Ren walked slowly into the tunnel, away from Neeka and Cathock, and the little village of Krell. He could feel the way to go, and the tunnel before him lit up just as before. With every step he felt the presence of the strange triplets pervade the corners of his mind that had been focused on his new friendships. It seemed strangely good and natural to have such focus. He felt the emotional bonds between himself and the two mutants – especially Neeka – growing all the time, but he had spent most of his life as a killer. This is what he knew best. He had to admit that part of him was relieved to finally return to a state of solitude where he didn't have to consider others. He had only to focus on the kill.

He walked in silence for the better part of an hour. He could feel the three witches watching him through the Force. The light from the stones in the cave walls began to dim around him. They were slowly wrestling control of the environment away from him. He considered taking it back, but elected to move in the shadowy darkness, letting them think they had an advantage. It was intoxicating to finally be facing Sith after so many years of anticipation. He found himself thrilling in what was to come.

"You're not afraid," a feminine voice whispered in his mind. "That is interesting."

"Is it?" said Ren, letting his voice carry through the mental plain of the Force.

"It makes us wonder," the voice whispered back. "Who are you? Why have we never heard of you?"

"Why would I possibly explain myself?" said Ren.

"Ah, reticence. You should know, apprentice, we can break anyone's mind."

"Really?" said Ren, amused, "then why are you only servants and not the master of your venture?"

The voice answered with a hint of annoyance: "We are young, like you. Our time will come."

"No it won't," he whispered telepathically.

The voice laughed once again. "So you intend to kill us then?"

"Yes."

"No room for an alliance?"

"I have all the allies I require."

"Well then, I suppose we must kill you. Such a shame. You have remarkable power for one so young, but it won't be enough."

Ren felt a tremble in the Force and dodged back along the cave floor just in time to avoid a laser blast that burned the cave wall at the point where his chest had been. He turned and shot a hand out and a soldier somewhere in the darkness screamed out as a wave of the Force slammed him against solid stone. From some twenty meters away Ren felt the man's bones shatter and then the life went out of him.

"Sending soldiers to kill me?" Ren said telepathically.

"Oh, he wasn't one of ours," said the voice, "at least not ours personally. He was a scout. We sensed him coming toward you and we simply did not mention it."

Ren gazed around the cave. The girls knew where he was, if their words were to be believed. With three minds working in perfect unison, how advanced could their combined senses be? He felt a little thrill pass through him. Battling Sith was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

"Do you notice anything strange about these Krell?" said the voice in a lighthearted, almost friendly tone. She – or they – seemed to want to keep talking.

"You mean their connection to the Force?" said Ren.

"Oh, there is certainly that, but we are thinking on a much more obvious, and basic level. We only saw their village for a few moments, but a strange question comes to mind."

"What do they eat?" said Ren.

"Yes-s-s-s," said the voice. "No vegetation and no livestock anywhere to be found. How many kilograms of food do you think it would take per day to keep a tribe that size as strong and healthy as they were?"

"I don't know. At least a ton."

"Yet there was not a trace of food anywhere. They were far from any openings to the surface – not that there seemed to be anything other than grass up there."

If Neeka or Cathock had noticed the lack of an obvious food source, they had said nothing of it, but things had been happening so quickly since they had arrived on the strange world that many details had been glazed over. Ren was thinking of the matter now and wondering exactly what the Krell were. Nothing about them was natural, and yet nothing about the planet was natural. It was all a strange puzzle with variables outside the realm of scientific knowledge. Yet he could not let his mind linger too long on such things. If he grew distracted, the triplets would kill him.

"It is truly remarkable that your master was able to keep you a secret from our master." the feminine voice whispered. "Who trained you?"

Ren felt an almost undetectable presence drawing near to him – presence nigh as difficult to sense as Malanctha's. He decided to remain calm and play along with the conversation: "Why should I tell you if you don't know?"

"If you won't speak of your master, what about your friends, if that's what they are?" Ren sensed his stalker drawing closer, coming from behind. There was also a second presence coming from the left a bit further away. He continued to walk slowly, letting them advance.

"What of my friends?" said Ren.

"The female in love with you, or at least she thinks she is," said the voice. The words struck a nerve in Ren's soul. He pushed hard against his feelings, keeping his mind clear. His two stalkers were very close now. "You're her first love it seems. It's very sweet. She's extremely naïve about what you are. The poor little fool thinks you can love her in return. She doesn't see the ruthlessness in your black, Sith heart."

Ren's mind remained icy cold as the triplets insulted Neeka. They were calculating a weakness. It was a game, and one he understood. He waited, knowing the attack was about to come.

The voice went on: "After we kill you, we will punish her for her stupidity."

Ren sensed the attack coming in that moment. The one behind him held a deactivated light saber above her head. In an instant she would flick it on and bring it down, slicing him from neck to waist. He acted first, spinning fast and unleashing a massive torrent of Force lightning directly into the face of his would-be attacker. She let out a horrible scream of pain as skin, hair, and eyes were burned and she was hurled back.

"NO!" Shrieked the next closest girl. She charged at Ren, the crimson blade of her light saber out in an instant. Somewhere behind him he heard the shrieking gasps of the one he had hit. The girl had managed to survive, but she was injured horribly – too horribly to lend herself to the current fight, which was to Ren's advantage.

Ren blocked a violent thrust at his face and struck back. The girl dodged back and glared at him, her turquoise eyes burning with hatred. The girls were echani, he realized. Echani children were often born identical to one another, and such offspring carried a deep, instinctive bond with one another.

"We will rip you to pieces," the girl hissed. She raised her hand and let loose a torrent of her own Force lightning at Ren.

Ren's saber flicked up and took the brunt of her attack while reaching up with his left hand and gripped her by the throat with the Force. He squeezed hard and jerked up, lifting her off her feet and subsequently ending her electrical attack. She gyrated violently in the air as he choked her, trying desperately to disrupt the Force energy he was using. She could not, and after a few seconds her eyes started to flicker and her limbs began to slacken. Then, very suddenly, the mental strength within her doubled, and then tripled. Another blond haired figure emerged from the shadows with a crimson light saber and, from behind him, Ren felt the girl he had burned in the face reaching out and lending her mental strength to her sister. The one Ren was choking suddenly broke free from his hold and dropped to the ground, gasping.

Ren turned and let loose a second blast of lightning, killing the already injured Sith behind him instantly and removing her from the equation. Both of her sisters charged him immediately, but he sent a violent shockwave of Force energy outward at them. They were able to resist well enough to avoid being hurled back, but they were both stopped dead in their tracks, which gave Ren a chance to leap backward. He required a few seconds to recover his full strength from the heavy amount of Force energy he had released.

As his body whipped back and the remaining girls glared at him. There was complete hatred in their eyes – an almost animalistic rage. Yet as they renewed their attack, they did not use martial Force, but joined their twin minds together to attack his. Ren felt them, from thirty feet away, clawing at his psyche. Individually, he had already ascertained, these girls were not nearly as strong as he, but their strength was in their perfect unison. He had eliminated one third of their power, but the mental strength generated by their two minds was still formidable. He felt the walls he had constructed within his own brain reverberate against their attacks.

The girls were trying to disable him, he knew. Their power was such that if he gave way to it even for an instant he would become their puppet, just as Cathock had been. Ren drew deep from his reserves pushed back against their intrusion and found, with a bit of excitement, that his will was sufficient to withstand all that they could throw at him. Further, he could launch his own attacks against them.

Ren reached out with two hands and attempted something he had only ever used against week-minded mercenaries: he gripped two throats at once with the Force. Both girl's gasped in shock as his power closed around their throats. Immediately they began to rage and kick violently, but they could not lend each other their wills for they were both dying at once. Each girl needed her own power to stay alive.

Ren walked toward them slowly, continuing to choke them through the Force. His power was superior to theirs. He felt the Force flowing through his as never before. He was Ren Drakthar, and they were merely insects in his path. He focused all of his strength rather suddenly on the girl to the right, using the Force not simply to choke her, but to crush her neck. She dropped to the cave floor within seconds, gyrating on the ground, unable even to cough. She died quickly.

The final one of the triplets was extremely weakened, but she tried to attack Ren all the same. She raised her right hand and summoned the dark side, sending a violent bolt of Force lightning at Ren. He was ready though, and hurled back his own lightning. Their two arcs met in the middle and collided with one another, and there was a brilliant show of blue light and a horrible tearing sound as they fought against one another. Ren's arc quickly overtook the girl's though, pushing it back all the way to the palm of her hand. She let out a scream as her right arm was seared and her body convulsed under the strain of electrocution.

The girl dropped to the ground, shrieking. Ren pulled her light saber right from her hand to his. He stared at her then. She was unable to fight any longer, and was only clutching at the charred mass that had been her right arm. She would be dead in a few moments from the wound. He raised his hand and took aim at her chest, but he stopped when he saw crystal tears roll out of her eyes. She was looking back and fourth between her two sisters.

"You loved one another," he said.

She glared up with wet eyes and said: "You can never understand our bond, or what you have destroyed!"

"I think perhaps I can," he said. He moved over to her and knelt down. She shrank slightly, but he made no move to attack. "It's not something I expected to find in other Sith. You and your sisters shared an intense bond like the one my mother and I share – perhaps much greater even, for your minds and your philosophies were so attuned. It must have been the most important thing in all three of your lives."

The girl's eyes welled up with new tears. "Are you mocking me?" she whispered.

"No," Ren whispered. He felt her attempt to probe his mind, and he looked her in the eyes and allowed her to see into him. She was dying after all.

"You're not truly Sith, are you?" she said.

"Not truly," Ren said. She probed deeper for a moment, and then withdrew.

I have a request," she whispered, her voice choking, "I ask that when you claim all our light sabers as prizes, you keep them together."

"It isn't my policy to collect trophies," Ren said.

"You must take them," she said, and her voice was extremely sharp for an instant. "You must not discard our weapons and leave them to rust in this cave. It is your duty to claim them in honor of our deaths. It is the Sith way." She stared deeply into his eyes and whispered: "Our lives meant at least that much."

Ren gazed at her for a moment, and then said: "Alright. He snapped her weapon to his belt and then summoned the weapons of the other two, one at a time, to his hand and snapped them on in a neat row. "I give you my word that I will keep them together."

She smiled dryly at him, as if amused. "You do this out of compassion. You are definitely not Sith, Ren Drakthar."

Ren smiled at her, respectful of her psychic skill. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Thaleska," she said. "My sisters were named Trila, and Analice."

"I will remember your names," said Ren.

"Thank you," she whispered. She looked him over silently for a moment, and then said: "You have tremendous power for one so young. Our master will twist you to his will when he discovers it."

"I do not think so," he said.

She laughed softly. "Your confidence is magnificent." She shut her eyes and smiled, as if imagining something, and then her face became sharp and serious. She looked into Ren's eyes and said: "I hate you from the very pit of my soul for killing my precious sisters, but I hate Lord Sarak even more. If the two of you are to battle, I would see you the victor. I do not believe such a thing is possible though. He has too many advantages over you."

Ren rolled these words around in his mind for a moment, and then said: "Why do you hate him so much?"

She twitched. Blood was beginning to seep down her charred arm. "We were Jedi padawans once, if you can believe it." She gave a little chuckle. "The council separated us when we were babies, but we were connected more strongly than any of them could see. We could feel one another before we could even talk, and we learned to draw strength from one another. Sarak happened upon Trila's master about a decade ago, and killed him with ease. He immediately sensed her connection to us. He took her as one of his slaves, and then came and found Thalice and me. He made us into what we are now." Her eyes shifted to her sisters, and a new set of tears rolled down her face. "He is the reason my sisters are dead now, more than you."

She coughed and winced in pain as her arm shook. "I see all of your premonitions that you will face my master. I will give you some advice. You must not seek him out now. First you must find leverage over him. Sarak is nearly three centuries old, and his long life span is finally beginning to wane. He is utterly obsessed with the key to immortality he believes exists here. If you can find it before he does, you will have the power to set the terms of your confrontation. That is your only chance."

"I see," said Ren. He thought for a moment, and then said: "I have one more question. How do you cloak yourself from the Force?"

Thaleska smiled. "I suppose I will tell you our greatest secret. Only Sarak himself knows. All the other Sith believe we have discovered some ancient power. The answer is really quite simple. We happened on one of our missions upon a creature from Sith legend: a naragoul."

Ren remembered the word from his studies of ancient Sith scripture. The naragoul was said to be one of the primitive and terrible creatures endowed with the Force. There were few details on the beast, except that it possessed a unique power of invisibility."

"The creature was almost completely undetectable – a blur in the darkness. We three, with our combined senses, only barely perceived it. It attacked us, and we managed to slice off a piece of it. It disappeared into the shadows, but we kept its cells, and we discovered something extremely interesting. The cells did not die, even when sliced away with a light saber. Instead, they remained alive and emitted a constant aura that kept all but the most powerful Sith from detecting our presence."

She reached under her robes with her good hand and drew out a small, transparent phial strung to a cord around her neck. Inside of it, a whitish substance glowed softly in the darkness. "You may have it, for all it is worth," she said, and she slipped the necklace from her head. "Take those of my sisters as well. They may aid you in your fight."

"Thank you," said Ren, taking the necklace from her hand. He gestured over to the other two sisters and, one at a time, their necklaces lifted from under their robes and off their heads, and floated to his outstretched hand.

"I suppose that is all I have to offer you," Thaleska said. "Our business is concluded then. You must kill me now."

Ren felt the muscles in his body tighten ever so slightly. "You... don't have to die," he said. "I can heal you with the Force – perhaps even enough to use your arm."

"Do not disgrace me with your mercy!" Thaleska said, her voice full of venom. "I am Sith. Grant me a warrior's death. You owe me that much."

"You weren't always Sith. You don't have to live your life according to a philosophy that some else-"

"I am Sith," she said. "You cannot understand. You are the only being I have ever met – ever heard of – who can walk in the middle. We – I cannot. My soul has gone over, and nothing shall bring it back." She winced again from the pain of her wound, and hissed: "You have killed my sisters. I am only a fragment of what we were. I have no wish to continue. You must kill me."

Ren took a deep breath. These were the ways of the Sith he had always fought against, and what his mother had ultimately spared him from. Still, as he looked at the girl whose arm he had destroyed and whose sisters he had killed, he thought he at least owed her the death she wished.

"Alright," he said, rising and drawing his lightsaber. "Goodbye, Thaleska."