Apocalypse (64 page)

Then Abeloth is truly dead?
Vestara asked.

As much as that is possible, yes
.

“As much as that’s possible?” Vestara asked, in her alarm speaking aloud. “What does that mean?”

Only that there are some things the Force does not reveal to us, Lady Khai
. A dark speck appeared beneath the distant clouds and began to descend toward her.
And that we are finally free to return to our own kind
.

A muffled
thud
sounded from the battered pinnace below, and the boarding ramp began to descend. A terrible pang of loss shot through Vestara, and for the first time in her life, she began to feel utterly without hope. Not only had she lost Ben’s love, but she had lost her home, her people, and her identity. Wherever her future carried her now, she did not see how she would ever be a Sith again. She stood and retreated deeper into the jungle, stopping only when it began to grow difficult to see the vessel through the vegetation.

I’ll take the ride
, Vestara replied.
But I’m not sure my own kind will have me. I’ve killed too many of them
.

Lady Khai, do you really believe the Lost Tribe to be the only Sith in the galaxy?
Ship asked.
There are others—and they have need of you
.

“Other Sith?” Vestara began to feel a bit more optimistic. “Sith who would welcome me?”

Sith who have
need
of you
, Ship repeated.
You have spent time with the Skywalkers—a great deal of time. How can you fail to see the value in
that?

Vestara’s optimism swelled into confidence—pride, even. She
had
done something that no other Sith in the galaxy could have managed. She had lived with Luke and Ben Skywalker for nearly a year and—so far—survived to exploit it.

Then you had better hurry
, she told Ship. The pinnace’s ramp clanged down on the cobblestones again, and she added,
Ben and Jaina are coming for me now
.

I arrive in two minutes ten seconds
, Ship said.
Surely, a Sith Lord can stall them that long
.

A Sith Lord?
Vestara felt more confused than excited, for she had
never heard of a Sith Lord under twenty—not even under thirty.
I’m hardly a Lord. I’m not sure I’m ready
.

You are a Sith Lord if I say you are, Lady Khai
, Ship said.
And I say it now. Two minutes
.

Vestara didn’t know whether to be thrilled or frightened, for being a Sith Lord carried as many dangers as it did privileges. But there had been no doubt in Ship’s pronouncement. And why should there have been? After all, Vestara had deceived the renowned Luke Skywalker for months on end. She had slain a Sith Lord and played the key role in slaying Abeloth herself. And—most important—she had discovered the identity of the Jedi Queen.

Perhaps Vestara
was
ready to be called a Sith Lord. Perhaps she had even
earned
the right.

Ben and Jaina appeared at the top of the pinnace boarding ramp, frowning in suspicion as they scanned the courtyard for Vestara. Ben was still dressed in his blood-soaked robe, and Jaina was in her combat vac suit. Neither appeared to be holding weapons—at least none that Vestara could see through the vegetation.

“Vestara? Where are you?” Ben called. She felt him searching for her in the Force, and almost instantly, he looked in her direction. “Come on out.”

Realizing her best chance of lasting two minutes against Ben and Jaina together lay in talking rather than fighting, Vestara hid her weapons inside her robe. Then she stood and stepped closer to the drop-off into the courtyard.

“Up here!” she called. “Sorry!”

The gazes of both Jedi went to the ledge where she was standing. They quickly descended the ramp into the courtyard and stepped away from each other.

Ben studied her for a moment, then asked, “What are you doing up there, Ves?”

His voice was so casual it almost made Vestara doubt the conclusion she had reached earlier. But Jaina was continuing to circle away from the pinnace, trying to put herself in position for a flanking attack, and Vestara could see now that Ben’s left hand was slightly curled, as though he had something up his sleeve that would drop into his grasp as soon as he straightened his wrist.

Vestara shrugged. “Hiding, obviously.” She shifted her gaze to Jaina, who quickly stopped moving and placed a hand on her hip. “If Ship really
is
around here, I didn’t want him seeing me.”

“Oh, yeah—good thinking,” Ben said. “But we’re good to go now. Come on down.”

Vestara remained where she was and continued to look at Jaina. “You’ve done a cranial scan on Ben already?”

Jaina nodded. “He’s fine.” She remained where she was, and now Ben began to circle in the opposite direction. “But Grand Master Skywalker not so much. We need to get going.”

“You did a cranial scan
and
made repairs already?” Vestara asked, trying to sound in awe. “You’re fast.”

Jaina’s eyes narrowed, and she began to circle toward Vestara’s flank again. “The EmDee did the cranial scan. Are you coming or not?”

“Sure.” Vestara stole a glance toward the sky and saw a dark circle about the size of a fist approaching over the ridge that loomed up beyond the opposite side of the courtyard, then froze Ben in place by looking back toward him. “As soon as Ben shows me what he has up his sleeve.”

Ben’s brow arched in surprise. “Nothing to worry about, Ves.” He straightened his wrist, and a hypo dropped out of his sleeve into his hand. “It’s just a sedative.”

“And why would I need a sedative?” Vestara allowed herself to take what she hoped would seem a very natural step back into the jungle, then began to draw on the Force, preparing to fight. “Do I seem agitated to you?”

“My fault, I’m afraid,” Jaina said, still circling. She was nearly at the arcade now, in position to launch her attack with a single Force leap. “With Luke in such bad shape, I’m in no mood to take chances—and, well, it hasn’t been all that long since you were a Sith.”

“It’s just until we get out of the Maw, Ves.” Ben began to circle in the opposite direction again. “It doesn’t mean anything. Trust me.”

“Ah, Ben.” Vestara felt a ripping ache inside, as though her heart had literally been torn from her chest. “Why did you have to say
that
?”

She brought her hand up and hit him with a blast of Force lightning that sent him tumbling with his robes aflame. By then, of course,
Jaina was already Force-leaping to the attack. Vestara pivoted around, bringing her Force lightning to bear on the most immediate threat.

Jaina caught the bolt on her lightsaber and landed atop the ledge only a few meters away.

Leap
. The fiery crackle of a fast-approaching vessel began to reverberate down from the jungle ridge, building quickly as Ship descended toward the courtyard.
Leap high!

Vestara used the Force to launch herself into a high, cartwheeling arc over the courtyard. Jaina spun to follow, but by then a fiery plume was flashing past beneath Vestara—one of Ship’s stony projectiles, moving so fast it was literally setting the air aflame.

The projectile crashed into the ledge with a deafening boom, and Ship came sweeping in to scoop Vestara out of the air. She slammed into the rear wall of the passenger cabin so hard that her breath left her, then remained pinned there by acceleration.

I apologize for the impact
, Ship said.
I slowed as much as was possible without missing you
.

“You did … well,” Vestara gasped, trying to get the air back into her lungs. “But you
could
ease off just a bit now.”

As you command, Lady Khai
. Ship reduced his acceleration to the point that Vestara could swing her legs down to the passenger cabin’s soft deck.
I trust you are not hurt
.

“Uh … no.”

Vestara stepped to the side of the cabin. A transparent area quickly appeared in front of her, and she found herself looking down on the courtyard where she and Ben had killed Abeloth, a thumb-sized oval of gray stone shrinking into the emerald vastness of the surrounding jungle. To her dismay, she felt a tear start down her cheek. She wiped it away at once.

“Not hurt on the outside, at least.”

The Force rippled with Ship’s confusion.
You have internal injuries?

“No, nothing like that,” Vestara replied. “It isn’t physical.”

Ah. You suffer over young Skywalker
.

Vestara watched as the gray oval became a gray speck and finally vanished beneath an impenetrable blanket of clouds, then turned away and nodded.

“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “I was in love with him.”

Then you will be fine
, Ship assured her.
Even better than fine
.

“What makes you so sure?” Vestara asked.

Because love is pain, Lady Khai
, Ship replied.
And pain makes Sith strong
.

L
UKE OPENED HIS EYES TO A GOLD, SCINTILLATING BLUR—
C
ORUSCANT
’
S
night side, he thought, hanging beyond a medbay viewport.

That the medbay
had
a viewport was a good sign. It meant he was aboard a sizable vessel—most likely the frigate
Redstar
, from which he and Jaina had launched into the Maw. It also meant Jaina had survived to fly him to safety. She had prevailed against Ship and, almost certainly, reached Abeloth’s homeworld.

And that meant she had found Ben.

Luke reached out in the Force and was overjoyed to sense his son not too far away, near the front of the ship with many other familiar beings. It felt as though they were deep in discussion, their minds focused and their moods solemn.

After a moment, Ben’s Force aura crackled with delight, and the other presences began to ripple with excitement as they realized Luke had awakened. He allowed his own joy to fill his being, then was overwhelmed by the torrent of love and delight that came flooding back to him. He could feel Corran and Saba and many of the other Masters, all
of them bursting with relief and elation. The depth of their emotion was so pure and powerful that he did not know quite what to make of it. It left him feeling humbled and grateful and a bit confused, wondering how long he had been unconscious—and what had been happening while he lay healing.

The answer came a moment later, when Luke’s vision finally cleared and he began to see what had become of Coruscant. The planet remained a sparkling disk of light, but now there were dark areas hundreds of kilometers across—and patches of flickering crimson adjoined by huge swaths of smoke-dimmed light.

Much of Coruscant was either burning or in ruins—and not just in Fellowship Plaza, but in thousands of places across the planet. Despite the Jedi Order’s best efforts to keep the worst of the fighting inside the Temple, the Sith had spread the battle across an entire world. And Abeloth … Abeloth had brought the darkness.

Luke deactivated the medical monitors so they wouldn’t alert an attendant, then removed the IV catheters from his arm. Slowly and with great effort, he got out of bed and dressed in a clean robe he found folded in a locker near his bed. His entire body ached with fever, and his atrophied legs trembled with weakness. But the greatest anguish was in his chest, where he could still feel Abeloth’s balled tentacle—an empty sick heat that he thought might stay with him for the rest of his life.

From behind Luke came the soft rasp of a dilating iris hatch, and a set of boots began to stride across the deck toward him. He turned to see his son approaching, dressed in a short brown robe over trousers and boots. The only signs of his brush with Abeloth were a few fading scars and a self-assured bearing that made him seem suddenly taller, stronger, and far less innocent.

“What are you doing dressed?” Ben demanded, pointing toward the empty bed. “You’re supposed to be in bed!”

Luke merely smiled. “It’s good to see you, too, son.”

He opened his arms, then they embraced and talked for twenty minutes. Luke explained what had happened beyond shadows and how he had been wounded, and Ben reported what had been happening while Luke was in a coma—especially the trouble Leia was having trying to convince Han to replace the
Falcon
’s lost cockpit with updated
equipment. He listed casualties and survivors, cataloged the devastation on Coruscant, and apologized for being fooled by a Sith spy.

“What can I say? You were right about Vestara from the start.” Ben’s voice was filled with self-reproach. “As soon as she realized we knew about the attempt on Allana, she took off in Ship.”

Luke clasped his son’s shoulder. “Ben, don’t be so hard on yourself. By the end, you weren’t the only one who trusted her.” Having fallen for a Sith spy himself as a young man, Luke understood how betrayed and humiliated his son must be feeling right now. “It’s called experience, and the important thing is that you learn from it.”

“Thanks, but I should never have let her escape,” Ben said. “She knew a lot about the Jedi Order—and now, so do the Sith.”