Bando had relaxed himself, and returned inside. Rye, Erickson, Ephraim, and the invisible man awaited him inside. There was suddenly a sense of calmness everywhere; it felt as though everyone had cleared their minds of any worry and distress.

"It's time." The man said.

Bando said nothing as he sat back down within the circle.

"I've got a good feeling about this." Erickson said.

"Now, let us focus." Invisible Man said as they centralized their focus.

Kaiyah, Ailurah, and Becky stood in awe at the large study that was held under Ephraim's room. It was covered in papers that had notes and much more written all over it. There were markings even on the walls; but that was just what they could see.

"This flame isn't bright enough. Did he build firelines in the wall?" Kaiyah asked herself. She held her hand to the wall, and sure enough, she saw a fireline. She shot out a flame, and it ignited all around the room. It also went up, and lit up the room with a wide ceiling chandelier. Now they could see the whole place, and it was much more of what they already saw.

"How are we going to figure out anything in time?" Kaiyah asked aloud.

"Ephraim's an organized person. We can find out more easily than we could if this was the case of a hyped up science rat." Becky replied.

The three scanned over the notes, then Ailurah quickly deduced, "It seems like he started out just, finding out where he could perform whatever it is he was trying to perform."

"Where?" Kaiyah asked.

"The library." Becky answered first. "The library contains countless documents of scarcely known information; I bet that was his first move." Becky said.

"Well Becky, I think you're on to something." Kaiyah said as she pointed to one specific note -where several others connected to- that read 'The library.'

"The library was his first step in learning. Let's go." Kaiyah said as she rushed out.

"Why wasn't I told you guys had a library?" Ailurah asked as she followed behind.

The three lifted off from Tatooine in pursuit of Dathomir II.

"Aren't we going to your library?" Ailurah asked.

"The library isn't on Tatooine. It's been kept where no regular man could find it. Exar's birth planet: Dathomir II." Becky said.

"Dathomir II? I've only heard of Dathomir and Iridonia. I thought Exar was born there."

"Nope." Kaiyah said. "But could you imagine if the library was on Tatooine. Then when the purge happ... Everything would've been destroyed." She ended with a laugh.

"The library's being in a hidden location was a precaution, but that didn't stop one Republic squad from trying to take it." Becky explained as she finally entered hyperspace coordinates for Dathomir II and the ship went into lightspeed.

"Now," Galen's voice started. "Before you ask your last question, you must answer one yourself."

"Tell me." Aang accepted.

"You have done a remarkable job in overcoming your emotions, but now, you must take one last lest. The one all men dread."

"Um... ok." Exar said a little worriedly. "Facing your greatest fear?"

"No."

"Everyone's challenge, is: facing their inner demons."

"How different is that from greatest fear?"

"Everyone's demon, is facing the darkest part of themselves. Not what they're afraid of."

"I figured as much." Exar said.

"It is dreaded, but not so much feared."

"Lay it on me." Aang told him.

"This isn't to be taken lightly."

The air seemed to swirl around Aang, as well as the dust. It went up and formed a dirt-nado around him. Then, it lifted from the ground and moved like a swarm of insects. It landed in front of him, then it separated and covered the cave room.

When it dissipated, Aang suddenly, fully understood what the voice was talking about.

As did Exar.

-Aang-

"Wait! Hold on! What is this?" Aang asked.

"You must face your dark side. Do so, with care, but also with relentlessness." Then the voice faded.

Aang faced the artificial image that formed in front of him. He was in Exar's room, and it was dimly lit. "Exar" was sitting in front of a hologram, and he was speaking to it.

"Log date 121401, I have a plan with Ephraim to help clean the galaxy. The plan itself doesn't go as far as one might expect, but I trust the force has a hand in its future. My friend will be and act as a sith. Under the spell, only a codephrase will break it off. I have to wait for his connection with the other sith to break before I act though."

Aang listened, but wasn't sure how he should feel. He knew that Exar knew of Erk's existence, but now he had just found out that Exar knew there were more; but me might not have known who they were, just that there were more. At this point, Aang was used to the "bombshells" Exar had been dropping over the past few weeks.

"Is there a point to this?' Aang asked, but no answer was heard. He sighed and continued watching.

"But this one thing I have to get off my chest. This must not go known by anyone else. I know that in some places, Zabraks are condescended; they have every reason to be. My great uncle, was a terrorist, and made his mark as a feared force all over. He took over Mandalore. Twice. He did so much to take revenge and to try to become the true sith lord." At this point, Aang was becoming frustratingly suspicious.

"And my new friend has told me that he's had a pretty bad struggle with him, so he can't find out I'm related to him."

Aang had a suspicion, and it was just confirmed. Exar's great uncle...

Was Darth Maul.

But just to be sure...

"Who is it?" Aang asked loudly. "Exar" jumped and bumped into a wall.

"A-Aang? What are you doing here?"

"Who? Is it?" Aang asked menacingly. "Or, who was it?"

"Does it matter now? He's dead."

"So it is him." Aang said. "Your great uncle was Darth Maul."

"What? No? Savage Oppress. At least I think that was his name. Maul never had kids."

"Savage was Maul's brother! Maul's still your great uncle."

Exar seemed surely shocked. "How did I not know that? I heard Savage was the only one, and he took over Mandalore."

"Maul took over Mandalore; Savage was his right hand man. Exar, why didn't you say anything?"

"We haven't known each other for a long time; I thought it wouldn't have been appropriate."

Aang reminded himself this was Exar in the past. "I'm not from your era. I hadn't known until now."

"I figured. I noticed your outfit."

"Why wouldn't you tell me?" Aang asked again.

"I didn't want you to end up hurting me, therefore betraying me."

"You're gonna have to get over that soon; or your secrets will get you in trouble." Aang ignited one of his lightsabers. "I've had beef with Maul for a long time, but was never satisfied with removing his head from his neck. I need satisfaction."

"With my head?" Exar asked. "Aang, this isn't the way to go. You need, to let, go."

"Maul murdered hundreds. He needs justice."

"And he got it. Not in a way anyone else suspected."

"Are you talking about his defeat on Tatooine? I know of that."

"Not sure where you're going with that, but no. He wasn't yet defeated there. You should know, right?"

"I heard he survived that; he helped us defeat an Imperial tyrant, then died again. but not at my hand."

"No. There was more."

"What?"

"He survived the battle over Sullust... Wait, you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"... He became Snoke. That was his real name."

"Are you saying... I could've stopped him then?" Aang said as he retracted his blade and put his hilt back on his belt, and crossed his arms.

"Where were you when the First Order was around?"

"I... was..." Exar got him there. Aang never paid attention to the times, but he remembered what he was doing before he met Exar. "I was experimenting. I, had to preserve."

"Uh huh." Exar murmured. "What is it specifically you have against Maul? What did he do to you?"

Aang was hesitant, then remembered that this was a vision of sorts. "He... killed my friends." Exar could see tears from his eyes.

"Your first friends? I know how that feels. Ephraim, Heceowa, and I think a couple others are the only ones of hundreds that survived the massacre of my home." Aang was paying attention, his temper lowering. "I keep secrets from you guys not only for the sake of the future in hindsight, but because I'm scared of losing you. If the secrets I have were somehow leaked into the public... I couldn't live without any of you guys." Aang then saw tears streaming down Exar's face.

"You just don't want to lose us?" Aang asked him quietly.

"I see now, that the longer I keep them, only the more I lose your trust. I have to keep secrets, but I can't lose you guys."

Aang stood still for a long moment.

"Excuse me." Exar muttered, dropping to his knees and meditating so he could clear his mind.

Then Exar felt arms wrapped around him, knocking him out of his peaceful state of mind.

"I'm sorry Exar. I'll try to respect your privacy from now on." After Aang finished his sentence, Exar disappeared. Aang opened his eyes and saw that Exar had flaked away.

After another moment, Galen's voice reappeared. "I am most impressed, Jedi. You have overcome -without much depth- your greatest challenge. Overcoming yourself, and your dark side."

"My dark side? You surely don't mean 'sith?' " Aang asked.

"No. You are a Jedi, but that doesn't mean you're without your dark side."

Exar was about to face the same thing, but only this was much more terrifying. It seemed like the same situation when he faced Heceowa earlier, only this form was much more familiar. The orange and black tattoos spoke it all.

"Oh. Dark side. Mirtis." Exar nearly stuttered.

The beast whipped his head around and growled at Exar. He roared, backing Exar up.

"Man does my breath smell that bad when I'm him?"

Mirtis X'd his arms, then Exar was left bedazzled and confused at what happened next. As Mirtis crossed his arms, three green, footlong kyber blades emerged from each of his wrists.

'Is that supposed to mean something?' Exar thought to himself.

Mirtis remained motionless, for an unknown reason to Exar.

'Am I supposed to do something?' He thought. 'This is me. Maybe I'm supposed to mirror his actions.' Exar slowly drew out his double-bladed lightsaber, and held it in an angled position across his body.

Mirtis held one hand out, and Exar held his free hand out the same. A single, tiny light orb appeared between their hands. Then, Mirtis began using the force to puch it to Exar; but as it got closer to Exar, it started turning black.

Exar didn't like the look of it, then pushed against it, and as it got nearer to Mirtis, it started glowing again. Mirtis began pushing again, and the cycle repeated.

They kept pushing the force against each other, until they reached their limit, and couldn't outdo one another.

'Am I stronger than him? This might be easier than expected.' But that one prideful thought gave Mirtis all he needed to push the dark orb to Exar. It coursed through him, and everything around him went dark.

Exar suddenly felt weak and collapsed to the ground. He mustered the energy to look up to meet Mirtis and his cold, fiery green eyes.

"What?" Exar could barely gasp out. "Is this?"

"To me, it appears to be Exar's demise."

"But, *gasp* you're just *gasp* a vision."

"Have you learned nothing? Or have you, buy you buried that information deep down where you buried me?"

"Riddle *gasp* speaking *gasp* is a popular *gasp* speaking mechanism *gasp* isn't it?"

"This isn't just a vision, and you know it."

"If my evil side *gasp* is so much smarter *gasp* than me, then *gasp* tell me what it is."

"This, is your deciding fight. Your mental battle -not with a separate opponent- but yourself."

"Ok yeah *gasp* I think I got that."

"Then we know what happens next, don't we?"

Becky's team arrived at Dathomir II shortly, via shortcut; they made their way to the library with haste. As they landed, Heceowa's squad ran forward to surround the ships, and they were tripping over each other.

"This has Heceowa written all over it." Kaiyah said, slouching in her chair.

"Mhm." Becky replied, equally amused.

The three exited their ships as Heceowa made his way to the front of the groups.

"I apologize for that embarrassment of an entourage, I. . . Kaiyah? Becky?"

"Heceowa. I see you were left in charge of this place." Kaiyah said.

"Um, Kaiyah-"

"Other than you two, Ephraim, and Exar, we're the only survivors." Heceowa interrupted Becky.

"You're talking about the purge, right?" Ailurah asked.

"I don't believe we've met." Heceowa said as he held out his hand.

"I'm Ailurah. Kaiyah's sister." Ailurah introduced, shaking his hand.

"Oh she has a sister?"

"Oh you didn't know?"

"I'm afraid not. Now, what can I do for you- hold on a second." He turned to his group, "PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN! WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS!"

His squad lowered their weapons, and Heceowa continued. "What can I do for you three?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Kaiyah replied.

"So you want to clone yourself so you and this Ephraim clone can live equal lives?" Heceowa summarized his understanding.

"It's a little hard to understand fully, but yes. As strange as it sounds, it needs to be done." Kaiyah said.

"If you insist. Here it is." Heceowa placed the torch he was carrying on the wall and they stood in front of the door to their library. "Exar and his Jedi team visited a couple weeks ago, and he returned the stolen shard to the door."

"Oh he was here recently?" Kaiyah asked in surprise.

"Yeah. We actually, kinda fought. We have different perspectives, and I got way ahead of myself."

"What happened?" Ailurah asked.

"I, uh, released Mirtis. Briefly."

"You did what?" Becky nearly freaked. "Exar had been trying to get rid of Mirtis for years. After he realized why he was given the name, he disowned it immediately. Once Mirtis's brought back, there's no going back. He's not going to go again."

"I got what I deserved for that, I suppose. When he gained the upper hand, the son of a bantha conjured a rope, tied me up with it, and lowered me down to the cliff grounds. Took my guys twenty-three hours to find me."

"That sounds like punishment enough."

"Knowing Mirtis, I'm just glad it wasn't worse." Heceowa said as he stretched his hands out, using the force to start opening the doors. The others followed, and the doors soon opened.

"Take all the time you need." Heceowa said before they started exploring the library.

"Okay so what are we looking for?" Ailurah asked.

. . .

"Kaiyah?" Becky called. "Did you bring the Imager?"

"Uh, no why- Oh."

"Oh no worries. I brought one." Ailurah said.

"Did you take pictures of Ephraim's notes and stuff?" Kaiyah asked.

"I did while you guys weren't looking."

"I'd normally ask why you'd do that, but now I just want to see the pictures." Kaiyah said.

"Okay okay." Ailurah responded, pulling her sleeve back and showing her wrist holographic projector. She pressed a few buttons, and the gallery of images appeared. Ailurah tapped onto one and it enlarged.

"Oh dang." Ailurah muttered. "Blurry." She deleted the photo, and the next one appeared.

"Blurry."

Deleted.

"Blurry."

Deleted.

"Blurry."

Deleted.

"Blurry."

Deleted.

"Blurry."

Deleted.

"This one's clear." Ailurah said as they all observed the photo.

"Any clues?" Kaiyah asked.

"Clues are my speciality. Lemme have a look." Becky said as she pulled Ailurah's wrist to her view.

"Guys need help finding something?" Heceowa asked from behind them.

"I'm usually smart when it comes to applying logic, but I haven't memorized the entire library."

"Then I'm your guy." Heceowa said.

"Good. Where might we find books that explain separation of spirit from body?"