Brutus tumbled through the Fountain's waters and emerged in the Wood. Aleena wasn't far behind the Sith Lord. Together, they stared blearily at the quiet wood. The townspeople who didn't feel up to fighting had fled through another pool to the hidden refuge. A small team of fighters, along with Lynda and Corvan remained.

"Corvan!" Aleen squealed as she snapped out of her lethargy. She ran up to the Dark Acolyte and attempted to jump into his arms. This was problematic since he was not expecting such a jubilant greeting and the two ended up on the ground, bruised and annoyed.

"Yet another thing you'll need to learn if you're going to be my apprentice," Brutus commented. "When women throw themselves at you, you catch them. Unless they're ugly. Then you just step out of the way."

Lynda shot an irritated glare at Brutus, but the Sith Lord pointedly ignored it.

"When Myrddin arrives, we need to decide what our course of action will be," Lynda said.

"Why do we need to wait for him? He doesn't own me," Corvan said, defiantly. "Besides, why should we be on your side anyway? We've served the Empire all our lives. Now they want to kill us and our response should be going on some holy crusade to free the galaxy?

"Eh, holy crusades are for Jedi. But idiotic feuding and revenge-seeking? That's definitely a Sith trait. I'm all for anything that makes my former pupil's life even more difficult."

Right about then, Myrddin appeared in the pool leading to the Fountain and then collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

Meanwhile, on the New Dawn, Lisan was pushing the ship as fast as it could go. The crewmembers were huddled nervously over their workstations, hoping the ship wouldn't tear apart. The various creaks and groans that echoed through the ship didn't help their worries. To make matters worse, most, if not all, had lost nearly everyone they cared about when the blast from their sun tore through Geangrai. They had nothing to return to and no way of knowing if any other ship had survived the wave of death.

Allyn paced the infirmary, nervously glancing at Juriel, no, Caelan lying on the bed. He had to keep reminding himself it was true. Maggria was still with him, even in death, and Caelan had somehow cheated death and returned to him. When compared to those two miracles, the loss of an entire planet seemed somehow less tragic. Allyn briefly considered that he was being callous, but he couldn't push aside his joy long enough to focus on self-recriminations.

Shono of course had stayed with the remaining men and women; he rolled his eyes at the needless bickering. Then nudged Solarflare were the rib cage would have been if he had one. "These people are slower than a snail on salt" Then when the wizard came tumbling through mud puddle they seemed oblivious to him "Hey your solution arrived and he's passed out!

Enyo had stayed in the Geangrai star system longer than was entirely wise, but she wanted to watch as the race that had been a constant thorn in her side died. First they'd rebelled and left her Empire. Attempts to destroy the Geangrai with vampires had failed and they'd successfully cut off access to their world via the Fountain on Orran. Then the Geangrai had pooled the considerable psychic talents of their race to place blocks in the minds of every other sentient being in the galaxy that prevented them remembering where the Geangrai home system was located. It had taken her months to work around the blocks and decide what to do with the knowledge. Her armies and fleets were worthless against the Geangrai now. Finally, she had discovered an ancient Sith technique that would allow her to destroy them. After all of that work, she certainly wasn't going to miss watching Geangrai burn.

To Enyo's dismay, a few ships escaped the conflagration, notably the New Dawn. She was aware that its journey to Dittotopia had caused her problems there and had hoped to watch it be torn apart.

"Oh well. Now that their planet is gone, I can hunt them down and blow their ships apart with my personal flagship," Enyo reassured herself as she journeyed through hyperspace back to Orran.

"Where are we going?" Ordana firmly asked Lisan. The other woman might be a goddess or whatever the Phoenix Force was, but Ordana had had just about enough of being drug around the galaxy like a child.

"To Orran. If my world burns, so does her's," Lisan spat angrily.

Corvus looked up from her spot on the floor, where she had been sitting the duration of the trip, idly picking the dirt out from underneath her fingernails and squishing any bugs that came by.

"Oh goody, I'll break out the marshmallows," she said dryly. Really she just wanted to stick Lisan between the ribs with the special knife and get it over with. Unfortunately she did that and they all froze to death in space. So she continued to endure the boredom.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

VACS finally heard the information he needed. He quickly signaled the Autobots.

<VACS to Warpath. New Dawn heading for 'Big Target'. Be advised.>

<Copy that VACS.> Warpath replied. <We're on our way.>

Solarflare glared down at Shono. Due to the height difference between the two robots, Shono's elbow didn't quite make it up to Solarflare's middle torso plate (the Transformer equivalent of ribs), instead hitting him in the gearbox. He fought the urge to smack the smaller bot in the back of the head and instead observed,

"Yeah, well, they've had one of those days." While he spoke, he took a subtle step back, putting him out of reach of Shono's elbow.

There was something about floating around in an unconscious void that had a relaxing effect on Juriel. Not only did it provide him an escape from the creepy ghost who was after him for reasons he didn't understand, but it also shut down the train of screams that had invaded his mind. He welcomed this darkness filled with nothingness. There was not a care or pressing issue to disturb him.

How short lived contentedness is when you've suddenly realize you have an itch. Groaning softly, Juriel lifted his hand to rub the tip of his nose, finding relief the moment he did so. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut suddenly, though, when he realized the mistake he made. He was awake now. Uttering a curse, he tried to force himself back into his previous stupor state. He did not want to come back to the reality that many souls were going to die along with himself because of the vision he had.

Let it come while I'm out, he insisted mentally to whatever force had forced that vision upon him. I don't want to feel a thing. Mentally and physically.

Allyn had collapsed into a chair next to Juriel's bed. The infirmary staff had fled the room when their homeworld was destroyed. Given the pain he had felt when the Geangrai world died, Allyn could only imagine what it must have been like for the powerful telepaths, no doubt linked mentally to those who had just perished in the waves of fire.

The Jedi Knight stared at the prone figure in the bed next to him. He was terrified that Juriel might be dying right there, beside him, and there was nothing he could do. Allyn couldn't recall ever feeling more helpless. And then Juriel moved. Just a hand at first, moving up to his face. Then a muttered curse. Allyn smirked at his long-lost friend as he saw him trying to fake still being asleep.

"That trick never worked when you were a Padawan, why do you think it would work now?"

That voice definitely was not coming from his subconscious, which meant Juriel's attempt at conking himself back out wasn't working as it might if he was merely just trying to go back to sleep. This annoyed him more than the teasing words someone spoke beside him. He scrunched up his face, pinching his lips together tightly, waiting for the impact of death to fall on him like the weight of a thousand corpses.

. . . .

Juriel's brow smoothed, lips still sealed. Nothing was happening. He peered under his eyelashes. Why was nothing happening? There was a bright light burning his vision. Maybe he had died with the planet? Juriel blinked carefully as he slowly opened his eyes to check it out for himself. Then he frowned.

Heaven did not have incandescent light bulbs.

Juriel stared up at the ceiling, not sure what to make of this, but he was pretty sure he must be in that other place.

"Juriel, it's all right. We survived. Thanks to you and your vision, we escaped the supernova," Allyn said, sensing Juriel's anxiety.

-------

Brutus noticed Myrddin's arrival and subsequent collapse onto the ground surrounding the pool that led to Ditto Town.

"Well, it would seem our dear leader is out of commission. Guess that leaves only one person with the leadership experience necessary to take control of our little band of merry adventurers," Brutus said, unsubtly pointing at himself.

"If you think I'd trust you to lead us, you are sadly mistaken. Weren't you captured by your pre-teen apprentice and hung on a wall for almost twenty years? Even out here, we hear rumors," Lynda said snidely.

"Enough already!" Aleena snapped, surprising everyone."Quit bickering. Somebody pick Myrddin up and make sure he isn't dying or something. Everyone not actually doing something important, guard that pool. We don't know if Myrddin was able to kill all the clones."

Aleena sighed impatiently as everyone stared at her and a few purple sparks flew off of her.

"Yes, yes, I know. Ditzy planetary governor here. Whatever. I do have some leadership skills, actually."

Corvan shrugged and moved to Myrddin's side. He was used to taking orders from Aleena. He was somewhat surprised it had taken this long for her to snap and start bossing people around.

Corvan picked the wizard up and moved him to dry ground. Myrddin was extremely pale and Corvan frowned, worried. The wizard was showing definite signs of exhaustion, wearied almost to death. He was still clutching the Variform, now returned to its neutral golden ball form.

Aleena snatched the Variform from Myrddin's unresisting hand. She gazed into it for a few seconds and then it transformed into a rough stone cup, filled to the brim with water.

"Get his mouth open, Corvan. He needs to swallow this. It'll heal him," Aleena ordered.

Aleena knelt at Myrddin's side and tipped the cup over his mouth. The water ran into the Time Lord's mouth and color came back into his face.

"I thought I told you I didn't want you using that," Myrddin said, as he opened his eyes.

"You're welcome," Aleena replied scathingly.

Juriel blinked. And then again as the words sunk in. Knowing now that this was not his conscious speaking to him, he realized he wasn't alone wherever he was and he turned his head, slowly as the movement made his head swim, to the sound of the voice. When he saw Allyn sitting beside his cot he felt as if he should have known it was the Jedi all along.

"What the--" He sucked in a sharp intake suddenly, the pounding in his head accelerating as he lifted his head. Juriel dropped back down with a grunt. "What happened?" he muttered, as if Allyn's explanation wasn't enough to account for the furious headache he was feeling.

Alàtariël tipped her head, looking at the strange combination of Brutus, Myrddin and Aleena.

"How did you happen to evade the wonders of the forest, while all your little same race minions cannot?" she demanded, looking around. "Oh, and you, funny-face cloaked-one. What did you do to the little elf? She seems to be out of commission, and she came through right before you did."

"He didn't do anything beside shove her in the fountain, Alàtariël," Neíhudir grumbled, ringing the water out of Sholi's jacket.

"Well, she seems worse for the wear. Why'd Arin have to bring her this time around?"

"Stop asking pointless questions, and help me with this kid."

"Fine."

David approched the X-wing with a grim look; it could take him a long time before he could get the thing off the ground, but then he saw the little astro droid out and about fixing things. So he walked and inspected the wing of the craft where it6 had been hit. "You did a good job little droid, what's your name? he asked it. The droid beeped "I have no name... my code number is R5-W3" and David- who understood droidspeak quite well- resoponded "What kind of name is that? You can't become famous with out a name" so he thought for a moment "Your name is Scrappy, how do you like it?" and the droid responded "I like it very much" it was the begining of a long friendship. Rather than a ownership "well lets get going!" said David as he jumped in the cockpit.

"I'm alright," Sholi mumbled, waving the elves away. He was feeling drowsy, but the yelling and the generally unusual aura of the Wood was enough to keep him from slipping off.

"Sure, you are," Neíhudir said, shaking Sholi's jacket and throwing it back on top of him. "We'll keep an eye on you, just the same."