The Dark Academy on Korriban

Some distance from the Imperial Camp, Shaisha had found a suitable spot to meet and talk. It had a small stream of seemingly clean and fresh water, and the area didn't seem to have seen too much Massassi activity.

She sent Jo'ren the coordinates and waited, remaining hidden in the foliage for the time being.

Dressed in his full battle gear, and wearing a thoughtful expression, Jo'ren arrived at the coordinates Shaisha had sent him. He was mentally preparing for his personal expedition in a few hours, but decided that the message has sounded important enough to warrant his attention.

Finding the stream and no Shaisha he spoke: "You can come out now. It's just me."

Her light-hearted laugh gave her away first, before silently stepping out into the clearing.

"Good to see you again, and alone too. I trust you had a successful landing today?"

Jo'ren pulled a face. "So much for repeating my Korriban arrival. I landed. I didn't break anything."

He walked closer and took a good look at her, smiling. "Didn't see you on the ship. I've been studying. How're things?"

It was obvious that he was not completely focused on the present moment, but he was genuinely pleased to see her.

"Had a successful landing myself, no problems really on that front," she shrugged. "Days haven't been the best lately. Guess you could say I've lost some friends... not like you did though, but more that I'm frozen out."

She eyed him with some wariness. "Something on your mind you want to bring up first?"

"Of course you did well Shaisha, I'd expect nothing less." He shrugged at the bit about frozen friends. "They'll thaw. Or else they're not friends and what's the point of being upset about it?"

He shook his head at her question.

"There is something I have to do here, on Yavin. I can't tell you what, but I might not come back." Or I might come back changed. "Hard to see." He tapped the side of his head with two fingers.

"I see," she nodded, a bit disappointed that it wasn't something she could come along for, but she understood the need for people to do things on her own.

"If you don't come back... I might have to deal with the Old Lady on my own then?"

"Better put some faith in my return then." He gave her an honest smile. "Is that why you wanted to meet?"

"Yeah... I said I'd tell you more about her, didn't I?" she smiled in return. She hoped he would come back.

"Her name is Magara-sha, an ancient tribal queen. She was quite the plague before some of the Jedi Exiles brought her to heel."

"You sure did." He listed to her explanation.

"Magara-sha." He repeated the name to see how it sounded from his own lips. "Brought down by the Jedi Exiles. Okay, so she's a long way out of time. How the hell did she end up inside Ensign Veers?"

"Sylvain Torsin... a mishap I think, when he tried to connect to the Force on Korriban. She took over his mind for a moment there until Kristal knocked some sense into him, and her out, temporarily. It's why he was acting like a queen after that incident." And she missed it too. Damnit.

"Said he found a ritual to excorsise her from his mind, and chose some hapless weakling of an ensign to project her into to break free from her. I told him he should've cleaned up that mess when he had the chance, but I guess he was too much of a coward to do it. It took me a while to connect the dots between the two, until she revealed herself as a powerful Force user."

"Torsin?!" His face twisted in disgust. "That little punk just unleashed an ancient Dark force spirit and didn't bother to fix the problem?"

Jo'ren snorted. "Just when I was starting to think he might not be a total tool he turns out to be yet another player's pawn." He shook his head. "Okay then. I don't suppose you happen to know anything about exorcism? Way I see it we can either remove her from her current host, kill her, or pass this up the chain and have the council deal with her."

"I wasn't happy either when I found out, considering he's been a brother to me for many years, and I considered him friend and family until recently," she sneered at the thought.

"I don't know the details of this ritual, I'm afraid to say. But I do know she is powerful in ways of the Force, and when she was Magara-sha, she was a terror in battle. Her current physical form is weak, and wounded after today's landing, but I doubt that killing the body will permanently stop her. Best solution might be to seal her in somewhere... or as you say, have the Council deal with her, but I doubt our respective masters would be happy about us not at least temporarily fixing the problem."

It was a good point and he nodded in agreement.

"I wonder if sedatives would work? If she's trapped in that body for the moment then perhaps keeping the body unconscious would have the same effect on the spirit. In fact, if she's an ancient sith queen she might find the massassi an appealing alternative to being stuck in a human body. Maybe she can be lured out?"

He tapped his chin as he thought about the situation. "Who else have you spoken to about this?"

"She has admitted that she finds the Massassi appealing," she rubbed her chin in thought. Wondering how they could pull off either stunt.

"Apart from old Spindral, you're the only one I've talked to this about, but I wouldn't be surprised if more people knew."

"Perhaps we should involve the seer? She might be able to see if any of our plans have a more favourable outcome." He continued to stroke his chin. "You know, she has to have made other friends. The spirit I mean. She must know that she needs allies. The question is who would she choose and can they be convinced to help in containing her?"

"That she is a dangerous ghost who might do more harm than good to the Empire should be enough reason, I think, but yeah... Sinea might be a good call on bringing in on that. As for the Queen... I don't recall if I've seen her with other people in specific," she shook her head in annoyance.

"I don't think she has changed too much from who she was, and then she was brought to heel only because they saw her power and what use it would be for the fledgling exiles. How she met her end, I suspect someone had enough of her. And now she must be biding her time, until she feels she understands enough and has garnered enough power before making a move."

"Well, if I were a force ghost who had just escaped millennia of death and confinement... Don't think I'd be desperate to return home again." He looked up at the sky. "This place has forests, a connection to the force, and a whole heap of locals who look kinda like we used to. Doesn't seem like a bad place to escape to."

He gave her a thoughtful look. "My guess is she'll try to stay here."

"It would remove the problems from our hands if she stayed," she mused. It would be the easy way out, and require very little risk. "And I don't think she'd need encouragement to stay either."

Her gaze met his for a moment. "Does your master suspect her yet? I don't think mine does..."

"From our hands, yes. But I don't believe she would stay here all quiet and peaceful for long. It would be a delaying tactic at best, an opportunity for her to escape at worst."

He shrugged. "My master has seen that she has power, but not exactly what she is. Personally I would prefer to see her removed as a threat to the Empire."

"We are agreed on that point, certainly," she nodded. "I'm not certain if my master would be too terribly concerned with the matter, to be honest, but appealing to the right voices in the Council might be useful. However, if it were to come up in their sessions, chances are too high that they would vote against doing anything about it, and instead try to find a way to seize her power for themselves; either by making her join them, or something else."

"Yep, I heard about the thing with Zash." His jaw clenched after mentioning her name. "Involving the Council means watching the matter become a petty squabble. So we'll deal with it. Just need to choose our allies carefully. Any chance we can use the Torsin kid as bait to draw her out? Or did they sever all ties? Then again, maybe he can't be trusted with something like that. He is Baras' after all."

"I wouldn't trust him these days either," she said with a sour tone. Seems that friendship might've had a falling out.

"Sinea would be a good one, I think. At least her senses are very keen, and it could come in handy. If we want to ambush her, it has to be swift and brutal... I've already faced her once in combat, that time I got a tree slammed in my face, and I'd rather not repeat that again anytime soon. I know Zeno and Khalim are both good fighters, but if I don't know if I want to drag them in on this." More because I have a feeling you might not like his ties to Zash. "Maybe Khalim, though. If he could be persuaded for it."

Jo'ren didn't look so happy abut the suggestion of Zeno, but he could acknowledge the man's skill. "He's a damn good fighter, but I wouldn't trust Deathwright not to sell us out to the Queen for a pat on the head. Khalim on the other hand, he's dependable. What about your friend Kristal?"

"Hmm... we're not exactly on the best of terms now, but, she is very dependable, and I believe she would set those differences aside for doing what's best for the Empire. That's pretty much been her all the way as long as I've known her."

"Mind sharing what happened between you and Deathwright?"