“Bell,” Loden wheezed as they ran into the cluster of docked ships. “You go ahead. I … I can’t keep up.”

Ember whimpered as Loden stumbled, his lightsaber spluttering out. Bell spun around, catching him before he could fall.

“No. We can do this together.” Bell pressed his forehead against Loden’s own. “Do you hear me? The Force is strong.”

Loden fought for breath. “The Force is strong. Yes. You’re right.”

Engines fired behind them. Bell looked up, seeing a shuttle rising from its pad.

“Dee’s on that ship. I know it.”

“Then we must stop her.”

Loden pushed himself, raising a shaking hand in the direction of the shuttle’s thrusters. Bell mirrored the movement, reaching out with the Force.

“The Force is strong,” he repeated.

Loden nodded. “And so are we.”

Marchion Ro watched as Lourna’s ship stalled in the air as if it had been caught in a tractor beam, its engine straining. He could imagine her behind the controls, cursing as she realized there was no escape.

The Jedi have her, Marchion. See their power. Fear them.

“Pity them,” he wheezed.

He tapped the side of his helmet, opening a vid stream on his heads-up display.

What are you seeing?

“What you never could,” Ro told the figment of his imagination. “Uttersond grafted a cam onto its back.”

Then he’s a fool. You’re a fool.

“Tell that to the Leveler.”

Ro watched the cam feed, seeing corridors he recognized, not far away. He could hear it now, growling, bestial. Insatiable.

For a second Ro saw himself in the cam as the Leveler tore into the air lock, but the creature didn’t want him. He stepped back as it rushed past and, howling, leapt from the ship.

Elzar felt a tremor in the Force and came about. A shuttle was hanging in the air in front of the warship, its engines burning bright. He grinned as he realized what was holding it tight. Bell was on the ground, Loden Greatstorm beside him. They were struggling, the act of stopping the shuttle no mean task, but they were together again.

The universe had been put right.

Something caught his eye, on the edge of the battle cruiser. It was the open hatch he’d blasted, no doubt saving Loden’s life in the process. Unbelievably the figure in the armor was still standing, but for a split second Elzar thought he saw something else, something hunkered down on all fours, throwing itself from the air lock.

Elzar’s vision flared. Suddenly he wasn’t in the Vector anymore, he was back on Starlight writhing on the floor as images of the future tore through his brain. He cried out in confusion, unwittingly pushing down on the flight stick. Why was the Force punishing him like this? The prediction had come true, at least part of it. The Nihil had all but razed Valo to the ground, killing thousands in the process. It was over. It was done.

Wasn’t it?

Elzar’s Vector plunged nose-first into the ground below.

The explosion, whatever it was, rumbled beneath Bell’s feet. It might as well have been a planet away for all he cared. He was focused on the shuttle, staring into the blazing rockets, the glare burning deep into his retinas. He could feel Lourna Dee’s frustration as her ship bucked and lurched in the sky, but she wouldn’t get away. They would stop her. Loden and Bell tog—

The world shifted.

The ground was gone, the shuttle too, the sky screaming away to a riot of impossible colors. Bell was falling, but there was no one to catch him. He thought he heard a voice, his name screamed in terror.

Bell.

Bell. Help me.

The words bent in on themselves, echoing back and forth, losing all sense of meaning.

He hit something, hard. Pain blazed across his cheek, but he didn’t recognize the sensation. He didn’t know anything anymore. He didn’t know his name or where he was. He barely knew what he was.

Mist swirled around him, filling his chest, his skull, his soul. It was thicker than any war-cloud, denser than any fog. And there were teeth inside, teeth and claws and eyes and death. So many eyes. So much death.

The thing in the mist was everywhere at once—running, tearing, chasing him down—and there was nothing he could do, nowhere he could hide. It ripped through him, consuming everything he thought he was and everything he had yet to become. It was uncontrollable, a horror beyond name or understanding, and it was hungry. So very, very hungry.

Bell reached out for the Force, but it had gone the way of the ground and the sky. He was alone and he was powerless. All he could do was scream and scream and scream.


Star Wars The High Republic The Rising Storm Chapter 75