The droids charged, weapons raised. Ro blocked the first attack with his lightsaber, the droid’s blade shorn clean in two. It staggered forward under its own momentum only to be reduced to slag with a bolt from Kufa’s blaster. The rest of the droids weren’t so easy. They moved with a fluidity that he had rarely seen in automatons, parrying with the skill of a Jedi. Dis had no blades of his own. Instead he grabbed the nearest droid’s arm, ripping it from its shoulder joint. The other arm came around and Dis ducked, the blade nearly removing his head from his shoulders. He returned the favor, thrusting his stolen blade up into the droid’s chin and through its processor. The droid tumbled back. Good. This felt good. It felt better. He was fighting, in the cave, not on Talor. He was in control. The Force would guide him. He would be strong.

Pain erupted from his chest, along with the tip of a blade. He gasped, his scavenged weapon dropping from his fingers. His knees buckled, only the blade keeping him on his feet. The attack had come from behind. He hadn’t sensed it. Why hadn’t he sensed it?

The droid dissolved in another blast from Kufa’s rifle. Dis crumbled to the floor, still stuck like a pig. Something clattered down next to him. The final droid, felled by Ro, its neck severed.

Dis coughed, blood splattering the ice beneath his head.

A face loomed in front of him. His father? Ro? He couldn’t tell.

“Udi?” Ro asked. “Are you still with us?”

Dis nodded, although he knew it wouldn’t be long. Ro grabbed the droid’s blade, ready to pull it out. Dis wanted to shout no, but it was too late. The blade came free, and the blood ran free. This time there would be no healing. This time the wound wouldn’t close.

He felt Ro’s breath on his face as the Eye leaned close to his ear. “What did you feel? Tell me? What happened to you?”

Dis’s throat was full of blood. “I didn’t …” he spluttered. “I couldn’t …”

The words wouldn’t come.

Ro stood, leaving Dis where he lay. Shadows started to close in as the Eye walked to Kufa, his lightsaber still burning. The old woman was on her knees, gazing up at the thing in the wall.

“So,” he said, standing behind her, the two figures blurring in Dis’s vision. “The legends are true …”

“Did you really think they weren’t?”

Ro’s voice was full of awe. “Such power … even from within the ice.”

“Balance will come,” she responded, an ancient mantra.

“Balance will come,” Ro agreed.

Dis barely heard the Eye’s blade slice through the air or Kufa’s body slump to the ground.

Ro raised a comlink to his lips. “I have found it. Follow my beacon.”