Obi-Wan held up his lightsaber. From its glow they could see pictographs on the walls, images scrawled in red that had faded. Images of deeds done by the Sith. Wars. Massacres. Anakin turned his face away.
Join us darkness conquer dominance glory..
Anakin saw one of the shrouds rise. The layers of gray, shredding rags fell away. He gasped in shock. It was his mother, Shmi.
"Annie," she called. "Annie."
"Mother." The word was wrenched out of his belly. How much had he longed to say that word again, to see her again? It was the Jedi who kept him from her, the Jedi who had taken him away….
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan's voice was sharp. "It's a vision. Nothing more."
Anakin swallowed. The shroud was back in the crypt. He gazed at the others, embarrassed. Ferus looked at him with pity. Pity! His hatred for Ferus flooded him again. He had embarrassed himself in front of Ferus!
The visions came to all of them then. Sith Lords rose and walked toward them, their mouths gaping, their hands grasping, and then disintegrated onto them with foul smells and tastes. The Jedi walked on, through the corpse visions, through the whispers, through the taunts.
You are blind and you are fools and you understand nothing….
The dark side of the Force was like a thick curtain Anakin couldn't draw aside. It got in his mouth and eyes and felt as though it could slow his hands, stop his legs. Still, he kept on walking, kept on moving. There was nothing else to be done. They had to get to the end of it.
The creatures carved from stone that sat on the ledges took flight in shimmering images of fire and destruction. Tru ducked as one of them flew directly in his face, but the creature became nothing but particles of dust. Anakin saw Tru grip his lightsaber more tightly.
Tru's lightsaber! He had forgotten to tell him to check the readout for the flux aperture! He had walked away, angry and hurt. Why hadn't he remembered?
Had he wanted to forget?
He couldn't do it now. If he did, the Masters would know that Tru's lightsaber had broken and he hadn't told Ry-Gaul. He would get himself and Tru in trouble. And Ferus probably had fixed it perfectly, the way he did everything else.
What you are and what you do mean nothing next to what we are and can do….
Thinking of Ferus made anger spurt through Anakin. It was something hard inside him. It filled him up. It felt natural, it felt right, to allow his anger to grow. Why had he tried to quell it? He had every right to feel it! Just feeling it now gave him strength.
Obi-Wan held up a hand. "Stop. Energy trap."
Anakin could see nothing. Everything was dark except for the light from Obi-Wan's lightsaber.
Obi-Wan spoke in a hushed tone. "Concentrations of dark power. They are capable of immobilizing a Jedi for a time."
"I don't see anything," Ferus said.
"Look away, then look back. Use the Force," Siri instructed.
Anakin looked away, then looked back. He caught the faintest shimmer of purple in the air. It appeared and disappeared. You could miss it if you blinked.
"I see it," Darra said.
"There will be more," Obi-Wan warned. "The Padawans must be very careful. You most likely won't be able to escape alone. Stay close to your Masters."
They moved forward, avoiding the trap.
The chuckle split the fetid air.
"I would expect no less of you, Obi-Wan." The voice came out of nowhere. Mocking, sure of himself. Granta Omega.
Obi-Wan stopped.
Slowly, Omega walked out from behind a tomb, just meters ahead.
He tapped a finger on his utility belt. "Did you really think you could avoid a few traps and catch me?"
"Get back here, you fool," Zan Arbor hissed, appearing behind him out of the darkness. "Why must you always talk to him?" In her blue shimmersilk, she looked as well-kept as ever, her blond hair piled in a profusion of neat braids on her head.
"Because I'm enjoying myself," Omega said. His handsome face creased in a wide smile. He appeared utterly at home in the terrible tomb. "I have, let's see — one, two, four, eight Jedi, all sent to capture little old me!"
"Are you forgetting I'm here, too?" Zan Arbor snapped. "Typical. I was a Jedi enemy before you were born, Granta."
"My father was their enemy before me," Omega said.
Xanatos. Omega's father, the former Jedi who had tried to destroy Qui- Gon. Obi-Wan had told Anakin about him. His son maintained the same arrogance, the same cruelty, the same howling need to hurt the Jedi, to make them pay for everything they lacked themselves. Honor meant nothing to either Xanatos or Omega. Only power. Only revenge.
Zan Arbor waved a hand. "This isn't a contest. I'm going on. Sith or no Sith, I can't wait to get off this planet. Come along. He's waiting for us. Come on," she urged sharply. "He'll take care of the Jedi — he promised us that. He's about to give us everything we worked for. Resources. Secrets of the galaxy. Wealth. An army of our own, Granta!"
But Omega didn't move. Here would come his downfall, Anakin thought suddenly. The reward he was about to receive meant nothing in the face of his personal revenge.
"I can take care of this," Omega said. "With his help."
"Can I remind you of something?" Zan Arbor exploded in exasperation.
"You are not a Sith!"
"I have surprised you every step of the way, Obi-Wan," Omega said, ignoring her. "And I didn't even know the secrets of the dark side! Can you imagine what I'm capable of now, in this place, where the very walls are your enemy?"
Obi-Wan held his gaze. Anakin glanced at him. He saw that Obi-Wan had no desire to speak. In his gaze Anakin detected no anger, no response to Omega's taunts. There was simply the grim will to get this done. There was no way Omega was leaving this tomb unless Obi-Wan led him out.
"Don't want to talk to me, Obi-Wan? Giving me the silent treatment?
You're spoiling my pleasure." Omega gave a theatrical sigh and raised his hand, revealing a KYD-21 blaster. Anakin recognized it. Fast, precise, compact.
"I must admit, it's inconvenient that the Jedi found me here. But in a way, it's such a delicious end. I'm invincible now, you see. I fight with the power of the Sith behind me. And that means I can watch you die, Obi- Wan. You and your apprentice. I can't wait. Do you want to follow me back there, or are you too afraid to finally meet your defeat?"
He had gotten no further than a flex of one finger muscle to fire before Obi-Wan exploded in movement. He raced toward Omega, his lightsaber held in a classic offensive maneuver.
The blaster bolts came fast and furious. Obi-Wan deflected each one, swinging his lightsaber in a wide arc.
A horrid stench suddenly rolled out from behind Omega. He smiled, as if he knew what was coming. No doubt he did.
Then the undead came. Korriban zombies, revived by the Sith to guard the tombs. Anakin had read about them, but never thought he'd see them; the Sith must have activated them to defend Omega and the sacred Sith ground.
The zombies were used to eating the flesh from the tombs; now they had living targets in mind. And they had blasters and detonators to make the kill. They came careening out of the darkness now, different species but all moving with the same odd, lurching gait… the air came alive with smoke and fire.