Micc'm looks at Sonya. "What makes you ask that question, Damascene?" Before he gives Sonya a chance to respond, he rubs his chin thoughtfully and answers her questions anyway. "The Force is not so fickle as to fill a lightsaber crystal with the Dark Side of the Force during beginning attunement to the crystal simply because the Force wielder is struggling with the Dark Side. The user would have to be filled with the Dark Side already to cause such an effect. The most immediate evidence of that one can detect is the color of the crystal itself, should it be natural, or the lightsaber blade. As far as holocrons go, only true masters of the Force craft such powerful artifacts properly. I've dabbled in research of them, but as far as I can tell, none of the Order's holocrons use simple lightsaber crystals in their construction. Regardless of this, all holocrons are imbued with immense power and thus radiate heavily in the Light or Dark Side, depending on the soul of its creator."

Kellen's attention shifted to the conversation.

"Master, how would one cleanse a corrupted holocron? If the gatekeeper is a representation of the creator would the gatekeeper need to be redeemed to cleanse the holocron? Or could the gatekeeper be redeemed if the holocron was cleansed first?" Kellen hoped the representation of Micc'm would give a useful answer as his mind raced for a way to try to draw out the truth of Micc'm. Apparently the others had picked up on more than he had...not a good omen for a Sentinel. Perhaps Kellen had gotten rusty.

Micc'm blinks. "A corrupted holocron, you say? I have never heard of such a thing. There are Jedi holocrons, and presumably there are also Sith holocrons. The only possible middle ground would be a failed holocron, which wouldn't function at all."

"How can one know the difference between a Sith Holocron and a Jedi Holocron?" Kellen continued.

"The answer to that question should be obvious, Venn. The very content of the holocron data would make it evident of their nature. What little access I've had to the Order's holocrons indicates artifacts suffused with the Light and containing techniques, teachings, and memories of Jedi masters - nothing to show the least evidence of the Dark Side. Presumably, Sith holocrons would indicate the opposite, though to my knowledge, non have ever been discovered."

Tok expertly docked the shuttle and Garon and the others spelled into the larger ship's halls. It didn't take long for them to find the others in the Cryo chambers. A few were gathered around Micc'm and talking to him with serious expressions. The Besalisk paid their conversation little mind. He supposed that getting in the Cryo tubes made some amount of sense, but this was far from a re-enactment of the events preceding their multi millennia long slumber. Veltok's presence was evidence enough of that.

So do we just go back to sleep or what?

"Seems so Tok, I can still see this is a bloody illusion of sorts, so it should be ok..." But Rin doesn't sound too convinced, the thought of going back to sleep is unnerving to say the least for the Dressellian.

Micc'm nods. "Into the cryo tubes, all of you. I will join once you're all secured."

Ren-Do steps up to en empty cryo-tube and gingerly opens the lid. Even though deep down he realizes that he is in a vision, and what is happening is not a reality, the line has become slightly blurred for the Jedi Knight. He looks over the faces of the other Jedi as they climb into tubes. What happened to all those Jedi? Did they die in their tubes, like Micc'm? Or did they in reality die in the space battle he had just re-lived?

Even though he knows this is just a part of the holocron vision, the Cerean opens up his lightsaber before getting into the tube. He examines the hilt and the crystal, committing everything to memory. He then removes the crystal and puts it in a small pouch on his belt. He had no idea what had caused his crystal to crack. But if the next part of the vision involved something that happened after this time-period, perhaps by removing the crystal from the hilt could he get some small hint about if it was the fact that the crystal was active, so to speak, or if there was another reason for why the crystal cracked during his long sleep in the cryo-tube.

With this done, Ren-Do notices that most of the surviving Jedi have closed the lids on their tubes already. "May the Force be with us all," he says quietly as he sits down into his tube and reaches for the lid. An unshakable feeling of doom surrounds him as the lid is sealed shut.

"Very, well master."

Kellen dutifully climbed into his cryo-tube. Something was not right here but only patience and observation would reveal it.

As the covering slid over the chamber and sealed Kellen hoped the next iteration of the Holocron would provide more answers and that his mind, like his body, would at the end of it awaken to reality.

One by one the illusory Jedi climb into their cryo tubes and Tok stands by the door silently stewing, replaying the holo of his murdered family over and over in his head.

“They’re not dead,” he thinks to himself. “It’s all fake. All of this.”

But there’s a nagging doubt. The records he accidentally accessed while getting the Sith gunship warmed up implicate Micc’m as a Sith conspirator. And the resemblance. There’s a piece here he’s missing and he can’t figure it out.

Knowing some version of Micc’m can hear his thoughts he asks simply, “Was it you? Did you do this?” He’s not surprised to get no response.

Ren-Do is the last of the Jedi to close his tube and the noise of it sealing drives Tok to action. If they’re here to change things, it seems pretty clear they haven’t accomplished it yet. There’s two remaining crew members in the hold and Micc’m the lone Jedi. The Gotal deftly fingers the door’s locking mechanism then draws Morra and Janna, flips the thumb switches to stun, spreads his arms to target both crew members and drops them.

He walks toward this vision’s version of Micc’m, Morra and Janna at his side. Tok stops less than meter from the defeated-looking, sullen Jedi and locks eyes with the man, the Gotal’s expression darkening.

“They don’t know what you did,” Tok says, gesturing with Morra to the cryotubes surrounding them, “but I do. You hid it well, but I found it. You gave up the Jedi library to the Sith. You scrambled Nexu Squadron to make sure this transport wouldn’t have time to make the jump to hyperspace. You rammed the Sith fighter hoping it would kill you so no one would be able to piece it together. And now you’ve sabotaged your own tube so you don’t have to face what you’ve done.”

The words come tumbling out faster as the pieces to the puzzle connect. Tok’s voice lowers even further as he takes another step closer to Micc’m, pistols still at his sides.

“I don’t give a dam about your Jedi order, but you brought my family into it. I’m going to stop you and I’m going to stop him too. Whatever version of you this is now or is putting us through this doesn’t matter. I know you two are connected and I don’t believe for a second this set of trials is for anybody’s benefit but your own.

“You thought you could lecture me on honesty?,” he shouts to the ceiling of the imaginary room, now addressing the Micc’m in his head more than the one in front of him. “My job was to protect the cargo and I’ve done exactly that. You sold out your order. I haven’t sold out anyone and now that I know what’s going on I’m putting all the cards on the table. I’m wagering they’ll back me and my family. We get out of this, we’re coming for him.”

Sonya climbs into the cryotube assuming it is the vision's method for returning to the present. Tok's raised voice penetrates the tube generating many questions. Did Micc'm awaken first and then employ Tok to get the rest of them? She still did not know all of the details about this holocron and from what Micc'm just told them he did not either. Many things were uncertain. One thing was clear, if Tok's family needed their help, she would give it.

She reviews a calming technique, assuming emotions will be high in whatever happens next.

Without pause, Garon settled himself into the Pod he had so abruptly woken up on hours before. Before he sealed himself in he paused and took note of Tok. The Goatal seemed to be considering something. Garon assumed he was wondering what he should do. After all, Veltok wasn't in the cryopods, he is of a different time entirely than that of the current vision. Jokingly, as if they truly were in another time entirely, he chuckled and said to Tok See you in a few thousand years.

With that, the hatch closed and the pod sealed. Garon wasted no time in allowing the chamber to slow his vitals so he could entire complete stasis.

"I really bloody don't want to get in those again...but if it will end this then in I will go." Rin climbs in and waits for the door to seal, his body slowly cooling, his heart rate dropping, a blurry dream...

----

Tok is screaming and shouting, something about a betrayal... his family... Toks family in danger?

----

Blackness, cold, quite, blackness.

To Xaramis, what comes next is a process of confusion. The Jedi enter their pods willingly, happily even, as if unaware of what will come next. But of course, he realises, they have no idea. To them this is no more than a short-term plan for survival, a means of waiting out their time as shipwrecked mariners without the concern of running out of supplies, encountering the local wildlife - or dying of old age. Why were they still there after all that time? Because the Jedi had never found them.

Still, at this point he's unwilling to go into the pods. He knows this is all a vision, knows that he never entered a tube himself all those thousands of years ago, so he holds back. He isn't really sure how he fits into this vision - after all, there are just as many pods as he remembers from the crash, but whereas those had been cold and lifeless now each of these contains, or will soon contain, a Jedi. Where before he could easily have found a space, now they are all taken by another being, or at least picked out by one who is taking the opportunity to bid farewell for however long to their comrades. The whole experience is deeply disorienting for him, and it is made more so by the expressions on the faces of the others. Rin, Kellen, Ren-Do and the others were evidently aware of what they were getting into when they entered their pods, but the others appear just as subdued, as if they can sense some forboding of what awaits them. Or maybe the holocron's own dark energies are affecting them, breeding fear in their hearts.

The Togruta crosses the room to him, and kisses his cheek. "I'll see you soon," she whispers, but her eyes tell him clearly that she is afraid of what awaits her in cryo sleep. That she knows, deep down, she likely won't see him again. Then she turns, and without another word crosses the room to an unoccupied tube, climbs in, and closes the door. He can remember when he first found that tube, how he'd felt something from it, something which with the benefit of hindsight could well have been this Force calling out to him. But it had been empty then, and he imagined it always had been.

Looking away though, he hears Tok's outburst, and the sudden energy in the man's voice spurs him. He crosses the room rapidly to face Micc'm.

"Is this true?"

The two crew members disappear in a small flash of light when Tok shoots at them. Micc'm at first doesn't respond to his accusations. One by one, the Jedi seal themselves in the cryotubes. Eventually, only Tok, Xaramis, and Micc'm remain. The golden hued Micc'm from this memory passes through Tok's body and enters a cryotube of his own. As the memory begins to fade, the Force Ghost Micc'm appears before Tok.

"The data you found is not entirely inaccurate, Veltok," he says. "Though your accusations are a bit far from the mark. My younger sister, though a Force sensitive in her own right, was never picked by the Jedi Order to become a padawan. They deemed her abilities incidental due to our shared parentage. The Sith, however, weren't as selective - a fact I learned far too late. She requested access codes for the system to visit me, and I happily complied. I love my sister and had not seen her in many years. You all have seen the result of that decision."

He sighs and turns to look out the viewport at one of burning Sith cruisers. "She was one of the Sith who led the final assault on Ossus. I could feel her out there. I did wish my own death when Nexu Squadron was out there defending the cruiser from Sith starfighters, but the Force prevented such a fate. Instead, I was doomed to be trapped in my own holocron for all eternity."

He turns back to Tok and Xaramis. "Your other accusations, however, are baseless. I know nothing more of this employer who antagonizes your family than you do yourself. The resemblance to myself is frightening and startling, but I was not the only Altonis in the skies over Ossus...[pause] The two of you will not want to see the next memory. I do not wish to relive it either, but it is my fate. I will send you back to your bodies now, if that is your desire."

Tok's rage is close to boiling over, but he bites it back down, grinding his teeth.

"The Sith I spaced talked about a sister," Tok spits at Micc'm. "Either it was a version of you or you had a twin brother on that cruiser. And he knew enough to taunt me with my worst nightmare."

The Gotal looks up and lets out a deep breath, holstering Janna and Morra. His fists clench and unclench.

"Something is rotten and you've got something to do with it," Tok says. "You or someone related to you."

Tok turns his attention to Xaramis.

"He's insane, you realize that?"

The Gotal glares at nothing, trying to settle himself. He despises the foolish force ghost and whatever descendant is currently holding Tok's family hostage, but he also understands making hard, possibly disastrous, choices because of family. He lets out another deep sigh. He looks again to the Faleen.

"You can duck out if you want to, I'm seeing this through at this point," Tok says. "I've started to feel some affinity toward the poor thawed bastards. I'm hoping they'll feel the same, at least enough to help me save my family."

The Force Ghost Micc'm looks down, his expression one of ancient weariness and defeat. He heaves a sigh and fades away. The rest of the scenery fades away as well, and soon only Tok and Xaramis remain, floating in blackness...

[End of Session 2c]

[session 2d]

With little pause from the last holocron memory, light floods the space. All seven members of the group are trapped, awake, in what appear to be cryotubes. Through the small windows of the cryotube doors, they can see rows of cryotubes facing them. Each contains the frozen, sleeping face of a Jedi from Nexu Squadron. The sleeping faces of Garon, Ren-Do, Dorintta, Sonya, Kellen, and the Force Ghost of Micc'm can be seen in those cryotubes as well. A blast rocks the Jedi cruiser, opening a giant hole in the side of the cruiser to space. The sleeping Sonya's cryotube and several others connected to it are ripped from the deck plates and jettisoned into space.

The cruiser continues to break apart as it enters Nerit's burning atmosphere. With the sound of exploding engines and tearing durasteel, the ship crash lands on the moon's surface. After some time, the fires recede and most of the intact cryotubes open, expelling their inhabitants. The defeated Jedi leave the craft quickly, their retreat hastened by the sound of approaching Sith lander engines. Before she disappears, the Togruta looks longingly into space.

The hull collapses, covering most of the remaining cryotubes until only the window of Micc'm's tube remains to be seen. His eyes slowly flutter open as a short woman in the black cloak of the Sith warriors climbs the debris. She looks down at him with an evil smile. "Greetings, brother dearest," she says, pulling back the cloak's hood to reveal auburn hair and facial features very similar to the inhabitant of the cryotube...

"How could you do this? How could you betray your only blood?"

The woman scoffs. "How could I not when your precious Je'daii deemed me unworthy of their number?" She crouches down. "I have long dreamed of killing you myself, but this fate to which you've delivered yourself seems more than appropriate. Good luck not going insane, big brother."

The woman stands and covers her head again. Without so much as a backwards glance, she leaves the cruiser wreckage. Starship engines ignite and fade away as the Sith lander lifts off. Micc'm yells in terrified frustration, his physical form unable to push his cryotube door open under the rubble, even with the aid of the Force.

The memory darkens and fills with varying shades of red. Time speeds up as the wilting figure of Micc'm goes more and more maddened by his entrapment with each passing day. He claws at the interior of the chamber, but nothing he does is of use. The smoke and colors seem to coalesce where the base of his cryotube should be. With a final scream of anger and rage, Micc'm expires. A blueish light begins to lift away from the withered body, but something in the rubble drags it downwards. The ghost gives a frightened cry, clawing at the air and rubble to escape. All sound ceases. The light dies. The group members are left in the darkness. With only the sound of their own frightened breathing to let them know they are alive.

A hiss of decompression. The door of Garon's cryotube opens. A lightsaber snaps on in the middle distance. The energy blade's red glow illuminates a dark figure, who addresses the besalisk in an evil distortion of Micc'm's voice. "This is your final test, Gundark. Face me in individual combat, and you shall be freed."

Blaster fire everywhere, voices screaming, bodies rushing in an out of field of view, fires raging to the front and the left, red flashing. Iskander's eyes snap open and he finds himself back in the escape pod. "Out of one nightmare and into another, huh?" He asks himself remembering the series of events that led him up to being in the pod. How ISB likes to clean up its messes by either sweeping them under the rug or burning it up.

-----A week ago----

Iskander finishes turning in all of his Imperial Army gear to the Quartermaster. "And there you are, all of the gear that made me MD-212. I'd like my final pay stub." The Quartermaster just stares at Iskander and chucks a small cred chip at him without responding, all ire the man had directed at Iskander. With a shrug, Iskander picks up the chip and leaves the garrison for the last time and heads to town.

Walking through town, Iskander thinks about his future and how bright it will be not having to worry about some idiot yelling at him to cut his hair, or have some new blood Lieutenant bark orders at him. With a chuckle, Iskanker voices to himself, "I should leave this rock. Yeah, head home and see the family. Mom must be missing me, and I want to see if Dad's been getting my letters. Hey maybe I could be a doctor back on Alderaan." And plan in mind, Iskander heads off to the small spaceport, passing by an old looking Republic Military Surplus store. Knowing he'll need at least some warmer clothes for home, a doctoring kit so that he wouldn't need to borrow money from his parents, and some military rations so he wouldn't have to pay to eat for the trip home, Iskander takes his last pay stub in and buy what he feels like he needs.

Stepping out of the store, Iskander feels prepared for everything and strides to the port to get a ride home.

----A couple days ago-----

"Hey you!" Iskander is stopped as he is heading back to his room by a human crewmember, "You're a doc right? The chief engineer got his hand smashed by loose pipe. He can't work and his apprentice is passed out drunk." Iskander motions for the boy to wait as he ducks into his room to grab his bag. Before Iskander and the crewmember can even take three steps away from the door, the whole ship shudders and warning sirens sound. The captain's voice comes across the speakers, "We are under attack by an Imperial Stardestoyer! I repeat we are under atta-" The intercoms go deathly silent.

Iskander takes the boy and rushes to some escape pods, barely hearing the boy whisper about how it can't be the Empire, how they are loyal citizens. "Look kid," Iskander says, "if that's true, just sit in this pod and wait for them to pick you up. You're a good citizen, there must be someone not." Sticking the kid in the escape pod, Iskander has it jettison from the transport. More sirens go off, lights flash, and Iskander can barely stand when another shot hits the ship. It's time for Iskander to leave. He makes it to another pod and presses the big red button. The pod leaves it's tube like a race horse out of the gates and does it's one and only hyperspace jump to the nearest system.

--Now---

The pod is running dry, power is on it's last legs. But that's not what the red light is for. The light is the transceiver saying that it's located a radio signal from a ship or a planet. Iskander goes about flipping switches on to get the pod's HUD activated. "Well, good news and bad it seems. I seem to have been saved, but I don't have the power to signal them. I have enough juice to get docked, but I only have one shot." With that, Iskander grabs the rudimentary flight sticks and hopes the pod forward. Time seems to move slowly as the pod floats toward the ship. Once in range, the automated docking procedures the pod has kick in and line up to the airlock. A soft thump, followed by a clang of locking clasps is heard. The airlock cycles open on Iskander's side. "Nowhere else to go but forward. I'm not going to stay in this trashcan." Iskander gathers up his meager pile of gear, and steps into the airlock and knocks on the door.

Ren-Do watches in stunned silence at the events unfolding in front of his cryo-tube. I have to get out of this thing, he thinks to himself. He notes that he doesn’t feel the way he did when he really awoke from the cryo-sleep, instead he feels fairly good.

Calming his thoughts, the Cerean reaches for the emergency stop button, designed to allow people in the tube to open from the inside in case the tube malfunctions. He calmly presses the button, but finds that it has no effect. What is this? He hits the button harder, several times, before realizing that this will not work.

As Garon exits the tube and attacks the dark figure, Ren-Do feels an ever-increasing sense of emergency. He has to get out of this tube. He uses his left brain to calm down, focusing on the force, on feeling the Force flowing all around him. His right brain is instead trying to figure out how to escape the tube.

“Garon, open up my tube, let me help you,” he shouts at his Besalisk companion. “We’ll take him together, don’t allow him to use your pride against you! We are stronger when we work together!”

When his muffled shouts have no effect he reaches for his lightsaber, opening up the hilt and slotting his crystal into the weapon. He then points the hilts at the locking mechanism and ignites the blade.

Kellen looks at the dark figure and Garon climb out of his cryo-tube.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kellen whispers to himself as he starts to fiddle with the cryo-chamber's door controls.

They're unresponsive. Kellen takes a moment to collect himself and reaches out through the Force to guide his hands. He's not really in a cryo-tube trying to bypass the door control mechanism but he hopes that the Force will guide him in this vision to get the door open.

"Do we destroy the dark figure to free Micc'm of the dark side energy in the Holocron...or do we confront and subdue it, convincing Micc'm's dark projection to let go?" Kellen wondered as he removed the door control panel and began bypassing the safety lock...

Garon's eyes bolted open. Something didn't feel right. It took him a second to realize what had woken him up. It was a man's scream. The sound had frozen his core.

He had expected to wake up back on the deck of the ship with the Holocron, but he was surprised to find that he was back in his cryopod. However, something was different this time. He did not feel the intense pain in his head as he did when he originally awoke. No, this time he was perfectly lucid. The wounds he had suffered boarding the Sith Cruiser had all but vanished, though his robes were still tattered - much like they were when originally woke from hi cryogenic slumber.

The world around him was various shades of red. In the shadows, he saw the silhouette of figure approach. It ignited lightsaber, throwing the form of a human man into sharp relief.

That lightsaber, more than any thing the figure said, caused the Besalik's blood to boil. Sith! The word dripped out of him like venom. His muscles tightened, then he was on the man.

Energy crackled off of his gloves as he swung with all his might. Each blow was powerful enough to fel any novice fighter, but the figure dodged with little effort. Garon was clearly outmatched, but did not care. He did not register the man he was fighting was or even looked like Micc'm. He didn't even hear Ren-Do's plea to help.

All Garon could think of was his own hatred.

He only hoped that the Sith - if that's what he was - would realize how much Garon hated him. If he could just land a blow, his opponent would finally understand the pain Garon himself had been living with.

Subconsciously, Garon saw an opening. The figure had lowered his defenses. Instinctively, he pressed the advantage, but his fist was caught just centimeters from Micc'm's face. With a gesture, Garon increased the power to his gloves - overcharging it. Energy crackled, dazzling the two. Micc'm reeled, he seemed to have a hard time seeing.

His gloves may be useless while the capacitors recharged, but he could still fight without them. It was worth it to create an opening.

Dark Micc'm snarls and shakes the sparks out of his eyes. He swings the lightsaber with a back hand, and the energy blade sizzles into the besalisk's skin.

The cryotube door on Kellen's cryo tube hisses open.