Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, trying to write and pack at the same time ain't easy. But I've been getting some stuff down and I'll hopefully have some more to post as time goes on. This chapter's shorter but I've got a longer one coming!

-Chapter 121: Where My Demons Hide-

Location: The Jedi Temple

"Darkness is to be faced, not feared."

With his arms around Ahsoka, there was no other place Dynnal would rather be right now. He dozed peacefully, thankful to be back in control of his body and equally thankful for Ahsoka's love and care. It was true that he loved her with all of his heart and had ever since he, or, well, Wraith had laid eyes on her. He vowed to be a better man than Wraith, a man truly worthy of Ahsoka's affections.

But he still had one problem... who was he?

He had no recollection of a name, Ahsoka only able to provide that thanks to some divine intervention on behalf of the Force... but couldn't it have given him a last name to work with too? His memories of his life before the Separatsts few and faded, maybe vague flashes that even now he had trouble discerning. He desperately wanted to be his true self, someone who was not in any way related to the Separatist creation that was Wraith. But that task would by no means be an easy one.

Ahsoka had long since fallen asleep, leaving Dynnal to ponder such thoughts in a half-awake state. He tried hard to remember his parents, foggy details coming and going as he vaguely recalled his shorter father with dark brown hair. His mother was even harder to remember, maybe a vague outline of her face but not a whole lot more. There was one vivid detail that stood out to him, however.

"Red hair." He murmured. Bright red, too, brighter than any lightsaber blade. That was hard to forget. But who was she? He had no idea where to begin... maybe in the morning, Ahsoka could help him start to find his parents. But even then, he doubted she knew where to begin.

And it was in this state, half-awake and pondering his true identity, that something happened... something very similar to what Ahsoka had just undergone.

"Dynnal..." a faint, echoing voice called out to him. Stirred from sleep, he slowly sat up, reluctant to leave Ahsoka's behind. "Dynnal." It was stronger this time, louder and much closer.

"Who's there?" He asked aloud, worried about disturbing Ahsoka.

"I am." A lyrical voice announced. Turning to his right, Dynnal saw a sight that bewildered him. Tall, covered in golden red scales, it was a creature Dynnal recognized instantly.

"You're a Maelibus. Native to Iego." He stated. The Maelibus smiled and nodded.

"I am. Even now your analytical mind proves strong." It answered.

"How did you get in here?" Dynnal questioned.

"I move as the Force commands." Came the response.

"The Force?" Dynnal queried.

"Yes. I am how the Force has chosen to represent itself to you." The Maelibus told him. Intrigued, Dynnal leaned forward a little.

"And why does the Force want to present itself to me?" He inquired. The reply surprised him.

"Because you, Dynnal, are a person of great interest in the grand scheme of things. There is much about your life that should be discussed, as you now have a very important lesson to learn." The Maelibus explained. Dynnal glanced down at Ahsoka.

"Can't it wait?" He wondered, thinking any time other than the middle of the night would be preferable for a conversation.

"If you do not learn this lesson, horrible consequences will befall all those near to you." The Maelibus cautioned. "The danger your dark side poses is on a universal scale." At that, Dynnal turned back to his ethereal host and a raised eyebrow.

"Wraith is gone. That I can promise you." He stated. But the Maelibus shook its head.

"No, Dynnal. So long as you live, The Wraith will always be present-"

"I'm. Not. Him." Dynnal vehemently growled. "And I'll do whatever I have to in order to prove that." The entity held up a clawed hand in a gesture of passivity.

"There is no denying your lighter nature. But you must learn that Wraith is not nearly as distant from yourself as you want him to be." It told him. Dynnal cocked his head.

"What're you talking about?" He questioned, but did not wait for an answer. "Look, I have spent the better part of my life watching my body be used to do things I didn't want to do. The moment the Separatists wanted me to fight for the Sith, I resisted. I did not want to fight against the Republic. They forced me to-"

"Did they?" The Maelibus queried.

"Yes! They strapped me to a table and tortured me! I remember it all!" Dynnal vehemently answered. "I've wanted no part of this since the beginning, so I'm gonna put Wraith as far away from me as I possibly can." The Maelibus let him carry on until he finished, before it resumed speaking in its calm, almost musical voice.

"You are right when you say the Separatist scientists did not like how you resisted the Confederacy's politics." It stated. "Do you know why you did not accept them?"

"Are you gonna tell me it was my 'destiny'?" Dynnal half-scoffed.

"No. You have your mother to thank for that." The Maelibus said, shocking him. "She ensured that you would remain as light as you are now... but also ensured you would be as polarized as you are now." Dynnal let that sink in, the notion tripping another question he'd been dwelling on recently.

"Really... and who is my mother?" He asked.

"The Force will reveal that to you in due time." The Maelibus promised. "Your father's identity you will also learn when the time is right."

"So everything's just gonna come up Pure Sabacc, eh? No offence, but that sounds like a lot of luck. Something I'm not exactly big on." Dynnal remarked.

"What you call luck, others may call fortune or fate. But all moves as intended by the order of the Force." The Maelibus responded. "Just like you do. Which is why you must heed my words, for the coming path on which you walk is fraught with dangers both to you and to those around you." A single passive sweep of his hand caused Dynnal's eyes to land on Ahsoka again. "If you love her and if you care about her, you must listen and take heed to what I have to say." It persisted. Dynnal sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Look, I've had a long day and I just want to enjoy some peace and quiet. I'll listen to whatever you have to say in the morning." He said, dropping back down and pulling the covers around him, cuddling up to Ahsoka again. He was surprised she had not awoken during the entire interaction. The Maelibus remained quiet and stationary and Dynnal wondered for a moment if it was just going to stand there until he regarded it again or actually leave. Then it calmly said,

"Perhaps you need to hear from someone different." Propping himself up, an annoyed Dynnal wondered if this entity really did plan on hounding him and propped himself up to fear a retort.

But one look around and he realized the Maelibus had vanished.

With a shrug, he laid down and closed his eyes, letting out a satisfied sigh as he prepared to drift off to sleep...

"Comfortable?" A voice asked, one that Dynnal knew... it was his own.

Bolting upright, Dynnal gasped as he recognized the figure at the foot of the bed, it being none other than Wraith himself. His amber eyes glowed in the dark of Ahsoka's room and Dynnal could see he was clad in his classic dark blue duster. Gazing up at the figure of the super-soldier, he felt a pang of fear shoot through him.

"Im... Impossible." He breathed.

"Hardly." Wraith answered, circling the bed. "I am very real."

"N-No you're not. Y-You're in my head." Dynnal stammered, eyes wide.

"To an extent, yes. But you think I'm gone. You think you can just take my place and adjust the course of my life... but that's where you're wrong." Wraith stated, pausing to look Dynnal straight in the eye, amber meeting emerald. "For my life... is your life." He revealed.

"What?" Dynnal gaped, confused and shocked and afraid all at once.

"When the Separatists tried to manipulate your mind, they pulled on your inner darkness... the same kind of darkness that resides within everyone. With their actions came consequences, they twisted your darkness and it morphed into something greater." Wraith told him. "They made me." For a moment, Dynnal dwelt on his words, wondering how many of them might be true and how many others were lies. "I am you, Dynnal, only darker and stronger." Wraith said.

"No... y-you're just a personality... just... just a-a split personality!" Dynnal shot back, trying to disprove the spectre based on his understanding of things.

"Cute excuse." Wraith scoffed. "Your problem is that you're not willing to embrace your inner darkness, why? Because you think it has a mind of its own, courtesy of the Separatists." He stated. "But I don't. I'm just you... darker... deadlier... stronger." Dynnal understood what he was insinuating, implying that they were not so separate and more along the lines of two sides of the same credit. "You might as well call me 'dark Dynnal' because that's really what I am. You just got so good at being dark you earned a nickname... The Wraith." That pushed Dynnal to harden his defences and further isolate himself from Wraith. He refused to accept the blame for all the death Wraith had caused. He would never do something like that. Never!

"You and I will never be one in the same. So long as I can control my mind and body, you will have no place here." He vowed. "You no longer have control over my body. You can't hurt anyone anymore. You. Are. Finished." Dynnal hoped that would dissuade him and force this spectre to back down.

Instead... he laughed.

"An enemy who appears to be defeated may simply be biding their time, waiting for the right moment... to strike." The Wraith promised. He leaned forward, a cunning sneer this close to Dynnal's hardened expression. "You try to be as light as you want, Dynnal, but you'll always be dark. It is... your destiny..." He said. "Try so hard to be everything Ahsoka wants you to be, try hard to distance yourself from me... it won't work. There's a beast inside you... and it's just waiting to get out." All of a sudden, Dynnal could feel something rippling beneath his flesh and suddenly felt unbearably warm. He looked down at his body only to witness his skin begin to turn black and reflective... like scorched metal. Horrified, the transformation continued along his body, spreading to his hands as his fingers turned into the clawed digits of some primal... possibly demonic beast. "Embrace the beast, Dynnal... because you'll need me to overcome what's bearing down on us." Wraith stated, Dynnal crying out in horror as his body continued to morph and change. His continued cries shifted, voice dipping in pitch until it was far more guttural and beastial...

Waking with a gasp, Dynnal sat up in bed, his body covered in sweat and his green eyes wide. He looked around the darkened room, seeing no Maelibus and no Wraith... it was just him and Ahsoka. The next thing he did was examine his body, finding his skin to still be normal and unaltered. He breathed a sigh of relief, flexing his clawless hands.

"Dynnal...?" Ahsoka wondered, also sitting up. Apparently he'd woken her. "Everything okay?" Dynnal did not immediately respond, stuck wondering what that had been. Had he dreamed it? Was it a vision?

"I... I-i just had a... nightmare." He eventually answered, supposing that was truly what it had been. "A-About Wraith." That was also technically true. Ahsoka took pity on him, her hand comfortingly guiding his face towards hers as Dynnal looked into her eyes.

"It's okay. It was just a nightmare." She promised. Exhaling again, Dynnal nodded and desperately wanted that to be the case.

"I know." He softly said, taking her hand in his. Sharing a moment of loving tenderness, he whispered, "I love you." Ahsoka smiled.

"I love you too." She replied. Sharing a brief kiss, Ahsoka encouraged him to lie back down before pulling his head to her chest and hugging him close. Her fingers wove through his hair, gently massaging his scalp as she lulled him back to sleep. Surely this nightmare was a demonstration of just how different he was from Wraith, and how he was a troubled man instead of a hardened killer. She was determined to be there for this man... her man.

As Dynnal closed his eyes, Ahsoka softly sang a Togrutan lullaby, a common one originating from her people on Shili. Dynnal fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Neither of them noticed the small black bat watching them from a shadowy corner of the room.

Elsewhere on Coruscant...

The bar was sparsely packed, last call having been issued nearly an hour ago. Only a few of the blackout-drunks and some less-inebriated patrons remained, the indigo-skinned bartender gradually working on cleaning up the various glasses and mugs that had been used tonight. The regulars knew her well, Hahlli Verta being a divorced woman who kept to herself but ran a damn fine bar and made even finer drinks at a resonable price. She'd been on Coruscant for a long time, possibly decades, but none of her patrons were ever really sure. All they knew was that her bar was the best place to go for a drink, for some small talk, or to just unwind.

And now another night was over, Hahlli a few credits richer and down a few bottles of alcohol. It was business as usual as she closed down for the night, the drunks would inevitably be hauled out by either friends or one of the patrons she trusted. The Twi'lek was no stranger to Coruscant's denizens, finding this mid-to-lower class tier of society far more agreeable than any stuffy elite. Sure, they had their baggage and their problems, often why they came to her bar for a drink. But that made them a little more relatable, moreso than any upperclassman who considered themselves untouchable. In short, these were her kind of people.

As he put the finishing touches on a mug she'd just cleaned, the door to her bar slid open as someone entered. The familiar hiss of pneumatics was not uncommon at this hour, but her response was always the same.

"Closin' in five, pal. Better find somewhere else." She dismissively stated, not even looking. But when no apology or execute or even an offer came her way, she hazarded a glance up. The man at the door was short, a grizzled mercenary, a scar across his brow and another through his eye. Recognizing him, the Twi'lek smirked and set a hand on her hip as she sized him up. "Well well well, been a while since you strolled through my doors, Corsair." She greeted with a rather sultry smile. The Titan leader forced a smile of his own as he approached the bar.

"Long time no see, Hal." He greeted his ex-girlfriend in a quieter voice.

"What can I do for you? Something special?" She wondered with a bit of a gleam in her violet eyes.

"Naw, jus' somethin' hard ta drink." Corsair responded. Something about his demeanor seemed off to Hahlli. His usual swagger was not present and his tone less strong and not nearly as jovial as it might've been on other nights.

"What's wrong, Cory?" She wondered, a concerned look on her face. Corsair exhaled a tired sigh.

"'S a long story." He said. Hahlli could see something was wearing on him, moreso than his usual troubles. Clearly he needed someone to talk to.

"Let me close up. Then you can spill your guts." She promised, pouring him a glass of Sullustan gin. Corsair took the shot glass and downed it in one gulp, the burn in the back of his throat just what he needed. Thankfully, Hahlli had left the bottle behind and he poured himself another shot as she went about her final duties. "Someone help Burlo outta here?" She called out, referring to a passed out Rodian at the far end of the bar. Corsair ignored it all and focused on the amber drink in front of him. He grew lost in his thoughts, the devastating information he'd uncovered still fresh in his mind. The thought it impossible. In flew in the face of everything he'd believed for the past 17 years and brought with it the worst kind of ramifications...

The man he'd been trying to kill... The Wraith... was his son.

The Titan downed five more shots of gin before the busty Twi'lek was back in front of him, the bar's population reduced to the two of them.

"Alright, what's got the infamous Corsair down?" Hahlli asked. Swallowing his sixth shot of gin, Corsair set down his glance and looked to her with his good eye.

"I jus' found out, wit' ninety-eight pahcent certainty, that my son's alive." He revealed, dropping the bombshell he'd been exposed to only a few hours ago. Hahlli's expression instantly shifted to one of shock, in the know about Corsair's situation since the day he had been forcefully separated from his family.

"Oh. Oh kriff..." She quietly muttered.

"Yeah. Kinda wut I said." Corsair agreed with a sigh, rubbing his temples. "All a' these years, I figahed he wuzz dead, Hal. Now 'e ain't." He mused, staring into space as he dwelt on this startling reality. "What am I sahpposed ta do?" He wondered.

"What kind of question is that, you daft nerf-herder?! Find him!" Hahlli urged, more than ready to kick him out the door if she had to.

"D'ya think he'd evah forgive me?" Corsair wondered. His wondering expression seemed to mournful and despondent, promptly Hahlli to take pity on him.

"Oh, Cory," she cooed, gently touching his face, "it was an honest mistake. Wasn't it?" He nodded. "You were lied to and cheated, surely he'll understand that." Corsair remained silent, unresponsive as Hahlli realized there was even more on his mind than just this. "There's more, isn't it?" She pried.

"I've nevah forgiven myself fo' failin' 'im. For failin' 'em both." Corsair admitted, the issue having plagued him for years in his private moments. "Do I even dahserve a second chance wit' 'em?" He asked aloud. He'd spent his whole life living with the fact that he couldn't be the husband his wife needed or the father his son needed. To see a second chance right in front of him, he was scared to risk a chance on it.

"Everyone has to start somewhere, Cory." Hahlli softly prodded. "You won't know unless you try." The Titan leader shrugged.

"Guess that's what I'm scahed a'. I dunno if things'll pan out or if I'm jus' settin' myself up fo' mor' 'eartbreak." Intentionally leaving out the identity of his son, Corsair figured that, after everything he'd done and tried to do to Wraith, he doubted he would be in a forgiving mood.

"I'm no Jedi, I don't know anything about foretelling the future. But if things do go poorly, you can always come back here and drown your sorrows. Every drink will be on the house." Hahlli promised with a smile. That brought a chuckle out of the somber merc.

"Guess I'll 'have sumthin' ta look fo'wad to." Corsair mused with a smirk.

Elsewhere in the galaxy...

Within the vastness of the Maw, a secret installation continued to tirelessly work on constructing a battle station for the Separatist Alliance, based on plans designed on Geonosis and procured by Count Dooku, construction had been ordered by Darth Sidious and began immediately. This 'Maw Installation' was unknown to most Separatists and was completely unknown to the Republic. Their work was great and they carried on in total secrecy with no one watching them.

But then... something changed.

Several individuals felt an inexplicable draw towards something. Something within the deep reaches of space was calling to them, drawing them towards a presence unlike anything they'd ever felt before. For today was the day the Maw's power was disrupted and the terrifying reason for its construction was made known to the galaxy once more.

A listless voice drifted across the stars, warm and soothing. Many in the Maw Installation heard it and felt it, the loving tone of a kind and doting parent.

"My Son... My Daughter... I can feel you..." It had been so long, but she knew the distinct nature of her children. Though they may have wronged her countless times over the centuries, she still loved her children unceasingly. But there was something different about them now. They had changed, they seemed to be frail, weaker for some reason. "Do not fret, dear children." Her voice whispered again. She would be there for them and she would renew what had been lost ages ago. "Mother is coming..." Two pinpricks of silver starlight gave way to black abyssal eyes, set in sunken fashion against pale skin stretched thinly over a bony face. Whispy, ghostlike strands of gray hair framed her terrifying face as she emerged from her prison within the Maw, the visage completed by a long thin mouth filled with dozens of sharp, tiny teeth. She was weak from eons of loneliness. She would take and consume what she could from the multitudes in the Maw Installation. They would suffice for the time being. But she would never neglect her duty and looked to the stars to make a solemn promise,

"Abeloth is coming."

Hoo boy, everything's ramping up now! Stick around to see how it all comes tumbling down! Oh, and since we're getting real close to nearly 1000 favourites and followers, I've decided to start a little something...

RANDOM FOLLOWER SHOUTOUT: Thank you so much TheCarlosInferno for smacking that button. So glad to have you aboard!