Kiran Darman drew his blaster. Kaitos was already reaching for his lightsabre, but held it unlit. Andy hesitated only a moment before pulling her own weapon from her belt.
'I think you know why I'm here.'
'I knew that eventually those Faithless weaklings would send for the Republic to do their work.' The Mandalorian advanced slowly across the street and Kaitos gave ground, moving back into the darkness of the opposite side alley where they had waited for him. Andy moved backwards in step, keeping behind her master.
'So reluctant, Jedi? Not that you shouldn't be, but it was you who confronted me.' Kaitos did not reply. 'At least tell me your name: you the advantage of me.' Darman paused. His face was hidden but Andy felt that he was smirking, 'So to speak.'
The older man inclined his head, 'I am Kaitos Ackamar, Jedi Master, and my Padawan is Andiana Rengen. I have no wish to fight, but if you insist, you will find me quite ready.'
Darman took another step towards the two Jedi and moved a finger to his trigger. Kaitos shifted his weight slightly to take up a guard stance, without activating his sabre. 'You are making a mistake,' he continued, his voice laden with persuasion.
His opponent gave a snort of laughter. 'You don't really think I am feeble enough to fall for your brainwashing tricks? I'm not afraid of you, old man, with or without a performing bantha calf at your side.'
Andy took half a step forward, her horns lowered. Without taking his eyes off Darman, Kaitos put his left hand out behind him, gesturing stop, and a slight, invisible pressure held her back.
'You seem not to have done so well in teaching that one your order's cowardice, Ackamar. Perhaps I'll spare her – she'll fetch a good price.'
Kaitos moved his sabre hilt slightly, and in the same instant Darman fired. Before the bolt reached him the Jedi master had activated his blade, the emerald shaft extending directly into the path of the laser burst.
The lightsabre moved as fast as the blaster fired, but Kaitos never moved his feet. The Mandalorian ceased firing, keeping his weapon aimed steadily at Kaitos' chest. The Jedi stood on guard, his sabre alight but motionless.
A second burst of blaster fire split the silence. Darman was working harder now: he aimed a bolt at Kaitos' head, and the next at his feet forcing him to jump. But the green blade deflected every shot that would have hit, until he paused again, the smell of hot ozone wafting across the street.
He shook his head and began firing again, a tightly focussed burst of shots that Kaitos blocked easily. He took two fast steps to his right and fired another, straight past the Jedi master. Andy activated her lightsabre, too late, but the bolt never reached her. It rebounded from her master's blade as he reached across his body to block it backhanded, and then closed the gap between himself and his antagonist before Darman could recover his aim.
One cut sheared the blaster in two, and now the Mandalorian was retreating. Kaitos was a statue again, while Darman cursed and flung his useless weapon aside. Andy moved out of the shadows after her master, to stay a few paces behind him. This time, she assumed a guard stance, though she let her sabre flicker out. She glanced doubtfully at the building their target had come from.
The sound of blaster fire had apparently discouraged anyone from passing by this way, but Darman must have people in there – the man they had followed, at very least – and they would have heard too. She moved further to her left, to see better into the alleyway where the side door was.
At the sudden movement, Darman rounded on her, beskad already drawn. Andy immediately activated her lightsabre, but Kaitos was already moving to place himself between them. Andy took a step back, but stayed ready to fight.
Kaitos seemed completely relaxed, and moved almost without effort to parry the Mandalorian's first stroke. Darman twisted to avoid meeting the lightsabre blade with his own, and circled, trying to get around the sabre. Kaitos turned on the spot, always ahead. Andy thought she saw Darman stiffen as he passed between the two of them, his back to her.
He feinted left, then right, but the Jedi didn't move until he lunged in earnest. Kaitos took a step back, keeping the short sword outside his guard, and parried. Once again, the Mandalorian wrenched his blade away.
He danced backwards until Kaitos stepped forward to close the gap, when he abruptly reversed direction and attacked, aiming for the head. Again, the Jedi was ready for him, but this time Darman ducked under the block and aimed a two-handed blow with his heavy blade.
Kaitos was forced to evade, lowering his sabre and leaping backwards, out of reach of the short beskad. He recovered his guard as he straightened from landing. Darman was on the offensive again, rushing with a sweeping cut aimed at the older man's waist. Kaitos moved easily to parry. This time, the Mandalorian met the blow, the metal blade clashing with the immaterial one. The weight behind his stroke forced Kaitos' weapon inwards until he had to step back again. They were in the mouth of the alleyway now, illuminated in the gathering dusk by the green glow of the lightsabre.
Darman pressed his advantage, springing forward with a savage backhanded stroke at the Jedi's shoulder. His sword met nothing as Kaitos jumped backwards to let it fall in an unbroken arc. The lightsabre was already moving as the Mandalorian stumbled forward under the momentum of his own attack.
The beskad clattered to the ground. He retreated, flexing his gloved fingers. Kaitos moved forward and placed his foot on the fallen blade, his own weapon levelled at Darman.
'Never,' Darman growled. Unarmed, he took up a boxing stance. Both men stood without moving.
'Master, behind!'
Andy couldn't see any movement in the shadows of the alleyway, but someone was there. She ran, circling wide around the standoff between her master and the Mandalorian. Kaitos held up a hand and she stopped in her tracks. He gestured from her to where Darman stood at bay, watched her turn towards him, and span on his heel to raise his lightsabre against a blaster bolt from the darkness.
Darman made a dash for his beskad, but Andy was there and her lightsabre left a scar in the street's surface as he snatched his arm away just in time. Blaster fire sounded behind her but no shot reached them.
The sword lay on the ground beneath Andy's blade. Darman, in a half-crouch, feinted with his right hand and then as the blue lightsabre traced a parallel path to it he made a grab with his left. Andy slashed back instantly and he snatched his arm away with a cut in the vambrace. He gripped his forearm in his other hand and cursed.
Andy moved her sabre back to a low guard. Her opponent shifted slightly from side to side, but she held the blade still. She ignored his next feint left and cut down sharply as his right hand darted for his weapon.
Instead of pulling away, the Mandalorian moved his gloved hand into the path of the lightsabre and closed his fingers around it.
Andy stared for an instant, and then tried to tug her weapon free. Darman pushed the blade up, letting his grip slide further down to gain leverage. He took a step closer. Andy deactivated the sabre.
Darman moved faster. He cannoned into Andy and grabbed for the weapon's hilt. She hung on and tried to pull away but he wrenched it free and stepped back a pace. They both stood, panting.
'You're strong,' Darman rasped, 'for a little girl.' He fumbled with the lightsabre, not taking his eyes off of Andy. The blade came to life with a hiss. Andy took a step back. Darman's beskad lay between them. She tried not to look at it, focussing only on her own weapon in his hands, and began to move to her left, circling him just out of reach.
He tried a few jabs and cuts, little more than feints, awkward with the weightless blade. She would get no better chance.
Andy dived for the sword, trying to will it towards her hand. Darman put his foot on the blade and brought the lightsabre down. She was almost falling, unable to break her own momentum.
She was thrown backwards. As the blue blade dug into the ground in front of her, she looked up to see Kaitos duck a blaster bolt from behind him and turn back to face his adversary.
Darman was looking at Kaitos as well. As the Jedi master's lightsabre flashed to intercept a fresh salvo of shots, the Mandalorian began to sprint.
Kaitos half turned, but beyond him the second attacker was still firing. He blocked, then aimed a cut at the blaster: a burst of sparks exploded. In the same moment Andy's lightsabre touched his right shoulder blade, and sank almost up to the hilt.
Andy had got to her hands and knees. As Darman pulled back her sabre, Kaitos crumpled to the ground. He made no sound. The green flame of his lightsabre vanished.
She seized the beskad that still lay on the floor and pushed herself to her feet. Darman raised her lightsabre over her Kaitos's prone form. With a wordless cry, she charged. Darman turned, lightsabre raised.
The beskad was twice as heavy as a lightsabre, though half the length, and the heavy tip wanted to turn downwards. The hilt was too small for two hands but she gripped her right wrist in her left hand and found the strength to keep it balanced.
Darman levelled the sabre at her and she skidded to a halt, out of his reach and far beyond her own. She chopped at the blade, knocking it sideways, and tried to step closer. He swung back towards her in a wild sweep which she barely parried, and then her right arm was seized in an iron grip.
He only held her with his off hand, but Darman's grip was impossibly strong. He squeezed even harder, and twisted sharply. Andy bit her tongue to choke off a scream as bone crunched. Her antagonist continued to twist the broken arm until his sword fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers. She tasted blood in her mouth. Finally, Darman released her and she stepped backwards. No-one moved for a long moment.
She dropped to her knees and snatched at the fallen blade left-handed. The hilt was in her grasp, but Darman's booted foot slammed down, grinding her hand against the ground. She gritted her teeth, determined not to make a sound of weakness.
When at last he moved his foot she tried to wrap her fingers around the beskad's hilt, but they would not grip. She managed to get to her feet and faced him. She could not see his face, but she imagined it was proud and icily satisfied. She lowered her head and lunged forwards.
Andy's skull met her adversary's armoured stomach with a smack, but he barely swayed. She thrashed her head violently and succeeded in catching his sword hand with the tip of one horn. The lightsabre winked out as it clattered to the ground.
Darman hesitated for only the briefest instant. He seized one of Andy's horns in each hand, and forced her downwards. She tried to wrench herself free, but his incredible grip would not be broken. She fell back to her knees. Darman's hands pushed down further, and twisted.
She felt the cracking as much as she heard it. And then the bone snapped, and pain exploded through her skull. She felt only a dull tugging as Darman twisted and pulled until the last fibres of horn snapped. Hot blood was trickling down her face, into her left eye.
She realised that he now only held her by one hand, and twisted sideways, shaking her head savagely. The iron grip on her remaining horn intensified and she stopped dead. He forced her still downwards. She knelt before him, unresisting, hanging her head. Her arms hung useless in front of her.
'Good girl.' The pressure on her head vanished as he released her. Dimly, she saw him bend down, lift something from the ground. His beskad. 'You have courage.' He raised the weapon. 'A pity that you're a damaged specimen now.'
Andy cringed away from the threat of the blade, twisting to the left to shield her defenceless side. She heard a snort of derision.
She thrust upwards.
The point of her horn made contact just outside the edge of the armour plate that protected Darman's stomach, and punched through the tough weave of the suit that supported it. As she got her legs beneath her she drove harder, forcing inwards and upwards.
A choking scream issued from her enemy's throat. She kept pushing until her horn was buried in his belly to the point where it curved up towards her forehead. Fire lanced along her back as he chopped down with his beskad, lacking the angle or the strength to inflict more than flesh wounds.
The wet heat of blood soaked her robes, and she couldn't tell how much was her own and how much his. She wrenched her head to the left with all her remaining strength and the blade-sharp last eight inches of horn tore through flesh and clothing, freeing her.
She staggered backwards, drenched with blood and filth. A length of something bloody and obscene flopped from her head to the floor. More spilled from the wound. Darman clutched at his stomach as he fell to his knees, and then to the floor, and then motionless.
Andy stumbled half blinded towards her master's still form. She tried to kneel beside him but fell heavily and could not hold back a cry as her broken arm hit the ground, flung out by reflex. Her head swum.
She heard the hiss of a lightsabre igniting, and green light glowed in her vision. She looked up. A Mandalorian in blue and red armour stood over them, wielding Kaitos' sabre. Andy got one foot underneath her and pushed. She stood upright, shaking with the effort, and took three wavering steps to place herself between her fallen master and the attacker.
She braced her unsteady legs and faced him.