Right behind them on their trail followed Zao and Tholme to rescue them before the feral Anzati gave into their cravings and ate the Jedi and the Devaronian. However, Zao and Tholme arrived too late, but only to find that Quinlan and Vilmarh had been rescued by a fourth Jedi to appear on Kiffex. Tr'a Saa, the watchman of the system Kiffex was located in had received news of the danger Quinlan Vos was in and made her way into the system to warn and assist him. Making their way back to the crash site of Tr'a Saa's ship, the Jedi took a time to rest, gather their thoughts, and figure out just what exactly was going on.

As Zao prepared a meal for the group, Tr'a Saa explained that she was sent by the Jedi Council when an old holocron in the Temple of First Knowledge revealed the reason why the Force aura around Kiffex was so strong, as well as the reason the Jedi felt something was blighted on the planet. Apparently, a thousand years prior lived a great Anzati Jedi Knight, Volfe Karkko. Many feared the existence of an Anzati Jedi, but Karkko had never given in to the instinctive Anzati cravings to drain the 'soup' of victims, or their life essence. Karkko felt that trying it once would cause no harm and tasted the soup for the first time of a young Jedi Knight. However, Karkko was apparently not strong enough to resist the cravings and eventually fell to the Dark Side using his Force powers to attain more and more.

In the end it took the entire Jedi Council to bring down Karkko, but instead of killing him, after tracking him to Kiffex and overpowering him, the Jedi Masters placed him in a stasis field so that he might think on what he did, and so that other Anzati could remember his greatness and importance to their kind. Sealing the area to all but Jedi, there he stayed for ten centuries, and over time other Anzati journeyed to Kiffex in reverence of Karkko. Karrko somehow learned to manage to feed off of those Anzati's vitality, which was what caused them to become so primitive and feral. Now it seemed that Karkko had awakened and was in league with Quinlan Vos' Padawan, Aayla Secura. Upon hearing this, things had just become much more dangerous for Zao and the other Jedi. Quinlan still questioned whether or not his Padawan could be saved, but Zao reminded him that Twi'lek's memories were stored deep in their lekku, and Aayla's were just blocked by the anger and hate directed at Quinlan.

It was then that the Jedi decided to locate Karkko and confront him to take him down. With joint meditation, Zao, Tholme, and Tr'a Saa pinpointed Karkko's exact location and set off through Anzati guarded territory to Karkko's shrine. Once at the entrance, the Jedi were attacked by hoards of Anzati and once Quinlan felt his Padawan's presence pushed deeper into Karrko's prison. Although Quinlan's master, Tholme, was worried that Quinlan would not be able to resist his anger and fear if confronted by Karkko, Zao felt that Quinlan was following the path set before him by the Force and felt he was doing the right thing. Unable to reach Quinlan, Zao and the Jedi were blocked by gates and could feel that Quinlan was in trouble as he confronted Karkko. Zao told the Jedi to join minds, as with their combined strength, they could reach him through the Force and give him strength.