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Knights of the Old Republic 46: Destroyer, Part 2

What is it ? : Jarael and Gryph are arguing, they've lost touch with the trackers they placed on Zayne and don't know where to find him. Gryph points out that you should never bait a trap with something you want back, and Jarael reaches out for help to various groups, including Malak, but no one is willing to help.
Knowing Zayne mentioned having hidden contacts, she goes to T1-LB hoping he discussed it with him as she overheard them speaking. But upon hearing that Zayne is now a slave, T1-LB reveals that Zayne wasn't speaking to him, but using him as a communications system, and puts Jarael in touch with Shel Jelavan.
Meanwhile on Volgax, Chantique continues to twist Zayne's perceptions, telling him that Jarael did not just work here, but was the supervisor, she stabbed Chantique in the back when she was escaping, knowing the Crucible doesn't heal, but replaces. So Chantique was discarded, and had to fight her way through the streets until she found the Crucible again, taking control of Volgax.
Zayne realises that Chantique is using the force to influence him, rather than just Zeltron pheromones as he suspected, realising that it was she that tortured Goethar Kleej as well. But with her scheme discovered she puts him back into the slave pits, armed to fight against Snout.
They fight, with Snout fighting with lethal intent, but his mind is clear due to the mind touch with Zayne, and he tells Zayne he knows what the Crucible really is. It was created by the Sith Lord Ieldis, to forge armies out of slaves, and even though it's original purpose is gone, it still keeps working. Admitting that it did it's job on Goethar, turning him from a Farmer into a warrior, and has done it's job on him, turning him from a librarian into a killer. Zayne refuses to fight, just defending himself, but Snout overpowers him, but at the last moment forces his weapon into Zayne's hand and turns it on himself, asking him to never forget the memories he has been given.
Chantique thinks that she's forged Zayne into a killer despite his beliefs, and that he is broken, and although Captain Golliard disagrees, she has him returned to his friends.
They discover him on a remote moon, and Jarael is delighted to see him, excited to share her knowledge of the resources he's been gathering in secret, including the former senator of Taris. But Zayne is still devastated from Snout's death, and the centuries of memories he now has of the slave pits and what Jarael was part of. He accuses her of not doing better, of not fighting against the Crucible, and that he need time to process. She responds that she thought they were working together, that he has standard no one can keep, especially not himself, and if that's how he feels she will tell the others that she is going her own way.
As she walks away, he comments that she kept her old name of destroyer, and she tells him no, Jarael means protector . . . .

High Points : An issue of three parts, and they're all compelling this time. The search for Zayne by his friends, including the revelation that he's actually been using T1-LB's holographic systems as a long range communicator in secret to build his forces with Shel and Senator Goravvus, is fantastic. It would have been easy to have made this a simple cut away to show his friends frantically searching for him but failing. But instead we get a substantial section, with loads of great character building with secrets revealed.
The second section with Zayne being interrogated and fighting on Volgax, we get lots of twisted words from Chantique, as well as the revelation that she uses the Force (strange that both she and Jarael do, and both came from the school controlled by the man who would become Demagol, so more to come there I think). Followed by Snout revealing the true purpose of the Crucible, a Sith engine to create armies, before dying, knowing that it will make the Crucible think that Zayne has now been forged into a weapon, so he may be released with the knowledge of what it is.
And then the meeting between Jarael and Zayne, where the stress of everything makes him say unkind and accusatory things which drives her away, and she reveals that her name doesn't mean destroyer, the name the Crucible gave her, but the name she chose for herself means Protector.
So much going on, and so much of it great.

Low Points : My initial problem would be the ease with which they just release Zayne, knowing he has all this knowledge against them. But even that kind of makes sense, as at the moment they consider Jarael the biggest threat to the Crucible, and as revealed Chantique has a personal vendetta against her. So releasing Zayne, as it will drive her away, removing her friends and support structure seems like a reasonable plan. Except it was Zayne that spent time away from his friends recently, so it seems a bit of a gamble that it wouldn't just be Zayne that left, which offers them no advantage over keeping him there and using him for bait.

So what do you really think ? : A really good issue, lots of story, lots of revelations, lots of great character moments, all of it with good motivations, and some sad moments. The idea that a Sith Lord created an organisation to make him armies, and set it up so well that it continued to operate long after his death is a really cool one. An organisation it's origin and purpose forgotten, becoming an almost religious like cult of causing torture and pain to forge warrior slaves.

Final Words : So with 4 issues to go, we've got the third act break up, which is annoyingly ordinary plot contrivance. We already see Zayne reconsidering what he said with the revelation her name is actually protector, so she'll get in danger, and Zayne will come to her rescue, it seems so obvious.
But for 4 issues, there's a lot to cover, the downfall of the Crucible, the role of Demagol in Jarael and Chantique's past and mysterious force powers, and his awakening on Coruscant. It all looks set to tie together neatly, and come to a satisfying conclusion, if that can handle it without any massive infodumps.

Score : 9.5/10

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