Chapter 13

The Mustafar sky was jet black from volcanic ash, the rivers were flowing with lava, and the all too familiar sound of clashing lightsabers could be heard from a mile away.

Having just met Astrid and realize that she's not really who he thinks she is, Hiccup swings his purple lightsaber blade towards Astrid to be successfully blocked. With each swing, Hiccup took a step forward while Astrid took a step back as she defends herself from the oncoming attacks.

The two of them soon reach a ledge on the landing platform in front of the base and just before she reached the very edge, Astrid pushes on the hilt of her red saber, making Hiccup do a backflip as she walks towards him and swings her blade in all different directions.

Up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards, in front, from behind, any direction you can imagine a lightsaber blade to go in, the two blades were going.

What Hiccup saw in front of him could not possibly be his wife but a true spawn of the Dark Side who wanted nothing more than to see him dead so, against all emotions, Hiccup holds his own and defends himself as best as he can.

The two of them soon enter the building which was protected from the lava by some kind of shield, and Astrid twirls her saber before slashing downward to be blocked by Hiccup who held his blade to the right.

Hiccup then tries a low kick that Astrid leaps over and ends up behind Hiccup, who quickly turns around and begins swinging his blade towards Astrid. Looking behind herself, Astrid saw that she was in front of a window that showed a bridge to the mainland, so she uses The Force to smash the window before jumping back onto the bridge, to which Hiccup follows.

Meanwhile, on the ship, Obi-Wan had regained consciousness and was rubbing his head trying to figure out what just happened. He looks around and sees that Hiccup was nowhere to be found, so he goes to look out the ship's window and saw the clashing purple and red saber blades which could only mean one thing.

"Oh no." He says to himself. "I have to stop this fight." He runs out of the ship, but by the time he got out, the two of them were already gone.

Hiccup and Astrid had made their way to the mainland which was composed of mostly volcanic rock as they stood there, continuing to clash blades and feel each other's power. Hiccup's back was currently facing one of the lava flows, so he didn't even notice that when Astrid Force Pushes him back and he falls.

Certain he was about to die in a fiery blaze, Hiccup was surprised to find that that wasn't the case. He looks down and sees that, somehow, he was currently lying down on top of the lava with nothing but The Force to keep him up.

How this was even possible, Hiccup couldn't even begin to figure out, so he cautiously stands up on top of the lava, no platform or anything of that sort under his feet, as he brings his saber back up in a defensive position.

Astrid was also quite surprised by this move of standing on lava, but she wasn't going to let that stop her as she charges forward and leaps over to a rock that was right next to Hiccup, standing on it before slashing away and being blocked by Hiccup.

Obi-Wan had just showed up to see Hiccup standing on lava. He rubs his eyes to make sure the ash in the air wasn't getting to him as he says, "What in the…?" He then pulls up a video recording device and begins recording the action.

Hiccup then leaps back onto the mainland as he continues to block Astrid's blade while Astrid leaps up behind him. The two of them leap back for a moment and Hiccup pulls out the case that he found on Jakeen, clips it onto his black saber hilt and tosses it, making a fist with one hand and holding the saber in the other, perfectly controlling the blade as he continues to slash towards Astrid.

Astrid blocks the blade and does manage to make contact with Hiccup's hilt, but finds that her blade was simply reflected because of the case. Annoyed at this, Astrid pulls her left hand away from her saber and small bolts of lightning start forming on her hand. She pushes her hand forward, sending the lightning towards Hiccup's direction.

In a split second, Hiccup pulls his saber back to his hand so his purple blade could take the lightning and protect him from it. Hiccup holds his saber tight, making it act more like a lightning rod than a Jedi weapon, and taking in the lightning with all of his might.

Astrid then pulls her hand back and looks down to the small bolts in her hand. She grabs her saber and sends the lightning up the red blade, making small sparks come off of the blade at all parts.

Seeing this, Hiccup makes a ball of Force in his hand and grabs his hilt, making his purple blade glow with a faint blue force.

Obi-Wan's jaw hits the floor as he watches the action. "I have never seen that move before."

Astrid then slashes her saber downward in the air, causing a wave of lightning to be sent to Hiccup, which was deflected as Hiccup slashes his blade and sends a wave of Force that collides with the lightning wave and causes a small explosion.

The two of them do this for a bit more, sending waves of either Force or lightning toward each other to be blocked by each other's waves and creating more explosions.

Astrid then pulls her blade up and causes the lightning to surround her whole body, giving off an electric blue glow with sparks coming out of every side. Hiccup follows this by pulling his blade up and making his body get covered in a wave of Force that makes him give off a darker blue glow.

The two of them then charge toward each other and continue colliding blades, each collision sending waves of force that shook the lava in the nearby river, made pebbles and rocks fly in all direction, and caused the ash in the air to dissipate for a second.

Obi-Wan, who was recording the whole thing, comments to himself, "The power…the skill…it's beyond that which I have ever seen or heard from any Jedi!" He looks down for a moment to think to himself, keeping the recording device on the duo as he looks up and his eyes wide. "H-have I been misled this whole time?"

After a few more powerful blade collisions like this, Hiccup and Astrid hold up their sabers one last time as they concentrate the lightning/Force around them onto their blade, causing a beam of energy to form that extended to about double the length and thickness of a usual lightsaber blade.

Then the two of them raise their blades in the air and begin to swing down, causing the energy surrounding their blades to clash first, creating a very strong wave of energy that shattered boulders to pebbles and send the lava in the river near them right towards the temple, only to be blocked by the temple's shields. Obi-Wan had to duck down to avoid getting affected by the blast.

Then, after pushing on through each other's fields of energy, their inner blades collide and in that moment, Astrid's vision goes white as something pops up in her mind.

In her head, Astrid glimpses of herself and Hiccup soaring in the air on an unknown black, flying reptile, then the two of them sitting on a dock, kissing, then the two of them sharing all sorts of happy memories, and finally she saw the two of them wearing white clothes and holding each other in matrimony.

And just as she comes back, in a split second, her eyes turn blue and she mouths the word, '…Hiccup'

But before she could react to anything else, the collision of the two blades caused a wave of force so strong that it caused both her and Hiccup to get sent flying back as their visions go white followed by them completely blacking out, lying several feet apart from each other.

Once the explosion had faded, Obi-Wan pokes his head up and looks down to see Hiccup and Astrid lying on the ground, completely unconscious. Obi-Wan then dashes onto the bridge and heads to the part of the mainland where Hiccup was lying down. Obi-Wan puts a hand to Hiccup's neck and sighs deeply as he feels a pulse, though looking down he did notice something was taken from Hiccup in the process.

Before Obi-Wan could react any further, he hears a deep voice saying, "Well, it appears that our apprentices have met." He looks up and sees Count Dooku standing there, hovering over Astrid. "And from the looks of things, they had quite the fight."

Obi-Wan squints. "Dooku."

Dooku nods. "In the flesh. I suppose this means battle?"

Obi-Wan looks down to the unconscious Hiccup then looks back up to reply, "Dooku, on a normal day I'd be happy to wipe that smirk off your face, but right now is not the best time. Let's just leave peacefully and I'll promise to never return to this hell of a system."

Dooku nods. "I couldn't ask for anything more." He waves to a few droids who pick up Astrid and carry her off in a sling. Obi-Wan reaches down, picks up Hiccup and carries him to the ship.

There was nothing but blackness for what felt like an eternity as memories of Hiccup and Astrid being together flooded his mind, all of which led to the fight that led to him blacking out in the first place.

Then, Hiccup starts to regain feelings and consciousness as he opens his eyes and finds himself in some sort of medical bay. He looks to the left and sees Obi-Wan sitting in a chair nearby. "Oh good, you're awake. Here I thought I'd have to contact the morgue on Courscant."

Hiccup looks around the room in confusion before looking back to Obi-Wan and saying, "…Master?" Then the memories of what happened rush into his head as he says. "Master! H-how long was I out? What happened to Astrid?"

Obi-Wan replies, "Oh, not long, only about 3 days. As for Astrid, she was carried off by Dooku. She seemed about as out cold as you were." He gets up and says, "You should relax, though. You did take quite a hit back there."

Hiccup looks down to the bedsheets he was wrapped in as he lies back down on the bed. He lets out a deep sigh. "The Council was right, Master. I shouldn't have fought her, I should've just tried to leave while I could, but instead I just ended up nearly killing myself. If you're here to take my lightsaber, you might as well do it now while I can barely move."

Obi-Wan smiles to that. "And why would I do that?"

Hiccup raises a brow. "Wh-what do you mean?"

Obi-Wan replies, "Hiccup, you did exactly as any of us would. You dueled Astrid knowing full well about your emotions towards her, yet you didn't let those emotions affect you for a second. Besides, the skill and power that you displayed, it was beyond that of any Jedi I had ever seen. I recorded everything, showed it to the Council and, well, they agree the same thing. You are not in trouble, Hiccup."

Hiccup lets out a big sigh of relief. "Well, I guess that's good."

Obi-Wan nods. "Eh, while we're on that, about taking away your lightsaber, it seems like that might not be necessary." He holds up Hiccup's black hilted saber which was charred and blasted to bits. "Couldn't find your Kyber Crystal anywhere, actually. It seemed to have shattered with the rest of your saber."

Hiccup groans to that. "Great."

Obi-Wan shrugs. "Oh, don't worry. We can get you a new lightsaber. I wouldn't feel too bad about it, though. Matter of fact…" he holds up his hilt. "This is my fourth saber since I started as a Jedi."

Hiccup nods. "Really."

Obi-Wan nods. "Really. Eh, by the way, it seems that your saber wasn't the only thing that took the better part of that blast." He gestures to Hiccup's left leg.

Raising a brow, Hiccup lifts up the bedsheets and gets a look, not so much of shock but of realization. What he saw was, in place of his normal leg, was a black mechanical leg which had a foot that looked just like a normal foot. He sighs to it. "Same story, different galaxy, I guess."

Obi-Wan raises a brow. "Uh, I'm not sure what you mean by that."

Hiccup looks back and replies, "I'll explain later."

Obi-Wan nods. "Ok then. Well, as you can see we fitted you with a prosthetic that I think will be very much to your liking."

Hiccup then makes a motion to curl his toes and finds that the toes of the leg move with him. His eyes widen to that as he replies, "I…I felt that."

Obi-Wan nods to that. "I should hope so. The leg is hooked up to your nervous system, so it functions just like a normal leg and foot."

Seeing this as his original situation but with a massive upgrade, he looks to Obi-Wan with a smile and says, "Thank you."

Obi-Wan nods. "Of course. Now, you get some rest, Hiccup. You've got a meeting with the Council once you get back on your feet…or, foot, I should say." With that, Obi-Wan leaves the room.

Hiccup then looks out the window to the open space and sighs, knowing full well that Astrid is still out there, and after what he just went through, she's likely gonna be looking to finish what the two of them started.

Thank you for reading this story up to this point, I hope you have enjoyed it and if you have, then please drop a Favorite, a follow, a review, do something.

I also hope you really enjoyed the duel featured in this story, I did my best to put as much reader's eye candy as I could, and I hope it was wort it.

Take care and I'll see you next time.