"I! REALLY! HATE! THESE! GUARDSMEN!" Daralec barked as he slammed his lightsaber against the shadow guard's lightpike.

"Speak for yourself," said Lavok.

The two Mandalorian warriors stood back-to-back, firing precise bursts of blaster fire at the eight saber guards, trying to get them to keep their distance.

"Watch your shots boy," Lavok said as he fired another burst.

"I'm well aware," said Orthus.

One of the saber guard managed to find an opening and attempted to close the distance, but Lavok saw the man coming and evaded with a jetpack power jump as the saber guard tried to get him with a twin strike. Lavok landed behind the saber guard, and get him in a headlock, the Mandalorian warrior gave the saber guard a quick, hard jerk and snapped his neck, then he dropped him to the ground, dead.

"That's one," he said.

Just then, Orthus saw a saber guard come at Lavok from behind. He gasped.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed.

Orthus extended his left hand, and the saber guard went flying into the wall… Hard. Everyone froze. All eyes were on the young Mandalorian warrior.

"O… O… Orthus?" asked Daralec.

"…What? You thought I wasn't Force Sensitive?" he asked.

"Yes…! Well, no," said Daralec.

Orthus slung up his blaster rifle and pulled out his vibrosword.

"Heh, well, since the Loth Cat's out of the bag, I guess there's no sense in keeping this," he said.

Everyone watched as Orthus unscrewed something from his weapon and tossed it on the ground, then he pressed the button and from it, a shimmering blue blade flared to life. Daralec's jaw dropped.

"A specialized moldable sheath? Some kind of blade plug?" thought Daralec.

Orthus gave his lightsaber a light flourish and looked around at the remaining seven saber guards.

"…Kill the Jedi," the shadow guard said darkly.

Orthus got in a ready stance.

"You can try," he said, "but I assure you, I am no Jedi."

/\/\/\/\/\

Kayla and Vaukel moved through the ship, their guard was up as they kept an eye out for Claieva. But all they managed to find in their search for the wily inquisitor, was just more imperial patrols. Neither of them knew how much time had passed, but Kayla felt it was about time to finally pop the question that's been weighing on her mind.

"…Why didn't you tell me that my father knew something was coming? And that he didn't know when?" she asked.

Vaukel came to a stop.

"…Would you have believed me if I told you up front?" he asked.

Kayla looked at her stepbrother, and he looked at her.

"Listen… I know you wanted your father to come home… We both wanted to come home… But your father knew that something would be coming any minute," said Vaukel, "if we came home and that very thing came… We would all be trying to survive. The fact that you managed to even survive the purge is nothing short of a miracle."

Kayla made a face. Vaukel sighed.

"Listen… After your father and I had our chat, we went our separate ways. I went to sleep, he went to go meditate, like he did with every battle he participated in, not only did he need his wits sharp, but he wanted to find out how soon his vision would become a reality," said Vaukel, "I don't know how long I was out… All I know was that the sound of someone wanting to come in, woke me up. But the person who came inside wasn't your father. It was Case. One of our clones."

Kayla felt a chill go up her spine.

"I asked what was wrong… Then he raised his blaster at me without saying a word," said Vaukel, "I started to go for my lightsaber when… I saw your father's lightsaber go through his back and out through his chest."

Kayla let out a long, quiet breath.

"When I looked at your father, I sensed a wave of emotions that brought me to my feet," said Vaukel, "I asked your father what was wrong, and he dropped the bomb… He said that the Jedi were even bigger fools than he thought… He said that he was a fool. The whole Clone Wars was a trap, laid out by the Sith… He said he could sense at least seven Jedi located at their respective remote fronts get cut down by their own men."

Kayla felt a chill go up her spine.

"Wait… What do you mean… The Clone Wars was a trap laid out by the Sith?" she asked.

Vaukel had a solemn expression.

"You didn't know…" he said slowly as he turned away, "…I thought as much… No doubt, part of the conditioning you had to endure when you were becoming an inquisitor…"

Vaukel looked back at Kayla.

"Kayla… I know you're going to find this hard to believe… But… While you have every right, for despising the Jedi Order for what happened to your father… It was the Sith, who gave them the knife," said Vaukel, "it was their arrogance, their… Blindness to what was going on, that led them to destroy themselves. Only a select few members of the Jedi saw the strings and went rogue, your father started to see the strings after he started his meditation routine during the war."

Kayla felt her heart start beating faster, her eyes went wide, her breathing started to become rapid, and the poor girl began to sweat.

"No… No, no, no, no, no… No, that's not right," she said with a shake of her head, "I-I-I don't believe this, I-I-I-I don't believe you, the Jedi… The Jedi turned on the Republic after General Grievous was killed, th-they tried to remove the supreme chancellor by force! They tried to take over!"

"Open your eyes, Kayla!" Vaukel snapped as he put his hands on her shoulders and shook her, "…We just. Wanted. The war. To end. We were tired. I was tired… Your father… Was tired. The war had dulled their senses, your father tried to keep his senses sharp to the best of his ability only through meditation, but regardless we were tired…"

Vaukel gripped Kayla's shoulders.

"…The Sith played both sides against each other. The Clone Wars was nothing more than a war of attrition. It was pointless! No one knew when it was going to end, only the Sith, decided on when it would END" Vaukel screamed as he shook her again, "and when the time had come to end the war everyone paid for it. EVERYONE!"

Kayla's breathing became labored. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"No… That's not true… Lord Vader… My master… He was nice to me… He… His master… They would never," she sniffled.

"Search your feelings Kayla, you know this is true," said Vaukel.

Kayla felt her chest get tight. She slowly looked down at her hands as Vaukel let her go.

"If… If what you say is true… Then that means…" she said slowly.

Kayla let out a shaky gasp, remembering the Jedi she had killed.

"…No…" she said in a shaken voice, "…no…"

Kayla dropped to her knees, remembering the times she spent with her master. Then she remembered… Everything that the inquisitors said about her.

"Careful guys, if you make her cry, she'll go to Lord Vader."

"Look, it's the dark lord's daughter."

"You're nothing more than his pet. He'll give you whatever you want, just so long as you kill Jedi."

"You're like his child."

"He's been grooming you like a father would do to his own child."

"I'm surprised he didn't adopt you. What a child."

"A pity about your mother. Don't worry, I'm sure your dark father will take you in."

More tears ran down her face.

"What have I done…? W-W-What I've I done…!?" sobbed Kayla.

Vaukel felt his throat get tight as Kayla took in three shaky breaths… And let it out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed before bawling her eyes out.

"What the hell is going on?" asked a voice.

Vaukel turned and saw Claieva standing nearby.

"I planned on ambushing you two and I see this one crying like a baby," she said, pointing to Kayla.

"…I told her the truth," said Vaukel, "the Sith had a hand in the downfall of the Jedi Order… They had a hand in the death of her father… My master."

Claieva looked at Vaukel, then she looked at Kayla, then she looked at Vaukel and finally back at Kayla.

"…That wasn't very nice," she said as she took off her helmet, "I planned on making her cry after I beat you into submission and had you at my mercy… But not only did you make her cry, you told her the truth…"

Claieva let her helmet dropped to the floor with a loud clank and sighed.

"Now… I'm going to have to make her cry again… By killing you," she said as she drew her disc saber.

Vaukel drew his lightsaber.

"You can try," he said.

Claieva and Vaukel ignited their weapons and engaged each other, swinging their blades, and colliding them as they crossed each other's paths, then they locked blades, broke away and began trading swings with each other. Claieva and Vaukel delivered one-handed strikes, they circled, slashed, blocked parried and thrusted at each other; but the moment they entered a blade lock and broke away, the fight immediately escalated.

Claieva switched up styles, going from Form II to Form VII to try and keep up with Vaukel's Form V. Vaukel glanced at Kayla, as he swung at the inquisitor five more times, to see how she was doing and saw she was still crying.

"I hate to say it, but as long as she's distraught, I can be able to fight the inquisitor at my strongest," he thought.

Blue and crimson swept and collided with each other twice as Vaukel and Claieva crossed each other's paths, Vaukel went for a thrust and Claieva blocked, then she countered with a spinning slash; Vaukel blocked Claieva's attack and countered with a roundhouse, but Claieva evaded via backflip and went for a riposte, going for her opponent's heart. Vaukel flipped his lightsaber in a reverse grip and deflected the attack, then he turned around and delivered a kick to Claieva's gut, stunning her long enough for him to grab her with Force Grip and slam her into the wall.

Claieva slid down to the floor and clapped a hand over her mouth as she let out a retching noise, then she coughed up something into her hand that she didn't expect to cough up: Blood.

"That looks painful," Vaukel said as he marched over and swung at her neck.

Claieva rolled to the left and jumped to her feet, then she activated her other blade and got in a ready stance.

"You're going to pay for that… Jedi," she hissed.

Vaukel marched over to Claieva and the two went at it again. However, with a good three strikes, Claieva attempted to follow up her attacks by striking Vaukel in the face with her disc saber's emitter ring, but Vaukel sliced the weapon in half and sent her flying back.

Claieva slowly rose to her feet, panting heavily; she looked over at her disc saber and saw it in two halves.

"Damn," she groaned.

Vaukel jumped. Claieva pulled something into her right hand and used it to block the Jedi's attack.

"I didn't know inquisitors carried more than one weapon," Vaukel grunted as he bore down on the inquisitor.

"We don't. I took this from one of the saber guards that was killed," grunted Claieva.

Vaukel was shoved back.

"Kayla told me that she didn't like the idea of using the disc sabers and opted to use standard lightsabers, she said that the ring was a major weakness," said Claieva, "whenever she trained with us she would always try to go for the ring, that's why I took this!"

Claieva and Vaukel went at it again.

/\/\/\/\/\

"Why didn't tell us you were Force Sensitive?" panted Daralec.

"It's not like it was by choice," Orthus said as he fired off a few shots with his blaster pistol, "my mom didn't want me to teach me how to use my powers so much that I ended up tracking an inquisitor to our location."

The saber guard pounced. Orthus holster his blaster and blocked with his lightsaber.

"First she taught me how to conceal my presence," he grunted, "once I got that down pat, then I was allowed to use it offensively."

Orthus traded a few blows with the saber guard.

"Fortunately, ~gah~ now that these guys know I'm Force Sensitive, this kind of makes things better," Orthus said as he blocked an overhead spinning double avalanche slam from his opponent, "now Lavok can give us cover."

Daralec sidestepped and performed a tabletop dodge as the shadow guard went for a thrust, then a spinning sweep with his light pike. Daralec blocked an overhead slam and shoved the shadow guard back, then he countered with a kinetic burst to his face to throw the man back a few steps without hesitating, Daralec charged and jumped at the shadow guard, unleashing a flurry of flourishing strikes to put the shadow guard on the defensive.

The shadow guard blocked Daralec's last strike and attempted to counter with the end of his light pike, but Daralec ducked and spun low, then he stabbed the shadow guard in the gut. As the shadow guard dropped his light pike and doubled over, Daralec clipped his lightsaber to his belt, then he grabbed and put the man in a headlock before he snapped his neck and dropped him to the ground.

"I hate these guys," muttered Daralec.

He turned and looked over at the Mandalorian warriors. They had managed to take down at least half of the saber guards, mostly thanks to Lavok on his part, it's just the other half they were struggling with.

"Hang on guys, I'm coming," he murmured as he took in a few more gulps of air before moving onto the next battle.

Daralec charged and slammed into a saber guard's back with his shoulder, knocking him off balance and letting Lavok blast him to hell. The next saber guard was quick to charge at Daralec and engage him, already swinging at the Revanite five times and locking blades with him.

"Kayla… Vaukel… I hope you guys are doing alright on your end," thought Daralec.

The saber guard turned and shoved Daralec back, deflecting a volley of shots from Orthus's blaster pistol.

"Lavok! Keep him pinned!" Orthus called out.

"At once!" exclaimed the Mandalorian warrior.

Author's note: Things are getting serious now