The endless misty expanse of the Crystal Hall stretched seemingly (and quite possibly) forever in each direction. Hawk's brow furrowed as he recognised his location; he had not been here just moments ago. It was hard to think. Where had he been? The train of thought was completely derailed as shadows began to emerge from the mist. First there were a handful; then dozens, and finally hundreds, but Hawk was not worried, he knew who they were.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" Hawk asked as he approached the crowd.
"Nearly love," Evelyn replied and took his hands.
Hawk smiled sadly at the force ghost of his murdered wife, and then took in the host of those around him. His children stood close by; the wounds that made their small bodies unidentifiable when he had last seen them thankfully gone. Beyond them stood Vohn; then Liagu, Ordan, Ardeth and it went on and on. Thousands of his friends and comrades past stood in ranks waiting for him to join them.
Hawk moved to join them, but Evelyn resisted his movements.
"You can't. We are the ghosts of your past, but you need to remember your present, or there may be no future for anyone."
Hawk turned his face guiltily as his mind focused.
"Don't be fool enough to believe I'm not happy you found love again, Hawk," she scolded him.
"What can I do?" He asked defeatedly. "I'm lying nearly dead face down in a river. I can't save everyone; I can't beat him without celestial power."
"Tenebris has never been beaten by celestial power," Evelyn tapped him on the forehead.
Hawk lofted a brow as he considered this. She was right. The war against Tenebris had been going badly until Lychnus and Matercula had given birth to Vital and the force which then destroyed Tenebris' celestial body.
So, that was why Tenebris knew Phoenix was going to fail. The celestial lightsaber would not destroy Tenebris' heart unless it was wielded by a force user...by him. Phoenix was only bringing Tenebris the thing he needed to empower his own weapon, Daxium.
"I have to go," Hawk whispered, but the ghosts had already merged with the mist once again.
____________________
Tenebris stood over the Jedi, savouring the moment of his death. It wasn't the Hinata he wanted, but this one had become as much a thorn in his side as his cursed ancestor, and it was a start. Once the Jedi was dead, he would finally destroy Phoenix with the celestial blade, rectifying the thousand year old mistake of bestowing immortality upon him. Then, he would pass the blade to Daxium who would use it to take his sister's power and destroy Lychnus. Then, with his brother out of the way, Tenebris' power would be unbridled. He would cast aside the boy Daxium, perhaps torture him for a few centuries for his arrogance, and then...then the universe would be silent once more.
The surface of the river began to ripple in a wholly unnatural way, and then it stopped moving entirely. The river frozen in its flow. Singular droplets of water rose into the air and the ground shook; small stones and larger rocks joining the droplets of suspended water.
Tenebris' eyes shifted to the Jedi still face down in the water and a growl began at the back of his throat. The dark God raised his foot ready bring it crashing down on the Jedi and put an end to him, but when he brought it down it only hit an invisible barrier.
Hawk pushed himself up from the water, which ran in red rivulets down his face as blood poured from a dozen wounds upon his face where stones from the river had cut him.
"Did you ever wonder what Phoenix put in my DNA to allow me to control celestial power?" Hawk echoed Lychnus' words to Tenebris.
Hawk had figured it out in the moment right before he returned from the Crystal Hall, perhaps because that was where it had all begun. He knew it as if he had been there himself. Perhaps the knowledge had been given to him in that moment. Lychnus' son, Vital, was the force. The Crystal Hall was a nexus in the force. It was the force made physical...or, it was the physical body of Vital. Phoenix had imbued Hawk's DNA with the Crystal Hall, and therefore the body of Vital. That was why he had been drawn to the Jedi Brotherhood all those centuries ago; why his connection to the force seemed so strong.
Tenebris attacked, but he was sent sprawling as Hawk held up a hand and rebuffed him with the force. Before the dark God could recover, Hawk held out both hands and raised him into the air, bound tightly in the grip or the force. He raged against Hawk's power, but Hawk contained him and crashed him into the ground. Hawk's eyes shifted colour over and over as he held Tenebris, but finally they settled upon his usual emerald green.
Tenebris screamed as a shaft of light broke through his body like a spear of fire. It shimmered as the dark God clawed at it uselessly, and then finally it turned to crystal. No sooner than had it done so, another spear of light burst through Tenebris; and another; and another. One after another, shafts of force light burst through Tenebris and became crystals. Tenebris' face was contorted in agony as his very essence was being destroyed.
"HINATA!" He screamed as the majority of his body had been replaced by crystal, but Hawk did not hear him.
The force poured through Hawk in a tidal wave. He had channelled the energy of force light before, but never anything on this scale. He was manifesting the force itself in a physical form to destroy the dark celestial's spirit, and not only that...he was transporting them both. Hawk and Tenebris left the realm their spirits inhabited darted across the barrier of worlds. They crashed through a mountain to where Hawk could see Phoenix battling his way through Tenebris' minions towards the heart. He would make it just before they overcame him, but he would not be able to pierce it. He and Tenebris settled over the heart; the one place upon Tenebris' body where crystal did not erupt was the where his heart now sat.
Phoenix slashed left and right with the celestial blade, cutting his way to where Hawk stood with Tenebris pinned, although he could see neither of them. As he brought the blade down towards Tenebris' heart, Hawk reached out and clutched the hilt of the blade.
There was an explosion of energy. Phoenix and Tenebris' followers were sent crashing into the cave walls, and before them, as they scrabbled to their feet, stood Hawk and what remained of Tenebris with crystals reaching up from his body to the ceiling. Hawk did not hesitate, he brought the blade down to slide into the space in the Crystal. Into Tenebris' heart.
Light filled the cave, far too intense for Phoenix or Tenebris' followers to gaze upon, but Hawk could see. As the heart was pierced, crystals erupted from it and the blade was encapsulated. The crystals grew enormous and Hawk smiled as he recognised them. These were the crystals of the Crystal Hall. This was where and when they had been created, but they existed outside of time and space allowing for effect to lead to cause. The power of Vital surrounded the crystals and in a flash they were gone...gone to reside within the Crystal Hall, to call to a Hawk of the past in a closed loop of inescapable destruction for Tenebris. The dark God could never have won. He had already lost, and he had lost in every possible future that had ever been possible since the force was created. Hawk could see it now, he had escaped a final death by hiding his heart in this mountain, but he had been destined to do so by the will of the force for this very moment, and finally Hawk understood why the birth of Vital had ended the celestial war, and he understood why Lychnus would voluntarily join his brother in oblivion. The time of celestials was over.
Hawk Hinata
