Chapter XXIV: Edge of Power

Kherev jumped into the air, pushed off the wall, and came flying at Darksaber from behind. The Sith knocked him to the ground with the Force – it felt like a duranium fist being ground into the Jedi Knight's stomach – and he landed hard, tearing the fringes of his robe and scraping his arms on legs as he tumbled into the wall.

But Aaron was at it again, his blue blade swinging about as if it had a mind of its own. Darksaber defended against the barrage with simple tactics. Aggravation and anger were emotions that he knew very well.

Then Kherev was clambering back to his feet, coming in with a solid diagonal strike from right to left that would have sliced Darksaber in two had he not blocked the swing.

This was becoming frustrating. The annoyingly unpredictable little alien didn't seem to have a limit. He bent over almost backwards as Darksaber's weapon arced through where his neck had been only a moment before.

Aaron was slashing at the Sith's head; Darksaber weaved and blocked the attempt, then the next, and finally he seized the Padawan in a chokehold. The Dark Side invisibly coiled around Aaron's airway and began to squeeze, applying careful pressure to his lungs. His hands flew to his neck.

Kherev gathered in the Light Side and counter-attacked, throwing loose a shockwave that sent their adversary to his knees, leaning on one fist. Darksaber growled with fury. Aaron broke free of his stranglehold, landing on his feet, uninjured but jarred. Seeing an opening, he ran forward with a shout to plunge his sword through Darksaber.

The Jedi's apparent upper hand was short-lived.

Darksaber raised both his hands as he rose to his feet and telekinetically hurled Aaron aside like an unwanted toy.

Kherev was already there, having anticipated this, and was moving to strike the Sith down. "Game over," he hissed – but his confidence was misplaced.

The villain flipped suddenly over Kherev's head, like a Fury of Hades taking to the skies, his robe rippling like pure energy. The Togruta barely managed to hit the floor in time to drop out of his opponent's reach.

"You are powerful," the monster laughed as he landed. "I grant you that. Why, like a simple child, do you shackle your potential?"

Kherev leaned into a defensive stance. "I am above the evil that ensnares you." he said.

Aaron stumbled to a standing position and moved to cover his ally's flank. "You underestimate us, Darksaber."

The Dark Lord chuckled. "Aaron, Kherev, my dear friends..." He spun his lightsaber elegantly about him. "All creatures know the power of hate."

With a primeval roar, the shadow charged.

Lightsabers clashed and buzzed and danced, and the light danced on the walls with them; the pounding of the Jedi hearts kept time; the screeching of their weapons was as a drum's rhythm; the shuffling of their feet and the sound of their panting an eerie background music.

Occasionally, a cry of pain from Julia broke the pattern, followed by a hushed rebuke from Thirty-nine – but these diminished as Aaron, Kherev, and Darksaber moved further towards the back of the cave.

After several minutes of this, (a time that felt infinite to the Jedi combatants,) Darksaber sent a crackling ball of lightning at Aaron. The youth screamed in surprise, staggered back, and collapsed against the wall, shocked into silence. His lightsaber was still in his fist, but he was clenching it so hard he had deactivated it. Needles of pain stung his nerves.

So this was what the Sith had put Julia through. What he would continue to put her through if someone didn't do something. If Aaron didn't do something.

He tried to sit up, too soon, and nearly fainted from dizziness and nausea. There appeared to be five or six Kherevs instead of one. The light of their swords blew out into blinding starbursts of color.

Kherev and Darksaber continued to exchange blows, the former using daring acrobatics to keep his style fresh and catch his foe off guard. A somersault here, a spin there – more than enough to keep the Sith on his toes.

A trio of self-absorbed, overconfident Acolytes had been one thing.

A leaping, twisting, wheeling, hopping, aggressive jitterbug of a Jedi Knight was quite another.

The Togruta might not be able to best a master swordsman, but he was impressively annoying for a passing distraction. Like a hungry nexu, scratching at the edge of Darksaber's robe.

Yes, over time, the Jedi would wear down, and ultimately he would break. But if Darksaber took too long, that defective edition of Jango Fett might manage to drag Julia Star to a safer place.

Darksaber still had some more pain in mind for her.

And then there was the added variable of the human boy, another wrench thrown into the equation. Ignorant though he was, he did seem awfully protective of the girl.

But Darksaber knew that every day was accompanied by nightfall; that every coin had two sides – for every light, a shadow; for every life, a death; for every mountain, a valley; for every new beginning, an end of an age. Such was the way of fate – the way of the Force.

The strongest barricade hides the weakest city.

The greatest hero makes the deadliest villain.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, as the age-old expression said.

These Jedi would fall magnificently, like trophies. Darksaber simply needed to uncover soft underbellies, scraping off their shells and prodding them a bit.

Step one: take the human out of the picture.

"I feel your power. Your rage. The hate that thrives inside you. You are hardly a stellar student, Aaron Earthshaker."

Aaron threw a flying kick at Darksaber's jaw. It connected, but the Sith hardly flinched. Kherev closed in from behind, but was repulsed by a combination of sweeps and thrusts that moved so quickly, they appeared as a single movement of infinite complexity. In the same second, Darksaber leapt up and kicked back into Kherev's ribcage with the heels of his boots.

The Togruta staggered away.

The Sith flipped in the air, landing solidly in a feral crouch, and snapped into a corkscrew towards Aaron. Thinking fast, the Padawan diverted his leap out of line with the Force before lunging for the kill.

At the last possible second, Darksaber raised his blade. The power of Aaron's fury crashed against his block like a charging reek with its nostrils flaring – and locked there. The boy would take it no further. His hot, heavy breath blew in Darksaber's face.

Darksaber chuckled. "You are an 'earthshaker,' indeed."

"I've heard quite enough about my name," the teen growled.

The blue lightsaber pushed harder against the black. The light of both now burned like radiant lava in Aaron's cinnamon eyes.

"Yes!" The Sith elongated the word into a seductive purr. "Use it... use it..."

...

The broken cadence of Julia Star's slow, methodical breathing pumped familiar adrenaline through Thirty-nine's veins. Think. You have to think! He mentally screamed at himself. Streams of logic, what meager medical knowledge he possessed, battlefield experiences, and training from Hotshot and Blitz and the Kaminoans coded themselves together in his mind, weaving themselves into some sort of a plan.

Thirty-nine hastily grabbed a medpac from his supplies, opened Julia's palm, and closed her fingers around it.

Beep, whirred the device.

Her breaths became frantic and short for several seconds. The color drained from her face, leaving it unnervingly paper-white.

"It's..." Her voice was not her own in her ears.

"Better?" the soldier asked.

She gave a small nod.

"Let me see the wound." Thirty-nine reached to separate the tattered remains of her robe, but she batted him away, adamant in her resistance.

"No."

Thirty-nine hushed her and pulled the sides of the hole in her robe apart. Beneath them was a hideous, crimson mess. But – was there something wrong with the arc of her chest? Or was it an illusion created by her shallow inhales and exhales?

Thirty-nine couldn't see a thing through all the blood.

Snatching a square of gauze from his backpack, he began to soak up the liquid. Julia winced at the touch, but she didn't protest.

As the pool of blood thinned, Thirty-nine was able to get a better look at the injury. The medpac had helped some – but not much. Charred, raw flesh rimmed the cut, which was terribly red, and still bleeding gradually with every passing minute.

"What did that cursed animal do to you?" Thirty-nine blurted out.

Julia ground her teeth together. "Lightsaber," she spat.

"Lightsaber wounds don't bleed."

"It wasn't –" She gasped. "– a normal lightsaber."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"You saw. It was..." – cough – "...black."

The clone shook his head. "That makes no difference."

Julia's breathing was evening itself out, but her speech fluctuated between sharp and slurred. "It wasn't... normal. It's a deep cut. And it... aagh..."

Her eyes drifted closed again, trying to shut out the world.

Thirty-nine stared at her injury and shivered. The sadistic precision with which the wound had been inflicted was sickening. He turned away, fighting his gag reflex. A lifetime of war had not prepared him for this... this... cruelty.

Thirty-nine turned back, re-examining the cut, his stomach flip-flopping. He suddenly knew with absolute certainty, If that cut were any deeper, her heart would be in pieces on the floor.

...

Aaron groaned, clutching the lightsaber burn mark on his right shoulder. "YOU..." He leapt at the Sith with a howl, but Kherev slammed the Padawan down hard with the Force.

"Stay out of my way!" the Togruta ordered. "He'll only manipulate you."

Aaron rubbed his injured arm, stumbling to his feet "Are you insane? You can't take him alone! I'm strong enough to –"

"Aaron, shut up!" Kherev shrieked, simultaneously deflecting a pair of attacks that would have severed both his legs. Weapons flashed and spun in beautiful conflict as he retaliated with a leaping, downward slash that Darksaber had to step back to evade.

Aaron roared in with a vertical strike, only to receive another red-hot slash on his other shoulder – and a sharp kick to the face. He swung again, felt his legs drop out from under him as he was swept into a takedown, and rolled just in time to dodge another kick from Darksaber.

"Get out of my way!" Kherev insisted.

Aaron stumbled back from the raging fight, slowly regaining his balance as he rose back to a standing position. His chest heaved. Both his arms felt numb between his shoulders and his elbows, stinging with pain from the lightsaber wounds. Small streams of blood dripped down towards his wrists.

"I have to protect Julia!" he shouted.

"Take her and go," Kherev stammered. "I'll catch up to you. Go!"

Aaron gritted his teeth. "I need you alive to heal her!"

"You're making this worse, not better." Kherev ducked under a horizontal spin of the black blade. "Go. Now!"

Aaron squared his shoulders, ignoring the pain of the motion. "I would rather die."

"You'll do just that if you don't get the heck out of here!" Kherev yelled madly. A burst of dark energy catapulted him at the wall, but he pushed off with his legs and curved down, his saberstaff twirling like a propeller of fire. "You'll die if you stay. You might as well go drown yourself in the river!"

The river.

The words echoed, bouncing around the inside of Aaron's skull like blaster bolts ricocheting. The river, the river, the river...

Aaron Earthshaker launched like a guided missile towards the cave's back wall.

"You're going the wrong way!" Kherev screamed. "The exit is that way. Do you hear me, kid?"

There was no reply.

Darksaber wheeled and kicked Kherev in the side. He laughed coldly. "Do you think me a devil? A tempter? A deceiver?" The two began to circle, both watching for an opening. "I was like you once – faceless. Hollow. But now I know myself. I know the depths of my darkness, of my power... and I am whole."

Darksaber's saber carved through the air with all the terrible beauty of a falcon with talons bared, swooping in to seize its prey. Kherev somersaulted over it in midair and retaliated, trying to maneuver the Sith towards the wall.

"You could be unstoppable," the monster murmured as he stepped deftly aside. "Invincible." He slashed at the Togruta's sensitive montrals; Kherev just managed to block in time. "But you are afraid, ruled by the creed of your elders. They teach you to empty your mind. To hide. But where can you hide from yourself?"

Kherev white-knuckled the hilt of his saberstaff. "I serve the Force, while you are enslaved to it."

"Classic Jedi propaganda!" Darksaber ferociously resumed his attack. "I know the fullness of the Force. I am above fear, above duty."

"And have you no honor?" Kherev growled as their swords locked. The energy blades sputtered and coughed out clouds of colorful, radioactive dust.

"You know nothing of honor!" Darksaber shifted his balance, snapping away, and seized the Togruta in a telekinetic fist, dashing him against the floor. "Your justice serves only yourself. "

Kherev scrambled to his feet, his eyes on fire with rage.

"Your companion, Aaron, is still blind," Darksaber continued. "Tell me, Jedi Knight - will you share his fate? Will you force my hand against you?"

"I'll never join you," Kherev snarled, the savagery in his voice startling him. His voice was both a rancor's war cry and a snake's hiss at the same time. He swallowed hard. "I am an instrument of the Jedi Order. A warrior of the Galactic Republic. A representative of Shili."

"No longer," said the Sith, inflectionless. "Your Order has been destroyed from within. Your Republic has eaten itself alive."

Kherev found himself baring his teeth. He struck out with his blade; again, he was forced back. His heart slithered into his throat. "Don't try to wound me with lies, Dark Lord!"

"I speak pure truth to you, Jedi," Darksaber went on. "Your Republic is dead."

"Stop," Kherev spat at him, but his voice wavered. Something hung at the back of his mind. A warning? A sense that the Dark Lord was right?

Kherev's heart began to race like a hyperdrive generator. He angled his weapon aggressively.

"Just ask your little traitor," Darksaber said. "The clone. Did you really think you could trust him? He knew the Republic was dead before he ever joined your makeshift rebellion. He hid the truth from you. He lied to you."

"Stop!" Kherev said, the power in his yell like razor blades in his throat. He sent a flurry of strikes at his enemy, but was repelled. Sweat soaked his robe, glistening on his forehead and montrals in the rusty light of his saberstaff. His shoulders heaved. No further words would come.

"What are you fighting for, Kherev?" Darksaber challenged, simultaneously driving his boot into the Togruta's gut. "A government that has already drowned in its own corruption? Your allies? What have they ever done but manipulated you for their own ends? Your family? They gave you up to the Temple. Your race? Slaves to the Order's mindless machine."

Darksaber's blade hovered inches from the Jedi's neck. Visceral heat made the Togruta's blood-red eyes water.

"What are you fighting for, Kherev?"

...

A/N: More to come! Thanks for the reviews! This is so fun to write!