**Chapter 484**
**Jedi Temple Arc – Part 5**
**Scene 1**
**Lower Levels – Jedi Temple, Coruscant**
The infiltrator moved like a ghost through the ancient corridors. Her blue skin gleamed faintly under the emergency lighting as she reached the final door. She had spent weeks preparing for this moment — memorizing codes that should have been lost to time, calibrating implants to fool security systems designed by the Old Republic's most paranoid minds.
She smiled.
The large room beyond was filled with tables and shelves, each one covered in artifacts from the Great War. Any one of them alone would be a great prize — ancient lightsabers, forbidden holocrons, relics of forgotten battles. Yet she didn't spare them a second glance.
Those trinkets, no matter how dangerous or useful, paled in comparison to her goal.
At the far wall of the room, behind a solid wall of warship-grade armor, lay her true targets.
She approached a lit-up terminal near the goal and began typing. All the while, the ancient AI protecting the small sanctuary beneath the Jedi Temple watched her with ill-disguised curiosity. Its sensors probed her, but her implants fed it exactly what it wanted to see.
It took her several minutes of manually inputting codes that no living being should have remembered after all those years. Finally, a series of mechanical clicks echoed through the chamber. The room rumbled, and sections of the nearest wall slid down, revealing another room — much smaller this time.
The infiltrator's smile grew wider as she stepped inside the computer core of the AI. She retrieved a datapad from her belt and hooked it to the ancient machine.
Moments later, a chime rang out, announcing that the new device was recognized and connected to the core.
"Copy all information on projects under Case Red and above," she ordered aloud, while sending a mental command through her implants.
The AI hesitated for a split second, then obeyed. The woman had the necessary codes and had followed the procedures hardwired into its computer core.
Meanwhile, she walked to the back of the room. Her next prize waited there.
A pitch-black cube, with meter-long sides. A cylinder made of transparent metal in which a gray humanoid droid was suspended in a stasis field. A pedestal with a single silver holocron.
That was it. She frowned. There was supposed to be something else there too.
"Computer. Where is Subject 'Ascension'?" she asked.
"It was removed three thousand six hundred eighty-eight years ago," answered a bland, emotionless voice.
"To where?"
"No data available."
"Damn it!" she cursed. Three out of four would have to be good enough.
The woman removed a star-burst-shaped necklace from her neck and concentrated on the Force. She reached with her right hand, and the holocron rose into the air. It started shifting under her directions until it revealed an emerald crystal in its heart.
The crystal flew to her outstretched hand, while the holocron returned to its previous shape and gently settled back onto its resting place.
She pocketed her prize and went to the cube. Pressing various points on it — apparently at random — while sending brief bursts of Force energy through her fingers.
Soon enough, it rang with a single clear note. A pulse of silver energy ran over its surface, and it began shifting. Its outer edges became blurs, leaving the impression that the object now existed in more dimensions than a human could perceive.
A quiet hum could be heard in the computer core. It was slowly becoming louder.
"It actually worked!" she exclaimed.
She could feel how the object was drawing in Force energy to power itself.
Moments later, she received confirmation from the AI that the data transfer was complete.
"Erase all logs concerning my presence here and delete the data concerning projects under Case Red and above from your databanks," she ordered after retrieving her datapad.
It was time to make herself scarce. Her job was done, and the device she had activated should deal with any physical backups of the information that remained. Or so she thought.
She left without sparing a second glance to the room containing the AI's computer core. So it was no surprise that when the former cube started sending electrical discharges all around itself, it went unnoticed.
**Scene 2**
"Not so fast, little lady."
Nhon Arto appeared from the shadows, his blue lightsaber igniting with a sharp *snap-hiss*. The blade pointed directly at the blue-skinned girl's face, its glow reflecting in her surprised eyes.
The infiltrator froze for half a second, then smiled coldly. "Another Chiss? Where do these dark acolytes keep coming from?"
Dagon stepped out from behind Nhon, his black beskar armor still dusty from the lower levels. His red-star eye burned with recognition.
"Wait a minute, teacher — doesn't this look like Sev'rance Tann? Dooku's first acolyte?" Dagon asked, his voice low and dangerous.
Nhon tilted his head, studying her. "Yeah, now that you mention it… Ah, of course. The CIS must have cloned her using those Spaarti cylinders you recovered from Saleucami."
The woman — the clone of Sev'rance Tann — smirked. "You're too late."
Before either of them could react, she bit down on a small electric suicide pill hidden in a false tooth. Her body convulsed violently as the charge fried her nervous system from the inside out. She collapsed to the floor, smoke rising from her mouth and eyes.
"Tragic," Nhon said, lowering his lightsaber. "She would rather—"
He never finished the sentence.
A sudden, horrifying pressure slammed into both of them. The Force itself seemed to twist and scream. Dagon felt it first — a cold, devouring hunger that began draining the life from everything around them.
"Damn it — something started draining the Force from every living thing in the Temple!" Dagon shouted.
Nhon staggered, his lightsaber flickering. "Another… Thought Bomb?"
Dagon's eyes widened in horror as the realization hit him. The black cube the infiltrator had activated wasn't just a data device. It was a trap — a modern, insidious version of the ancient Thought Bomb, designed to consume the Force itself.
The Temple groaned as the drain intensified. Lights flickered. Distant screams echoed through the corridors.
Dagon gripped his lightsaber tighter, the red star in his eye blazing. "We need to stop it. Now."