It was neither the time nor the place for a cheesy pickup line.

“I can understand people having a crush on you, but this is where I draw the line,” Ayli said, going with one anyways.

Above her and Nix, a literal mountain of stone had been dropped on the temple they were in.

“Your timing is impeccable,” Nix said, gazing up from where she’d fallen at Ayli who picked up a slight case of ‘glowing with unrestrained light’. The light was gentle and warm and shone from every part of her being, except her eyes. Her beautiful silver eyes. 

The was no darkness in Ayli’s eyes anymore. No sign of the red and gold scars on her soul that her descent in darkness madness had inflicted. 

She wasn’t whole, or redeemed though. 

She was healing. 

In time, Ayli knew her natural blues would return but while she was in her current state of grace, her eyes took on a hue to give back to others the light within her.

“I was kind of hoping to join you a bit sooner than this,” Ayli said, holding both arms aloft as the mountain continue to bear slowly down on them. “I had to recruit a few new friends first though.”

“I can see that,” Nix said. Tearing her eyes off Ayli wasn’t easy – they hadn’t been apart terribly long, but being apart at all had filled Nix with a hunger which had grown steadily without her noticing it. As Ayli had said though, they were far from alone.

Which was good.

Size didn’t matter to the Force, but levitating a mountain was just a tiny little bit beyond either of their skill at communing with the Force.

The thousand risen souls who had torn free from the Maw with Ayli though? That was a very different story.

“NO! There will be no rebellion! There will be no lie of hope, no disorder. All with return to the darkness!” Paralus was afraid. 

And he was right to be.

Which meant he was finally done with hiding his power, or allowing the Dark Side to bring him victory at no personal cost to himself.

Ayli felt another mountain’s worth of weight bear down on them and the air grew sharp with the tang of ozone as a bolt of Force Lighting strong enough to split the mountain began to gather.

“Paralus, it’s time for you to run away,” Nix said, lending her aid to Ayli and the risen soul’s endeavor.

“Flee? From YOU? Never!” Paralus’ voice seemed to come from all around them, as though he was the mountain that was crushing down on them.

“I said I before I got here part of me didn’t want there to be any hope left for you,” Nix said. “Do you know why?”

“Because the truth beckons you on despite you being too weak to follow it,” Paralus said as the energy for his final strike continued to build.

“It was because I wanted to destroy you. Honestly, I still do. You messed with my wife. I could rend your soul apart for that. Literally.”

Ayli wondered at that claim, but from what she could sense in Nix’s words, Nix’s claim was a simple fact.

Apparently researching other Force Traditions unearthed some unexpected and fairly terrifying things.

“If you possessed that power, you would have done so already. And if you haven’t it shows that you are too weak and stupid to ever match my power.”

“Or, and I know this is hard for you to understand at your level of emotional development, it’s just possible that giving in to a mindless need for immediate gratification isn’t what a real grown up should do.”

The blast came early.

It didn’t manage to split the mountain, in part because it hadn’t gathered enough power but also because even more of the spirits of Praxis Mar rose to defend them

Ayli had shown them how they were connected in the Force and that being engulfed in darkness didn’t mean there were no paths to a better future. They’d called to her from the Maw, and she’d ventured into it to show them what she’d experienced, to let her experience stand as proof of her words and the foundation of her conviction.

Nix was the one who gave them something to fight for though.

Not the destruction of Paralus the Lich. That wouldn’t have accomplished anything aside from a brief respite until his return or the return of some other Dark Side Force user intent on channeling their fear and rage towards even worse ends. 

Following in Nix’s example, the risen souls weren’t fighting to destroy anything, they were fighting to find themselves, and if that meant using what strength they had to protect the one who’d first promised them there could be a brighter tomorrow? Well that wasn’t a bad place to start in Ayli’s view.

“You cannot hold me off forever and I have eternity to grind you down to nothing,” Paralus’ voice boomed but the thunder and roar of the storms outside the temple all but drowned it out.

“I know this tantrum means a lot to you but you’re going to give in before we do,” Nix said, clearly not deescalating the encounter which Ayli found a trifle odd – until that is she remembered what Solna had told her that their new friends were doing.

“I’m not sure he’s smart enough to give in,” Ayli said, adding some fuel to the fire. “He can feel the change that’s happening and he still doesn’t understand that he’s already beaten.”

“The tiny spark you’ve lit is meaningless in the face of this world’s purity,” Paralus said. “Everything here remembers its history. The soil, the water, the air itself hold the screams of the truth.”

“And what truth would that be?” Nix asked.

“That there is no escape. There is one end and all must succumb to it. Nothing can last and no hope or dream can bear the suffering of your wretched existences.”

“That’s…wow, do you have it backwards,” Nix said. “Our hopes and dreams don’t bear our suffering for us. We keep moving forward for them. It’s in striving towards what we believe can be that we create the meaning of our lives. Suffering exists as a beacon for the things we need to fix or seek help with so that we can reach our hopes and dreams. Inflicting misery on other people? Or worse, turning ourselves into a petty little thing that thinks lifting big rocks is the height of power? That’s nothing but sad really.”

“Hiding behind words will not save you,” Paralus said. “Your words, like your bodies, will be crushed and forgotten and as you die, slowly I assure you.”

The mountain which was still bearing down on them grew impossibly heavier.

But only for a moment.

Something shifted in the planet.

Something continental in scale.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work for you,” Ayli said.

“What have you done!” Paralus wasn’t able to hide the shock or fear in his voice.

“Something none of the other people who came here ever thought to if I know my wife,” Nix said.

“I mean, it was pretty obvious,” Ayli said, feeling justifiably proud of herself nonetheless.

“What. Have. You. Done.” And there was the rage. Paralus had only a few tools to work with, and like the marionette to his insecurities that he was, he pulled them out one after the other.

Below them things began to move and shift, but no earthquake accompanied the titanic motion this time.

“You had me walk into the Maw,” Ayli said. “You knew that it was called ‘the Maw’, right?”

“I bet he had a fancier name for it,” Nix said. “He seems like the kind of guy who invents all kinds of over dramatic nonsense for the things he finds.”

“So like ‘The Vortex of All Souls’ or something like that?” Ayli asked, intentionally ignoring Paralus as though he couldn’t hear them and didn’t matter.

“Oh that’s a good one. I was thinking ‘The All Consuming Desparion Pit’ but yours is good, very classy.”

“I think that makes yours better. ‘Desparion Pit’ definitely sounds like someone whose trying too hard, and we knew he’s kinda lacking in the classy department.”

“Nothing can escape the Pit,” Paralus said.

“He really did name it the something Pit! I’m dying here!” Nix said, in no sense approaching her actual mortality.

“Wait, no, it could be the Pit ‘Something’, that’s even edgier isn’t it?”

“No. Nooo! Oh, I bet you’re right. That is so embarrassing.”

Paralus finally appeared before them, two red lightsaber blades in hand.

“I am going to kill you personally,” he said. “And none of these weak and feeble shades can stop me.”

“Probably not,” Nix said with a nod.

“I bet he can though,” Ayli said glancing up as the mountain above the temple and all but the bottom floor of the building were hurled away.

Above them, blotting out the sky and swallowing the storms which raged, the Beast of Praxis Mar towered.

“It has awoken! At last! It has awoken and judgement on the galaxy has come! Victory! Victory absolute!” Paralus cheered with wild abandon.

“You sure about that?” Nix asked.

Ayli reached out for Nix’s hand and together they rose into the air. Their ascension was gentle and effortless as the tens of thousands and growing risen souls below them lifted them until they floated together in the Beast’s line of sight.

“Yes! Be devoured! End in gnashing agony,” Paralus said, rising beside them with his own power.

“Open your eyes,” Nix said. “See who we are. See who you are. And most of all, see what you’ve done and what’s is happening now.”

The Beast turned to face them, its countenance calm and it’s eyes shining silver.

Just like Ayli’s.

“No! NO! That’s impossible. You cannot have undone the darkness of the planet’s soul!” Paralus was close to weeping, which felt cruelly fine.

Why shouldn’t he suffer for what he did?

“Look closer,” Nix said gently, her earlier taunting no longer needed from what Ayli could sense was happening light years away. “Ayli didn’t do this.”

“She’s right,” Ayli said. “I can’t change a planet. I’m just one person. You know what can change a planet though? A planet full of people, and, in this case, the planet itself.”

“Pure despair had sunk to the magma. There was nothing left to redeem here,” Paralus said, lost and perplexed.

“This isn’t redemption,” Ayli said. “This a choice. You had me walk into the Beast’s Maw, did you really think I wasn’t going to talk to it? I’m an archeologist, do you have ANY idea how much we want to understand the places and peoples we study?”

“The darkness should have consumed you utterly,” Paralus said.

“It did. I mean you don’t walk into a maw and not expect to get chewed up,” Ayli said. “Let me fill you in on a little secret though; understanding goes a lot farther than fighting does, and Nix is right, I don’t think anyone has ever tried just listening to the Beast.”

“I will still destroy you!” Paralus said. “When you fall, everything here will see the follow of your words. Everything will see the truth!”

“Paralus,” Nix said, her voice tinged with regret. “Everything here is seeing the truth. That’s why the Dark Side nexus is unraveling. The Dark Side lies, and for far too long the souls trapped her have believed those lies, have made the lies the entirety of their existence.”

“But they’re tired,” Ayli said. “The torment souls, the land and sea and sky, and even the Beast. They’ve been at this for so long and focusing on being miserable hasn’t fixed anything.”

“So they’re going to try a new path forward,” Nix said.

“Not all of them of course,” Ayli said. “There’s ambivalence about this, just like with everything else. There are souls out there who are taking a wait-and-see approach, and souls who believe other routes will lead to happiness.”

“There are even ones who cling to the Dark Side still,” Nix said. “Quite a lot from what I can tell.”

“Because that’s what they’ve know,” Ayli sad.

“In time though, they’ll see. Or they’ll allow themselves to rest at last and pass beyond to the true rest that has been denied them. Just like you will.”

“I shall never bend to you or your pathetic ideals! I am eternal!” Paralus boasted in full belief of his statements.

“Not anymore,” Nix said with a sad shake of her head. “You’ve denied yourself peace for so long now. Rest. There is more than this world and more lives you have yet to live.”

“Fool. I am eternal. My phylactery holds my soul beyond your reach. Where yours is right here, ready to be harvested!” In a thunderclap, Paralus shot forward, each lightsaber slashing downwards to cleave Ayli and Nix in twain.

They didn’t raise a hand to stop him. They didn’t need to.

Despite its size, the Beast swatted Paralus from the sky like a bug, obliterating the projection with a paw the size of an entire country.

“This matters not,” Paralus’ disembodied voice said. “I will stalk you across the stars. I will kill you and torture all of those dear to you. I will leave your life a ruin to serve as an example for all who might follow your foolish footsteps.”

“Sorry Paralus, but your time is done,” Nix said. “You can feel it, can’t you? The pull of the Force. Go with it this time. It’s guiding you to a better home than you’ve ever known before.”

“No! Wait…no, what is this?” Paralus voice grew fainter with each word.

“Your phylactery is gone. It’s why we kept your attention focused here, on us,” Ayli said.

“It’s gone and so are you,” Nix said, speaking to almost empty air. “You are one with the Force at last.”