Jasra raised a concerned eyebrow. Make her tell? For a brief moment, Jasra hesitated. Forcing someone to tell something they didn't want to could be painful. She didn't want to hurt Crystal, but at the same time, she didn't want Kira to think her weak.

"Tell her," she said to Crystal, not using their link to start off with. Perhaps Crystal would tell on her own accord, now that Kira had backhanded her. But if she didn't, Jasra was prepared to take it one step further and use their connection to force her to tell what she knew.

Crystal stared at Kira for a moment, feeling her cheek gingerly. Then, she turned to Jasra. "As I told your master, anything I could say would lead to things I could not."

"Could not, or will not?" Jasra asked. Seeing that Crystal wasn't willing to co-operate, Jasra's eyes narrowed and she concentrated on their telepathic link. "Tell her who you were running from, Crystal," she ordered. "Now."

"Ach!" Crystal hissed, grimacing. "Fine... I jisefef ven!"

She smiled slightly. She'd told them, but had not used Basic to do so. They'd have to try harder than that.

Rather than the back of a hand, Crystal got a closed fist this time as Kira delivered a punch to her jaw, knocking her back against the wall. "The only smart-ass I tolerate is Atton." she said, turning to Jasra. "Try re-wording that a bit. I don't recognize the language she used...Something from far beyond the Outer-Rim or one made up, I haven't a clue."

"Translate what you said into a language we can all understand, Crystal," ordered Jasra, not amused with Crystal's trickery. Just to bring her point home, she zapped Crystal with a small bolt of Force Lightning. "Do it, now."

"Vigg-pedef...," Crystal grumbled, gasping and putting a hand to her forehead. "Headache for days..."

She sighed. "Fine... I hired them."

"You hired them? Why?" Jasra asked, then frowned, hoping that she hadn't over-stepped her boundaries with Kira in asking.

Jasra hadn't been on the Ebon Hawk when Crystal had boarded. She always thought Crystal had been a passenger, or perhaps a stowaway. Now, she was beginning to question Crystal's motive for being on the Ebon Hawk in the first place.

"And who hired you?" she asked intuitively. "Togo? Is that why you tried to grab the shard when we were on Taris? Trying to double-cross him, perhaps?"

Crystal winced. "He wanted me to, but..." She shook her head. Groaning, she went on. "His employer had other plans."

She sighed. "Alright. You want the whole story? Fine."

Taking a deep breath, she started, speakin to Kira. "Around the same time Togo hired Jasra to recruit you for gathering the shards, he also hired me. He explained how his employer wanted all the shards for some reason... he wasn't quite sure why. He had to do what his employer wanted or risk being destroyed. So he hired Jasra to recruit."

"But he also hired me," she went on. "Without his employer's knowledge. I was to intercept you first, to convince you to destroy the shards. He knew his employer would take the shard he'd been given to show you, so he had me try to take it before that could happen. I failed. The shard was taken from me and from him. Still he told me to stay with you..."

She frowned. "Then the shard twisted my mind and my body and I forgot why I was here. I forgot everything. Now that Jasra has taken much of the shards' influence from me, I remember... but it will do me no good now. I'm too late to be of any use... except for being used by you and Jasra for things you cannot do yourselves!"

Almost in tears she yelled, "There! Now you know." And she collapsed, out of breath and in a considerable amount of pain.

Kira looked down her nose at Crystal, who had collapsed to the ground, shaking with silent sobs. Her gaze was indifferent, and she turned from her, moving to look out the ship's viewscreen. "How long until we arrive?" she asked Jasra.

Jasra checked the console. "According to the computer, two hours and twelve minutes, Master. We're in hyperspace now," she added, as the ship had entered it so smoothly she hadn't noticed.

"What do you want to do with her until we arrive?" Jasra asked. "There are crew quarters in the aft of the ship," she said suggestively.

"I'm guessing the doors can be closed and locked, correct?" Kira asked, and Jasra nodded. "Good."
"On your feet." she said, she brought her hand up, palm-up, and Crystal was forced to her feet. "Let's go." she shoved her roughly along the hallway, then into one of the wings of the crew quarters, the door sliding shut and locking down after her. "I trust we won't have any disturbances until we reach Dxun? I was planning on meditating for a bit."

"Locked doors won't keep me," Crystal snapped, suddenly appearing and leaning against the wall across from Kira. "If you wanted my cooperation, you should've considered a less aggressive way to get me to speak."

She gestured to her bruised jaw.

“Crystal, don’t antagonise her!” Jasra warned through their link.

“You can’t leave the ship, Crystal,” Jasra said aloud. “Locked doors or not, crew quarters or not, I suggest you find someplace quiet and leave my Master to her meditations.”

Again through their link, “And let us have a quiet place to talk. We’ve both been pawns in this game, you and I. We both have a stake in the outcome now.”

“Your decision,” she said outloud to Crystal.

Crystal grimaced. "I'll be in my room!"

She vanished and the door she'd been locked behind before switched to unlocked and opened. "I'll stay here if you agree the door remains unlocked. I can come and go as I please."

She glared at Kira. "Go meditate. I'll not bother you. Got no reason to."

She reentered her room and the door slid shut behind her.

As Kira and Crystal were now in their respective quarters, Kira meditating and Crystal sulking by all outward appearances, and the ship on auto-pilot to Dxun, Jasra slipped down to Brax's chambers.

She stablised the stasis field around Brax's body. It would hold for a good number of hours now before having to be refortified. Then she sat down on the floor, legs crossed in a meditation position.

She knew she was way out of balance. She had hurt Crystal, intentionally, and although she could rationalise her behaviour by claiming it was to impress her loyalty on Kira, the truth was she had enjoyed the sense of having power over another. And it scared her.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on balancing the Force inside her, like Brax had taught her to do. Yes, the way of the Zedai was much more challenging than either the path of Jedi or Sith. She wished Brax were here to guide her.

But there was one person who might be able to help her.

Crystal? she called out through their link. I need your help. I'm sorry I hurt you. But you gave me no other option. I don't care if you don't believe me, but, you and I, we've both been used as pawns in this game. And I am through being a pawn. If we are to survive, to win, you and I have to help each other. For our own sake. For Kira's sake. For everyone's sake. Help me to find the balance between the Dark and the Light. Between emotions and stoicism. Only through balance can we hope to survive this. Please...

"There's always other options," Crystal said quietly, appearing before Jasra, eyes blazing with anger. She sighed and sat down in front of Jasra. "You had a choice to make and you chose to impress her."

"You want balance?" she went on, calming just slightly. "Kira won't teach you balance. Karda wouldn't have. Brax was trying. Why come to me? I spent much of my childhood with the Jedi. They tried to understand me and, in my own way, I tried to understand them."

She sighed wearily. "I spent time with the Sith also, but like you and Kira have already done, they tried to use me. I don't trust either side, Jasra. And I hardly find myself a master of the balance you seek."

((No, no, no, no, no..... Ugh. That's not right. We need to talk, people.

EDIT: Never mind. It's been worked out.))

Jasra was surprised to see Crystal in front of her, Brax having told her that his chamber would admit only her. But then, again, she and Crystal had a shared link, so perhaps the security couldn't distinguish between their thought patterns now.

"I don't trust either side either," Jasra said. "That's why I come to you. Because of the link we share. And because Brax is dead," Jasra said, her eyes rimming with tears as she said the words. "I know I had a choice. And I choose now to ask you for help. And your forgiveness."

She paused. "I don't like the Dark Side, but at the same time I find myself craving it. It's powerful. Hungry." She looked at Crystal. "Help me. Help me sort my thoughts from those of the shard. Give me something to focus on."

It took a few moments for the computer to realize that another person had entered the room, but it did when they started both talking, and the walls opened. Guns slid out and locked onto Crystal.

"Admitance to this room is permitted only to Jasra Lantil, you must exit immediatly or lethal measure shall be taken." Came the voice of the computer though the room.

"Even those of us without Force sensitivity feel the pull of darkness," Crystal said thoughtfully. "The more you consume it, the more it consumes you. There are ways to use it without letting it overtake you, but it isn't easy. I can try to be of some help... but I'm curious. Why didn't you ask before? Because I was half out of my wits? Or because you didn't want help before?"

"Because you were out of your mind. And because I had Brax." Jasra eyed the guns now pointed at Crystal. "Even after death, he protects me."

"You must exit immediately or lethal measures shall be taken," said the computer more urgently.

"You must leave, Crystal," Jasra said impassionately. "I cannot control the security measures Brax has put in place. Go back to your quarters. I suppose I'll have to find my own balance."

"Damn inconvenient," Crystal muttered. She vanished, returning to her room.

In the small corner of her mind where Kira was still herself during meditation, she was panicing. She had seen all of the things she...the Shards had done as of yet, and each one stabbed deeper and deeper into an already bleeding wound. She had stabbed Atton, attacked her friends, and hit Jasra and Crystal several times. And as the main part of her, the Shard controlled part, meditated, Kira screamed.
The fact that everyone around her had become cold in her presence. Before this had all began, she had fit in easily with everyone, even with being the so-called leader of the crew. Whereas now...she was alienated. Even Jasra, who was now apprentice to the Shard-Kira, was distant and unfeeling.
No one mourns the wicked.

~*~*~

It wasn't long before Atton began to show signs of life again, after recieving treatment from the Disciple and the Watcher. He moaned and coughed as he danced between the darkness and light, before coming to full wakefullness. He tried to sit up as phlem came up in his throat when he coughed, but fell back, yelling in pain.
"You cannot sit up yet, Atton." Disciple said, running into the room after hearing the noise. "The wound and the burn is severe. I'm not sure you'll be up again for a while."
"No ****, Sherlock." the Scoundrel growled, "I was stabbed by an F-ing lightsaber, and it went straight through. Even I know this isn't a scratch."
"So then...you remember what happened?"
"Yeah, I remember everything." he said moodily, his eyes scanning the ceiling and he fell silent for several minutes. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about the incident. He turned his head and looked down across the room, his eyes roaming across the white walls...wait. White walls?
"I'm not in the Hawk, am I?" he asked.
"No, you're not. You're in the Watcher's TARDIS."
"The Watcher...?" he shook his head. He had had enough of Doctors and TARDIS and such for now. "Where's Kira?" he barked.
"She's...not here, Atton."
"What? What the hell d'you mean she's not here?? Where is she?"
"We're not sure. After being possessed by the Shards, she disappeared with Jasra and Crystal."
Atton tried to sit up again, winced, groaned, then fell back, defeated. "Well why are we sitting here? We have to find her! We have to follow her!"
"We are." Disciple answered, "We've determined the location of the next Shard, and the Watcher is currently preparing his TARDIS to make a jump."

The Watcher moved around the console in his TARDIS control room like a moth around a flame, pulling levers and pushing buttons seeminly at random.
"That should do it..." he muttered. He pulled a single lever, and the sound of a TARDIS engine screeched through the room. It was more weathered and tired than the Doctor's but remarkably similar.
"Mical, we're on course for Dxun," he said into the comm. "We should arrive momentariy. We'll need you and your Force sensitivity to lead us to the Shard. Make sure Atton's alright, then meet me in the control room - Nyssa and Tegan willl stay with Atton."
"We most certainly will not!" said Tegan, stepping forward.
"Tegan, please..." said the Watcher. "It's not safe. Besides, someone needs to stay with Atton."
"But Nyssa can-"
"No," said the Watcher firmly. "You're staying. That's final. Until you're reunited with your Doctor, I'm responsible for you. That means I give the orders around here, got it?"
Tegan glared at him, but conceded that he was right. "You're starting to sound just like the Doctor..." she muttered bitterly.
The Watcher just smiled.

"Very well." Disciple said, nodding as if the Watcher could see him.
"Mical?" Atton asked, thoughrouly confused, "Is that what he just called you? Are you telling me you have a name other than Disciple? I can hardly believe it!" he said sarcastically. Disciple left the room without a response.

"You know, the Doctor did the same thing to me." Disciple said, striding up to the Watcher. "He called me by my name when I hadn't told anyone else aboard the ship who I really was. How was it that you know me? My real name, I mean."

The Watcher smiled. "How do you think the Doctor knew your name? It's recorded in time, even if you refuse to use it."

"Of course, but my question is why would you have bothered to look for it? I'm certain that digging through hundreds of thousands of millenia to search for a single name wouldn't be an easy task. That is...unless of course, you've met me already in your travels."

((Can't drag it out of him yet, Kira :xp: ))

The Watcher continued to smile. "You're not like the rest, are you Mical? You seem to understand the subtleties of time... I'm impressed.
"Yes, I have met you before. I've met all of you. That includes the Doctor. But not this Togo, and certainly not these Shards. I fear that there is some higher power behind these events. A dark power bent on destroying all that is good in this galaxy."

"Something that never should have happened in the timeline, you mean?" he asked, his expression grim.

"Exactly. The Doctor's being here has avoided a great deal of damage, but not enough. I was sent to help him secure the time line, and then attempt to restore it. How we're going to manage that, I don't know..."
The engine sound stopped, and the room fell silent. "Dxun... We must hurry. If Kira reaches the Shard before us, all will be lost."

There was a loud grunt, and Disciple whirled around to see Atton leaning against the door frame to the infirmary, one eye shut in pain, and his hand over the wound.
"I'm going too." he said.

Meditating to try and quell the Dark urges rising within her, Jasra heard the ship's computer interrupt her thoughts.

"We have arrived at Dxun," it said. "Establishing orbit."

Jasra sighed. "Thank you."

She rose slowly, taking one last look at Brax's body laying on the bed cocooned in the stasis field before heading up to the cockpit.

She sat down behind the controls. The ship was so thoroughly automated that she didn't have to do much but ask it to scan for any large structures on the surface. There were three, but one stood out from the others.

"Kira, Crystal," she said on the intercom. "We have arrived. It's time to go and get what we came for."

She released the com button. "And time to end this game," she said quietly to herself. She flexed her gaunlets. "One way, or the other."

The Watcher looked at Atton seriously. "No, you're not," he said. "You need time to recover."

"I can't give up on Kira." he growled, trying to stand straight and grimacing with pain. "She'll be here, on Dxun. I know she will. I can't let those Shards have controll of her. I can't abandon her!"

~*~*~

Kira's demonic eyes sprang open as Jasra's voice echoed through the comm. They had arrived.
She stood from her meditative position, and moved to the door, keying it open.
"Have we located the position of the Shard?" Kira asked, striding into the cockpit and standing next to the pilot's chair.

The Watcher sighed. "There will be no persuading you otherwise, will there?"
Atton glared at him.
"Right then. Nyssa, Tegan: he'll need your help - I don't want him walking on his own yet."
They each took a position one each side of Atton, helping him stand properly. The Watcher pulled a lever, and the door opened, revealing the harsh jungle landscape of Dxun.
"Come along now."

"There's a large structure, here, Master," Jasra said to Kira, as she pointed to the scanner monitor. "It's similar in structure to the one...we just visited. No doubt, it's Sith. It would be a good place to start."

Jasra looked up at Kira. "Can you feel anything through the Force, Master? All I sense is a sort of whisper."

"There's an aura around it, and I'm being drawn to it. The Shard is there." she said, with definate certainty.

Jasra nodded. "Well then," she said to Kira matter-of-factly, "let's go get it, Master. We can land the fighter down there. It holds two and it has cloaking capablilities."

She looked over her shoulder. "What about Crystal?"

"If you order her to, she should be able to teleport herself to the planet's surface, shouldn't she?"
Jasra nodded.
"Very well." Kira said, "Do so, and let's go."

"Crystal, Master Kira and I are taking the fighter down to the surface," Jasra said over the com system to Crystal in her room. "You will stay here on the ship until I call for you. Then you will teleport down to our location. Is that understood?"

She gave instructions to Brax's ship to remain in orbit until she returned, then headed for the fighter ship.

"I'll drive, Master," she said, as she hopped into one of the seats. "The ship seems to respond to my voice only."

"So I've seen." Kira said as she climbed into the back seat of the fighter. She clasped the seat restraints around her, saying, "Ready when you are."

"Awaiting further orders," Crystal confirmed, sounding surprisingly cheerful for the circumstances. "See you on the surface."

((You do remember how we were going to do this, right FFWM?))

The Watcher looked over his shoulder again at Nyssa and Tegan, supporting Atton between them. Disciple walked alongside him.
"There is a Sith tomb up ahead, where I believe we will find the Shard. We must be on our guard - if we encounter Kira, I will hold her off while you retieve the Shard. Nyssa, Tegan: you're job is to keep yourselves and Atton safely out of harm's way."

Jasra gave a curious look at Crystal, who was grinning at her now, then got into the cockpit of the fighter.

"Right," she said to Kira, as the cockpit closed over them. "Take us to the co-ordinates of the large structure on the surface we were looking at," she instructed the ship.

In a few moments, they were away and heading for the surface of Dxun. "What the...?" Jasra punched a few buttons on the scanner. "Master, there is another ship in orbit." She paused. "And it's not the Ebon Hawk. Something much larger."

"Ignore it," Kira said hurriedly. "We have to get to the shard. That's all that matters now."

Jasra could hear the anticipation in Kira's voice, but that didn't lessen her curiousity about the other ship. Nevertheless, she obeyed Kira. "As you wish, Master."

Brax's two-man fighter landed in a clearing just outside the temple. Instead of being over-grown, the path to the Temple was cleared.

"Looks like this temple isn't as forgotten as we initially thought," said Jasra, as she opened the hatch and got out. She surveyed the area, then spotted something. "Mandalorians?" she asked Kira, pointing at an abandoned speeder partially hidden by some foliage. She paused a bit, using the Force to seek out any hint of life. "I don't sense any of them nearby. Do you?"

"Not Mandalorians, no..." Kira said, her eyes narrowing. They couldn't be here! It would be impossible! We had a head start on them, and the Doctor's TARDIS...The Watcher!
The Exile ripped her saber from her belt. "Come. We've work to do." she growled, and started along the path.

"Right behind you, Master," said Jasra, readying her own sabre. "Should I call for Crystal to come to us now? No doubt this Temple has locks like the one before. She could be handy when it comes to getting inside."

"Very well. Call her, though I don't suspect we'll be needing her much longer." Kira murmured as they reached the end of the path. The entry into the temple consisted of two, large double doors that seemed to have been covered with a wrought-iron gate, judging by the bits of rusted metal that was seen lying on the ground. One of the two double doors was slightly ajar, and Kira pulled it wide open, the hinges protesting with a loud screech. Beyond was complete darkness. She gave one over-the-shoulder look to Jasra, and started in.

"Come along now," whispered the Watcher, his sonic screwdriver held high, illuminating the dark temple corridor. "The Shard is close."

Disciple shuddered as they moved further down into the decaying temple. He could have sworn he'd heard something or someone moving just outside the reach of the sonicscrewdriver's light. He did a quick scan of the area, and that's when he sensed it.
"So is she." he said, stopping and looking behind the procession of crewmembers. "Kira's here."