**Chapter 445**
**Despair and a Handful of Hope – Part 6**
**Scene 1**
**Helska IV – Yuuzhan Vong Shaping Facility**
Ahsoka Tano woke to agony.
Thick, living restraints coiled around her limbs like serpents, pinning her to the Embrace of Pain. The organic device pulsed against her back, reading her every nerve. A Yuuzhan Vong Shaper loomed over her, a grotesque needle-like implement in his clawed hand, dripping with biotoxin.
"No… please…" she whispered, voice hoarse.
The Shaper ignored her. The needle descended toward her lekku.
Ahsoka's eyes snapped wide with terror. She screamed with everything she had left.
**"DAGON!"**
The wall exploded inward in a storm of ice, fire, and red lightning.
Dagon Marek burst through the breach like a wrathful god of war. His black beskar armor was scorched and splattered with vong blood. The red crossguard lightsaber blazed in one hand, the ancient Mandalorian beskar sword in the other. His eyes burned crimson and black, radiating pure fury.
"I am right here, stardust."
He moved like a nightmare given form.
**Sound Breathing – Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes.**
Dagon spun both blades in a blinding whirlwind around his body. The twin swords created a devastating defensive sphere of razor-sharp slashes and crackling red lightning. Anything that touched the vortex — amphistaffs, thud bugs, Yuuzhan Vong warriors — was instantly shredded or burned to ash.
He carved through the chamber like a living storm.
A pair of Yuuzhan Vong warriors charged him with coufees. Dagon didn't even slow down. One slash bisected both of them mid-leap. A third tried to fire a plasma projector — Dagon's spinning blades deflected the shot straight back into the warrior's face, melting his helmet and skull.
The Shaper attempting to inject Ahsoka turned too late. Dagon's lightsaber took his head while the beskar sword impaled his chest. The body hit the floor in two pieces.
Dagon deactivated the spinning defense just long enough to reach Ahsoka. With a surge of the Force, he tore the Embrace of Pain apart. The living restraints screamed and withered as he ripped them away from her body.
"I've got you," he whispered, catching her as she collapsed into his arms. "I've got all of you."
**Scene 2**
While Dagon unleashed hell in the central chamber, Shin Wren and Erictia moved like shadows through the side corridors.
Shin's newly gifted Mandalorian sword sang as she cut down two Yuuzhan Vong guards blocking the prisoner wing. The beskar blade sliced through their vonduun crab armor as if it were cloth. Erictia's dual blue lightsabers danced beside her, precise and deadly.
They found the others.
One by one, they freed the girls from their Embraces of Pain — Ahsoka (already being carried by Dagon), Zule, Flare, Visenya, Stella, Kayla. Ashara was last. Nox hung nearby, barely conscious.
Zule, still groggy and bruised, stared at the two unfamiliar Jedi women as they helped her to her feet.
"Who… who are you?" she asked weakly.
Erictia smiled brightly despite the blood on her robes. "Oh, we're going to be your new harem members!"
Zule blinked. "What?"
Flare, elegant even while injured, narrowed her eyes. "He *replaced* us?"
"What? No!" Shin exclaimed, helping Visenya stand. "Padawan, not yet. But… he understands that you might never fully accept him again. Still, in any relationship, work is needed."
Zule's voice cracked with emotion. "We *do* accept him. We love him."
Nox groaned as Shin cut him down. The Sith Lord-turned-reborn ally collapsed to his knees, coughing.
"What… happened?" he rasped, looking around.
The entire facility was burning. Organic walls writhed and screamed as fire consumed them. Vergere's body lay in a pile of ash near the center of the chamber, her feathers still smoking.
And standing amid the destruction like a figure out of legend was Dagon Marek.
His armor was scorched black. Red lightning still crackled across his shoulders. The dark side radiated from him in palpable waves. With his helmet on and eyes glowing behind the visor, he looked like a reincarnation of Tulak Hord — the ancient Dark Lord of Hate, Master of the Gathering Darkness. A terrifying silhouette of war and power.
"Yeah…" Nox muttered, a weak smile forming despite the pain. "He's angry."
Dagon turned toward them, the girls gathered behind him. His voice, deepened by the vocoder and raw emotion, echoed through the collapsing facility.
"Let's go home."
He raised one hand, and a massive wave of Force energy erupted outward, collapsing the remaining Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements and clearing a path toward the surface.
Shin and Erictia moved to support the weaker girls. Dagon carried Ahsoka in one arm and helped Ashara with the other. Together, the group fought their way out of the burning vongforming complex as Helska IV trembled around them.
Above, the *Nightdragon* waited.
The rescue was not over — but the counterattack had truly begun.