“So," Ben said, looking down on Upekzar, "this is a lot nicer than Ziost. Ship's taste in locales is improving."

“Or Abeloth’s,” Vestara said. When Natua had described the ruins of a temple that had closely matched Ben’s description of where he had first found Ship, they had all felt hope that they might actually find that elusive and dangerous vessel, and with it, Abeloth. She wouldn't be challenged just by Luke, Ben, Vestara, or the Lost Tribe, who’d had their own agenda, and one that ended up not really being all that interested in the destruction of Abeloth. Now she would be opposed by nearly every Jedi in the galaxy. And in with those kinds of numbers, even an ancient and powerful a being like Abeloth could not stand.

...Ben hoped. If it didn't work, a lot of people they would need later would die pointlessly now instead.

Natua’s long hours spent in the Temple library studying Sith worlds and their histories had made her the resident expert, and Luke had insisted that she be the one to brief her fellow Jedi. Vestara might know more about the Sith mind-set, but Natua had turned her fierce determination toward learning everything she could about their ancient habitations. Ben listened with half an ear as Natua filled in the rest of the fleet on the Dream Singers, the lava caves, and the subterranean hangar that had once contained Sith training vessel: he'd heard all of this before in the library.

Ben's opinion that it was better on Upekzar than Ziost lasted all of a second. Stepping onto the surface of the planet was like hitting a physical wall. He could sense the dark side here more strongly than anywhere else he could recall. He tugged at his breath mask in an attempted to take his mind off of the way his stomach clenched and his skin erupted in goosebumps; the evil here wasn't merely ancient. It was—

“Distilled,” Jaina said, stepping beside his father as they looked at the ruins of the city before them.

“A good word,” said Kyle Katarn. “It’s … coalesced here, somehow.”

“Well, Natua did say that this was the main city, and the cave system their primary ritual site,” Jaina offered.

“Perhapz Ship’z presence has awakened something long asleep,” offered Saba. She stood at her full imposing height, eyes narrowed, all her senses extended.

“That’s a cheery thought,” muttered Kyp Durron.

“Booby-trapping an abandoned city sounds exactly like something the Sith would do,” Jaina replied.

Luke called for their attention, then began splitting up the Jedi into small groups and giving them instructions. Two-thirds of the Jedi who had landed were moving off toward the northeast, while the rest returned to their vessels to provide air support if Ship was here and managed to defeat or evade the Jedi on the ground. “I need you, Natua, and Vestara to start exploring the caves," Luke told Ben when everyone else had received their assignments. "You might find something that could help us.”

Ben wasn't surprised by the assignment: this place was a level of magnitude more malevolent than the last two places had been, and the Dromand Kaas had been bad enough to make Kyle Kriffing Katarn turn to the dark side for a little while. The last thing they needed was Vestara to be tempted into joining Ship or Abeloth. He nodded silently at Luke--they still hadn't gotten back to anything more than an uneasy truce since Luke had revealed his plan about the Sith--and followed Natua and Vestara into the caves as his father joined the other Jedi in the search for Abeloth.

Ben, Natua and Vestara walked along in silence for several minutes before peering into a room carved into the walls of the cave. The temperature in the room had dropped several degrees, but the chill was not entirely physical. Terror--centuries of it--had seeped into the rock around them. The walls, which bore delicate writing, floor, and ceiling were even and flat, not curved like the hallways had been. There were remnants of what appeared to be rugs, cushions, and tools. And over in one corner, covered with droppings, debris, and dust, were—

“Lightsabers,” Natua breathed.

“They surrendered their weapons here before going on,” Vestara said.

“You guessed that?”

“I read it,” Vestara said, pointing to the writing on the wall. “ ‘Initiates, you who would master the dark side, prepare yourselves. Leave your weapons, and your former selves, here in this chamber—or depart now and forever in shame, before it is too late to turn back.’ ”

“No way they were actually allowed to leave," Ben decided.

"Not and live for much longer afterwards," Vestara agreed. She crouched down. "I think these lightsabers were left by owners who didn’t survive the initiation.”

Natua looked at the weapons and grimaced. “To reinforce fear and apprehension,” she said. “Sounds like the Sith for sure. Let’s keep going. This is fascinating, and important data to have, but I’d just as soon not linger.”

The tunnel curved slightly, and the three of them followed the path, staying alert for any other signs of ancient Sith activity that had survived the eons. They found fragments of old bones, scattered pieces of what was clearly equipment, and an increasing sense of unease as they traveled deeper into the heart of the planet. The bones they examined carefully; some of them turned to dust in their hands, but others remained semi-intact.

The tunnels continued on, and on, and on. As long minutes passed with no further discovery, Ben started to wonder if they'd discovered all there was to find. It made a perfect sort of Sith sense: provide a single chamber to collect weapons and warn the initiates close to the entrance, then turn them loose to meet the Dream Singers, and let them lie where they fell. He had just turned around, his mouth open to suggest they retrace their steps, when they all heard the sound.

“Were there any descriptions of sounds?” he asked Natua. “Do caves make noises?”

It came again--a soft, low groaning--and his stomach clenched. The air suddenly grew cold as it had in the chamber they had first encountered. Wordlessly the three activated their lightsabers and dropped their glow rods, automatically moving so their backs were against one another. They faced outward as a sudden wave of dark-side energy crashed over them like the ghost of the lava that had formed the tunnels so long ago.

One of the shadows reared above them and for a second Ben wondered if his protective mask had somehow been damaged because the monster he saw could only come from the darkest corners of a deranged mind’s nightmares. Well over two meters tall, its shiny, sectioned body a deep blue-black, the thing gazed down at them with two pairs of glowing red compound eyes. Its mandibles clacked as ooze dripped from them. Lashing behind it was a double tail, each part ending in pincers that looked as if they could lop off an arm with no effort. Ben noted all this in the space of half a heartbeat as it descended on them. Four of its six arms, each ending in a hook, reached out to swipe at them while the hideous head darted with shocking speed toward him.

“Ben!” Vestara cried.

Ben dove away as the mandibles scraped at his mask, rolled on the cave floor and came up fighting. The instant he moved, Vestara laid into the creature, her red blade sizzling as it bit into the hard substance that protected its body. Natua charged at it as well, and the two women moved swiftly so that the creature was being attacked on two sides.

One of the tail pincers snapped at Natua, taking a huge chunk out of her leg. The Falleen hissed in pain but faltered only a little, renewing her attack while Ben dove at the creature from behind. It let out a terrible, screeching wail as Ben’s lightsaber struck at a pincer, burning and blunting it but doing far less damage than it should have. It whirled again to target him. When the lightsabers struck the creature, their glow dimmed as if the thing was draining energy from the blades.

Vestara extended a hand, trying to Force-shove the creature away from Ben. To her astonishment, the creature merely stumbled a little and continued its onslaught. Ben grunted in pain as slaver splashed down on his arm, burning it like acid. He realized what they were fighting at the same time as Vestara did. This wasn't the little bug that Natua had showed them in the library. At least it wasn't any more.

“Rhak-skuri!” Vestara shouted, stepping in front of Ben. “Come for me!”

It knew its name. It paused, ever so briefly, in its assault on Ben, whirling to stare at her with its glowing, multiple eyes, its antennae waving as if in agitation—or pleasure. It Force-shoved Ben--knocking his mask askew--without removing its attention from Vestara.

… Ssssssiiithhh …

"It needs a sacrifice," Vestara said softly, but Ben was beyond hearing or caring how she'd figured that out. He stood stock-still, ignoring the acid eating into his arm, his eyes wide, his mouth open as he inadvertently inhaled the pheromones...and lived through horrors. Memories of torture and death combined with a too-vivid imagination and Ben was soon curled up on the ground with his eyes shut as he convulsed in terror.

Vestara glanced at Ben on the ground, then at the Dream Singer. It fed, like Abeloth did, not just on flesh, but on fear, and Vestara wasn't inclined to let him have Ben Skywalker. As certain about this as she had ever been in her life, Vestara whirled to attack. She lifted her lightsaber high, the glowing red light illuminating a face contorted in anger and determination, and brought it down.

The crimson weapon slashed through Natua’s mask.

Taken completely by surprise, the Falleen stumbled backward, turning shocked eyes on Vestara. Vestara snarled and began attacking her.

“I knew we could never trust a Sith!” Natua cried as her lightsaber danced and clashed with Vestara’s.

Vestara parried and thrust and slashed, her blade making a sharp sound as it cut air and sizzled against the Jedi’s lightsaber. Natua stumbled, lowering her lightsaber, and began to shriek as the pheromones made it past her natural Falleen defenses against such things. She started fighting again, her blade slashing at empty air, and Vestara was able to dart in easily and cut a furrow across her torso. Natua fell to the floor, flailing and screaming, her lightsaber making futile burns in the rock.

Vestara stood over the spasming body, her own lightsaber lowered, sweat sheening her brow. She met the Dream Singer's compound eyes and felt their kinship. It dipped its head in—gratitude? acknowledgment?—and moved forward onto Natua. Its feelers extended, running over the thrashing form in a vile caress as it fed deeply on the Falleen’s terror.

… Ssssssiiithhh … Cooooome …

Vestara heard movement behind her and a soft groan. Ben was awakening. With a slow smile, she leapt at the Dream Singer, attacking it with all her strength.

“Vestara!” And then Ben was on his feet, stumbling into the fray.

He was safe. Natua was dead. It couldn’t possibly have gone more smoothly.

Terror still shuddered through Ben as his body struggled against a second bout of unconsciousness. He had no way of knowing what was real and what was an illusion, but after he realized what was happening to him, Ben knew what he had to do. What his father had taught him, what his namesake had taught his father.

Trust your feelings.

He trusted his friendship with Natua, he trusted the competence of the Jedi that were all over this planet, and he trusted that if he was determined and strong enough, he could still fight and not fall prey to the terror that seemed to flow through his blood with every beat of his rapidly pounding heart.

He couldn’t tell if the giant looming shadow was truly a monster, or another sentient being, or what. He couldn’t tell if Natua was really dead, couldn’t tell if that was really a lightsaber slash across her torso or part of the pheromone-induced illusion. But he could feel the evil roiling off his adversary, and could no longer sense Natua in the Force, and that was enough for him to charge in fighting.

The ground suddenly shook beneath their feet and he and Vestara, both caught off-guard, had to act quickly to prevent being hurled to the stone floor. Ben, his senses still bedazzled by the attack, heard Vestara grunt and looked up to see a huge stalactite hovering only a few centimeters above his head. She threw it away with the Force, and he heard it crack as it landed. Vestara grabbed and shook him. “Ben! Listen to me!”

He blinked, trying to focus on her. She looked like Vestara, and she wasn’t terrifying the life out of him—

“We have to get out. Now. The tunnels are collapsing.”

“Natua—” He whirled, turning to where the creature was. It was nowhere to be seen, nor was Natua. It had used the distraction of the quake to escape. His gaze fell on a bloody smear that disappeared into the darkness.

“It’s too late for her,” said Vestara, shaking his arm again, “and it’s going to be too late for us if we don’t hurry!”

He nodded, finding his mask and putting it back on. Just in case. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here!”

They raced back the way they had come, reaching out in the Force to try to sense the instant before another great, bucking shudder racked the ground and bracing themselves accordingly. Now that they were no longer exploring in a leisurely manner but quite literally running for their lives, the distance seemed much shorter to Ben. They passed where they had encountered the old, brittle bones, crushing them to dust beneath running feet. They had almost made it to the chamber where they had found the lightsabers when Ben sensed another quake about to occur.

Ben grabbed Vestara and Force-hurled them both back down the tunnel. He angled himself so that she fell on top of him, sparing as much energy as he could to lessen his own fall. The roaring sound nearly deafened them, and it seemed to go on forever.

“You okay?” Ben asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’ve—lost my lightsaber.”

“Me too. Maybe they just got knocked from our hands.” Ben’s ribs were bruised from the hard landing, but he managed to sit up. He winced, knowing Vestara was as blind as he right now. He held out his hand. It didn’t matter where the lightsaber lay. He imagined how it would feel in his hand—the coolness of the metal, the familiar weight. An instant later he felt a gentle smack in his palm as the lightsaber returned to it. Grinning despite his pain, he activated it. The first thing he saw was Vestara’s face, bathed in soft blue light, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking over his shoulder, in the direction they had been heading. Ben turned to follow her gaze--and saw that they had been sealed in.

“Kuso,” he said glumly.

They stood staring for a while, then Vestara sighed. “This would go faster with two lightsabers, but let’s get started. We might even get out of this alive if we do.”

They quickly fell into a rhythm. Ben would cut the stones, and Vestara would use the Force both to move the carved-out pieces safely behind them and to keep the “wall” of remaining stone from collapsing in on them. A few more tremors came, but between the two of them the wall held.

At one point, after several minutes of this, Ben’s breath started to become labored. He thought the mask wasn’t functioning, and started to remove it.

“Don’t,” cautioned Vestara. “The air … it’s running out. And it feels … hot. Use the Force to control your breathing.”

He nodded. He did not speak, not after that warning, and did as she suggested—used the Force to make his body absorb as much oxygen as it could from the slow breaths he permitted himself to take. After about half an hour, Ben stuck a hand in one of the cracks. “We’re almost through,” he said.

Vestara waved him over to her, indicating he should stand beside her. He did. She looked straight ahead and mimed pushing. He understood at once and nodded. She lifted her hand and counted down: One. Two.

Three. They Force-shoved with all their strength. The wall of wedged rocks exploded outward as if a thermal detonator had been set off. For a moment, they stood staring at the gaping hole, then started laughing and hugging each other. “Well, finally,” came a voice. They looked up, shocked, to see Corran Horn. His eyes over the gas mask looked both amused and impatient. "The volcano erupted and you need to get out with me now."

Ben scrambled over the rocks, wondering a little pettily why a Master with no telekinetic abilities had been sent to rescue them from a rockslide. "Please tell me you got Ship or Abeloth."

Corran looked grim. "Not exactly."

Ben taught Corran and Vestara Earth curses all the way back to the Jade Shadow.

[OOC: Warnings for NPC death, Ben being kicked around like a puppy, and massive stupidity. Adapted, mangled and folded into origami cranes from Christie Golden's Ascension.]