STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- The Council of Taneshla

There is a low rumbling in the air now, and Rand has to raise his voice some to be heard.

"You are paranoid, though not without reason!" Rand cackles. "You have let your fear take over."

"No! I haven't!"

Uhoh. What does Rianna sense?

It is more see than sense. Tanic's ship is arriving! He must have a slave unit for it.

"Then why are you so afraid?" Rand says. "You could have made that jump off the roof. And now you retreat."

"Not afraid...more like not stupid," Rianna replies. She turns and points her lightsaber at Rand. "I am sick of being used as a pawn, though..."

"Then take control," Rand says. His tone is surprisingly more that of a teacher than the arrogant braggart you know him to be. "It is what Tanic will do, now that he has allies who will show him how to use his fears for power in the Force. You can be in control of your emotions and your destiny if you only let me teach you!"

"Just what could you possibly teach me? I have absolutely no reason to trust you...I want no part of this. I want to be left alone!"

"Then run and hide from the Galaxy, become a hermit and let your fear fester and break you down."

"No. I won't let that happen. I'm stronger than that..." Rianna says, though she's not feeling so sure.

"You'll have your chance to prove that soon enough," Rand says as the Shadow drifts in over the manor. "I will see to that."

"How? What do you have planned now?"

Rand just smiles before jumping into the waiting doorway of Tanic's ship. Gallador gives you one last angry glare before following.

Tanic appears to be regaining some of his composure and is standing awkwardly before you. He has picked up two of the intact pieces of the staff. The third has crumbled away.

Rianna holds her lightsaber up, stepping back away from Tanic again.

"Tanic? You're not going to try and attack me again, are you?"

"No," Tanic says. "But Rand is right."

"No...he can't be."

"I can't learn to control my fear the Jedi way," Tanic says. "I've got to accept what I've become. Goodbye, Rianna."

Tanic jumps up into the ship, a little haphazardly due to his imbalance. Rand ensures that he gets up okay.

And then the ship is gone, disappearing into the overhanging, dark clouds.

"You've got to be kidding me..." she mutters to herself, watching the ship leave.

She's going to re-enter the house and find Geful, sensing if there's still any fighting going on.

The fighting appears to have come to an end. With Rand gone and Calthell defeated, the assassins have surrendered. The manor is a tremendous mess with laser blasts everywhere and furniture thrown about every which way.

Geful is in the banquet hall, where Rand eventually used part of the table to seal the front door to keep Slate and his gunmen out.

He just gives you a curt nod in greeting as he examines the damage to his home.

Well, Rianna can easily take care of the new door blocking Slate out...

"The staff is destroyed, and Tanic has left with Rand and Gallador..." she says to Geful after doing so.

"Great," Geful says. "Was all this just some ploy to convert Tanic or whatever? I don't think the Mecrossans really gained anything important from this. If anything, it's made our relations worse."

"From what Rand told me...I think that it may have been. Playing off of his worries to make him finally give in..."