Fighting with Monsters

Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 2

a fanfic by Sisiutil

Chapter 10

The bright green blade of Kilu Branon's lightsaber crackled as it made contact with the Darth Mostrus' red-tinted weapon. The Jedi apprentice and her former Master disengaged their blades, then attacked one another again. Kilu's lightsaber swept towards the Sith from his right; Mostrus parried the blow and pushed back, forcing Kilu to retreat a couple of steps. She lunged the tip of the blade towards his left side--a feint--then quickly withdrew, swinging the blade over his to swipe downwards towards his left shoulder. The Sith barely managed to deflect the blow, but he did, and took a step backwards from his opponent himself.

"You've been practicing, I see," he commented. "Excellent."

Kilu said nothing. She knew she had to focus completely on the fight and not get distracted by her former Master's banter. The heat and humidity of the jungle world was already taking a toll upon her, even though they were out of the sun inside the remains of an ancient stone temple. Every breath felt like she was trying to inhale swamp water. Sweat ran down her face, matted her auburn hair, and stung her eyes. Darth Mostrus, as far as she could see, had not yet broken a sweat, while the young Jedi's clothing--a white sleeveless singlet top and khaki pants--were already soaked with perspiration, and that was just from the mild exertion of walking to the temple from the Nomad, Axel Bergeron's space freighter.

Axel. Kilu had to push her concern for him from her mind. Darth Mostrus had used the Force to collapse a wall on top of the freighter pilot; for all Kilu knew, her former lover was dead beneath it. But she couldn't let that distract her now. Distractions meant death--for both of them. Because if Axel had somehow survived, if he was clinging to life beneath that collapsed pile of stone, Kilu was his only chance for rescue.

Darth Mostrus now went on the attack. His red-tinted lightsaber hummed menacingly through the air, striking first at Kilu's left side, then her right, right again, then the left, Kilu quickly parrying each blow. He had been her Jedi Master before he'd turned to the dark side of the Force. He'd trained her in lightsaber combat. Her moves were his own. But that fact reflected back on him; Kilu knew Cylus Vax's moves as well. Or so she thought.

The fight was even for the first few moments, Kilu and Mostrus alternating their attempts at attack and defense. Then Mostrus took a step and misplaced it, slipping on the moss-covered stone floor. He instinctively threw out his right arm, which held his lightsaber, for balance. It was exactly the sort of opening Kilu had been hoping for. She stepped forward, her blade swinging towards the Sith's undefended left.

She realized, nearly too late, that she'd fallen for a ruse. Mostrus recovered his balance as soon as she'd committed herself. His red blade easily warded off her attack, knocking her blade down, then swung back towards Kilu's undefended torso.

Had this fight taken place only a few months earlier, Kilu would surely have died at that point. But she had faced another Sith in a lightsaber duel upon B'Tel Four, and she'd been soundly defeated. Only the unexpected but very welcome heroics of Axel Bergeron had saved her. When she'd returned to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, she'd thrown herself wholeheartedly into improving her prowess with the Force, and especially with a lightsaber. Without pause or thought, she used the Force now to send her body spinning backwards, away to her right, and landed in a crouching position, her left leg bent beneath her, her right stretched out to the side, her left hand touching the mossy ground for balance. She held her lightsaber in front of her and eyed her adversary warily.

"Impressive!" Darth Mostrus said. "By all rights you should be dead now."

"I've learned a few tricks since you betrayed the Jedi Order, Vax," she said as she slowly and warily arose from her crouching position. Calling him by his old name was a feeble attempt to distract him, but if it worked...

"As have I, my apprentice," the Sith said. "As have I."

With that, he suddenly launched himself high into the air. Kilu remained where she was and braced herself. His attack was furious and seemed to come from three directions at once, above her and on each side, so fast were his strokes with the lightsaber as he descended towards her. It took all her skill and the guidance of the Force to ward off the blows. When he landed a mere meter from her, Kilu Force-jumped away from him in retreat, knowing he would immediately follow but having no choice. She landed on her feet and immediately swung her lightsaber over her head and behind her back to ward off his immediate attack. She then Force-jumped into a backwards somersault, using the pressure of the blades as leverage, and bringing herself to face him once again.

The Sith immediately took the initiative, driving Kilu backwards with a series of quick, aggressive swings and thrusts. The young Jedi could feel the match slowly but surely slipping away from her. She kept watching for Darth Mostrus to make a mistake, to leave her an opening, but his execution was flawless. To make matters worse, the heat and humidity were sapping her strength. With every passing second, her limbs felt heavier... slower. She thought she had set the emotion aside, but now she could feel the fear creeping back inside her, the certainty that defeat and death were imminent.

"Yes, Kilu, you feel it, don't you?" Darth Mostrus taunted her as he continued to attack her, seemingly impervious to the heat himself. "The fear. Fear and its ever-present companion, anger." He swung his lightsaber at her right side. She parried, but could feel him holding back on the blow. He was toying with her now. "Give in to them, Kilu! Use the dark side. It's the only way you'll defeat me."

"No!" Kilu shouted.

She drew upon her last reserves of strength and upon the Force and launched herself forward, swinging the glowing green blade at him, more desperation in her blows than coordination, but dangerous nonetheless. She even managed to push him back a step or two. But the Sith parried each swing and thrust until Kilu's arms felt like they were made of lead and as though her feet were anchored to the floor. She made one more feeble attempt at a slashing blow only to see Mostrus easily swat it aside. Her arms dropped though she silently screamed at them to rise, to defend her. The air itself seemed like her enemy now; her lungs were gulping it down, pumping like bellows, but they couldn't seem to get enough. She felt light-headed, as if she might faint. Salty sweat stung her eyes; she blinked repeatedly, trying to clear her vision.

Darth Mostrus grunted with contempt. He positioned the blade of his lightsaber beneath hers. He swept her blade up, lifting her arms along with it, in a sweeping circular motion, up, overhead, around and down, then back up again, until the hilt of Kilu's lightsaber slipped from her sweat-soaked hands and rose into the air. The bright green energy blade disappeared, along with Kilu's hopes, as it escaped from her grip. Mostrus reached up and snatched the inactive lightsaber out of the air. He tucked it into his black belt. Then he gestured towards Kilu with the open palm of his left hand.

The young Jedi flew backwards from the Force-push, flying for several meters until she slammed into part of the wall of the inner temple building. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs and she collapsed to the moist, moss-laden stone floor. Exhausted, out of breath, in pain, and utterly defeated, Kilu nevertheless clumsily attempted to push herself up. She could hear the Sith's soft footfalls upon the mossy ground as he approached her, could hear the hum of his lightsaber drawing near, bringing death with it. She managed to push herself up to a sitting position, her back against the wall. Then the hum of the lightsaber and its angry red glow came in close, right in front of her. She gasped and drew back, pressing herself against the cold stone wall, her eyes riveted on the bright tip of the energy blade which hovered a mere hand's breadth from her face.

"Stand up," Darth Mostrus commanded.

Shakily, wearily, Kilu forced her body to obey the command. Every second she clung to life offered some hope, however meagre, that she would find a way to live, to survive, to defeat her enemy and to save Axel. Even as she thought this, however, she knew that she was fooling herself. Nonetheless, she rose. She used the stone wall to support herself, feeling its rough edges scraping her back through the thin sleeveless top she wore. She could feel tears joining the sweat that ran down her face.

"Foolish girl," Mostrus sneered. "You could have beaten me. All you had to do was draw upon the dark side of the Force, but no--you cling to your pathetic Jedi principles." He sighed and shook his head. "The Force is strong in you. For that reason alone, I give you this one last chance. Give in. Accept the dark side's power into yourself. Surrender... or die."

For a moment, she was tempted. Sorely tempted. It was her one and only chance, and Axel's as well. But Axel would be horrified to see her give in to the dark side of the Force. She couldn't face that, couldn't face him afterwards. Though it meant a death sentence for them both, she shook her head.

"Never," she breathed.

Mostrus snorted with contempt. "Pathetic. I've taken everything from you. Your lightsaber, your lover, and very shortly, your life. You have nothing, you are nothing... except what I offer you. And still you spurn me." He shrugged. "Disappointing. Farewell, Kilu."

The Sith was about to strike, to end the life of his former apprentice, but he paused. He held back because even now, when death was certain, she had managed to surprise him. He glanced at her face and was taken aback to see her smiling. A confident smile, the smile of a victor. For all their differences, the Sith and the Jedi both valued knowledge--they simply put it towards different ends. And Darth Mostrus suddenly desired--more than he desired his defiant former apprentice's death--to know the reason for that smile.

"You're wrong," Kilu told him. "I have something else. Something you cannot take away. I have..." she drew a breath, "...the Force."

He sensed it before he saw it. He felt the Force suddenly flowing into her, through her, with an intensity such as even he himself had never experienced. She had placed herself entirely in its keeping, had become its vessel, its agent in the physical realm. And in that instant, his own connection to the dark side of the Force screamed inside his mind, warning him of the danger he was now in.

Kilu raised her hands, which had felt so heavy only a moment before but now felt energized, refreshed. Darth Mostrus stepped back from her and turned just in time to see a half dozen heavy blocks of stone flying towards him from different directions with blinding speed. His lightsaber would not be able to deflect them all, no matter how quickly he swung it. Instead, he Force-jumped over the incoming projectiles. Unseen by him, Kilu also Force-jumped, mirroring his own acrobatic path through the air. The heavy stones fell with a crash to the ground beneath them.

The Sith landed and for the first time in the battle with his former apprentice, felt a shiver of fear when he realized he didn't know where she was. He was about to reach out with the Force to find her when he felt an insolent tap on his shoulder. He spun around, swinging his lightsaber in an arc, turning to face... nothing. Then suddenly Kilu rose from a crouch to stand right in front of him. Her right hand reached across both their bodies to grip his right wrist, holding his lightsaber at bay. Moving like a dancer, she pivoted around until her back was towards him. Her head snapped back and smashed against his nose, breaking it and stunning him. She reached back with her left hand, grasped her lightsaber from his belt, positioned the emitter against his solar plexus and pressed the activation switch. The green blade of energy erupted from the hilt, piercing his abdomen and cutting directly through his spine.

The Sith's eyes opened wide, as did his mouth. His lightsaber fell from his hand as he lost all motor control over his limbs. He tried to draw a breath but could not. Kilu turned off her lightsaber and the blade withdrew from his body. A heartbeat later, he collapsed to the ground.

Kilu stood above him and slowly reclaimed control of her body from the Force. As she did so, she felt the heavy weariness return to her limbs. Despite her exhaustion, she sighed with relief. She had won. She was alive. At her feet, she heard her former Master making an odd noise--a soft, staccato cackling sound. She first assumed that it was a death rattle, but then realized it was something else entirely. He was laughing.

As she watched, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. His dark eyes were clouded with pain, but had a surprising look of triumph in them.

"Do you... know," Darth Mostrus said, his voice little more than a harsh croak, "the ultimate... destiny... of a Sith apprentice?" His lips briefly twitched into a smile. "She must... kill her Master." Again he made the unsettling, cackling laugh; blood sputtered from between his lips. "Congratulations..." he hissed at her.

Kilu's eyes widened. His words stung; they felt like a slap in the face. She was too tired to resist it now, and her anger got the better of her. She snapped her lightsaber back to life. With an enraged shout, she swung the blade at his neck. His head spun away from his body, coming to rest a meter away on the cold stone floor of the temple.

She stood there, her entire body trembling with fatigue, her chest heaving as she laboured to breathe the hot, moist air. The desire to lay down and sleep for several days suddenly overwhelmed her. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it. She was forgetting something... something important. She glanced around the inside of the ancient temple, her eyes coming to rest upon a pile of debris a few meters away. Then it came back to her, shocking her back to full awareness as though she'd been splashed with a bucket of icy-cold water.

"AXEL!" she shouted as she ran towards the heavy stones that had fallen upon her ex-lover only moments ago. And as she ran towards the last place where she'd seen him alive, cold terror gripped her heart. Because she had reached out with the Force towards that very spot, and she couldn't sense him.