**Chapter 824: Dreams and Shadows**
**Scene 1: Vector-class Star Destroyer Brightburn – Hyperspace**
Ahsoka Tano drifted in the dreamscape once more. A lush green world stretched out beneath her, vibrant and alive, the kind of planet that should have brought peace. But something was wrong. The air felt heavy, tainted.
The scene shifted violently.
A ruined nuclear plant rose from the ground like a skeletal monument—Chernobyl. Twisted metal, leaking radiation, fields of destroyed Terminators lying in heaps alongside melted, charred bodies of humans. The sky burned orange and black.
A dark, guttural voice echoed through the nightmare, tempting and cruel.
"Yield to me. Everything. Your bones, your blood, your pain, your soul."
A massive shadow loomed over a kneeling figure—Dagon. The beast, that mutated dragon-wolf of pure darkness, circled him with predatory grace.
"Why are you holding back?" it taunted. "Your brand restrains you. Your flesh restricts you."
"Wait, Master! Don't listen to him!" Ahsoka screamed helplessly, her voice lost in the wind of memory. She reached out, but her hands passed through the vision like smoke.
The beast continued, its voice a chorus of agony and rage.
"If you are fragile and want to protect something… then hold a sword. Look around you… The only thing you can do is tear it apart! You don't want a reason… You just want to bathe in blood! If you're tired of suffering, just give me your body. I'll make the pain stop. I'll make everything go away."
"No, Dagon, please—wait!" Ahsoka yelled, tears streaming down her face.
A final distorted whisper slithered through the dream, armored and ancient.
"Do you seek power?"
The nightmare fractured.
**Scene 2: Awakening and Desperate Plans**
"Nooo!"
Ahsoka bolted upright in the shared quarters aboard the *Brightburn*, her scream echoing off the walls. She was shaking, sweat soaking her skin and montrals.
"Dammit, Ahsoka. At least I'm prepared this time," Zule grumbled, already sitting up with pillows wrapped around her like armor. The Falleen-Zeltron hybrid looked equal parts annoyed and concerned.
"It's the dream again," Ahsoka whispered, voice breaking as she buried her face in Miaria's chest. The Felacatian queen wrapped her arms and tail around her protectively. "I'm seeing more of his past. More darkness. It feels like hell—so much death and destruction."
"Easy, Snips," Miaria soothed, stroking her montrals. "It was the past. That's not who Dagon is anymore."
"Yeah, sure he can be a little dark sometimes, silent type," Talon added, the red Lethan Twi'lek leaning in from the side. "But he never does anything truly evil. To be honest, I think he fights that beast every single day."
Shin nodded, her purple hair messy from sleep. "He protects us from it. Every time he goes into battle in that armor, we feel the edges of it through the bond. But he always comes back to us."
Sakura sat up, analytical as always. "The dreams are getting clearer. The Force bond is deepening. If we keep ignoring this, it might consume him from the inside."
Erictia hugged a pillow to her chest. "He carries so much. The Skynet war, the mind prison, Geonosis… We see fragments, but never the whole."
Flare's Pantoran skin flushed with worry. "We need to help him carry it. Not just stand beside him, but actually share the weight."
Kayla, one of the Zeltrons, frowned. "How? He locks that part of himself away so tightly."
Visenya suggested softly, "How about we just ask him?"
Aubrie shook her head. "Do you really think it's that easy? 'Hey Dagon, could you show us the full details of your trauma from the past all the way to now?'"
Atroxa laughed sarcastically. "He'd probably just smile and say 'It's handled' while bleeding internally."
Stella's eyes lit up. "Wait—remember his shield shows his memories, right? We don't need him to show us. We can just access the shield."
Aayla crossed her arms. "How do we do that? His shield, if not on his arm, is stuck to his back. It doesn't leave his body."
A blush crept across Zule's face as an idea formed. "How about we seduce him? While he's making love to some of us, the others access the shield through the Knight Hammer Sith armor he got from Warb Null's tomb."
Grace raised an eyebrow. "Ha, are you crazy? Apart from the idea of keeping him busy long enough for you girls to even access the shield, you have to remember he can outdo all of us combined in bed."
"Unless we bring in some help," Grace added with a mischievous grin.
Ahsoka's eyes widened. "I don't think bringing in sex workers from Coruscant into the Jedi Temple will do it. That itself is pushing even Dagon's new rules."
"What about other Jedi who have feelings for Dagon?" Ahsoka suggested. "Specifically Masters Tiplar and Tiplee. Those sisters might work."
Miaria sighed, tail flicking. "This is a terrible plan, and I think we might regret this." But she nodded. "Still… if it helps him, I'm in."
The harem exchanged determined looks. They loved Dagon too much to let the beast win.
**Scene 3: Jedi Temple – Sun Guard Escort**
Dagon walked the grand hallways of the Jedi Temple, escorted by five Sun Guards in full gray-and-orange beskar armor. The Thyrsian warriors moved with disciplined precision, their light pikes replaced by new weapons: bilari electro-chain whips, electro-bisentos, and vibro-arbir blades—all modified with kyber crystals and reinforced beskar.
'Huh. Sun Guard. Strange ground they are,' Dagon thought. They had defected after Sidious betrayed them, intending to use them as suicide bombs for Crimson-71. Now they were eternally loyal to the Jedi Order—and by extension, to him.
Their armor colors varied by unit: Obi-Wan's 212th used yellow-orange, Anakin's blue, Dagon's own gray. The rest of the Temple Guard used various shades of green—the cheapest for beskar plating. Most of the material had come from Malachor V remains and salvaged hulls.
The guards' presence turned heads, but no one questioned it. The Sun Guards had proven themselves repeatedly in recent battles. They were no longer mercenaries—they were Jedi protectors.
Dagon continued toward the Council Chamber, the weight of the coming conference pressing on him. The girls would arrive soon. The war was accelerating, and the beast inside stirred more often.
But for now, he walked with his new loyal escort, ready for whatever came next.