The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Fifty-Four: Rise

KAYLIRA TRAMINO

Fear turning her heart to ice, Kaylira watched Ahsoka rush towards the Sith Lord Zannah had called her former Master.

She won't win, Zannah whispered into her mind.

Bane lunged toward her, his crimson lightsaber coming a few inches away from striking her lekku. But Kaylira's Master darted out of the way just in time, twisting gracefully back into an offensive.

Just when Kaylira was certain she was going to be sliced into ribbons, she raised one arm and knocked the blade to the side without getting so much as a single scratch. She then realized that the metal armor that decorated Ahsoka's lower arms was made from beskar iron – one of the few materials in the galaxy strong enough to resist a lightsaber.

Ahsoka kicked at him, and he barely managed to step aside. The fight was only beginning, and Sith and Jedi were still sizing each other up.

"You're wrong. She's got people she cares about to fight for. You wouldn't have any idea how strong that makes a person, but it's a lot."

Kaylira's left temple throbbed painfully, and she felt Zannah smirk from inside the weakening mental prison where she had put her. Then you're as foolish as she is – Bane is more than a match for her. But you won't survive this either, she said, rattling her cage back and forth. Or at least not in the way you expect.

"No," Kaylira hissed, squeezing her eyes shut. "I won't let you get the better of me. Not like I did before."

"Kayli." She looked up to see Aeja, from where she was embracing her frightened younger siblings, extending a hand. In a single look, the eldest Bonteri child conveyed that she knew exactly what was plaguing her. "Let me help you."

It is your destiny, Kaylira Tramino.

She was slipping; soon she was going to fall.

"Kaylira, you can't defeat her alone."

She couldn't stop it.

I don't want to hurt you.

Aeja's big blue eyes bored into hers. "Kayli, I'm afraid."

And then, Kaylira understood. Zannah wasn't trying to take over. She wanted to merge their two selves together, to create a perfect blend of the past and present to take on the future: the perfect Warrior.

She had no choice. She was trapped in a dying body; it was a curse that was the only tangible remnant of her ancestors. Zannah wanted to save them both.

Kaylira and Zannah spoke as one. "Then we must learn how to be brave."

Together, they would rise – transcend the borders between the Sides. The Light and the Dark, living in one body in perfect symbiosis. But first they had to take care of the one who would stand in their way: Darth Bane.

They were just reaching for Ahsoka's old lightsaber when an enormous piece of the cave's rocky ceiling broke off and fell, smashing down onto the intact crystal.

Then all hell broke loose.

AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka shielded her eyes as the enormous crystal exploded into a ball of fiery energy, and threw herself down to the ground as a powerful shockwave sent dust, shrapnel and glasslike fragments of crystal flying outward.

Darth Bane let out a yowl of rage, staggering towards the remnants of the crystal, from which red, smoke-like billowed as the crystals slowly returned to their natural green. A moment later, having lost the gravitational pull of the Force from its twin that was holding it together, the fractured stone crumbled along its fault lines as well.