Dark clouds gather above. Smoke rises from all over the city accompanied by an occasional fiery explosion. The factory lies too far to hear any screams or the blaster fire. All around Leon, the wind threatens to take him from the metal wall and toss him down to the hard ground below. He is forced to grip any holdings he can find till his knuckles turn white to keep himself from not falling. He is dead set on one thing, and he is not going to let some rough air stop him that. The boy glances up to see a small ledge sticking out. Possibly some kind of maintenance hatch. Or an air vent. It doesn't matter. As long as it is a way in, he would use it.
Leon pulls himself up to get to a higher point, and then by pulling himself up quickly and with all the strength he could muster he launches his body up. Using the force to guide him the boy manages to grab the platform above. He hoists himself onto the platform, one final groan coming from his mouth as he does. After getting on he rolls onto his back, huffing from the exhaustion. He does not want to look down, since he has climbed for what seemed like hours. Even though it had only been just over half an hour. Turning his head to see the wall the ledge sticks out from, he sees a hatch only large enough for him to crawl through. He hesitates not for a moment as he hears something coming.
Distant screeches heralds the arrival of TIE fighters. "If one of them sees me, I'm done for." Leon equips his saber and begins cutting a hole through the metal. Every second counts as the fighters come closer. His handiwork is rushed due to the fighters nearing. Soon he would be in their view. He does not care about the hole being neatly cut, and once it was completed Leon kicks the cut-out metal circle in. He has no time to put it back up and instead jumps right through as the TIE fighters fly on by. Ending up in some kind of very small angled shaft, almost like an air duct.
He slides down, face full of surprise at suddenly falling. He has to hold his lips tight to avoid a startled yell from coming out and echoing ahead. His weapon falls from his hand, sliding ahead of him. For a second he wishes it hadn't, thinking that this duct could easily split off in two ways. He is lucky it didn't and finds his saber at his feet after landing down the slide, but perhaps not so lucky as a thud came from his hard landing. The sound echos down the duct.
Leon freezes, biting on his lip nervously. He waits for five seconds. Ten seconds. At fifteen seconds, he takes a chance by moving forward. No blaster bolts rip through from below so he assumes he is safe. For now. Holding his saber in hand he crawls through on his hands and knees, watching for any vents that could give way underneath him.
He makes a left while keeping a watchful eye for any openings he could be seen through or fall down. A few he passes or turns away from along with a couple of dead ends. The air starts to grow thinner the further he goes, the metal getting warmer since the cold winds are far back. He keeps his saber held tightly in his hand as to avoid any clangs from it hitting metal walls.
Soon the vent starts to grow smaller in his chosen direction. But he could feel something pulling at him. Something dark. That is enough to keep him going this way to find his objective. And fortune is on Leon's side, or so it seems. A vent large enough to drop through waits before him with a steel grate covering its opening. Knowing this place would be full of guards, Leon grabs the grate with both hands after clipping his saber to his belt and gradually lifts the grate up toward him into the vent. Then slowly and carefully he pokes his head through to look around. No guards from either way. He withdraws his head, and then drops down to the steel floor with a soft metallic thud ringing around him from the contact of his boots and the floor. One that echos down the hall. He seizes up, cringing, thinking someone heard. No one must have as no one came.
Once sure of himself he stands up straight while turning his head both ways. Still no one comes running. No alarms. But the dark-skinned boy knows better and is wary of anything. He goes down the hall following after the dark presence. It grows more and more powerful as he approaches. Soon, he comes to a T-section. Looking ahead, he sees nothing. But he makes the mistake of not looking the other way before moving forward. Cold forces made his spine tingle. A dark presence was near.
"Look who has arrived." The menacing snarl that comes after tells him all he needs to know.
"Nice to see you didn't get your face messed up by Kyle. Means I get to mess it up myself" Leon snidely quips. A glare comes across the Shistavanen's face with a deep growl. Which soon turns by a toothy sneer.
"I thought you to be well-mannered, boy." Leon rolls his eyes before turning his body to face the Dark Jedi. He thought himself to be used to mocking remarks. He makes a quick look over to find any weaknesses. No such luck, as nothing was visible under the black suit. "You should learn your place among elders." The Shistavanen reaches behind him to waist height to the back of his belt and takes in his hand his weapon of choice. A long lightsaber, it's hilt exponentially longer than any hilt the padawan has seen. One flick of a button activates it's top. A red beam of light came from the top and sides around it's top followed by another click to activate the bottom end. He spins the saber in both hands before him, a hum coming from the moving blades of energy. Soon they blur into one red circle with a metal center. Then stop, halting vertically upright.
Leon understands the display as a challenge against him. He readies both of his own yellow sabers, activating them down at the floor. He holds them there while holding eye contact. No one moves. A foreboding silence fills the air between them. Leon feels a bead of sweat trickle down his cheek.
The Shistavanen shuffles forward, moving his saber down a couple inches. Leon, thinking his opponent was about to charge, charges first to get an advantage, yelling at the top of his lungs, falling for the feign. He lunges forth with both sabers above his head through the small space between the floor and the ceiling at his foe who is ready to defend. The wolf-man swings the top end left at the boy. Both warriors clash their weapons, a flash of light filling the hall around them accompanied by a sizzling crack at the contact. Leon's sabers are hit in one direction, but he ducks and rolled with the momentum in the same direction to avoid any attack on him. The rear end of the opponent's saber comes right over his head, coming to a stop on the other side of the wolf-man.
The Shistavanen back steps to give him room to not get hit. Since his saber has a long reach, the wolf-man could attack without any harm done to him whatsoever unless his attacker has a blaster. Leon rolls backwards to put distance between them in an effort to force his foe closer. Leon's opponent strikes again, this time from right to left at chest height, holding the rear-end of the shaft in one hand. Leon steps back, almost falling back as the tip almost cut across his chest. The swing keeps going from momentum, cutting through a wall.
After stepping back he takes a moment to think over his opponent's movements. They are brutal and heavy, like a Gamorrean wielding an axe. The wolf-man uses large swings, and from the last fight Leon had with his current foe, the wolf-man spins his saber to try and catch his opponent off guard. Then uses foul-play by his claws.
Leon takes this moment to strike, flinging himself forward to slash one saber across their chest. The Shistavanen leans back on his heels to dodge, then brings his lightsaber pike up and across to counter Leon's second yellow lightsaber with it's rear end. As the Shistavanen finds out for himself, Leon is stronger than the last time they dueled as the boy forces the pike down to the ground. Leon's second lightsaber slides off and along his opponent's forearm, singing it's hairs.
Leon then follows up with and uppercut using his first saber, once again deflected by a quick spinning defense. The wolf-man spins on his heels backwards a couple times then stops half-bent forward, holding his saber off to the side as he continues to back step away. Leon follows, slashing back and forth while keeping both eyes on his foe. His foe deflects each hit with both ends while not bothering to strike back. Until about the seventh deflect where he quickly uses one hand to grab Leon's feet using the force then pull them out from underneath him.
Leon cries out after falling onto his back. Pain shoots up his back, an agonized groan escaping his lips. But he has no time to lay around as another strike comes down at him from the crossguard end, one of the mini-sabers stabbing into the flooring. A well-timed flip dodges the attack swiftly. But not without a cut along one of his legs, just cutting into the seams of his pants.
"Why fight, boy? To prove yourself a man? Or perhaps a Jedi?" Leon dashes forward to land a strong hit against the defending lightsaber while his opponent speaks. Not catching on to the fact that he is baiting him. The wolf-man catches the strike using one of the crossguards, holding both weapons still. Both sabers sizzle and hum at the contact. "Training under that false Jedi will get you nowhere, boy."
"And what? Training under a hairy maniac is better? I'll pass."
The Shistavanen let loose a snarl and kicks the boy in the stomach with one of it's feet, sending the boy sailing back a few feet. Then the Shistavanen ran, deactivating the lightsaber piker but keeping it on hand.
Leon scrambles to his feet, grabbing his dropped sabers and giving chase to his target. He is determined and would get him and prove himself that he didn't need some master that looks like a farmer. A rumble makes him stumble. Blaring alarms and red lights follow, as well as instructions over a comm throughout the factory. That could only mean one thing. Their little rabble of stormtroopers has been found. Which also means he has to hurry.
Outside Kyle finds a surprising sight. As it seems, Connor's crew members sent to get help and the message they sent out from the factory had succeeded. Dogfights rage across the skies between the city and the storming clouds and around the tallest buildings. A couple cruisers sit in the air above, hammering down upon any Imperial squads that dare come into the open streets as well as enemy TIEs that come too close to them. Some AT-ST's fire above, aiming to hit enemy ships fighting their TIE fighters. Other cannon fire from below aimed for the other side.
Fighters such as the old Z-Wing Headhunter models and a couple of X-Wing fighters used by the Uvena fleet engage in dogfights, shooting down a multitude of TIe fighters.
Kyle maneuvers the Raven Claw as a stray proton torpedo streams right into the hangar bay behind them. Connor's ship is nowhere in sight, but it doesn't bother him. Knowing him, the mercenary captain left to pick up his remaining crew.
"This certainly is a surprise!" Kyle exclaims to his partner.
"Yeah..."Jan manages a light, strained chuckle while holding her chest. Kyle glances over and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gives it a squeeze.
"Hang in there, Jan" he says calmly. He removes his hand then turns back to the front window of their ship to the battle outside. "We'll get you help as soon as we finish this fight, okay? Okay. Let's do this."
Kyle sees no way around, so he does what could be the stupidest yet the only thing to do: fly through. He sends the freighter forward through the ongoing barrage, dodging and weaving the best he can through the firefight. But the Raven Claw isn't one for maneuverability. Or firepower. Or defense. It groans upon the extra stress of sudden turns around buildings and away from any enemy squadrons.
"Jan, arm our cannons. Things are going to get very bad for us!" She raises her hands to the best of her ability to activate their forward cannon. Something whirrs inside the ship. From below the cockpit a small cannon slides out then tracks onto any fighters, ready to fire on command.
A single TIE splits off from chasing a lone Z-Wing then speeds toward them. Kyle goes to tell jan to fire, but she is way ahead of him. A burst of laser fire streams ahead to hit the fighter head on in one of the wing joints. It falls from the sky, spinning right into the ground in a fiery explosion. But it was far from over. Another fighter comes from ahead, screeching as it did. Jan goes to fire again but something hit the cannon from below. A green laser comes from the TIE, hitting across their ships top. And their shields barely hold off against it's green laser fire. It flies right overhead, then makes a turn to come back for another run. Kyle does his best, but with such slow turns the TIE locks on easy. Screens go red to show that shields are low and a lock-on. Then, an explosion.
But not their ship. A large dark silhouette flies ahead of them from behind, cannons on top and bottom of the dark shape firing at all TIE's that come close and afar.
"You owe me one for that!"
"You're getting paid to help us! We don't owe you anything..but thanks for the help!"
"You are-" Everything after is cut off. By some kind of power that throws him off. A disturbance in the force. He snaps out of it when Jan put a hand on his shoulder.
"Kyle!" He does not turn his head, but does make a nod to get her to know he is back. "What is it?" He remains silent, as if thinking about something. Then he starts shaking his head, turning the ship back, the sudden banking almost throwing Jan off her seat. "Kyleee!" Once in the right direction he zooms ahead. Straight back to the factory.
Jan holds tightly onto one of the arm rests, the other clutched against her chest. Her face bewildered, but something catches her eyes on a high catwalk. Flashes of light.
"Is that-"
"Yes" Kyle cut in, eyes narrowed in the direction of the flashes. As they get closer, two figures become visible. A tall black-suited Shistavanen wielding a double-sided saber, swinging it like an axe. But that isn't what caught the force-sensitive mercenary by surprise, or his handler. It is the shorter figure wielding to yellow lightsabers, slashing back and forth. Kyle murmurs a string of curses, knowing exactly who the boy is. Leon. 'What is he doing here?' Kyle thought to himself.
"Jan, take the ship and stay near. We'll need a quick pickup." Jan need not reply, for she knows exactly what he is about to do. She takes the controls on her side and moves the Raven Claw to the catwalk. Once above, Kyle opens his hatch and leaps out, saber in hand. Using the force to guide him he rolls into a landing on the metal catwalk with saber ready. He lands in a kneeling position before activating his weapon. A hiss followed by a hum. The two duelists stop fighting to both face the new arrival on the bridge. Both bear cuts and bruises. The Shistavanen has a deep cut along his back and up his right leg, where as Leon has several cuts on his left arm that he holds by his side, saber in hand but deactivated. Some gashes visible across his darkly toned face.
The Shistavanen unleashes an amused chortle, a grim-looking leer. Leon on the other hand is quite surprised, and by his expression annoyed as well. Kyle could sense his angered thoughts, his determination. Obviously, he would have rathered this fight alone. Well, Kyle isn't going to have any of that. He said he would train the boy. And protecting him counts.
"Kyle Katarn. What an unpleasant surprise. I was just having a long, lovely chat with this boy here. It amazes me how a young Jedi could be so lacking in manners. How have you not taught him manners? Tsk Tsk."
"At least we have hygiene. I'm not sure what's worse, the inside of a sarlacc or you" Leon winces as he speaks, holding his disarmed hand against his side. His black-suited opponent unleashes a feral snarl.
"You know, you remind me of another Kowakian monkey-lizard I once met." Another snarl arises from deep within, but the wolf-man gives Kyle his full attention. Slowly, Leon takes his chance and sidles forward. "Desann. Know him?" Kyle queries. The Shistavanen's glare deepens on the man. Such a very dark glare. Obviously, he hates Desann.
But then some toothy-grin follows. One full of malicious intent. Which slowly progresses into an insane chortle. Becoming louder and louder until it reaches the ground, echoing off the cement below. Then he finally stops, keeping his toothy grin. It annoys the bearded man very much.
"Desann was a fool who could not even finish off a false Jedi. I am much better."
"And yet you aren't the master. Care to explain that" Kyle asks, seeing leon sneak up.
"He fell because he was arrogant. He did not deserve Tavion as an apprentice. She is much more of a master than he ever was, and he entrusted the power of the Force into science. He deserved to fall, and so much shame he must have felt from falling by your-" Kyle flinches at the wolf-mans sudden movement to catch Leon's saber over his shoulder while letting out an amused chortle. "You sly man. You were stalling! How could I not have seen what you were doing?"
"Well, it was working." Was. But he forgot to take in the amazing scent Shistavanen's are gifted with.
The Shistavanen looks over his shoulder, showing off a sharp-toothed snarl at the boy. Leon flashes a smirk before the Shistavanen makes his move, spinning his crossguard end to throw Leon off. Kyle quickly strikes, only to have his saber cast aside by the bottom end. He is forced to backstep away to avoid another attack on him. Looking both ways on the catwalk while standing so his sides face either, the wolf-man sees the two opponents standing into their fight stances.
"Very well. Let us fight." He moves both clawed hands to the middle of his lightsaber pike, then twists both ends opposite ways. Splitting it off in two weapons. A cross-bladed lightsaber in his right hand and a slightly longer than normal lightsaber in his left. "Who shall be first?"
Leon obliges first, stumbling forth to slash across the Shistavanen's side. The wolf-man spins around to block with his lightsaber. Kyle goes next using both hands only to be caught by one of the cross-blades on the crossguard saber while holding it up on an angle upward. With a flick of his forearm the crossguard bats away Kyle's lightsaber. Then he uses his crossguard to strike at Leon, who is forced to use his damaged arm to defend himself. From the sudden strike, his hold on his second lightsaber is nothing as it is flung from his hand over the side. Leaving him defenseless.
But Kyle comes to the rescue, firing a bolt from his Bryar pistol. It skims past the wolf-man's shoulder, and a second one follows that is deflected away by the crossguard saber. A force push forces the wolf-man to stumble toward Kyle's saber from the recently stunned boy, who has recovered in time to help.
The Shistavanen quickly holds up his left weapon to hold back most of the power from Katarn's attack, his arm aching from the strength of the attack. Yet the Shistavanen has other ideas and pushes up, following up with a kick to the man's chest. Kyle falls back hard against the metal. Then he uses his other hand to force push the younger man down.
"Fools. Neither of you are Jedi."
"You say..we're the fools?" Kyle pants, holding a knee as he kneels on the catwalk. "Look around..out there.." he signals a single hand toward the sky above.
TIE fighters explode back and forth. Fireballs explode up into the sky from the city around them. The wolf-man stares off at the battle, but by his face it seems unfazed by this. Which only confuses Kyle more.
"You think I care? Sacrifices must be made for an army to thrive. You see, we have already won." A thundering hum startles the two humans, and the look off behind the factory. From behind, two large ships had been hiding. Two Gozanti-class cruisers rise up from behind. Eight of the TIE's break off to attach to the bottoms of them, four each.
Wolf-man uses this distraction to swing at the boy laying on his back, spinning his saber into reverse grip to stab down. Leon back-flips, then springs forward. The Shistavanen defends with his crossguard then breaks the locking of their sabers with a forceful push by his arm. Sensing Kyle running at him, he removes his lightsaber from the catwalk to hold back Kyle's three swipes of his weapon. While at the other end he does the same from Leon. Before long he has had enough and repulses them both back using a powerful force blast. Kyle is ready and only slides back a foot, but Leon had been so focused on attacking he did not have time to defend against the blast, being sent several feet back.
From another area in the sky a roar sounds the arrival Sentinel-Class landing craft flies toward them. It's ramp slowly lowers down as it nears. And Kyle can see exactly why. he readies to stop him, but Leon beat him to it.
"You aren't leaving yet without my say so!" the boy shouts before he leaps at him, holding his yellow saber above him. To help, Kyle comes over and swings, with him being closer. They both strike at the same time, only both to be blocked. Though they both are thinking the same thing, and use their spare hands to pull the wolf-man's feet out from underneath him. The wolf-man falls back over the catwalk railing, only just able to grab onto. One of his lightsabers, his crossguard, falls toward the ground. Only to land on the shuttle as it flies below them. He looks up to smirk, then drops.
Kyle quickly blasts down using his blaster pistol, only for the blasts to be deflected back up. The wolf-man lands on top of the shuttle, then the shuttle begins to fly up. As it does, he uses his claws to crawl around to the ramp. With a dismissive salute, the ramp closes with him inside. Katarn and Leon can only watch as the three ships jump into hyperspace.