Ayli needed helped. She hated to admit that, but she was wise enough to know that pretending otherwise was a fantastic method for getting herself and the people with her killed.

“They’re out there, searching for us,” Monfi said. He was pinned to the wall by grav-shackles, which looked to be somewhat less comfortable than the grav-shackles which bound Ayli to the inclined experimentation table. Of them all, only Bopo wasn’t shackled and that was because she’d been shuffled into one of the three small prison cells in the room the HK droids had forced them into.

“I’m pretty sure our friends following us is what Paralus is counting on,” Ayli said.

“Perhaps, but luring four trained Force users into a trap is a rather egotistical move,” Monfi said.

“Is it?” Archivist Bopo asked without rising from the small bench in her cell. “He managed to trap two of you, and he wasn’t even there.”

“She’s got a point,” Ayli said said. “The droid was able to hold a city hostage to compel us, but Paralus is going to have a much better lever against Nix and your people. Us.”

“Lasha knows better than that. The mission has to come first when dealing with a creature like Paralus,” Monfi said without concern or anger at the thought.

“That’s not how Nix think,” Ayli said, quietly loving her wife for that particular bit of madness. “She’s going to come for me even if it means tearing Praxis Mar apart rock-by-rock.”

“That doesn’t tend to work out well,” Monfi said, phrasing it as gently as he could.

“Oh, I’m aware of that,” Ayli said. “Which is why that’s an option we’re going to have to take off the table as quickly as possible.”

“Killing yourselves at this point doesn’t seem like a fantastic idea,” Bopo said. “Especially since, as a note, you’d be killing me as well.”

“Oh, killing ourselves isn’t an option at all,” Ayli said. “If I die, Nix won’t stop at tearing Praxis Mar apart.”

“Your wife sounds like a dangerous person,” Monfi said.

“She can be,” Ayli said. “But she’s also the most compassionate and kind person I’ve ever met.”

“I thought the Jedi teachings were to let go of attachments so that they wouldn’t draw you into the Dark Side?” Monfi said.

“We’ve learned from the Jedi, but neither of us are Jedi,” Ayli said. “And to be fair, I’m not sure the Jedi were either.”

“Because they didn’t follow their own code?” Monfi asked.

“They did, but over time the code changed, or their understanding of it did. I think the Jedi we know of may have evolved some somewhat offbase ideas on what their own code was supposed to mean,” Ayli said. “What we’ve learned from the Force Ghosts we know doesn’t exactly line up with the more recent Jedi texts we’ve recovered which survived the Imperial purges. The same is true with the Sith information we’ve turned up.”

“You found ancient Sith relics?” Monfi asked. “Did you destroy them? They are notoriously dangerous.”

“Nope. All the Sith writings we found were from an Imperial Inquisitor’s personal refuge. It’s possible he was making up things on his own, but some of his phrasing is identical to what Ravas, one of our Force Ghosts, learned from her master. Other bits, the kind that tend to change over time, had drifted, but you could see a path from the ancient ideas to the modern ones.”

“You know a Sith?” Monfi asked, more shocked by that than anything else Ayli had said to them since they met.

“A former Sith,” Ayli said. “Also dead. She’s thrown off the Dark Side more than I have at this point, but I guess sleeping for a thousand years in a Force nexus, protected by the woman she loved, could do that.”

“That’s…I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Monfi said.

“They’re pretty unique,” Ayli said. “I’ll have to introduce you to them both properly after we get out of here.”

“Do you have any thoughts on that?” Monfi asked. “I was hoping once we weren’t constrained by the hostages we could break out with our abilities, but the Force is so negative here that I can’t get much of a hold on it at all.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t anticipating that either,” Ayli said. “I’m willing to bet the droid was though.”

The temperature in the room rose sharply at that and Ayli smiled. Annoying machine intelligences was as easy as it was with organic ones. It was funny too to think of ‘droid’ as being an insult, but so far the two machine intelligences Ayli had met seemed to agree on that.

“There’s also the small problem that even if we do manage to break loose somehow, we’re on a ship in hyperspace. Not a lot of room to run and hide in here and none outside,” Monfi said.

“Escape shuttle?” Bopo suggested.

“Unless we waited till we were near a planet, the odds of anyone finding us are ridiculously slim. Also, the droid could just open up on that shuttle and destroy us in a single turbolaser volley, or tractor beam us right back inside.”

“So we need to escape without the droid noticing it?” Bopo asked.

“Oh, it will definitely notice. I mean, it’s listening to us now, so it’s not like our plans will be a surprise to it,” Ayli said.

The door to their prison cell opened and a half dozen of the HK droids entered.

“Oh, I’m sorry Overwhelming,” Ayli said. “Were we supposed to keep talking and reveal everything we’re going to do with you eavesdropping on the entirely automated ship which you have complete control over?”

“You will reveal whatever I wish for you to reveal,” the nearest droid said. “And my name is not Overwhelming.”

“Sorry Overwhelming, you had the chance to introduce yourself and you didn’t take it,” Ayli said as the HK’s marched over to her.

Any one of the droids could have easily killed her in her present circumstances. The Force wasn’t a terribly large help either. Despite the effort she’d put into connecting with it, and how much better she could feel and hear it, within the Dark Side nexus of the ship’s interior there was so much remembered pain and torment and despair that Ayli could hear little else in the Force, and certainly not true warnings as to what her fate was going to be.

“Might not be good to annoy the Hunter Killer droids there my dear,” Bopo said.

“You should listen to the Rodian woman,” the lead droid said.

“I am Galruxian, not a Rodian you worthless pile of chips,” Bopo said, rising from her bench at the ignorant insult the droid had spoken.

“You are meat,” the droid said. “If you’re fortunate, you will also prove to be useful bait. If you’re not, then there are many uses to which protein chains, calcium, or vital fluids can be put.”

“I find it curious that you feel the need to threaten us when you have us precisely where you want us to be, and as contained as you can possibly manage,” Ayli said.

“Threats are for meat-forms,” the droid said. “I am informing you of the algorithm to follow should you wish to survive beyond the current moment.”

 “Oh, right, droids can only think in code, can’t they,” Ayli said.

That earned a zap from one of the HK’s non-lethal weapon systems.

She flinched at the hit, but that was purely theatrical. The Force wasn’t being particularly vocal about what she was supposed to do, but it was still willing to move when she asked it too and redirecting Force lightning had been one of the earliest things she’d worked out how to do.

From the perspective of the HK droid, Ayli knew her clenched fist would look like a reaction to the shock she’d received. The spark of electricity that she was holding inside the fist wasn’t something she had an immediate use for, but it was a weapon and her history had taught her that the more weapons you had available the better.

“By all means, keep talking,” Overwhelming said.

“You’re being careful not to damage us,” Ayli said.

“That can change.”

“Oh? Is your master the forgiving sort? I haven’t read of many Sith who were particularly happy when their orders weren’t followed?” Ayli asked.

The HK unit shocked her again, and the spark in her first grew denser and more fierce.

“No orders were given that you had to enjoy the journey,” Overwhelming said.

“Real torture is off the table though. That’s interesting,” Ayli said, genuinely curious over why Overwhelming wasn’t using the implements that were on display beside the table she was shackled to. “Paralus wants to wait on that. I wonder why?”

“The others will feel our pain,” Monfi said.

“Which would let them intercept us?” Ayli wondered. It wasn’t entirely implausible. She’d already felt Nix reaching out to her and had responded with what little information she could manage to feed back through the stifling shadow of the Dark Side the ship was cloaked in.

Ayli hadn’t been able to give Nix a good sense of where she was but the two of them both knew where she was heading.

Praxis Mar had called to both of them, and, as the worst possible place in the galaxy for them to be drawn to, it made sense that Paralus’s base was there. It also made sense that Nix would make every effort to cut Overwhelming off before they got to Praxis Mar.

Paralus had nearly killed her in the Shadowed Cave, and Ayli had gotten the sense that he had confronted Nix as well. Facing him when he wasn’t extending himself across light years seemed like a fight they were guaranteed to lose, and that was before factoring in the well of power he’d be able to draw on from the Dark Side planet.

Since neither of them wanted to go to Praxis Mar, helping Nix find them sooner rather than far-too-late should have been the wisest move, but Ayli knew it wouldn’t work out like that.

Overwhelming’s ship was a flying horror show that was only “lesser” to Praxis Mar by virtue of the fact that it was orders of magnitude smaller. The people who had died within it numbered in the thousands. On Praxis Mar the number had been billions. In either location though, Paralus would wield far too much power to engage directly. Ayli knew losing fights, and she knew what you did when saw one. 

You found someplace else to fight.

So drawing Nix to intercept Overwhelming’s ship was not the right play.

Destroying Overwhelming’s ship? That was a much better option.

She had no idea how she was going to do that of course, but, as Kelda had mentioned more than once (though far less often that Ayli had expected her too), trusting in the Force meant believing that it was working through you even when you couldn’t understand how.

“Our connections are always there,” Kelda had said. “Those who came before us? They’re not simply part of the Force, not some distant, wispy ghosts that are just out of sight. They live on in our memory and in who we are. They are a part of us, and push us onwards, just as we carry them forward. You’re never lost, and neither are they.”

It was hard to believe that most of the time, and even harder to feel it, but belief can be a choice, and even when the heart is numb and silent, it was possible to remain open to what could be.

“You’re going to keep all these droids here to be menacing now I presume?” Ayli asked, casting her gaze on the rather excessive guard force Overwhelming had deployed.

“If you were properly menaced, you would be silent until you were commanded to speak,” Overwhelming said.

“I thought you wanted to hear what our plans were?” Ayli asked, sensing movement in the Force. 

Something dark and wicked was heading towards them.

“Your plans are irrelevant,” Overwhelming said. “You are unarmed, and helpless. What do you think you can do to change your fate?

“Oh, I have no idea,” Ayli said, with complete honesty. Each of the plans she had come up with were almost certain to lead to a messy demise. 

The Force was her ally though, and the Force moved in mysterious ways.

“But I bet she does,” Ayli said as a Dark Side reflection of herself appeared at the far side of the room and began tearing the HK droids apart with her bare hands.