Aria nodded breathlessly as Yerbol made a reappearance at her side, flashing a briefly triumphant grin his way though they didn’t have time to celebrate their joined effort at taking down that projection as Bracknell threw Jungze aside and turned his attention fully onto the duo. 
Hot. It was getting so hot. Swiping the back of a wrist over her brow to clear the trickle of sweat that had begun to form there before it could drip into her eyes. She made the mistake of glancing in Bracknell’s direction to find the former Sith Lord’s gaze boring into her own and holding her in place. She tried to break the eye contact between them but Bracknell was more powerful and it didn’t seem to matter how much she willed her head to move, to look away, she simply couldn’t get it to move. 
“I’m interested to know what he sees in you.” Bracknell mused out loud, his voice dripping with venom. “You’re still weak, too attached to the past and influenced by your own fear!”


Aria flinched as a familiar voice echoed through every recess of her mind, one she hadn’t heard in four years and that she thought she would never hear again. 
“Ari, you don’t have to do this…” she twitched visibly, as if trying to dismiss the voice, the flickering projection of the woman standing between herself and Bracknell, hands held out in front of her as she pleaded frantically. It was the heat...the heat playing tricks on her...or, was Bracknell doing this?
Roan stiffened as the illusion appeared, growling as he shouted across the room in an attempt to get Aria’s attention off the manifestation of her memories.
“Aria! It’s NOT real! IT’S NOT REAL!” 
Out of the corner of her eye, Aria could see her father’s mouth moving but no words were coming out, her attention entirely focused on the figure and her words. “M-Mom...mom!” Aria stepped forward, reaching towards the illusion and clasping around a wrist that felt so solid and so...real that she was convinced it really WAS her mother standing in front of her, even though rationally she should have been able to dismiss it as a mind trick. Whether it was the heat or some other influence Bracknell had over her mind in that moment Aria couldn’t process that what she was seeing was in fact an illusion of  a long buried memory; all she wanted was to talk to her again. To...to stop this from getting out of control before it all-
Suddenly the woman let out a piercing scream and jerked out of Aria’s grip, losing her footing as she cried out:
“Ari please...don’t do this….no, I’m your MOTHER! I’M YOUR MOTHER!”
“No! NO! MOM!” Aria wailed, tears misting her eyes as she frantically grabbed for the imaginary weapon that would have arced towards the woman’s chest as she delivered the killing blow-
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Roan bellowed, drawing back his arm, dark purple energy crackling to life in the center of his palm. The energy formed into a thin spear-like pillar which he flung straight across the room and into the center of the projection, causing it to break up into puffs of smoke with another desperate scream. Bracknell spat a curse as the energy spear connected with the ground inches from his feet, throwing him backwards into the staircase where he landed with a resounding thump and remained still.


Aria was still staring at the place the projection of her mother had been seconds before, her lightsabers clattering unceremoniously to the floor as her shaking hands lost their grip on them. 
“Aria!” she didn’t respond when Roan called her name again, the tears trickled down over her cheeks; she tried to form words to respond though all that came out at first was a pitiful whimper as she fought back more tears. Her legs were slowly turning to jelly and before long they couldn’t hold her up any longer and she dropped like a deadweight towards the floor.
“Aria!” Roan had caught her and gathered her up into his arms before Yerbol could so much as take a step in Aria’s direction, shushing her quietly as Aria let out another high-pitched squeal and curled herself up into a tight ball against her father’s chest. “It’s okay, it’s gone.” he whispered. “It’s over.” tearing his gaze from Bracknell’s unconscious form, pushing away the overwhelming urge to dismember the little worm while he had the chance and instead snarling back at the others.
“Let’s get out of here! We’ve got what we came for!”