The Irony of a Fall

[Morris Cutler]

-15 Years Prior to Sins-

Jedi Master Gaeriel Spry-Ordo remained seated in a form-fitting comfort chair. Years of repressed grief, years of allowing failure to punctuate every aspect of her life eventually would take control.

It had been twenty years since she had been in service to the Darkside, and to her own father. In the years immediately following her return to the Light, everything had run so smoothly. She had earned the title of Jedi Master. Had passed all the tests orchestrated to test her link to darkness. Then she had been given an apprentice.

Kathryn Darkflame was unlike any other apprentice Gaeri had ever heard of. Frozen in time, then unfrozen in the future, things had been dramatically different. Rumors had trickled out that Gaeriel's father was back, and intent on the destruction of all that was good. So like any other good Jedi Master, she went after him, along with her uncle, and padawan.

Managing to locate his lair she had led them in boldly, with the intention of destroying the seat of his dark power, intent on destroying her own father, she had failed to realize that it was a trap. Her father's apprentice Lon Wol, dropped force cages on them, and now...now her husband was working with this same apprentice.

Needless to say she watched as John Harkness was cut down trying to give them time to escape. However another friend of her father, Caine Starwalker had captured Kathryn. Gaeri was forced to save her own ass, and had been haunted by it ever since.

Kathryn was then indwelt by a Sith Spirit and thus dark. Nearing unbearable Gaeri had tried to commit suicide, but her attempt had been in vain. This led her to exile. SHe cut herself off from everyone, until Astrid Calor had found her and tried to convince Gaeri to teach her and her children to control the force.

Then Astrid had perished in battle, an ill-fated occurance leaving Gaeri once again wandering. Then she had a child and it changed a little, but nothing could remove the guilt stain of her earlier losses, and thus she dwelled on things to the point of madness.

Now rumor had it that Gavin was back, somehow surviving her stroke. She had killed him on Waypoint, yet now he had managed to come back. She knew it was do or die this time, he would perish. This time there was no room for failure.

The irony of it all was that she had already fallen to the darkside. Guilt and grief had lent way to fear, and fear left her with a burning anger at Gavin Spry, and a desire to destroy him once and for all. Fear, Anger, Aggression, the tools of the darkside.

The irony of a fall is that sometimes you don't even know you've fallen.

[Morris Cutler]

"The only way to find the darkness is to face the darkness within you."

Her brothers words echoed in the back of her mind, the force swirling around her like a vortex. She could see him, her father's face backed beneath the glare of the light. The jagged marble tower bore with it a power, an aura of pure darkness. It called out to her, her father taunting her. "Come and find me"

"I'll find you, you son of a bitch, and when I do find you, this time I will not make the same mistake I made before."

The quest for justice was consuming. It had given her a grim determination, a determination not to fail. She would kill him, she would stop him from hurting anyone else. Her time..her place was the here and now. Victory was but a breath away. She could see the path leading to that inevitable showdown. What she missed though was the subtle underlying currents of darkness.

If she had been in a clearer mindset she would be able to see she was stepping over the line. Revenge was fueling her now, but the subtleties of darkness rarely allowed itself to be blatant.

She would start with Lon Wol, he would tell her what she needed to know. This..this disciple of the Sith Lord himself, surely he would have some trace memory of Romana. Someway for her to find it, to find him, kill him.

She was almost giddy with anticipation, there was a spring in her step that wasn't there before. She was going to kill Gavin Spry, she was going to save the lives of billions.

"I'm coming, soon enough I will be there"

Then quietly she stole off into the night, and boarded her ship, making sure no one knew she had left. After using the force to blank the minds of the port authority, she deployed into space, then programmed in the jump and her ship sailed away.

"You better be waiting Lon Wol, you better have answers" she thought aloud.

[Morris Cutler]

Gaeriel reached out with the force shoving the airlock door open, guiding her ship into the hangar of the space station.

She spoke to no one, the force guding her directly towards Lon Wol. She was going to speak with him. She was going to find the information she needed. The pounding inside her head had grown louder with each passing day.

She wanted to destroy him, it had possessed her. So willing to be the tool for his fall, yet so completely clueless as to the darkness now fusing itself to her presence.

She saw it again, the final moments on Waypoint, the final breath of Gavin Spry, or so she had thought. Then Kathryn's return, the failure of her past, now dictating her future. How could she have let her fall. It was a failure she never really learned to overcome.

Now he was back and she was coming, an avenging angel hellbent on righting her past. Destroying the link of darkness. It was all coming to an end. There would be no holocaust, no mass darkside victory. She would win of this she was certain.

As she got closer she felt Lon Wol, she was zeroing in on his position. He was with her husband. Subtley she sent him a pulse in the force.

-Level 4 Deck, come to me, I need answers and I need you to provide them-

[Morris Cutler]

The Lord Admiral notices the strange expression that crosses Lon's face. "Is there a problem Executor?" Lon shook his head and turned slowly, as if listening for something. "I sensed something. Will you excuse me for a moment?"

"Certainly, but if it poses a threat to the Ascendency then let me know quickly. Dismissed for now, I'll wait here for your return."

Lon nodded and made his way towards the Level 4 Deck as he had been requested. When he got there he saw the darkened form of Gaeriel Spry-Ordo standing inside the shadows. She approached him quietly, he would note the line of grim determination etched across her features as she drew herself into the light.

Her lightsaber came on in her hand as she stared him down.

"Hello Lon Wol, it's been a long time. In fact the last time I saw you, you set in motion the events that shattered my entire world. You served my father, Gavin Spry. I don't idly forget these things, I should kill you, but it's not in my nature, your but a means to my ultimate goal."

"Hello Gaeriel." Lon's right hand grasped the lightsaber hanging from his right hip, sensing something in Gaeriel's voice that told him this encounter was not going to be a peaceful one. Pressing the activation stud, Lon called forth his emerald green blade.

"It doesn't have to be this way. I want my father, not you. You are perhaps the only living person who has been to Romana other than me. Unfortunately upon my last encounter with him, when I thought I had killed him the darkside blanked my mind completely from it's location. My nav-comp was destroyed, and only by sheer control of the force was I able to save myself. I will force the answers from you if I must, but it's much easier if you cooperate."

"Open your mind to me, let me dig into the trace memories of my father, to the trace memories of Romana. Otherwise, I will force it out by other means. He needs to die, the darkside needs to perish. Help me or force my hand, make a choice!"

She brought her blade into a defensive posture ready to intercept should he attack. Then she drew into the force and let it flow within her, activating her combat sense.

"Gaeriel, I can't tell you where Romana is! I was never trusted with the navigational coordinates."

Lon takes a step backwards, keeping his saber in a ready position. The look on Gaeriel's face was enough to tickle Lon's danger sense and put him on the defensive.

The force swirled around her as Lon dictated that he was unable to locate Romana.

"You have got to know something, someway to at least get on the right track. I am going to kill him, you saw he what he did to me, what he convinced you was the right course. All I am asking is that you open your surface thoughts about Romana, about my father, let me draw my own impression. We don't have to fight to settle this. Open yourself to me and I will find what I can about him." *She maintained a 6 meter gap, twirling her blade in front of her, lacing it in a defensive pattern, waiting to see if he would attack

Lon lowers his saber, his face set in a expressionless mask as he turns slightly away from Gaeriel.

"I don't remember. Even if I could...I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER! Now stay out of my head, you and everybody else!"

Her response was quick, the force sweeping out towards him like a tidal wave, a repression of years of hidden emotions. She filled it with an inflection of her grief over the events of the last 15 years, the raw pain that she dealt with everyday.

"Then you are forcing my hand. You will feel every ounce of pain that you caused me, every ounce of pain that surfaced as a direct result of your actions on that day, and I won't stop until you give me what I want. The pain you hold inside is NOTHING, NOTHING compared to the pain I am going to make you experience. You can stop it, just let me inside."

Waves of grief, pangs of betrayal rolled off of her like steam, she opened the gap to 15 meters and walked a circle around him, her blade weaving a defensive posture.

"You can stop it, you can stop it"

Darkness was now fully fused to her essence and she remained clueless.

"There is no amount of pain you can inflict that I haven't felt already in my life." Lon's voice took on a slightly darker tone as he turned to keep Gaeriel in his sight. Lon was visibly struggling with himself to keep the darker impulses within his soul from lashing out in full fury.

"Then for God's sake let me probe, then I will never bother you again. All I want is for a chance to kill my father, to wipe his stain from both of our lives. He hurt you too, I will do my best to repress the memories as I come across them, I have that gift, but let me probe, I want him dead, nothing but his death can appease me. Give me the chance to fix it."

Her essence was very dark, yet she wasn't given over to it, what Lon would see is the simple determination, a fire burning in her eyes to complete the task that had eluded her years earlier.

"Your father already is dead!" Lon's patience was being sorely tested by Gaeriel's persistance. He didn't need anyone delving into his mind and dredging up things he didn't want to recall. "Let it go!"

"That's just it, he didn't die. He managed to save himself, through some odd twist of the force he is alive. I've seen it, I know what I need to do to kill him. You are the only link I have to finding him, let go of your past for one second so that I can find him, and then you have my word, I will stay away from you. Let me just search for him, please he has to be destroyed forever. I failed in that the first time, you of all people should understand the need for redemption"

She maintained 15 meters and kept her blade on, in a defensive guard.

"If he were alive, I'd know it. I sense nothing of him in the Force." Lon flicked off his saber, still keeping it in his hand. "I'm not going to tell you again, my mind is off limits."

This time Gaeri didn't wait, she reached out with the force, falling into an old technique that she had long kept hidden she invaded his deepest thoughts, zeroing in on the source she drew out the information that she needed. The tendril of darkness surged through him as she scraped out the memories long repressed of Gavin and Romana. What little she found gave her hope, and new determination. Having successfully pulled what she needed she released her hold on Lon's mind and the staredown was intense.

"You can't feel him because he is on Romana, no one can feel a presence there, you know this too. Sorry for the inconvinence but this time nothing will stop me. I swear it."

She kept a 15 meter distance her blade still humming a defensive tune, should Lon take offense at her intrustion. He would notice however that with the technique she had used the information did not return to the surface, the pain and despair of Lon Wol would not be brought out. His tight lock on that memory cortex remained locked again. She hoped that it would relieve him enough to understand she never intended to hurt him, or force him to walk through the pain again, just to find and kill Gavin Spry.

Lon glared at Gaeriel, sensing the intrusion into his thoughts. "I warned you."

Curling his left hand into a fist, Lon flings his left arm out, unleashing a Force push towards Gaeriel.

"Stay out of my head dammit!"

Gaeriel drew the force into her essence and reached out absorbing his force push and doubling it's power into a force hammer with one intention, to knock Lon Wol into unconciousness. Then she disappeared through an open doorway and made for her ship, shutting down her lightsaber in the process, and clipping it back to her belt.

Her mission was done, now the next phase would begin. As she slipped out she depressed a security panel, one that would cause Lon a few minutes of time to get through.

Meanwhile, the Lord Admiral was growing a bit concerned at Lon's extended absense, and decided to send someone to locate him.

"Find out were the Executor is and what is delaying him and report back to me."

As the Chiss security team made their way to Lon, Gaeri reached out with the force, blanking their minds totally of her extended existance, and subtley implanted a hint of Lon's location, before boarding her ship and again using the force to blank her from Chiss Port Authority.

Her husband would have to understand why she had come, why she had done what she did. She knew Lon would inform him, but not before it was too late. With a sigh of grim resignation Gaeriel brought her ship out of the hangar and shortly after clearing it's gravity well input the coordinates to her next stop and shot off into hyperspace.

What she didn't realize was that her blatant use of the force to coerce Lon Wol had left her with an ever darkening stain upon her spirit. The presence of the Darkside was growing stronger within her, and soon it would consume her wholly. Retribution remained the foremost thought in her mind as she set the auto-pilot and drifted off to sleep.

[erickson]

Master Kathryn woke at the Temple, screaming from a vivid nightmare.

She sat up dripping sweat, her chest heaving as she took deep breaths to calm her panic.

"Only a nightmare, just a nightmare," she said to herself over and over. Her hand stole out to a ragged Teddy Bear by her bed, and she clutched it to herself, repeating, "Only a nightmare..."

She hoped.........

The dream had been vivid. She was facing her friend Gaerial, the one who had rescued her from the Sith and provided her final clue for her memory recovery. Only this Gaerial was clad all in black, like a Dark Jedi, and wielded a red lightsaber. They had fought, and Gaerial had killed her, sliding her lightsaber under Kathryn's defense, and under her ribs into her heart. It had felt so real!

Aware that she felt injured, Kathryn rouched her ribs. Her hand came away wet with blood and she stared at it. "Dear Gods," she said quietly, before sending a telepathic yell for help. She did not dare move further, not knowing what injuries her mind had inflicted on her body. "Dear Gods...........Gaerial!"

She was still sitting there, thinking, when a Healer came. It was a shallow cut along her ribs, he told her as he bandaged it up. How had she done it?

"In a dream," she told him simply. He nodded, well aware of the effects the mind could have on the body, and advised her to talk to one of the MindHealers. She agreed, and he left. After cleaning up the mess, so did she.

[Morris Cutler]

She awakend hours later from within the dead of hyperspace, feeling somewhat refreshed. Her eyes had begun to bear the slightest hue of red to them as she shook the cobwebs from her head and communicated with her R2 Unit.

6 Hours to go was the response she recieved. In 6 hours she would arrive at Vjun, and from there pick up the course of Gavin Spry. Her hand shifted casually to her lightsaber as she brought it on with a reverberating snap-hiss.

The soft thrum of her lightsaber reached a crescendo as she began to twist and weave it through a complicated lightsaber kata. Falling into the essence of the force, she found it had become cold to her touch, but yet was still there. She drew from it's power and allowed the purpose of her mission to control the actions of the blade. What had been a beautiful kata had become a savage dance of death. Gavin Spry's death so help her.

The soft words echoed in her head.

"It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you."

Her brother's voice echoed within her head once more. Her actions would define her, and it would be by her steady hand that Gavin Spry would be plunged into the darkened abyss he had plunged so many souls into.

Friends of her past, her uncle, her father, hundreds of countless innocent voices rising to a reverbation within her head.

"Avenge Me, Avenge Me, make him feel our pain. Make him pay for the blood of all of us. You are that weapon, forged from the ashes of time, leading us to a new era of peace and unity."

In her dark moments Gaeriel saw Kathryn's face, the hideous manifestations of Caine Starwalker's handiwork, the manifestations of her fathers doing. He had destroyed her life, and with that victory had planted seeds of deepening discord that was opening a rift between the Jedi that seemed to great to bridge.

"It's the only way" she thought. "His death will bring unity back to the Forces of Light."

The ship had taken on a doleful, colorless existance. Cold darkness engulfed it as it delved deeper into the bowels of hyperspace.

What had once been pure, now stood marred by revenge. Marred by the desire to persevere at all costs. A dark nature that had been grafted into her from her earliest years, long repressed, but coming hard to the forefront.

Jedi Master Gaeriel Spry-Ordo had finally taken that leap off the edge. There would be no coming back this time. The irony of the fall was that she still had no idea that she had fallen.

[Morris Cutler]

The doleful ship continued to weave a trail of darkness as Gaeri maintained her course for Vjun.

In the years since she had fought him everything seemed to have changed, and changed dramatically. She no longer enjoyed the confidence of her brother that she used to share, and now she doubted she even enjoyed the confidence of her husband after beating his new subordinate.

What had once been a pure spirit remained trapped within a wall of darkness, a web of lies so intracately weaved by her father. The seeds of deception that had brought splinters into the midst of the Jedi Order, and that of the Jensaarai order, had also left splinters inside of her soul.

Pain infiltrated every aspect of Gaeriel's life, pain stemming from the greivous wound that had been opened deep within her spirit. Her breaking point had already been reached and what remained now was the desire for victory at all costs.

Her spirit remained in a continual state of darkening, fueled by her passion. She would become the thief in the night, the one who restored all things to truth. Justice was her destiny, she had inscribed the word upon the hilt of her lightsaber, and it was now what defined her. Vincent would be after her soon enough, to try and stop her from engaging in this fight, however she would not let him.

"Victory at all Costs," she told herself "Let nothing stand in your way.

She paused for a moment as her ship signalled their arrival at Vjun. Pulling the lever, the cold ship exited from the throes of hyperspace and began a slow, deliberate descent into the planet.

Engaging the landing thrusters she set the ship on the pad outside of Chateau Malreaux, and disembarked. Her spirit took on a new aura of power as she felt the atmosphere around her. It sent a spark that shot deep into her soul, igniting fires of repressed pain, sending them rushing to the surface. She embraced that pain and could feel her ties to the force growing stronger.

Her hand stroked the hilt of her lightsaber as she stepped into the great arching doorway that led into the chateau.

Rumor had it that Count Dooku had once inhabited this place, years ago. She could almost see the old man, thoughtfully stroking his goatee, sitting by the fireplace as she moved deeper into the house.

She was not alone however. Watching from a clear observation point the man saw her approach. She had come just as he had forseen. Now the matter of convincing her to aide him was all that remained. She would be the hand of Dark Lord Gavin Spry's demise, and then Lord Zarok would ascend to his throne as rightful heir to the Sith. She needed him, he could take her to Romana.

It was a pleasant suprise to him when he felt the dark power that had become increasingly greater since the last time he had seen her. Her hatred of her father, and her intent to kill rolled off her like a raindrop off a leaf. She had fallen to the darkside, and he smiled. Ironic how she had once tried to save him from his own darkness, yet now she had fallen to her own. This would be pleasant indeed.

[Morris Cutler]

After familiarizing herself with the chateau she stood and headed for the direction of the kitchen. It was only then that she felt his presence approaching. Immediately her purple lightsaber was in her hand and blazing.

"Who are you, what do you want."

"The same thing you want Master Gaeriel. The death of your father. We are of the same mold you and I, both only satisfied by his death."

"What has he done to you to make you want to kill him also."

"Nothing, but with his death I can ascend to the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. You can put away that lightsaber also, you won't need it."

"Your a fool if you think I would kill him and then allow you to take his power. I'd kill you as soon as I killed him."

"My dear child, THAT would be a foolish move. See I have something you want. I can take you to Romana, I can deliver you to your father."

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?"

"You don't, but I am not one to throw away a potential ally. You can get your revenge, and I can ascend to my rightful place. Too long I spent agonizing under his training regimens, it's time now for the apprentice to become the Master."

"If so eager you are to help me, then show yourself, quit speaking out of the shadows."

"Very Well." The man stepped into a doorway off to the left revealing his very recognizable head.*

"Lord Zarok, I am honestly suprised you are still alive. With all the Jedi that were dispatched after you, reports came in that they had killed you."

"A simple decoy child, one that served it's purpose well. So tell me how do you propose to defeat your father in his tower?"

"I will stop at nothing to kill him, even forfeiting my own life to do so. Victory at all costs."

"You speak idly with your words but I sense you are unwilling to do whatever it takes to have your victory."

"Don't toy with me Zarok, I owned you before and I will do it again if I must."

"You misunderstand me child. To be willing to do whatever it takes implies sacrificing your purity. The only way to defeat him is to embrace the darkness within you and turn it into a weapon."

"I will not turn to the darkside, I can defeat him in the flesh the way I am right now."

"Fool, he's too powerful for you. The power of Romana and of the tower lends to him a strength greater than anything the vaunted lightside could send against him. You must become one with the darkness to destroy him. Search your feelings, you know this to be true. There lives within you a darkness that you have long buried beneath a shroud of weakness, beneath your "pure" motivations. You must allow it to control you if defeat Gavin Spry you are to do."

"You speak words of poison Zarok. I need no help from the darkness to destroy him, it is my destiny, I WILL NOT fail."

"But you will, you know you will. Come though if you want me to lead you to Romana. Make your choice now. I leave soon. You will also find that facing the darkness within you will come easier than you think."

"I will destroy him, and when he has breathed his last, then I wll turn to you and eradicate you also."

"You will try Lady Ordo, try and fail. Come NOW we leave. You will link your nav-comp to mine, and then after we arrive I will provide you with the coordinates."

"Very well, then lets us be gone." a doorway into a darkened cavern slid open and Zarok entered. Moments later Gaeriel followed him down the chamber. He boarded his ship and Gaeriel caught onto the back of it. Slowly taxi-ing it out to the landing area Gaeriel dropped off and boarded her own ship. Slaving her hyperdrive to his, they leapt into hyperspace. Soon she would arrive, and then Gavin Spry would cease to exist.*

*The darkness that stemmed from Vjun had further fused itself to her presence and her lust for vengeance drove her onward, feeling a power she hadn't felt in years. Falls were sometimes so graceful.*

[Morris Cutler]

The ship glided through hyperspace for what seemed like months, when in reality it was only a 4 day journey. During those four days though Gaeriel had become increasingly irritated, and the lust for vengeance had become a thunderous roar in her head. She could feel pure force energy coursing through her veins as she gleefully anticipated killing her father.

In the cabin of his ship Zarok just chuckled. Here was the great pure Jedi Master, the model of returning to the light and she had fallen. The irony of the force was colorful indeed.

Her desire for vengeance would soon be satisfied as the ship came out of hyperspace. It was exactly as she had remembered it.

The tower rose up from the center of the planet, black marble, blending in with the natural aura of the planet. At the spire she felt him, dark, evil, his presence magnified tenfold here. It was really here, she was really going to get to finish what she started.

The ships landed on Romana outside of the tower and Gaeriel felt a spike of raw untapped force energy surge around her as she stepped onto the ground below.

Darkness swirled around like violent tornadoes stemming from the power of the planet. The doors of the tower swung open menacingly and Gaeriel steeled herself to her task. She allowed the force to wash over her like a waterfall and stepped into the tower.

The hallway was as she had remembered it, eeriely silent, a doleful colorless passageway that led to the spire above. The black marble floor seemed to point towards destiny and the anticipation of her final victory

She walked foward quickly, stopping before the long shaft that led to the top. Drawing the force to herself she leapt into the air and allowed the dark current of energy to carry her to the top. She stepped into the room and spotted him, at the end, standing in the center of a pod.

"So at last you come child, and at last you have embraced the destiny I have given you. I feel your hate, your anger, your murderous intent. You have come to kill me..yes."

"Yes Gavin, I intend to kill you. Never again will you torment my family, or my friends. I will NOT fail this time, and I will not embrace any destiny."

"Then you will fail child"

he lashed out with a powerful wave of darkness, forcing Gaeriel to create a lightshield, but the power was too great and she was quickly into the wall..hard.

Gritting her teeth she rose to her feet and drew her lightsaber from her belt. The Purple-Blade shimmered on with a snap-hiss and she called on the force deeply. It enhanced her senses and she came at Gavin.

She met a resistance willed by the very power of the darkside however and it closed in around her, freezing her to the spot.

"You see child, you must embrace your destiny to even hope to kill me. I have generated a field of Dark Energy that a mere Jedi cannot hope to pass. Go ahead, try it. I will stand here and make plans to kill your daughter, and husband. To kill my son. I am sure I can reach out across the void and cause them grief."

"You bastard. I am going to kill you, do not threaten my family."

*the darkness continued to build within her as she tried to erect a wall of light to counteract the barrier. Her anger was quickly taking control over everything.*

Behind the barrier Gavin laughed, mockingly

"Embrace your destiny, strike me down, before I strike down your friends. I am sure you couldn't stand to bear the death of Alyssa, or Aidan, or Ariel. I can make them fall, like I did Kathryn. You remember her right... cute little woman...powerful...DARK JEDI."

"FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU you Son of a Bitch." anger reached a crescendo in her mind as she pushed against the barrier with all she could muster.

Gavin drank in the fury of her presence, allowing the dark tide to fuse itself to his own power. He uttered a Sith Chant as he infused himself with the power of the Sith that had constructed the tower, that had bonded their presence to it in it's construction.

"Come and get me" then he flashed the illusion of Kathryn..or of Darksib, her red lightsaber igniting through the heart of gaeriel's only child.

It was the last straw, reaching into the force she sought the darkside, allowed it to fully fuse itself to her essence, fermenting it's way into her very soul. Pushing out she shattered the dark barrier and made her way towards her father. Hatred, Anger, Murder burning in her eyes.

"Very good Gaeriel, you have embraced your destiny. Now lets dance."

"I am not longer Gaeriel, Darth Galax....you may call me Darth Ultor."

and both blades found her hands, coming on once again with a snap-hiss.

Across the room the Sith Meditation Pod closed and 12 lightsabers ignited in a semi-circle in front of her. The old familiar story.

[erickson]

It was a dream, or was it a memory? She watched the lightsabers, unbelieving. No Jedi could control that many lightsabers. No Jedi.

And this time Gaerial faced it alone. No John Harkness, no Kathryn Darkflame to back her up.

But then, LAST time she'd faced it alone, hadn't she? Kathryn remembered struggling against the Force Cage watching Gaerial fight her Father. Now she thrashed in her dreams, fighting the imprisoning sheets, trying to help her mentor and friend.

But slowly the dream or vision grew darker. Gaerial was falling.......falling to the Dark Side of the Force that was her true heritage.

"I am not longer Gaeriel, Darth Galax....you may call me Darth Ultor."

With those words, Kathryn remembered the Darkness, and the pain of the Chaos Lord's dark embrace.

She screamed in remembered horror, remembered pain, and new grief. "GAERI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Half-maddened with pain, it took Timothy and two others to keep her from killing herself. And it was several years before she could function as a Jedi again. Something was gone from within her, broken and shattered.

[Morris Cutler]

She stood there, facing the wall of lightsabers and allowed the dark corners of her mouth to form a slight smile.

Reaching into the darkside she allowed it's power to course through her blood. She lashed out with a powerful force grip using the darkside to wrench 4 marble blocks from out of the wall, in positions where it wouldn't destablize anything and shattered them into 3 equal shards that bore the resemblance of a blade and expanded her force sense to encompass the area where Gavin's kinetic sabers floated.

She saw their intended flight path and reached out with her own makeshift blades which interjected themselves in the space between her and Gavin, parrying a dozen strokes. Blade on force-imbued Marble resounded with a stream of powerful energies that totally engulfed Gaeriel, feeding her fury.

She kept a very disciplined level of control on the shards of marble and every stroke of Gavin's lightsabers was met with a thundering crack against her own. The blades floated effortlessly in the air as the energy of the darkside hung in the air like the smell of smoked meats. She dared to send a pulse of force energy out.

The wave of darkside energy completely engulfed the area of combat and she dug deep into the current of darkness and sought the source of their energy. She was rewarded with a loud crack as the energy cell of one of Gavin's lightsabers exploded, then another, then a third, and so on until there was nothing left of them. All hung useless in the air till Gavin released his concentration on them and they fell to the floor with a loud clatter.

Gaeriel's dark essence embraced the power she now wielded and she took extreme satisfaction in the destruction of her father's precious lightsabers.

Her own blades flew across the room with resounding force but bounced harmlessly off of the meditation pod that still housed Gavin Spry. She allowed the rage, and the indignation of her suffering to manifest itself inside the tower, attempting to weaken Gavin with the very pain he caused.

Inside the pod began a slow methodic laugh, that continued to grow in force at Gaeri's rising anger.

"Your pain cannot hurt me foolish child. I embrace pain and feed from it. I cause pain. Strong with the darkside you have now become, use that anger, join me."

"FUCK YOU, I am going to FUCKING kill you, I will NEVER join you."

She lashed out with a barrage of pure dark hatred for Gavin assailing the pod in which he remained encased. It opened slowly and the Dark Lord of the Sith stepped out, and fired a powerful blast of force lightning that Gaeri struggled to counterbalance.

As he poured on the sizzling energy, the twelve shards of marble that had countered his own lightsabers rose off the floor and came at Gaeriel with intent to impale.

She snarled and tapped deep into Romana's reserve splintering the shards into tiny darts and reversing their trajectory. Gavin absolved them with his force lightning and Gaeriel took advantage of his momentary change of focus bringing her purple lightsabers to bear on him, whirling through the air in a severing stroke, but were met with resistance from Gavin's own brilliant white lightsabers. The force of the blows jarred both combatants and force them to retreat back 5 meters.

"Your time is now my father, you fucker. I hope you are ready."

[Morris Cutler]

Combat intensified as white blade countered purple blade. Gaeriel's eyes had become a flashing red and her hatred bled through the night, lending her new strengths, ones not felt in years.

She parried a hard stroke using her left blade, and centered her balance forcing his right blade to pass through a useless arc. Shifting to a tonfa style she pressed foward using a hard, defined attack. Each stroke attempted by the Sith Lord was met with an equally powerful counter and Ultor seemed to effortlessly pierce his defenses.

Drawing on the power of Romana, and her own blinding hatred for Gavin Spry, Gaeriel became the darkness around her. She methodically picked apart the defenses of her father, holes she would have never found were she still following the light.

With a grunt her father struck out at her with a bolt of hatred that was fused to the power of the building. The force of the blow caught her with a painful crack as she was flung to the wall, ribs giving way upon impact, lightsabers shutting off.

"You see child, you do not possess the power to destroy me, I am the all powerful, now die in grace."

Her body suddenly rose from the ground caught in a violent whirlwind, pressure beginning to crack down on her.

With a depth that surpassed even that of Gavin Spry, Ultor drew deeper into the darkness than one had ever gone, save Andrew Calor alone. She formed a Darkside web that cocooned her from the effects of the whirlwind and began to spread out, breaking it's way out of the prison he held her in. Pure hatred was in control and her lightsaber rose from the ground igniting underneath the focused Sith Lord's feet severing his left foot from his leg.

Gavin lost focus immediately and shrieked with a cry of darkness that superceded the sound barrier. The whirlwind released Ultor and she was quickly across the room, sustaining herself with the darkness. Her lightsaber came on again and she drove it deep within the heart of Gavin Spry, creating a clean hole from chest to back.

He gurgled with disbelief as she withdrew the lightsaber and then severed the head from his shoulders. Quickly she tapped into the ancient magic of the force and stripped the body of it's force capabilities binding his into the darkness before he could detach it. Then she ignited his white lightsabers, clashing them together inside the image, destroying all trace of Gavin Spry.

She dropped to the ground completely gone over to sleep.

Watching from a hidden perch, Zarok grinned to himself and ignited his own lightsaber. He drove it into Ultor's heart and left, convinced that she was now dead. However the power of darkness had infused itself to her so deeply that the wound did not become grievious. Instead it fused itself to her claiming her to be it's servant. One who would bear power greater than perhaps Andrew Calor himself.