Chapter 43: Heart of Darkness

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The first thing that hit Seth as he released the lockout and got the door open, (the secondary exit, they couldn't get the door they'd come in through open because it was too dented out of shape), was the stench. It was an acidic smell of burned meat and something much worse. He found himself looking into a short corridor of flash-fried corpses, all of them coated in a layer of burned flesh and ash. He coughed, wincing, and wondered if the stench came from the neutron purge or the terentatek corpses. In the end, he decided it didn't really matter and that the sooner they could go through this scorched nightmare, the better.

And so he began walking, taking the most direct route he could back to the elevator. They'd made sure that all the doors were unlocked, though that only extended to the top two levels. The one below them, the final level, was on its own security network that could not be accessed from anywhere but on that level they had discovered. Well, except for the neutron purge, that hit almost everywhere. As they walked through the now silent installation, Seth found himself thinking of his chest wound. It burned dully, but that wasn't what had him thinking.

He was wondering how much he could take.

Seth Kast had come to think of himself as very tough, physically speaking. It was something he had ensured through years of rigorous and diligent training, (something he had admittedly been slacking on recently, though he thought he was making up for it in sheer combat). Toughness was first a promise to himself, and then it became a matter of ego, and finally it had simply become a matter of fact. After a certain point, he'd kind of started to take it for granted. And it wasn't just physical strength, but mental fortitude, endurance, pain tolerance, and a handful of other qualities, all of which he had worked hard to strengthen over the past dozen years.

But he still knew that even with all this training, all this experience, all this time invested in almost nothing but strengthening himself, he still had a limit.

It had been reached more than once on this journey. How many times had he passed out? How much pain had he endured? How many new scars had he collected? Dxun had been pretty bad. Taris had been worse.

Death was something that he had resented initially, because he feared it. Eventually, he'd taken a sort of 'I don't give a crap' attitude that punks who knew they were hot stuff tended to adopt. You sort of came to think of yourself as above death, eventually. After that came a sort of respect for it, and then an acceptance of it. If you put on the armor and picked up the rifle, you accepted that you might die sooner rather than later.

And then, eventually, he had come to welcome it.

How many times had he gone into battle sure that he wouldn't come out the other side intact?

Too many to count at this point. Eventually, he came back around to resenting, even hating, death. Because now it seemed as if it would not claim him. Sometimes, he felt cursed. Poisoned. Afflicted. Once, he imagined that he walked like the damned must. He had come to feel as though death was haunting him, and then wondering if death had abandoned him. He just kept on...living. Only it didn't feel like living, it didn't even feel like surviving after awhile.

It felt like...

Dying without dying.

It was a haunting, harrowing, hollowed-out existence. He felt like a skeleton, a husk, no more than a shell of himself.

Sometimes he'd wondered if he was even still alive.

And now here he was, wanting to be alive. Wanting to survive. Being around these people, these four people, traveling with them, talking to them, listening to them, experiencing battle and life with them, having meals with them, connecting with them...

It was like an antidote to the existential apathy that had poisoned his spirit.

And so that made him wonder how much more he could take. How far he could go. And there was still a small part of him, perhaps the last vestiges of that poison, that wanted to see how far he could push it. That wanted more pain, more suffering. Wanted to soak in it, revel in it, live in it. He wanted to see how much he could endure and triumph over.

Some people might call it being suicidal, but if anything, it was almost the opposite.

Maybe he was just a masochist.

Seth began to still his mind, his thoughts, because he needed to be razor sharp. He needed to be focused for whatever lay ahead, because in his experience, the worst of the worst typically was saved for the very last part of wherever it was they were investigating. And that probably meant that they would have to face the original terentatek itself, which he was not looking forward to. Although maybe they had gotten off lucky, and they were done fighting.

"Ugh, I can't believe how bad this is," Nova muttered as they neared the elevator.

"The smell is pretty bad," Maya murmured.

"I mean it is, but I was more talking about the purge. Like...holy crap, this is just wholesale slaughter. I've never seen anything like this," Nova replied.

"There's a good reason for that: having them is a crime against sentience. There was a peace accord awhile ago that supposedly everyone agreed to and neutron purges were on the list of what we all agreed not to use...and I just used one," Seth explained.

"Against the Sith and their cloned beasts," Nova said.

"Yeah, but it's still...this is pretty bad," he muttered.

"You did what you had to do. I would have done the same. This is too important, unfortunately," Maya said quietly.

Nova sighed. "Yeah, I agree. It's just...it's a bit much."

"War always is," Seth murmured. That was another thing that was weighing heavily on him, but he'd been trying very hard to push it down. He'd done a lot of bad things, killed a lot of people. Probably the thing that was bugging him was that he didn't regret hitting the button. He didn't even regret that he didn't hesitate. He'd just done it. Because Maya was right, it needed to be done, this was too important.

And he wondered how right he was going to be in the future, if faced with a similar choice.

They came to the door that had initially been locked down, and moved through it, and a security checkpoint beyond. A dozen combat droids lay sparking on the floor. Their metal frames sported burned-out spots in several places where their circuitry had overloaded or blown out. Some of them were just heaps of pieces scattered across the room. The only other real solace he could take from this whole thing was that it was at least instantaneous, though he did feel kind of ill at the thought of what it must have been like for the soldiers who almost certainly knew that the purge was coming for them and there was literally no escape.

Maybe some of them had gotten back up to the first floor and escaped in that tunnel, but it seemed pretty unlikely.

Seth walked over to the elevator and hit the button. The doors slid open, revealing a pair of Sith soldiers, flash-fried and completely still, crumpled, wilted really, on the floor. He had an image of flowers withering beneath the unstoppable force of a flamethrower and felt his stomach twitch. Forcing himself onward, he stepped into the elevator. Maya and Nova joined him a second later, and Maya hit the down button.

The doors closed and the metal cube of death began to descend.

The ride seemed to take an excruciatingly long time, and the smell grew worse. Not a word was spoken as they descended deeper into the complex. Seth had to fight not to look down at the bodies that lay at his feet, almost as if in silent testament to the atrocity he had just committed. He swallowed and focused on the door.

Maya shivered after a bit, and he thought he knew what was bothering her.

The Dark Side energy was so thick down here that he could feel it, he could imagine what it must be like for her.

At long last, the elevator settled into its nest, and the doors opened. Another corpse, a terentatek creature, awaited them in an antechamber beyond. They stepped out, weapons at ready, just in case. There were a few more dead terentatek creatures around, but nothing alive. Three doors awaited them, one in each wall.

"We should clear the side places first," Maya said softly.

"Yeah...someone needs to stay here and guard the lift, in case that door opens," Seth replied.

"Who does it?" Nova asked.

Seth considered it for a moment. "Maya," he said finally. "You're the best fighter of the three of us. Makes you the best choice."

"And if you run into something that survived in one of these other rooms?" she asked.

Seth frowned and looked down at the nearest corpse. "I don't think that's going to happen, but we shouldn't be too far away from each other. Nova and I will stick together."

"Very well," Maya replied. "I will maintain vigilance here."

"Thank you."

He and Nova broke left first, opening the door and finding themselves in a long corridor made of white metal. The floor was littered with more fried corpses covered in soot and ash and burned flesh and in some cases clothing or armor fused into their skin. Seth ignored them as best he could, sweeping the lengthy metal tunnel with as analytical an eye as he could manage. It was hard: the stench was bad, and the metal was a glaring titanium white, making the corpses really stand out. Nova was silent as they made their trek.

It seemed to take ages, but finally they reached the end of the corridor. There were no other doors, no alcoves, nothing but the occasional small vent. The door stood open, almost as if inviting them in. Beyond its threshold lay some kind of laboratory. The right wall was lined with examination bays, each holding a table with an orbit of equipment, each table holding a dead terentatek...clone? Mutation? Replica?

Whatever they were, it was obvious a lot of thought and effort had gone into their creation. How long had they been here, doing this? Weeks? Months, probably. It was a decently extensive operation. Along the left wall were high-tech workstations, very likely where they processed, examined, and tweaked the data they received from their experiments. Wanting desperately to get this over with, to be done with it and completely wash his hands of this misery, Seth began to check the place over while Nova stood guard by the door.

He checked every nook and cranny, and tried a few of the workstations, but they had all been fried in the purge as well. As he suspected, there was nothing left for them here. Nothing alive, no information, nothing useful. He and Nova moved back towards Maya, who maintained her stance, staring intently at the door ahead of them, then passed by her, moving down the opposite corridor. The only good thing about it was that the search there was just as uneventful and went by just as quickly, and soon, they rejoined her.

"Nothing?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing," Seth confirmed.

"Then now we must face the darkness that lies beyond this doorway. Whatever it is, it is tremendously evil, saturated in the Dark Side. I believe the terentatek we seek is on the other side of this door, but...there could be more. Both of you must be prepared to fight and fight very hard...are you?" she asked, her voice low.

Her gaze never wavered from the door ahead of them, as if she could see through it.

"I'm ready," Seth said.

"Yep," Nova replied tightly.

"Good...let us face this."

Maya walked forward and drew her lightsaber. She ignited it, then reached out and pressed the open button. Seth gave her this: she didn't hesitate. Maya was a very brave woman. He found himself hoping, desperately, that they were stronger than whatever was in the room beyond. The door slowly slid open.

Darkness lay like a haze across the room ahead, and the light from behind them seemed to do little to push it back.

Slowly, very slowly, the trio walked a few paces into the room.

Something very big, very heavy, took a step, somewhere else in the room. The sound of its foot hitting the floor was loud.

Seth became aware of heavy breathing. Animalistic breathing.

A terentatek. The real deal.

He caught a hint of light glinting off of one huge tusk, deeper into the room, to their right. The blue light of Maya's lightsaber helped push back the darkness, but not by much.

Suddenly, the sound of another saber igniting came at them, and a brilliant red light burst into being to their left.

Seth's heart began to beat harder and faster in his chest, and ice began to gather in his guts.

"You are in my lair now," a deep voice intoned. "You should not have come here, Jedi."

"I had no choice," Maya replied, and her voice was dead calm.

"I suppose you have a point," the Dark Jedi said. "We are drawn to each other, yes? One must triumph. It is the nature of the Force. The terminator is where the dark meets the light, and the terminus is an end. Whose end is it?"

"Let us see," Maya replied.

"Let's," the Dark Jedi agreed.

Abruptly, brilliant lights flared to life. Seth grunted and winced, fighting to study the area around them for new threats. But as his vision returned, he saw that they were in a large, curved, vault-like room. And there was only the Dark Jedi and the terentatek. Nothing else, save for some cages and restraining equipment along the periphery of the room. Well, at least this was going to be a decently straightforward fight.

"I will take the Dark Jedi," Maya said quietly. "You two take the terentatek."

"Whoever finishes first helps the other," Seth replied, and Maya murmured in agreement.

She began walking forward calmly, her saber held out. Seth and Nova took aim at the terentatek, which shifted its massive, ponderous bulk, then raised its hands and flexed its utterly massive claws, staring at them with alien, malignant eyes.

This was going to be tough.

He charged up his rifle as much as he could and quickly ran over what he had on him: his blaster, his pistol, a knife, his sword, and just two spare energy clips.

"You got any grenades left?" he asked quietly.

The terentatek began to walk towards them.

"No," Nova replied.

"Crap."

"Yep."

As it started to speed up, trundling towards them, Seth released the overcharged shot and aimed right for its head. Nova did the same thing. Both shots converged and hit it in its ugly face. The creature stumbled to a halt, shook its head, then began coming towards them again. Off to the left, he heard two lightsabers clash together and saw a bright flash, but he ignored it for now. Maya had her battle, he had his. Any hesitation or distraction could get him killed.

Or worse, Nova.

The floor literally shook with its approach as it began barreling towards them. Both of them opened fire, pouring as much blaster fire into the huge thing as they could. Seth's mind worked furiously as each of them sidestepped, then leaped out of the way as it came right at them and almost crashed into them.

"Keep your distance!" he snapped.

Was there something he wasn't seeing? Some quick way out of this? So far, the only other time he'd actually fought a terentatek, he'd used Maya's lightsaber to kill it, and that had probably been luck more than anything else. And that clearly wasn't happening again. Although maybe that was a weak point, the back of its head. It made enough sense.

"Nova, go for the back of the head!" he said.

"Got it!" she replied.

Despite this extremely tentative optimism at finding some kind of weak point, Seth conceded to himself that this was going to be a long, hard, brutal fight.

The creature hesitated briefly, then turned and began going after Nova. Great, this was going to be dangerous. Any time either of them got a shot, it would be at the cost of potentially shooting each other, since the beast would be facing directly towards them. Then again, it was pretty big, pretty hard to miss. He aimed carefully and released a burst of fire at the terentatek. The bolts nailed it in the back of its big, misshapen head and he didn't know how much damage it actually did, but it at least got the thing's attention.

The terentatek turned around, roared at him, and began charging.

Nova aimed and fired, hitting it in the back of the head with another barrage of bolts.

The terentatek stumbled to a halt, turned around, roared furiously, and began charging at her.

Seth grinned, aimed, and fired again, putting another slew of bolts into it. The terentatek repeated its actions and turned to face him, and as he backed up, Seth began to charge up an overcharged shot. Maybe they might actually manage to kill it this way. Unfortunately, they only managed this back-and-forth game another few rounds before the terentatek finally picked up on it and instead of turning around when Nova shot it in the back of the head again, it just kept charging right for Seth. The combination of his surprise and how fast the thing could move for its size and odd shape meant that it managed to swipe at him and actually connect.

He screamed as he was thrown off his feet and two fresh, burning, agonizing lines of pain were ripped across his chest as the claws got through his armor. He heard Nova yelled his name and a fresh burst of blaster fire. Seth rolled, or tried to, and managed not to get stomped on. He staggered to his feet and then stumbled away, fighting to clear his head as the pain began eating into him like acid into metal. He hosed the terentatek down with the remainder of the energy in his clip as he backed away, trying to lead it deeper into the area and hopefully give Nova a good shot at it. He was hurt now, and that was going to make this harder.

And that wasn't even considering the fact that they still had a damned Dark Jedi to worry about. That battle was still raging on, lightsabers clashing again and again. But he had to stay focused on this battle. He could feel blood seeping out of his wounds and knew he had to end this quickly. But how could they!? It seemed to be moving slower now, and Nova shouted to him that it was bleeding from the back of its skull, but how close was it to death? The thing was so durable and its endurance was off the charts.

Seth finished off the remainder of the energy in his rifle and hastily reloaded his second-to-last clip, then resumed fire. For the next several minutes, he and Nova played keep-away from the huge beast, but it was fast! He always found himself narrowly avoiding getting ripped open or outright shredded by its enormous claws. Maybe it was that he was getting slower. He was still bleeding, and all this movement wasn't helping his wounds.

And then, after several more minutes, the terentatek rushed him and cut his rifle right in two with one of its huge claws. He yelled in shock and fell back, both halves of the weapon flying from his grasp. Seth scrambled to get away from the creature and ended up back near Nova, panting.

"What are we going to do?! This thing isn't going down!" she snapped.

Seth had been thinking desperately for a way out of this, because he wasn't sure they could outlast it through sheer strength alone. He pulled out his pistol and began to overcharge it. If only he had a grenade! He could get it into the thing's mouth and maybe that would be enough to put it down, but he didn't have a

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