The droning hum of the lightsabers rang in my ears as I faced off against my opponent. A flash of lightning pierced the dark sky followed by the rumble of thunder. The rain began to fall adding a staccato hiss to the drone of our sabers as each raindrop hit our blades.
The moon of Eyrios revolves around the planet of the same name. Located in a remote sector near the Unknown Regions it offers little to the galaxy in terms of material wealth or exotic life, but this small tropical moon has become my home. Everyone has a past and sometimes that past comes back to haunt you in the present like it does for me at this moment. My past is irrelevant, but needless to say I have made some enemies, powerful enemies. Now my most powerful enemy stands before me a few short deadly steps away.
He speaks as he raises his lightsaber but his voice is drowned out by another peal of thunder. I recognize his stance as a variation of Soresu, a form of lightsaber combat that is heavy on defense. I know he is a master in this form and several others as well. I adopt my own defensive posture as I too was trained in Soresu. His voice dies down; I think he realizes that the time for talk is over. Now it is time for battle!
I size up my enemy trying to find any weakness in his stance that I can exploit as I know he is doing the same to me. I let the force flow through me allowing the power to guide my hand. As one, we lunge at each other. Our lightsaber blades clash but the noise is drowned out by another crash of thunder. My enemy is very strong in the force, and I can feel the force flowing through him. We disengage and in a blur of movement almost too fast for the eye to see my enemy unleash a flurry of spinning slashes and short jabs. I parry the blows as they come in quick succession but I am forced to take a few steps back from the fury of his attacks. He has switched to the Ataru form, of which I know well and I am able to counter. As fast as the first act of battle began it ended as my enemy saw he could not get through my defenses. He disengaged and took several steps back once again assuming one of the defensive stances of Soresu.
"You have learned your lessons well," he said. I could feel the anger and frustration in his voice.
I returned his comment with silence. I will let my actions do the talking. I lunge to the attack using quick thrusts and jabs based on the Makashi form. His defense is still hard to penetrate and the lightsaber form I use is more offense-based rather than defense. Our lightsabers clash against each other more times than I can count in the blink of an eye. Every move I make is perfectly countered and every thrust against me is equally parried. My enemy switches stances in mid-combat, lunging with his saber from a different angle. I am forced to take a step back and barely a nanosecond later his saber occupies the space where my head was. His movements are now short and efficient, the flashy maneuvers are now gone. He comes at me with purpose and focus. Our blades are a flash of colors as they counter each other. I continue to lose ground, allowing my enemy to press his advantage. I counter every strike he makes; my blade is always in the right place and at the right time to stop his deadly blade. He runs through the rest of his attack sequence, probing for any weaknesses in my defense...he finds none.
We disengage ending act two of our battle. Lightning illuminates the ground around us, followed by another terrible crash of thunder. "You never were able to beat me," my enemy says in a taunting tone.
"This is true," I reply finally breaking my silence. "But I know all of your tricks."
"You only think you know!"
The battle now entered its third act. He lunged at me with a wild look of rage! His attacks come strong and swift, augmented by his commanding grasp of the force. I bring my blade up to my face just in time to stop his reckless attack. Physically, he was stronger than me and fueled with rage his strength was even greater than before. I could feel the heat of his blade on my face, my own blade stopping his a few centimeters from my nose. Grunting, he pressed down, almost making me lose my footing. In that brief moment he changed the angle of his attack and in one fluid sweeping motion, he swung his blade upward, intent on slicing me in two. As I was losing my balance I used my strength to flip backward...his blade cut nothing but air. Landing I held my saber parallel to my eye line crouching low. My enemy screamed at me as he came in again, but his voice was drowned out by thunder.
Indeed, he was stronger than I and possibly a little faster. His command of the force knew almost no equal. He was a true jedi master, known across the galaxy as a savior of nearly countless worlds. He was a master in all forms of lightsaber combat, never bested in battle, and slew countless dark jedi and more than a few self-professed sith lords. He was also my master and until a few years ago, my friend. Now all that power came to nothing as he let his emotions gain full control over him. He was reckless with his attacks, but his fury more than made up for this deficiency. Still, he stood before me as a broken shell of a man, hollow inside with all hope lost. I bided my time, so consumed with rage was my former master that it would only be a matter of time until he would make a mistake that I could exploit. The only thing I had to do was to survive his onslaught until that happened, but there are no such guarantees when you face a true jedi master!
The third act suddenly became the fourth and final act of this deadly drama. He bears down at me, his blade flashing. His attacks seemed to come from all directions at once and again I was forced back from his power. Rage and hatred for me burned in his eyes. He kept the pressure on me never relenting for a moment. My enemy switched attack forms at every stroke keeping me off balance. I was purely on the defensive and giving ground that I could not afford. The battle was beginning to take a toll on me as I started to breathe hard. My enemy was too but his attacks were fueled with rage. The blade master was gone, replaced by power personified by anger and hate. Now I saw many holes in his defenses and other weaknesses to exploit but I never had the opportunity to take them. Screaming, he came at me high, using his lightsaber like an axe with my head as his target. My blade stopped the intended blow but the force of his attack knocked me off my feet. I fell backwards and when I hit the ground all of the air was forced out of my lungs. To make matters worse I lost my grip on my lightsaber, I could hear the metallic ring of it landing somewhere but it was well out of my reach.
The crazed laughter of my enemy filled my ears. He was saying something to me as he stood over me but I paid no attention to him. He spoke on for several moments savoring his victory. He said something about family and how justice was served and not his own personal vengeance. His words had the ring of truth to them but at this point it didn't matter. As he continued to speak I gathered the force into me. He finally finished his monologue and raised his saber for the killing stroke. At that moment I unleashed the force within me, using my own emotions as a focus. My enemy was thrown back. Instantly I was on my feet and reaching out my lightsaber leaped back into my eager hands. It ignited with the familiar snap-hiss and I jumped toward my enemy. He was on his feet the instant after I was, but my use of the force must have disoriented him slightly as I was able to go on the offensive. I put everything I had into my attacks, emotion, memories and the knowledge that I could finally press the advantage.
I got angry. Fight anger with anger. I gave myself to the force letting my emotions guide my saber. The enemy was now on the defensive, but like him, I would not let up. His rage was spent, making him slower than me, while mine was still building. I felt white-hot, everything went out of focus except for my blade and him. Screaming, I lunged forward intent on skewering him. But at the last second I changed my angle and slashed outward as he followed my attack sequence to check it. Since my attack changed at the last possible moment he parried air, and for his efforts he lost his lightsaber and most of his hand. He screamed in pain, and I added more by following through and slicing off his other arm at the elbow. He went to his knees as my blade slowly lowered to his neck.
"Now it is over," I said in a deep voice full of power from my own dark emotions.
He looked up at me with a look of pain and disbelief, and that was the look that he held as he left this world for the next as my blade finished the job.
It was over. I deactivated my blade, the sounds of the storm was now my only companion. I looked around. Eyrios, my home, would become my own tomb if I stayed. The jedi will hunt for me now and they will not stop until they find me. I could see it so clearly. They will call me sith and traitor to the jedi code. It does not matter to me; I am no longer a jedi. With this act I have severed my ties to them, but am I a sith? I do not think so. Again, it does not matter. As I thought this I stepped over the dead body of my former master and friend. The rain began to subside.
"You were a fool," I said to his lifeless body. "I told you to leave me alone in peace, yet you persisted."
I picked up his lightsaber and tossed it into the air. In one fluid motion I activated my own and cut his in two, one piece landed on either side of the body of my dead former master. "Your war has finally ended, old man," I said to no one in particular. "May you find peace in the Force that you could not find in life."
As I walked back to my housing compound the realization hit me at what an epic battle occurred here. I must've stepped over several scores of jedi knights and padawans on my way back. I do not regret their deaths; the blame for their fates relies solely on their own incompetence and their blind devotion to my former master.
Eyrios is now the tomb of my former master and friend. After an hour of preparation, I left Eyrios behind in my ship. The navigation computer makes noises as it calculates the jump into hyperspace giving me a few moments of reflection. My home is now lost to me as are my brothers and sisters in the force. My master lies dead at my hands for reasons that…well…the details do not matter. I stare ahead in the cockpit as the stars begin to blur. I get the chance to have one last look at my home before leaving it forever. I don't look back.