoenix had foreseen, particularly the one where Hawk was driven mad. That made little sense to her. After a wife and children and the life Kat had wanted for so long how could the loss of Kat drive the male Jedi master mad? There was no way Kat meant more than those he had already lost. Wasn’t she just a substitute since they couldn’t be in the time period they belonged?

Then it occured to her. If she were gone that was the last connection to the past. The last connection to a time when the world made sense and Hawk was surrounded by friends and family. What if she failed? What if her twin did find a way to end her life? What would happen to Hawk without that connection to the past?

“………if she will take my hand?”

Kat was uncertain if Phoenix meant his wife or if he meant Kat herself but the wife was upstairs so Kat held her hand out for the man. As she did so she braced for the jealous growl that always accompanied any physical touch with a male … but it never came.

With a jolt Katarine realized why she felt different. She pushed against the back corner of her mind where her twin had always been but all she met was emptiness. The Force dyad she had been born into was gone. There was no darkness in her mind. For the first time in Kats entire life she was a singular person and that warm humming white power she felt was her own connection to the light side of the Force. For the first time in eternity Katarine was feeling what it felt to be a true Jedi shielded from the darkness within. The relief was indescribable.

Her deep green eyes seemed to shine brighter than normal as they went wide with shock. How was this possible? What had Phoenix done to make this place? Was he really going to tell them everything?

She had to know

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk looked between Phoenix and Kat as his grandfather spoke. He could see both the hunger in Phoenix's eyes and the hope in Kat's. Although the old man had aparantly turned over a new leaf later in life; dedicating himself to fighting the oppression of the Empire...Hawk did not trust him. Phoenix had been playing a cosmic game of chess for over a thousand years, using time itself as a piece to move. Nor did Hawk like the idea that he had Kat might simply be two other pieces for him to manipulate. That sharp, calculating intelligence behind Phoenix's eyes unnerved him, not because he could not understand it...but because he could. It was one of many things he had inherited from his grandfather.

Despite his reservations, there seemed like no other option, so Hawk held his tongue as Kat reached out towards the old man, and in turn Phoenix reached for her hand.

Their hands touched and in a flash the room they stood in vanished. Their disembodied spirits seemed to soar into the white void beyond, and though some dark cloud rose angrily behind them, it was far too slow to be of any concern. Hawk saw that tears had streaked Phoenix's cheeks, and he wondered whether they were tears of relief at being free of his torment, or grief as he had now truly seen his wife for the last time.

In a few brief moments the white void had evaporated and they were back atop the ridge looking at their own bodies. It was then that it struck Hawk.

"How are you returning without a body to inhabit?" He asked his grandfather.

"I have a body, but I will need transporting to it." Phoenix replied.

"If I knew you had gone to get him, I'd have let the other spirits take your bodies!" The spirit form of Thistle raged as it rushed towards them.

"Hush now child, you can blame me for your existence later. If we are to save this reality from what is to come than I need your help."

Thistle stopped dead in her tracks and stared wild eyed at her great-grandfather.

"You devious old bast..." The rest of her curse was cut off by her own crippling fury. "This! This is why I have languished as a child for a thousand years?"

"The youth was an unintentional anomaly, however I imagine a thousand years of youth to be far more comfortable than feeling those years."

"He needs my body," She explained to Hawk as he stood watching the exchange. "An immortal spirit would destroy a mortal body."

"Oh, she's good," Phoenix smiled. "I only need it until we get to Kamino, then I can retrieve my own body, and I can perhaps help you with your little problem."

Thistle relented and allowed Phoenix to take her body. Her own spirit, not having been trapped tormented and bodiless for a thousand years, was hardy enough to simply travel with them.

"So," Hawk stated once everyone had returned to their bodies, or the bodies they intended to inhabit for the time being. "I suppose we should head to Kamino then?"

 

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As they left the sheltered den Kat felt the darkness rushing back into her own mind. While the others quibbled over bodies she was bracing against a pounding headache. Whatever had just happened Daxium hadn’t liked it. When she eventually returned to her own body the headache was worse. She pushed against the back of her mind, trying to silence the rage that wasn’t hers. The Force Dyad felt so constricting after the brief freedom from it. She imagined this is how it would feel to return to a life of shackles after having them cast off for a mere hour.

“I hear Kamino is lovely this time of year.” She winced as she spoke, and tried to smirk since Kamino was never lovely. The cloners gave her the creeps.

“Will Thistle be okay?”

Hawk Hinata

 

[Thistle Hinata]

"She'll be fine" Phoenix answered in her voice. "Or at least, no worse than she already was."

It was strange to see herself walking at talking. While the two Jedi and her great-grandfather wore their skins, she was invisible to them. It might have been that her uncle and Kat could sense her presence in the force, but otherwise she was free to snoop and shadow them as she pleased.

Thistle had already decided that Phoenix suffered from the same flaw as the rest of the Hinata male line. He was just too damn sure of himself; as if a million and one things couldn't go wrong along the way.

A strange darkness had pooled around the woman as she reentered her body. It was not hers, but it felt akin to her. She could feel its desire for Kat; for her power; for the freedom it would bring. It thirsted.
Thistle lingered by the woman while Hawk and her possessed body cleared up their camp. She reached out a finger to touch the pool of darkness and a delightful shiver ran through her. Thistle returned the finger to her mouth and tasted it.

"Oohh lemony," She smiled. "I know this spell. This is Dathomir magic, but ancient...and wrong. "

Thistle knew the spell very well indeed. Or at least it's roots, and a form of it that persisted to this day. It was essentially the same spell that linked her to her dead twin brother. It was the reason he continued to linger as her bear Speedy. It was the reason that, if any of them knew how to look she would have a similar pool of darkness surrounding her in spirit for.

"A spell woven into your dyad," she cackled. "How clever."

It wasn't in her nature to praise parasitic twins who clung to existence and nourished themselves through the suffering of their sibling, but in this case it was very artfully done. Not like her own spell; not that she had even been aware of casting it at such a young age. The desire not to allow her twin to perish and whatever messed up genetics she had inherited from dear old Phoenix had forged the spell for her.

I could unpick this...in time. She mused to herself. It was a powerful spell, bolstered further by the power of the dyad. It's unravelling might kill one or both of them. The parasitic twin was sure to die, and it depended on how much he fought to live and how much he was willing to take from his twin as to whether she perished with him. Thistle knew that Phoenix had a plan, and she had no doubt that Hawk would do everything in his power to save the galaxy and this woman...but, should they fail...a failsafe was needed.

The party trudged on over the mountains for another few hours. The reason for Hawk hiding his ship so far away eluded her until she remembered that the local populace was somewhat fearful of technology and had come to kill them all thinking Kat was a witch.
Eventually however they came upon Hawk's ship, The Phoenix. It had been named for a defect in its reentry shielding that caused it to appear to catch on fire whenever it made planet fall, and not for the deranged old man who now inhabited her body. She floated on board with the rest of them, and before long the ship was blasting off into space towards their next destination. Kamino.

 

[Delete]

Kat was about to ask if Thistle was still with them, but she felt certain she could feel the child hovering around near. It almost felt like she was poking Kat for a second, but the Jedi Master wasn’t sure.

Everything felt weird these days. Ever since they had faced the dark god that had imprisoned Phoenix, or who had appeared to anyway. Kats own power was all over the palace, her twin was back and causing trouble, some demonic child was floating around while a long time spirit now inhabited her body. It was a mess. Kat longed for the simple life of a married woman raising children but it would never happen. Dax would never let her have happiness. Deep down she knew in the end they would need to destroy each other. She just didn’t want to take the rest of the galaxy down too.

Back aboard the Phoenix offered them some downtime, which Kat tried to meditate during. That was what good Jedi did after all. Of course most Jedi didn’t have an annoying voice in their head.

“….9,157 bottles of rum on the wall….”

“Stop already!”

“It’s not my fault. You left me alone. I got bored.”

Frustrated, she got up and abandoned the attempt at peaceful meditation.

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk had a lot to ponder on. There was much and more going on here that he did not yet fully understand, and that bothered him greatly. The Jedi Master had disliked Sith sorcery and witchcraft since he had first encountered it at the hands of Malice Draclau; despised time travel, but mostly it was the frustration of facing powers that were well beyond the understanding of mortals. For a second it struck him that this must be how the regular people of the galaxy felt when they got pulled in and used as pieces on a chessboard during the wars of the Jedi and Sith.

Hawk's emerald eyes fell upon Thistle and bored into her as if he stared hard enough he would see the spirit of the old man within her. He could not. He could however sense his agitation within her. Phoenix was worried. He could have spent an eternity within his hideaway waiting for the perfect future to present itself. Perhaps this was it. Or perhaps a thousand years of torment was enough for anyone. He had seen every possibility up until the moment he left the safety of his study, but now...now the future was being written in real time and there were no second chances

Idly, Hawk touched the device attached to his temple. It was still generating heat, so it must have still been active. He had no idea how long it would take for the device to heal his mind completely, or even if it could. The strange alien device might be a permanant feature for him, unless he fancied his mind slipping away through time and a slow descent into madness.

There were too many coincidences. Too many loose ends that seemed to fray in the direction of the others. It bothered him immensely to think that every part of his life, perhaps the entire reason for it was predetermined by the man who inhabited the body of his niece. What was worse is that her own predicament seemed to have also been engineered by him for this very purpose. Was it possible for Phoenix to have had such foresight? To have planned something as intricate and far reaching as all of this?

Phoenix had yet to be forthcoming with any more information, and annoyingly now that he was aware of a mote more of Phoenix's plans it would have been beneficial to talk to Thistle, but he couldn't.

"You'll wear a hole in the back of my head at this Rate Hawk." Phoenix spoke with Thistle's voice. It was strange to hear her speak without the sneer of malice in her voice, though she seemed to be in some pain while talking. "While Thistle's body can bear my spirit, it is not a pleasant or painless experience...You will have the answers you seek once I am restored on Kamino. I promise."

The Phoenix continued it's journey through hyperspace as the Jedi contemplated what they had learned, and while Phoenix endured the new agony of wearing a body that was not his own. In all, the atmosphere aboard the ship was not one of high morale.
__________________

In a blur of motion the Phoenix exited hyperspace and drifted at sunlight speeds towards the ocean world of Kamino. A long time ago, Phoenix had been the Kaminoan senator, though his true purpose for being resident upon the planet was the genetic technology of the cloners that he kept in his secret lab.

They touched down on a landing pad some minutes later. The facility they had landed on appeared to be long abandoned. Several sections had even fallen into the ocean, and several more looked to be in danger of following them. It was dark. The ocean roared and pounded the foundation struts relentlessly. If this were the facility that was active when Phoenix had lived on Kamino than it had stood here for over a millennia. It was remarkable than any of it still remained.

"Let me guess," Hawk said casting a sidelong glance at Kat. "We need to go down into the dark creepy and likely flooded bowels of this facility?"

Phoenix just smiled with a very twisted, very Thistle like smile.

 

[Delete]

Kat sighed and followed the group off the ship. The place was certainly an eyesore and she wondered why nobody had ever bothered to remove it. Maybe the planetary population didn’t know it was here. Come to think of it she didn’t really know that much about the population of Kamino. All anybody ever talked about was the cloners.

They trekked across the outer portions of the broken down facility until they found the entry way. It wasn’t exactly an uplifting sight. The whole thing looked like it might collapse and there was a slightly musty smell around the air.

“Why can’t the evil genius dudes ever build a secret layer at a five star resort with a saltwater pool and a seafood restaurant?”

Hawk Hinata

 

[Hawk Hinata]

Hawk pulled his cloak tightly around him as tugging winds whipped around the platform and a light rain began to fall and mix with the spray of the ocean. With the force, Hawk shunted open the doorway, but the groan of rusted metal was lost amidst the explosion of thunder as streaks of lightning lit up the sky.

"I did have just such an establishment," Phoenix grinned at Kat through Thistle's lips. "Unfortunately, such places see far too many visitors to hide the real important things."

The slender blue blade of Hawk's lightsaber burst into life as he led the way into the ancient facility, it's light illuminating the damp and decaying interior. There was a feeble ghostly wail from within as perhaps some stalwart emergency generator tried to perform it's duties, but it ceased within moments, returning the facility to a tomb-like silence.

"Which way?" He asked his grandfather, who merely pointed at a row of turbolifts at the back of the small domed foyer they found themselves in.

With there being zero chance that the lifts were operational, Hawk knew this meant that they would have to climb down the shaft. The Jedi Master did not like this place. There was much darkness here, and the device attached to his face had only grown warmer since their arrival.

The shaft was at least clear of any debris, and looked to be structurally sound, but, although the light from Hawk's blade could not penetrate to the bottom of the shaft, the sound of water echoed up whenever droplets fell into it from above.

"At some point down there the shaft is flooded," Hawk voiced the fact they all knew. "Let's hope the whole facility isn't or your body might be a little more bloated than you remember." Hawk grinned as he began the climb down.