Due to the magic of the Wood, Nadif was only mildly surprised as he flew backwards through the air and slammed into a tree with enough force to snap it in half. As he lay there in a daze, he wondered distantly what that had all been about. But pretty soon he forgot what had happened and continued to sit half-buried under the tree. For all he knew, he had always been there, just as he was.

-----

Solarflare slowly holstered his pistols.

"So it's over, then?" he asked Myrddin. "Enyo's been defeated? We can all go back now?"

Sholi's spine tingled. He turned, ignited his shoto, somersaulted toward the clone, cut its lightsaber hilt (and a couple fingers), and landed on a gremlin in one movement. He spun around (decidedly less fluently) and attempted to get the shoto into the gremlin.

The clone easily deflected Sholi's attack, and probably would have seriously injured the young man if Neíhudir's strong hand hadn't caught the back of Sholi's shirt and pulled him out of the way. The half-elf's long sword was out in a moment. The clone lifted his lightsaber again and swung it in a decapitating movement. Neíhudir moved out of the way, and tried to catch the lightsaber on his own blade, a move that often could offer him an advantage. Much to his surprise, the sword did not stop the saber, as it passed cleanly through the blade, dividing it asunder.

Neíhudir did not allow his surprise to incapacitate him for long. Pushing Sholi aside, he snatched up Alàtariël's long sword, and pushed Chaos' basket over.

"I spent all morning condensing that, and now you spilt it!" Chaos cried, her lower lip quivering. But Neíhudir had found what he wanted. Pick up the first round object he could locate, which happened to be a dinner roll that Chaos happened to have, he turned and threw it at the clone, while simultaneously stabbing the clone. Limwen also sent a weapon flying toward the clone, figuring that trying to defend from three things instead of two would be harder.

Myrddin shrugged and looked uneasy.

"I'd be more comfortable saying we didn't have anything to worry about were we to find her body."

The clone collapsed to the ground under the assault of the elves' various attacks. She didn't get up.

So does this mean we can go back now?" Brutus griped. "I've satisfied my bloodthirsty desire for revenge. I've things to do. People to find.

Corvan gingerly removed Aleena's knives from their sheaths. For some reason, his memories of the last few years were vaguely foggy, but he knew that Aleena had wrapped them in enough enchantments to make them just as good as any lightsaber.

"Yes, let's go. This place is giving me the creeps.

-----

Allyn spotted Juriel and ran up to him.

"Where are you going?"

After an uneventful flight into Orran's atmosphere, Space Case landed near the group assembled by the Fountain. He lowered his gangplank.

"Everybody out," he said with a sigh, relieved that the danger finally seemed over.

"As much as near-death experiences are exhilarating," Corvus said. "I think I'm looking forward to my next assignment. All this traipsing around the galaxy doing nothing but the occasional killing of a cyborg is rather dull."

She waved lazily at Corvan. "Hey twin," she said. "I see the witch is dead. Are you going to fall into deep depression now? Just think you should give us a warning if you're gonna go all dark!Corvan on us and try kill yourself along with the rest of the town."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Neíhudir stepped forward and gingerly picked up the clone's lightsaber.

"This deserves deeper inspection," he said, flicking it into its activated and then deactivated modes. He stuck it into his pocket.

"Now what?" Arin demanded, obviously impatient...again. Alàtariël rolled her eyes at her twin.

"Whatever."

All that he had seen could not have been real. After all he has been through, the star's destruction that almost killed him as well and crashing on this godforsaken planet, he must be surely be out of his senses. In his mind that could only explain what Juriel had witnessed.

Around him was total desecration, and not by his hand. Juriel hadn't lifted a finger since he recovered himself from the wreckage of his pod, whether by physical inability or mental disarray--it was probably both. But the carnage he saw was enough to sicken him; yes, the madness was enough to churn this young, indomitable Acolyte's stomach. Juriel couldn't help but think the uncharacteristic weakness as abominable.

It wasn't until the killings seemed to have died down that he found himself able to move. He wandered over to a particular spot that seemed to have his attention, even though happenings that had a fixated him were over. Ignoring the people that were around, he leaned over the Fountain's edge to stare at the cloudy waters. Juriel did not look at his reflection, though, but frowned as he wondered if this was the answer.

He was startled then when a voice cried behind him and this reprieved him. Lifting his head, his old self returned to harden his features and glare at Allyn.

"So you weren't in the pod," he said angrily disheartened to himself. Although he had been nauseous to think it, a part of him, his old self that remained untouched from everything that had occurred, wished he had been the only one to survive. He looked back at the Fountain's waters.

"What does it look like I am doing? I'm going in."

Ordana stepped out of the talking droid and looked around, trying to spot any familiar faces. She assumed they had landed on Orran, but one wouldn't know it by the looks of things. The courtyard they had landed in was covered with rubble. There were corpses scattered everywhere, some human-shaped, others resembling things Ordana wished had remained in whatever nightmare they escaped from. There were a few people gathered around the Fountain in the center of the courtyard, so she approached them, trying to make out their faces. There was one figure that looked decidedly familiar, down to the swirling and now-raggedy black cloak.

"Brutus?" Ordana shouted. "Brutus, is that you?"

Ordana quickened her steps and rushed up to the man she had spotted. She reached out her hand to touch his shoulder and he turned, catching her hand and very gently squeezing it.

"I thought you were dead," Brutus said, doing his best not to beam happily at Ordana. Exuberant emotional displays in public were not good for a Dark Lord's repuation.

"I thought you were too. I couldn't sense you after that huge droid attacked and then there was the whole kidnapping thing. I'm just so happy you're alive."

"I'd slaughter whole armies to be with you," Brutus said earnestly before continuing in a cocky tone," I kinda did, if you hadn't noticed."

Ordana punched him in the shoulder and sighed in exasperation, "You never change."

"And you love me for it," Brutus said with a smirk.

"Oh, hi Corvus," Corvan said, sounding distracted. "No, I don't think I'm going to kill you all. Should I? I'm feeling a bit off right now. I don't think you did anything to merit death recently. Are you planning on it?"

"Unless I'm very much mistaken, he's suffering from some kind of magical withdrawal right now," Myrddin interrupted. "All the more reason to get off this rock and back to Dittotopia."

Solarflare cast an exasperated glance at Space Case as the latter transformed into his robot form.

"Looks like we get to perform ferry service again," he sighed.

"I don't mind," Space Case shrugged. "Just as long as I don't have to fly through exploding space stations again."

Warpath and a few other Autobots set their ships down nearby, while others continued to fly around, picking off any stray monsters that had escaped the carnage. Warpath disembarked and was quickly appraised of the situation by Solarflare and Space Case.

"Well, the transwarp cells on the fighters are still workin'. We could get back to Dittotopia in a couple a cycles," he said.

"Are you trying to drown yourself?" Allyn asked, unsure as to why Juriel would want to go swimming at a time like this. "Why are you running? Try to remember your past. You were not always a servant of the darkness. Once you were a Jedi, a servant of light. You stood for justice and all that is noble. Why do you cling to this false shell of the Dark Side? It isn't who you truly are. Remember who you were. You were like a brother to me. Come back."

Myrddin approached the Fountain and prodded it experimentally with the Staff.

"Actually, I don't think we'll have to bother with flying back," Myrddin announced. "The real Fountain back on Dittopia is ancient. We didn't make it, we don't even know how it works. But this is just a duplicate. It's crude at best. And I can make it do what I want."

Myrddin struck the stone side of the Fountain with the Staff and it began to perceptibly grow larger. Within a few minutes, it had grown large enough to fit even the largest of the Autobots.

"Well, I'll be!" Warpath said in surprise as the Fountain magically grew. He walked around the Fountain and looked it over, quite impressed.

"That's pretty slick, ol' timer!"

"Yes, that's great and all," interjected Space Case, "But what about our fighters? I don't think it's very practical to nose-dive those into the Fountain."

"I'll take them back," Solarflare said quietly.

"Ya sure?" Warpath asked.

"Yeah. You all go ahead. I'll meet you back on Dittotopia." With no further ceremony, he quickly transformed and flew off, using a magnetic junction to connect and tow all the Autobot fighters.

It should be noted that Solarflare's reason for volunteering was his desire for solitude. Now that the fighting was finally over, he was more than ready for an extended period of peace and quiet to let himself think, and mourn for those he had lost in the past few days.

There was something holding Juriel back while Allyn had his spiel; a last effort in his mind to try to disprove the Jedi's tale. He never gave this a moment’s thought, but now that Allyn was testing his patience again with this nonsense he felt he should give it some consideration, before it was too late.

Could there have been a time when they knew it each other? It seemed impossible, for the furthest memory he could recall was when he was Darth Sammael's apprentice.

His Master. The muscles in the young Acolyte's shoulders quivered instinctively in remembering the tyrant. It had been, what, three years since he freed himself from his master’s bondage? Clenching his fists, Juriel willed the tremors to cease. He was stronger than this, much stronger.

No… No, you aren't. You're just alone.

The dark thought snapped a cord inside Juriel, and suddenly, just when Allyn finished talking, he whirled around, fist drawn back and sailing. Combined with a fierce Force Push the punch to the Jedi's jaw sent Allyn flying back a few yards away.

"What do you know about what I used to be!" Juriel shouted. "You talk about me as if you knew me, but you were never there. Never! If there ever were a time when I needed a stinkin' Jedi meddling in my life it was when you weren't there."

The Acolyte drew in a deep breath, his nostrils flared from pent up aggression. "If what you say is true, then you have not been a brother to me."

Setting his jaw, Juriel turned back to the Fountain and jumped into the pool portal.

Allyn painfully picked himself up off the ground after Juriel's Force attack on him. He stared at the gently rippling waters of the Fountain and considered the fact that after all he had witnessed during the last few days, a transport device disguised as a decorative water feature didn't seem all that odd.

"I'm sorry, Maggria," Allyn said to the empty air. "I don't know what to say to him. I don't know how to convince him. I think it's up to him now."

Allyn trudged over to the others, vaguely noticing that they seemed to be getting ready to depart for Dittopia. He wondered if he would ever see Juriel again and if there was any way to reach him or if the part of the other man who had once been a friend was utterly gone now.

Ordana waved slightly at Allyn as she and Brutus stood waiting for everyone else to decide to leave. She held Brutus' hand tightly, half-surprised that he wasn't objecting. She had spent the last six years wondering if Brutus had survived the battle in Ditto Town's town square and finally knowing the answer was a huge weight off of her shoulders.

"So are we ready to go?" Myrddin asked as he helped Corvan to stand up.

"No, I really prefer standing around in the rhaich de Valaraukar. Except this smells worse, I think." Arin rolled her eyes.