Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 17 - Heart Of The Dark Side

"Are you sure we aren't lost?" mother Talzin asked. "I've told you before and I will tell you again I don't know! This place doesn't exactly come with a map, I'm trying my best" Ana replied in fake annoyance. Of course, she was very aware of where they were, she just didn't want the witch to know she was leading her away from where they actually needed to be.

With the holocron, she had managed to gain control of what could have been mother Talzin's most fatal weapon in this Temple, and now the only thing left to do was neutralize her. She was just hoping Ventress had managed to piece two and two together for everyone back on the surface, and was preventing them from coming after her. She could handle this as long as they stayed out.

"Haven't we been here before?" the witch asked, looking around the corridor. "Maybe, I'm not quiet sure" Ana simply replied. She knew this was a different hallway though. It was strange, but somehow she knew exactly where she was going. The second she had set foot inside the Sith temple, it had been like it understood where she wanted to go and was guiding her towards the spot.

She didn't know if she should find that gratious or alarming. Probably the latter. But she brushed it off for the time being, deciding to focus on the threat at hand. She had purposefully taken a few extra turn and corridors along their way, in order to disorient mother Talzin.

Finally, the room she had been searching for came into sight. As she entered it first, she held her breath, hoping the Temple wouldn't identify as a threat. She had refrained from doing anything remotely related to the light side ever since she entered, but she still feared the Temple would pick up on her pro Jedi thoughts somehow.

Thankfully, the Temple let her pass without a problem. When mother Talzin followed her though, she was bound to be less lucky. The witch had barely stepped inside when the walls began to glow red and emitting mist. "What is this?!" she asked angrily as she tried to move but was held in place by the Temple.

"My ticket out of this situation" Ana replied, sprinting for the door. She knew that nothing that was about to happen in this room would be harmful to her, but her paranoia about the situation wasn't allowing her to stay put.

"Let me go, do something!" mother Talzin insisted, struggling against the Temple. "That's not how this works. You put your hands where they don't belong, you get punished. And this time, you're getting punished the Sith way" Ana explained.

The mist from the walls finally reached the witch. She tried to shield herself from it to no avail, eventually being completely emerged in it. Ana could hear her protests for only a moment longer before green smoke emerged from where she had stood. It vanished quickly, as the red smoke moved back to the walls, disappearing into it. The walls stopped glowing shortly after, leaving the room empty as if nothing had happened.

"That was awfully anticlimactic" Ana mumbled. "What was?" Ana jumped at a voice behind her. She spun around in record time, activating her lightsaber, ready to strike. However, the voice only turned out to belong to Ventress who was followed by Windu. With a frustrated sigh, she clipped her lightsaber back to her belt.

"Where is mother Talzin?" Windu asked worriedly. "Had the Temple execute her, as I'm sure Ventress already explained was my likely course of action. The better question is, why are you down here? Are you trying to get everyone blown up?" Ana replied.

"No, I was trying to..." Windu began defending himself, but was interrupted by Ventress "Ana, you might want to turn around". As Ana looked back inside the room, she saw a hole in the middle of the room open. "What is that?" Windu asked.

"Not sure, but I have a feeling we're about to find out" Ventress was quick to answer. Just as she did, a black crystal, the size of an eye began to levitate out of the hole. The floor closed itself up again as the crystal floated in the middle of the room.