Kellen jumped out of the cryo-tube and pulled his lightsaber from his belt, the green blade snapped and hissed as it activated.

Kellen held his lightsaber behind his back in reverse grip and held his left hand open in front of him, walking towards Micc'm.

"Master, it is time to let go and move on. You don't need to be a slave to the dark side any longer." Kellen tried to calm the image.

Xaramis is deeply disoriented - he has never been in one of these cryotubes, and to now awaken within one is a terrifying experience. He is not claustrophobic, but to awaken with the door pressed down in front of him, the collapsed beams and pipes of the cryo-bay's ceiling draped across it from where they have fallen in the crash that has apparently befallen the vessel, is an experience that shakes him to his core. When he hears the snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber, and sees the deepening of the hues of red that make up his surroundings, he begins to push against the door, struggling with all his wiry strength to push it open and escape his apparent prison.

Garon tracked the slash Micc'm had made. The pain seemed to only make him angrier. He used that anger; directing it and the Force into his next attacks. Blow after blow landed. With each strike, he felt a surge in satisfaction. However, the figure was beginning to understand Garon's technique, and adjusted his own style to compensate. He went from defensive to offensive, and it was Garon's turn to block and dodge.

The Besalisk realized his mistake as soon as he had made it. It was feint and Garon was too angry to see such a novice ploy. Micc'm pressed his advantage and Garon paid for it. With a clean slash, Garon's body hit the deck.

With a flicker and a pop, Garon's body, minus one of his left arms, disappears from the holocron vision...

~ ~ ~

Garon awakes in the passenger seating area of the Serenity. The lights are dimmed, and the ship appears to be drifting. A sharp pain in his lower left arm indicates that he has a serious internal injury - it may even be broken.

His companions are unconscious in the other chairs around him. The holocron sits open on the table. Three crystals of different colors are dark and dead looking. A fourth crystal glows crimson. In the center of the four crystals, a dark glow pulses evilly.

His scream turned into a roar. The pain in his lower left arm was worse than anything physical injury he had ever sustained. Only after he shouted himself hoarse did he finally calm down enough to gather his surroundings.

He was not dead; though having never died before, he wasn't entirely sure.

It was then he remembered the savage blow inflicted by the Sith in the Holocron. Garon felt a semblance of relief that he still had his hand, but the pain within it was so fierce that he wasn't positive if that arm would ever be functional again.

I need to make sling he thought desperately. If there's an internal injury, I need to stabilize it.

But he felt weak. Tired.

He considered the crystals and the energies of the holocron suspiciously - eager for the distraction from his injury. A wave of nausea threatened to overcome him, and he was sure it had little to do with his arm.

What the blast is going on?

Seeing no one come to answer his knocking, Iskander took a look at the airlock hatchway. It is a plain. almost boring, room. There is a standard looking computer access panel next to the door. He waves his hand over it and the screen pops up, Passcode Required.

Iskander types in 1111, and hopes it works. *Beep* Access Denied. He hums to himself and paces about for a bit. "That usually works on Imperial ships. Hmm."

After waiting a minute or so, Iskander tries again. "Let's try the other end of the spectrum. 9999." Another loud beep. Access Denied.

"Umm. . . I think just knocking again might just be better."

Garon's body disappeared and Kellen jumped forward his lightsaber whipping out from behind his back. Micc'm barely deflected the upward slash and Kellen continued to rain blows down on Micc'm. Micc'm backed of a bit and kept some distance making Kellen's reverse lightsaber grip ineffective.

"You will be purged of the dark side, one way or another."

Kellen swung his lightsaber into the standard grip holding his lightsaber high in the Shien style and continued his attack.

Micc'm parried and dodged and lashed out with his own attacks but Kellen's assault was fast enough to catch Micc'm on his shoulder.

Micc'm cried out briefly in pain, his red eyes glowing.

After being struck by Kellen's lightsaber, Micc'm growls and lashes back, but the Devaronian dodges and parries the attack expertly. A third cryotube hisses open, expelling Xaramis into the dark chamber. The young Falleen gives a yell and rushes forward to attack Micc'm with his heirloom sword. The blade connects but slides off Micc'm's armor with a series of sparks. Darth Micc'm grins evilly and snaps his head forward, smashing Xaramis's nose with his forehead.

Xaramis roars at the pain of the blow, but also at his humiliation. His blade is an ancient and powerful relic of his family, yet against the dark apparition it does nothing. The hilt held on his hip earlier in the strange vision he inhabits is gone; in its place is his apparently useless sword. Still, he makes a good showing of it. He is sure the Force is with him, and as he reels back from the spirit's attacks, he takes a moment to look over him and attempt to spot a weakness.

Thinking he can see something - a point in the being's armpit where there is only cloth, rather than heavy armour plate - he launches back into the fight, roaring an incoherent scream of anger as he lunges towards his foe. It is not to be - with almost contemptuous ease the shade turns aside the strike on his vambrace, and shoves Xaramis back out of the immediate melee. He is staggered, shocked both by the physical strike and the mental reaction to his weapon's complete ineffectiveness. He attempts to rally, but the old fear is returning now. Nonetheless, he steels himself, raises his blade, and launches back into the fight.

The hiss of her cryotube opening awakens Sonya. Seeing her companions fighting the Dark warrior, she draws her training sabre and leaps into the fray. The Sith counters her every move somehow maneuvering her into Kellen's way.

"I am obviously not ready to fight a master, or even a quarter master." She admits ruefully.

Kellen starts to feel the Force flow through him and guide his movements, almost taking them over.

Some Jedi thought that the Shien form skirted the dark side with it's emphasis on cunning and striking hard at weak spots and unexpected places but Kellen knew otherwise - it was a difficult balance of using the Living and Cosmic Force to do what was unexpected but effective.

Kellen's strikes were invigorated and he slipped past Micc'm's saber and slashed him in the arm, sparks spraying from Micc'm's armor and a growl of pain and anger expelling from his lips.

Dark Micc'm does his best to defend himself from the aggression of the Jedi foes, but is rapidly losing the battle. Just as the fifth cryotube hisses open, revealing Ren-Do, the apparition pulls out two stimpacks and injects them into his own neck, healing a small amount of the damage he has taken.

Ren-Do watches the scene unfold, trying to unlock the cryo-tube. The opening mechanism seem to be inoperable, and the Cerean wastes precious moments trying to pry open the control panel, only to find out the damage is too great to repair quickly. Calming himself, he closes his eyes, reaching out with his senses, allowing himself to feel the flow of the fight as more of his friends manage to get out of the tubes and join the fray.

As he concentrates on this with a part of his impressive binary brain, his hands are working on inserting his crystal into the handle of his saber. When Garon falls, the Cerean opens his eyes, seeing the large alien vanishing. Despite earlier assurances, the Jedi Knight is unsure of Garon’s fate. He knows now that the holocron has been tainted by the dark side. What if the assurance that if they died in the holocron’s vision they would be unharmed in the real world was untrue? He won’t let any more of his friends fall here if he could prevent it. Not while he draws breath.

Finally! The crystal is in the correct place, and he quickly ignites his weapon, shattering the clear lid of the tube. The Cerean calmly steps out of the ruined tube, reading the flow of the fight in front of him as he walks calmly into the thick of it.

“Leave the Padawans alone, Micc’m,” he says, his voice deep, filled with authority. “I will not let you harm them, spirit of darkness. My powers might be weakened, but the light side will prevail. Let’s see how you do against a Jedi Knight.”

He seizes his chance when Xaramis backs off, stepping in front of the green-skinned alien, the blue blade of his lightsaber shimmering. “Stay behind me, Xaramis. Your courage is beyond question, but your blade will not aid you here,” he says, as he parries a strong blow from Micc’m.

“Spread out, take it slow, we’ll take him together,” he says softly to the others. The three lightsaber-wielding Jedi and Xaramis move to try to surround Micc’m, who moves quickly, using the space and uneven terrain to give ground to try to keep his attackers from getting around him.

As the four trade blows, Ren-Do feels how his body, guided by the Force, settles into a rhythm that seems familiar. He dodges a few blows, but finds that his reactions and his ability with the force keeps him relatively safe.

Suddenly, Micc’m swings his red lightsaber at Kellen. As the Jedi parries the blow, Ren-Do strikes. Micc’m tries to block the blow, but succeeds only partially, and Cerean’s blue lightsaber bites into the armor and flesh on his right leg. Micc’m lets out a furious scream and falls back before Ren-Do can capitalize on his success.

“You are better than this Micc’m. This isn’t your true nature. You are a Jedi Master, not a servant of evil. Don’t force us to destroy you,” Ren-Do says as he continues to deflect blows from the furious darksider.

But Micc’m is far from finished. He dodges under a blow from Ren-Do, parries a strike from Sonya and grabs Xaramis, throwing him against Kellen. He uses the confusion as Kellen’s guard is down and swings his weapon straight at the Devaronian’s face. The red blade is intercepted at the last possible moment by Ren-Do’s blue blade, but the dark sider does not give up, forcing the Cerean into a blade-lock, kicking Sonya in the midsection to force her back.

Ren-Do steps in, trying to hold his own, matching his own strength against the spirit. He is starting to push him back when a pulse goes through his weapon before it shorts out completely, forcing him to dive away from the red lightsaber before it cuts him in half.

The other Jedi step in, momentarily protecting the Cerean from harm. Ren-Do recovers quickly and presses the button to activate the weapon but finds that is is too damaged to function. With a look of grim determination, having seen Garon fight Micc'm without his saber, he tosses the now useless weapon aside and steps forward again.

He has now adopted a different fighting stance, standing with open palms, hands held high ready to strike or parry. His movement is still fluid, as it was when he dueled with his saber, but he is moving differently, quickly back and forth, looking for opertunities to strike without giving Micc'm a chance to kill him with his lightsaber. He does this without thinking, muscle memory taking over. He may not know it, but the others can clearly see that the Cerean has had training in a martial art of some sort.

My lightsaber. The crystal. It is weakened. Or gone. Perhaps it's shattered. Will it also be destroyed outside the vision? What does that mean? What does this all mean? Am I not meant to be a Jedi anymore?

As everyone else in the room reacts to the apparent destruction of Ren-Do's lightsabre, Sonya singlemindedly continues her attack. Dark Micc'm momentarily gloats at the Jedi Knight's misfortune, giving the Devaronian an opening. She swings at the apparition's back, hoping to throw him off balance. She is amazed when the blade slices through his armor, even more so when his form crumples, expelling dark energy.

To Garon, observing from the lifeless freighter, several of his companions' bodies jerk as though they're being electrocuted for a few seconds before they go still. The fourth crystal of the holocron pulses twice before dimming.

Inside the holocron's memory, a dark cloud rises from Micc'm's body, dissipating into the "atmosphere" and leaving a withered elderly man in its place.

Ren-Do calmly picks up his lightsaber, opening it up again and re-fitting the crystal. He turns the weapon on to make sure it works before turning it off and hanging it from his belt.

He walks to the elderly man. "So. Perhaps now you can tell us more about what transpired. We have witnessed certain portions of the story for ourselves, but I for one would welcome hearing the tale in your own words," the tall Cerean says to the old man.

Rin rouses from his criosleep as the soft beeping of the electronics fills his ears. Outside the tube is dark, with only the flashing of a saner duel to light the surroundings. Blurred vision distorts the shapes, their movements unnatural, twisted, sporadic. The forms lash out at one another, a back and forward dance if death. Blood splatter hits the glass as one being looses a disfigured arm, collapsing to the ground.

More whirling lights fill the Dresellians vision, disorienting him as shadows twist around the beings. A final red flash ends the Conflict, the target a twisting form, shrivelling and ageing. Through the dark tunnel vision Rin watches as a ghostly shape is drawn from the old man laying on the ground. The shadow screams forming the face of a fearsome woman, clawing at the body she was just evicted from, trying desperately to get back. Her howl rattles Rin, a cold shrill voice tearing through him...

The darkness softens, colour returns to the world, those outside solidify into shapes he knows well.

Click, the chamber opens, a blinking shaken Rin collapses out onto the ground, the solidity of their world hitting him like a train.

"What, what bloody happened? Who was she?"

The husk of Micc'm doesn't respond to the questions. Instead, he waves his hand in the direction of the remaining cryotube. The seals break, releasing Tok from his prison. He motions for the Gotal to come close...

Everything goes pitch black. But no, that's not quite right, Tok thinks. If it was just dark, there'd still be other sensations. This is different. It’s more like the absence of every piece of sensory input, like everything has just ceased to be.

The feeling lasts just a moment and then things begin to trickle in. The smell, it's similar to bacta, but not quite and the air is stale. Vision starts coming back, first just blurs and colors. He tenses when he realizes one of the quick-moving colors is red, intersecting with similar size bars of green and blue light. Tok looks down and realizes the blurriness is entirely the fault of the small transparisteel port on the tube in which he finds himself.

More flashes of color twirl around outside and then he feels rage and searing pain through his receptor cones. It's like nothing he's ever experienced and he hopes he never does again.

Then, calm.

Tok hears a hiss and the door pops open on his tube. He looks around and is concerned to see Garon is missing. He'd felt some closeness toward the Besalisk after what they went through on the Sith ship...no, the illusion of the ship. The game Micc'm was playing with them all.

Then he sees the withered husk of a man on the ground, gesturing to him, calling him closer.

Tok draws Janna and moves toward him. He hears Ren-Do asking Micc’m a question, but pushes past the Cerean and takes a knee next to what's left of the Jedi master. He hopes his family never learns how violent his job requires him to be at times.

“This better be good,” Tok growls, making sure Micc’m sees the pistol trained on him.

Micc'm breathes laboriously and beckons Tok to lean close. When Tok is near enough, the ancient Jedi grips Tok's jacket and leans up to whisper in his ear so that no one else will hear him. "I need you to kill me and destroy the holocron...The Jedi from my time, they will not understand, but as long as this holocron, this abomination exists, those Jedi run the risk of considerable temptation to the Dark Side."

The old man lets out a rheumy cough and struggles to catch his breath. "You see what the Dark Side corruption has done to my spirit. The same could happen to them." He looks into Tok's eyes. "The Jedi Code prevents knights from outright destroying individuals seduced by the Dark Side. The Order believe anyone can be redeemed. This is why your new friends will not understand, but I will not allow them the temptation if I can do something to prevent it. From what little I know of your time, this may be what caused the Order to grow complacent and led to their downfall...They will certainly need guidance and assistance in the days and weeks to come. I hope you can do you best by them. And I hope they can find a suitable replacement mentor."

He stealthily slips something into the pocket of Tok's jacket. "One last thing...your 'employer'...he looks familiar now, does he not? My sister must have survived the great war, and perhaps he is a descendant. Do not underestimate this man. Your friends can assist you with this problem."

He lets go of Tok and lays back down. He nods and mouths "do it".

Tok’s expression softens as he listens to Micc’m wheeze his final words. His anger with the man fades, knowing how far he himself would go for family. How far he may still have to go.

The Gotal closes his eyes and draws a deep breath. It’s not his first mercy kill, but it is the first time he’s had to worry about having a group of lightsaber-wielding Jedi turning on him. He opens his eyes and sees Micc’m mouth the words “do it” to him.

“They’re not going to understand,” he whispers back to Micc’m, trying to push down the feeling that this is just another manipulation and only partially succeeding.

He casts his gaze on the Jedi left standing. And Xaramis. Of course, Xaramis. He’ll be able to help get through to these ancient beings. Looking back down at Micc’m he sees the frail, broken man simply nodding to Tok. The Gotal takes Micc’m’s left hand in his own and cradles it gently while shifting his body, ensuring a clean kill shot and obscuring what he’s about to do from the Jedi.

“You won’t feel any more pain,” he whispers. “Close your eyes and think of your sister - the way she was before, not how she left you. You’ll find her again.”

Tok squeezes Janna’s trigger.

This time, instead of slowly crumbling and fading away, the vision shatters, violently ejecting the minds of its inhabitants back into their corporeal bodies.

[End of Session 2. 50 xp earned for all players.]

[session 3]

The bodies of the six remaining group members jerk and spasm as their minds are violently returned to them. Tok is the first to awaken.

Tok's eyes flutter open and the first thing he notices is the infernal buzzing is gone, but a grogginess remains.

Looking around, he sees the rest of the group strewn about the cabin, having simply fallen where they stood when the holocron vision started. Everyone except for Garon, that is. Tok sees the Besalisk is also up, cradling his arm. Clearly in pain.

"Garon, are you alright?," he asks, moving toward the towering Jedi. "You were gone by the time I got out of the tube."

He stops short and hands instinctively drop to his sides, inches from Janna and Morra. These Jedi may not take him killing Micc'm well. He can at least start with Garon. Maybe he felt a similar comaraderie. Hopefully.

"Look, I had to kill Micc'm to get us out of there. The real, uh, real-ish one, not the Sith version of him. He said it was the only way and I had to be the one to do it. I don't know how everyone else is going to respond, but you have to know I did it to protect you all. The holocron was tainted, he said. It could've tainted you all.

"I saw things in there that...I don't know how they can be. I can explain if they'll listen."

Dire urgency spills into Tok's voice.

"Please, help me make them listen."

Ren-Do awakes with a groan. “By the Force, my head feels as if it is about to be split in two,” the Cerean groans as he stiffly picks himself up from the floor. He surveys the situation, walking between his friends to see if they are recovering.

He looks at Garon and Tok standing, and notices Garon holding his arm. “Did this happen while you were in there with us? I saw you lose that arm in the holocron’s vision but I didn’t think your body would show any effects. That looks badly bruised. In the same place that lightsaber cut into you.”

He opens his side satchel and grabs his medkit. “Here, let me take a look at that,” he says, injecting the arm with an anti-clotting agent he fervently hopes has survived the millennia in the cryotube. “There, that should reduce the bruising, and this,” he says, injecting another substance into the arm, “should help with the swelling. You should probably avoid lifting anything heavy with this arm for a day or so. Luckily you have several spares,” he says, trying to lighten the mood.

While he speaks, he uses his binary brain to think about what this really means. If Garon shows this kind of effect from having his arm cut off, what would the effect have been had one of them been shot down in that fighter? This holocron was a strange one. There was darkness in there, the gatekeeper was clearly not completely sane. He would have to be careful when accessing the holocron in the future, and advice his friends to do the same. His fellow Jedi would know to heed his warning, but he would have to be extra careful of Xaramis.