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“I have been waiting for you,” she called out to him.

The last time they had fought she had bested him; this time he was unarmed and drained from his battle with Zannah. Yet he was still confident he could defeat her. Without the advantage of surprise and twenty mercenaries backing her up, she was no match for him one-on-one. And if she cut him with her poisoned blades again, he’d be ready to burn away the toxin before it overwhelmed his system.

Bane grabbed the railing of the balcony and pulled himself over, ignoring the tremor caused by another explosion from inside the facility.

His feet were already moving as he hit the floor below, driving him toward his foe. To his surprise, the Iktotchi didn’t retreat as he bore down on her. She didn’t even draw her weapons. Instead, she dropped to one knee and bowed her head, holding her hands out palms up as if presenting him with an offering.

The unexpected reaction caused him to pull up short a few meters from her. At this distance he could clearly see she was holding the hooked handle of his missing lightsaber and what appeared to be his own Holocron in her hands.

“A gift, my lord,” she said, tilting her head to look up at him.

“You tried to kill me,” Bane said warily, not taking his eyes off her.

“I was hired to capture you,” she corrected. “It was just a job. Now that job is finished.”

Reaching out, Bane took the hilt from her hand. His fingers slipped around the familiar curved grip, and he ignited the blade.

The Iktotchi rose to her feet but showed no fear.

“Why are you still here?” Bane asked.

“I knew you had broken free,” she explained. “I hoped you might come here during your escape.”

“You had a premonition I would find you?” Bane was aware the Iktotchi were supposed to have precognitive abilities, but he had only the vaguest idea of how powerful or accurate their visions might be.

“Night after night I have seen you in my visions,” she answered. “Our destinies are intertwined.”

“What if your destiny is to die at my hand?” he asked, raising up his blade.

“Neither of us is fated to die in this place, my lord.”

As if in opposition to her words, another explosion from inside the facility rocked the chamber.

“What do you want from me?”

“Let me study under you,” she implored, seemingly oblivious to the rapidly mounting danger from the collapsing prison. “Instruct me in the dark side. Teach me the ways of the Sith.”

“Do you realize what you are asking?” Bane demanded.

“My existence has no meaning,” the Iktotchi explained. “You can give my life purpose. You can guide me to my destiny.”

“What can you offer me in return?”

“Loyalty. Devotion. A shuttle to escape this prison before it collapses. And Caleb’s daughter.”

The next explosion was close enough that they could actually hear it echoing from down the hall.

“I accept,” Bane said, extinguishing his lightsaber after a moment’s consideration.

Less than a minute later they were aboard the Iktotchi’s shuttle, leaving the Stone Prison and the final, violent throes of its destruction behind them.

Zannah was retracing her steps, following the long route back through the dungeon and up to the small hangar where she hoped Set and her shuttle would still be waiting for her. Her entire body was infused with the Force, her legs propelling her along so fast the wind caused her hair to stream out behind her.

As she ran she could feel the tremors rising up from deep within the dungeon, each blast a little nearer than the one before it. The explosion Bane had caused had been a single charge set off by his crackling bolt of lightning. These explosions were far more powerful: eight or ten charges in close proximity all detonating at the same time, collapsing not a small stretch of corridor but rather an entire section of the facility.

By the time she crossed from the lit halls of the reopened areas of the dungeon into the darkened passages of the unused wing where she had first come in, the explosions were close enough for her to hear them as well as feel the vibrations through the floor. They