Almost immediately, before even I had a chance to react, the Mummified Jacob pulled out a phaser and fired a wide area blast at Jacob, Vanatica, and I. Fortunately, he must of misjudged the angle or something as the blast narrowly missed Vanatica and I, but our Jacob took the full brunt of it. Luckily it appeared that Jacob was still standing, even if his uniform was smoking ominously.
Not waiting for anyone else, I pulled out several vials of trap-spider venom and a bottle of Green and threw the whole collection at Lecrouss. I was hoping that an injector trap might materialize to dose Lecrouss with the Green (hell, I’d take carbonite even), but my heart sank as Lecrouss telekinetically deflected the bottle of Green off to the side. As the vials of venom impacted the ground, a carbonite trap did indeed materialize around him, but he easily dodged that too. At least the act of him dodging that meant he then stepped into the numerous large animal traps that were now strewn about the floor.
(Lecrouss) Ow! What the… this place is just FULL of weird weapons isn’t it?
Then came the upraised hand gesture indicative of Force telekinesis and despite being prepared for it, I was instantly overwhelmed by the sheer anger and darkness of it as I was flung backwards at speeds several times the speed of sound. Only by manipulating my speed monotalent was I able to slow my relative velocity to only many hundreds of kilometers per hour instead before I collided with the first wall. I even managed to land feet first on the wall at those speeds, but the wall wasn’t designed to take that kind of stress as it shattered instantly and I continued flying through another two walls.
I finally skidded to a complete halt after my feet dug a pair of trenches in the marble floor of the museum/palace. Amusingly, this meant I had skidded past the pair of guards from earlier who were now fleeing with all due haste. Their horror at seeing me being flung past them at speeds faster than they could react probably mirrored my own when I realized that this was Lecrouss we were facing (or at least an alternate timeline version of him).
Amazingly, I was unhurt by it all. THELOS was bringing up warning from the armor regarding stress limits and such, but it looked like things held – especially in combination with my monotalent.
From back in the conference room I heard my cousin speak loudly with authority.
(Vanatica) I am Vanatica Nyla Soung, Firstborn of the Second Sith Protectorate, and the history of my family is indelibly intertwined with the atrocities of Lecrouss. He has committed countless mass slaughters of innocents and especially children in his mad pursuit of forcibly turning everyone into undead in a doomed quest to see his family again. His mad quest to resurrect his family that has been dead for centuries and his lust of the power to try to make this happen have corroded his mind into the monster you see before you. This is the fate of those who draw upon power too deeply and beyond their means to control. Look upon my past and know the truth of my words!
While it was a fine speech for a holo and all, I wasn’t entirely clear what Vanatica thought she was doing beyond posturing or doing something weird with magic. Not that I had much clue what would be an effective use of my time in this scenario anyways. Maybe with a horde of soldiers and me pulling on my monotalent and the Vailo Arts to their fullest I could stand a chance of breaking through the precognitive warnings and land a solid hit, but all I had was Vanatica, Kuroko, and our Jacob – and they had their hands full not dying immediately. Even using a desperation tactic like the Green right from the start failed to punch through the brick wall of precognition. The only ones with a chance of that sort of thing were other Force Sensitives or those immune to precognition like the Codifiers.
Wait a minute…
It was then that I felt the presence of the obols in my pockets and realized the needed course of action. If I wasn’t immune to precognition, then perhaps it was time I made myself immune. I fished out a handful of obols from my pockets and focused on my desire to be immune to precognition. Instantly, twenty-five of the obols evaporated and I felt magical energies swirl around me in what I presumed was the spell activating like I wanted.
SNAP
(Lecrouss) Oh for the sake of the Force… who even MAKES large-animal jaw traps with Vibro-blades? And HOW?
Now I had the image that the Deity of Traps was out to make a point against Lecrouss out of spite and had to admit we needed all the help we could get. Explosions and gusts of fire continued to pour out of the conference room as I quickly dashed off down one of the side hallways. My hope was that Lecrouss, not being able to precognitively sense me, would presume I was dead. If so, then our best chance was for me to circle around behind him and use that position to launch an all-or-nothing attack on him that brought him down.
Unfortunately, this museum wasn’t designed with ease of navigation in mind so much as funneling visitors from room to room through a variety of exhibits. As such, what should have been a simple couple of turns ended up turning into more than a dozen as I attempted to circle around to the back of the conference room. It didn’t help matters that I was trying to avoid moving too fast and thus tipping off my continued be alive to Lecrouss. Nor did the sudden burst of vegetation that literally came out of nowhere to replace the hallway with a dense jungle.
As I came to a skidding stop, I noticed that the vegetation seemed to roughly conform to the dimensions of the hallway from earlier. Whether that was a coincidence or evidence that only the hallway had been changed (and not me teleporting) was unclear.
(THELOS) Lady Katlyn, I can verify that the dense mass of greenery before you does indeed show up on my sensors, but not on infrared or ultraviolet. Those inputs still show the hallway from earlier. Would you like me to switch to those inputs for now?
(Katlyn) Yes, do it.
It had to be a magical illusion if it was showing up on computer sensors as Force Illusions were purely mental. At a guess, my cousin was using obols for distraction and confusion. How much that would affect a precognitive was an open question, but I had to guess that every little bit helped. Plus – from all the reports – Lecrouss was addled enough mentally that such things might take longer for him to compensate for given that he apparently thought fictional characters were real people. Although given the nature of the wider multiverse we’ve discovered, that may not be as insane as it originally sounded. I mean, we always suspected there were timelines were Anakin Skywalker, Revan, and Tenebrae/Vitiate/Valkorion existed, but we never considered that in relation to something as blatant as a cartoon character before. Maybe Lecrouss’s precognition was picking up on that level of reality? Kinda of like how true magic made his goals of necromancy much more plausible?
Best to ponder such things later.
More explosions rocked the palace/museum and it was becoming clear that much of the building was crumbling structurally. At least explosions were a decent sign that the battle was still ongoing and Jacob and Vanatica weren’t already dead. I finally rounded another corner to come to a doorway to far side of the conference room. I was about to peer through the door when it was smashed open by a small horde of badger people wearing red robes and cooking pot helmets being flung out of the conference room at great speed. Several of them vanished in a puff of smoke upon hitting the opposing wall, but a few still got back up and charged in.
(Badgers) Faugh-a-Ballagh!
(Lecrouss) What, you silly things LIVED?
There was another great gust of flame that burst from the conference as I tried to peer in that forced me back behind the cover of the wall.
(Mummified Jacob) Fire! My only weakness…. How did you know?
(Emir, muttering) You’re a dried-up mummified corpse wrapped in old bandages soaked in wax and pitch! What do you think, I’m an IDIOT?
(Both Jacobs) But he didn’t consult a science officer!
(Mummified Jacob) Treachery!
(Lecrouss) Be empowered my ally!
(Emir) Waste of Time! Burn!
(Mummified Jacob) AAARGH! STOP SETTING ME ON FIRE! DON’T YOU KNOW THAT I’M A HISTORICAL ARTIFACT?!
Well, it sounded like Vanatica managed to convert the Emir to our side for the time being at least. That had to be evening the odds a bit. Finally getting a glance at the room confirmed this. It also appeared that Lecrouss was lightly injured and Mummified Jacob was moderately injured. At a very wild guess, we were winning by attrition at two to one odds, but that was not a sure thing by any means.
I pulled out another bottle of Green and used some obols to transform the bottle into an injector. I followed that up with more obols to help ensure my aim for this next attack was true. Then with a sprint from a standing run that could crack concrete, I rushed into the melee and rammed into Lecrouss injector first. He had no chance to react as my momentum took us both airborne for a brief moment before we collided with the floor and went sliding through a hole in one of the walls for many meters. I had my weight on top of him trying to help hold him down, but held no illusions that this would hinder him in the slightest.
As we skidded to a stop, I kept expecting Lecrouss to roll over and telekinetically blast me into orbit, but he remained face first on the floor absolutely limp. Rolling him over, I saw his face locked in an expression of absolute shock, but the dead look in my eyes was one I had seen many times indicating that while the body was alive, the Force spirit was quite departed. Whether this meant Lecrouss was permanently dead or would simply reappear in another clone body was not clear, but at least he was out of the fight for now.
Heh, I guess this puts me one up on Uncle Kira. He only managed to keep Lecrouss occupied for forty-eight hours, whereas I just managed to “kill” Lecrouss. Wonder if the rest of the family would believe me or not.
Just then an unmistakable wave of Dark Side energy washed over the area, threw me against the ceiling quite forcefully, and stirred up numerous unpleasant memories. It also shattered many small and fragile objects in the museum that had managed to survive all the other explosions. If experience was anything to go by, we could likely expect temporary insanities in the vulnerable, lots of minor injuries, and minor property damage for many kilometers away.
Extricating myself from the body and what debris had fallen on me, I saw that the battle with Mummified Jacob was still ongoing as Vanatica blasted him with a great gust of flame that seemingly came from her fingertips. The Emir followed up with his own attack that set Mummified Jacob even more on fire. Underneath the flames I thought I saw Mummified Jacob fidgeting with his phaser towards some unknown purpose.
(Jacob) He is setting his phaser to overload and explode the area.
Just how big of an explosion would THAT be? I had no good benchmarks of the energy potential of a phaser to judge such a blast with. It might be hand grenade sized, thermal detonator sized, or space-field explosive sized for all I knew. Would it even be an explosion in the normal sense? All I could do was grab my cousin and make a made dash to put as much stonework between us and the explosion as possible. Before I had a chance to do that though, Jacob once again did something weird.
(Jacob) About to try to do something rash. Since there are two versions of me here, it might be possible to use our shared soul to help my counterpart overpower the evil within him. If I use my tricorder to open a mental connection between us, it should allow me to link us together and struggle for dominance. I shall need to use crystal obols for a boost and try to lock him in mental combat by using my phaser to overcharge the scanning beam.
At which point my cousin muttered something profoundly offensive in Huttese.
(Vanatica) Do these people just MAKE UP their ENTIRE UNIVERSE as they go along and CALL IT ENGINEERING?!
As the two Jacobs were locked in…. combat, I snatched the phaser from the mummified one’s hands. The Emir then followed that up by encasing him in solid stone before focusing his power on ensuring the building didn’t collapse in on top of us. While the battle between the Jacobs was still ongoing, it looked like we had effectively won this mess and had managed to do it without major injuries or fatalities. Plus we had managed to drain the Emir of most of his power and thus return him to a state resembling normal. Not bad considering we got completely blindsided by the presence of an evil Jacob and Lecrouss.
The trade conference on Alderaan had been long and dull. Mother and Aunt Valerie had been able to keep busy dealing with the ongoing discussions and negotiations regarding the construction of a new gate in orbit around Ascensa, but I mainly was sitting and trying not to look bored as they debated esoteric bits of policy regarding gate tolls and what exactly was meant by the term “favored trade partner”. I was glad for the recess which allowed us to relax outside. It was cool out due to the mountain air and mist generated by the spectacular waterfall that fell through the center of the diplomatic retreat like an immense fountain.
Caterers were serving snacks and drinks to the assembled envoys, leaders, and aides. The various Alderaan soldiers and members of the JLA standing guard were obvious enough if you knew what to look for, but were politely ignored by rest of the guests. A number of members of the Republic Senate had lodged a former protest of the conference, but the Senator of Alderaan was the primary official here on Alderaan’s side of things. Aunt Valerie went off to discuss things in private with the security officials, and Vanatica had been waylaid into providing an explanation of gate transit rates to the various corporate envoys. Mother in the meantime was meeting up with her old boss and the current Ambassador for Alderaan. Not having much else to do at the moment, I grabbed a plate plate of thinly sliced strawberries, various cubed cheeses, and a type of cracker I couldn’t identify and went to join her in the conversation. Or at least standing around while she discussed things.
The Ambassador noted my approach and held out his arm towards me in greeting. I gave the appropriate bow of respect in turn.
(Ambassador) Ah, Dorothy, I don’t think in all of this time I’ve ever met your daughter Katlyn. In fact, I think I’ve only met your son Jax and he was five at the time.
(Dorothy) My apologies, but we’ve been careful to limit the exposure the children got to those outside the family until they were old enough to understand what is going on. About the only time they have come to Alderaan has been to visit their grandparents.
(Ambassador) Oh I understand. I really should make more of an effort to go to Ascensa for these meetings than ask that you come here.
(Dorothy) It’s no trouble at all….
(Ambassador) Nonsense! I make the trip to Coruscant every month, so I can handle a trip every so often across the system to visit my former intern! Perhaps you can even show me the family when I visit. How is Nichel doing these days?
(Dorothy) Oh, he is doing well. Right now he is leading a project to construct a large coral reef system on Ascensa to help with storm surge issues on the western continent. He’s even been incorporating some of the grass painting techniques of Alderaan into the kelp forests they’re planting around it.
This small talk between old friends continued for several minutes as Mother and the Ambassador traded stories back and forth. I was about to wander off to refill my food and drink when I saw Mother get a confused look on her face before she tackled the Ambassador to the ground via hypertime. The ground the Ambassador had been standing on now had an immense axe buried into the stone floor to a depth of at least twenty centimeters. Holding the handle of the axe was Aunt Valerie.
Something about her was off, and not just the fact that she had just attempted to kill the Ambassador to Alderaan. There was a look in her eyes that was cold, like she had done this sort of thing so often it was like driving a car to her.
Already the crowd was scattering in a semi-panic as the soldiers and JLA agents rushed forward to surround her. Mother was back on her feet and was interposing herself between Aunt Valerie and the Ambassador. Vanatica came running forward too with her face contorted into one of pure confusion.
(Vanatica) Mother!
(Dorothy) Valerie?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!
(Valerie) Out of the way and I’ll let you live. I am only here for the ambassador’s head.
Something about that made Mother’s eyes flash in recognition of something and her expression turned to one of fear, but she stood her ground. Vanatica ran forward in-between them and held her arms out to separate them.
(Vanatica) Mother, explain NOW!
(Dorothy) Vanatica! No, get away from her!
With that Aunt Valerie smashed a fist through the shields around Vanatica faster than my eyes could register as she grabbed Vanatica by the neck. Valerie’s eyes were now showing a look of pure disgust as she lifted Vanatica off her feet and held her face to face.
(Valerie) I recommend you never call me that again, bastard child! Stay out of my way, or I’ll kill you as well!
Suddenly Mother was standing beside Valerie with her blaster already drawn and aimed at Valerie’s temple.
(Dorothy) Put my niece down now you crazy bitch. Or do you wish to test my reaction time?
Suddenly it was clear that this wasn’t Aunt Valerie, but most likely this was that assassin version of her that we’d heard stories about. The one that had been bouncing around timelines killing Kiras and had nearly killed Uncle Kira as well. She was more than a match for a hybrid, and consequently that meant she was more powerful than most everyone here combined except perhaps Aunt Valerie herself. And Aunt Valerie was no where to be seen.
By this point I was fully tapped into my monotalent to try to maximize my own reaction time. Mother was engulfed in the flames of hypertime as well. The Alderaan soldiers had weapons drawn, while the JLA agents were pulling out lightsabers and blasters too. I readied my own lightsaber and shield for the fight.
In an instant, Vanatica was thrown towards me at high speed as Valerie tossed her aside and moved to grab Mother’s blaster. I heard dozens of shots being fired as I caught Vanatica. Placing her on the ground outside the perimeter of soldiers, I leapt into the attack against Valerie. Already she was dancing around blaster shots like it was all ballet while using martial arts to knock out or incapacitate combatants like so many droids. Mother was already nursing a broken arm while still maintaining fire at this killing machine, but it was easy to see how the battle was going to go. I tried to run past and grab Valerie’s arm so that I could use my momentum to throw her over the railing and into the falls, but found her as difficult to shove as a death star. Instead the throw was turned against me as I was flipped head over heels several times before hitting the marble floor. Dazed and slightly concussed, I rolled over to try to get back on my feet only to see that huge axe of hers mere centimeters from my face.
At first I thought the fact the axe was actually in my face a demonstration of how easily this alternate version of my Aunt could dispatch me, but then I saw the straining in her arms and face that indicated something else was going on. It was then I noticed my Aunt standing behind her engulfed in the flames of hypertime and holding out her hand in a telekinetic gesture. She spoke with a voice modulated to compensate for the distortions of hypertime.
(Aunt Valerie) I was wondering why I was experiencing headaches, and now I guess I know the reason for that. I do not appreciate it when people threaten my family, or call my daughter a bastard, and just because you happen to carry my face will not protect you from me.
The alternate Valerie continued to strain to move the axe, this time to swing at my Aunt.
(Aunt Valerie) Don’t bother, even your immense strength isn’t going to produce enough power to move that axe against my will. Now, either leave now, or I will humiliate you in all the ways I know you despise.
(Valerie) I’d like to see you try….
With that she let go of the axe and spun around in a round-house kick to my Aunt’s head, but before she could complete that spin a massive chunk of masonry collided with her and slammed into cliff face with enough force to shake the entire retreat. Glancing back at my Aunt, I saw she had raised her other arm in a telekinetic gesture indicating she had thrown that masonry. She also had a look in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before: one of cold fury.
Moments later the block of masonry shifted and then exploded in a hail of shrapnel that could have injured everyone here had not Aunt Valerie once again used her telekinetic abilities to simply catch them all in mid-air. By this point she dropped the hypertime technique and was presumably interfacing in normal time.
(Aunt Valerie) Pathetic, all that power and you squander it by transforming it all into physical strength? You’ll learn to regret that, I assure you.
With that the doppleganger charged with insane speed at my Aunt, only to pass right through her and collide with the railing. Before she had a chance to get turned around, a kick from my Aunt smashed her face into the stone railing and shattered it into a million pieces.
(Aunt Valerie) Even more hilarious is the fact that all of that Force shielding that makes you so hard to sense also means I have little to fear from the resonance between us beyond a minor headache. Even direct physical contact isn’t an issue so long as I have a glove on or something similar. Let’s have a demonstration, shall we?
There was a blur of motion between the two of them faster than I could see, but more sections of the floor and railing were smashed into tiny fragments in a blur of red and white. When I could track them again I saw that the alternate was now streaming blood down her face and had a look of absolute red hot rage in her expression. She had to be deep in the throws of the Dark Side by this point. Not that it was doing her a lot of good given how she was now in an intense maelstrom of shrapnel whirling about her with hurricane force winds. And that shrapnel was slowly cutting her to shreds and lifting her off the ground.
Mother came up beside my Aunt while nursing her broken arm.
(Dorothy) Very impressive Val, but that isn’t going to hold her for long.
(Aunt Valerie) It’s a distraction as I exchange the air out of the center of the whirlwind for pure nitrogen, by the time she realizes what is happening, she’ll be unconscious.
(Dorothy) Any idea how she got out of containment? I thought Kira had her locked in ice from his battle fifteen years ago.
(Aunt Valerie) Not sure, but I suspect Nere is up to something and she would have known where to retrieve my alternate from. At a guess, she was trying to pin the assassination of the Alderaan Ambassador on me, hence why I was “called away” for a few minutes there. Probably some mis-guided attempt at a Pro-Republic negotiations coup.
By this point the alternate of my Aunt collapsed to the ground unconscious and my Aunt ceased the whirlwind of shrapnel. Shards of marble chips fell to the ground like rain for several seconds. My Aunt telekinetically flung a cable at the unconscious body that then wrapped itself around her and finally gave an audible click indicating a stasis field was now in effect.
(Dorothy) Isn’t Alys a hybrid like you and Kira though? Shouldn’t we be worried about some multi-layered scheme to all of this?
(Aunt Valerie) Nere is a manager at her core, not a strategist. She may be acting on guidance from her abilities, but she isn’t developing complicated “she wins even when she loses” gambits. That has always been Kira’s strength. She may be sensing that it is beneficial to launch this assassination attempt and even be clever enough to use my alternate as the assassin, but she isn’t going to be wondering why doing so is advantageous and how to prepare for the fallout of all the different ways it can go down. That relies on the realization that the Force can be treacherous in its insights and Jedi aren’t particularly adept at teaching you that.
(Dorothy) So what happens with our captive here? Put her back in containment?
(Aunt Valerie) No, that just leaves open the possibility that someone else frees her or she gets loose some millennia from now when no one knows who she is or how to deal with her. We’re going to have to come up with a more permanent solution.
(Dorothy) You’re actually advocating killing your alternate? That is cold.
(Aunt Valerie) While I am infuriated that she called my firstborn a bastard and for what she did to my husband fifteen years ago, I think we might be able to find a less drastic solution than that.
I was left to wonder what exactly my Aunt meant by that as she clearly had something in mind. The negotiations were suspended for a few days while cleanup and repairs were completed. Meanwhile the markets were roiled by the news of the assassination attempt and how an alternate of one of the Praetors was implicated in the attack. Later investigations revealed that someone made out like a bandit buying and selling various stocks on both worlds via anonymous accounts. Whether this was that Nere person my Mother and Aunt had mentioned wasn’t clear.
Creative Nonsense 