Leon frowned as he looked between the wide river of lava before him and back at the guidance system's map in his hand. "This just lends more to my guess that the speeder was never supposed to get us here," he groaned. He kicked a nearby rock into the bubbling lava and the stone disappeared with a hiss. "There's no way we could have crossed this in that hunk of junk. Maybe I screwed something up with the guidance system." He flipped it over and began to examine the wiring.
"You did not make any mistake," his partner said, the voice coming out as a hiss. Leon looked up at her. She was pointing to the opening of a cavern on the other side of the river.
"Ah, Sithspit," Leon cursed. He sighed and stared at the lava. It would hurt to take a bath in that. "We have to find our way around."
The Sith shook her head. "We don't have enough time before nightfall," she pointed out. "The shadows are already too long, and I doubt this will get any easier if we wait."
Leon groaned. "Great, so we have to try and jump," he said with a sigh. He shrugged and grinned sheepishly before gesturing at the bubbling, smoking pool of molten rock and metal. "Ladies first?"
The mask glared at him. "No?" Leon asked. The figure did not respond, instead turning from him and running straight at the river. "Yes, then?" The woman tensed her legs as she approached, quickly leaping into a graceful flip and soaring high into the air. Leon watched in awe as she gracefully twirled in the air again and landed lightly on the other side of the river of molten rock.
She turned to Leon. "Are you coming?"
"Well, since it's apparently so easy," Leon mumbled. He checked the guidance system to see if the path continued further into the cave. It didn't. He tossed the useless weight to the side and began to shake his arms and legs. "Just jumping. Just jumping over... a pool of fire." He sighed and took a deep breath.
"Any slower and you would be moving backwards, Leon!" the woman shouted, earning an unamused glare from Leon.
Still, she was right. He shook his head and ran straight at the lava's edge. "I must be insane," he mumbled to himself. As his foot hit the edge, he kicked off from the ground. He clumsily flew through the air, praying he'd make it to the other side without losing a leg or arm. He felt his outstretched leg hit rock and he smiled. He was going to make it. Then he began to tip backwards and he realized he'd landed on the lip of the lava bank. He careened backwards, vainly struggling to get himself up onto the shore. As he accepted his fate, he closed his eyes. "Sorry, Mari..." He fell backwards, calm and accepting, as if his death had been a long time coming. The smell of burning flesh flowed through his nostrils.
"No!" A hand curled around Leon's wrist, causing his descent to stop with a sudden jerk as his momentum left him. He heard stone scraping against boot and he bobbed slowly. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw that his partner was clutching him with both hands to keep him from falling in to the lava. He saw a glint of metal from beneath her outstretched robe sleeve, and then the two of them tumbled to the stone ground, safe and alive. He searched himself quickly to see if he was hurt, but there was nothing. He must have imagined the smell...
Leon pushed himself up to his hands and feet, breathing heavily as he did. "I guess I, uh, misjudged that, huh?" he asked between pants.
The Sith glared at him, her breathing distorted into Vader-like gasps by her mask's speakers. "No, it was perfect," she snapped, jumping to her feet. She brushed off the dust from her black robes and cracked the knuckles on her right hand. She seemed incredibly angry. "We should keep going."
"Why are you so mad?" Leon asked. He sat still on his knees, gazing up at the woman's red eyes. "You saved me, so... we're fine. Why are you mad? Besides just being a Sith, I guess?"
She scoffed and turned away, her robes billowing out behind her as she marched quickly and angrily towards the cavern's entrance. "That looked so cool..." Leon muttered to himself. He stood up as fast as he could and turned towards the entrance to the cave as quickly as he could, only to trip on the moving cloth and fall on his face. "Why can I never be good at things?"
Leon, disappointed and sullen, stood up again and walked broodily after the Sith woman. "I just wanted my robes to billow, these stupid clothes and their stupid length," he growled. He kicked at the stone floor and sighed. He glanced up at the woman walking so much faster than him and sighed. He raised his voice and called out to her, "Thank you for saving me."
Her cadence slowed for a split second, and Leon was able to catch up with her. He walked beside her for a while, the two of them marching silently through the ever darkening cavern and towards a date with destiny. "So what are you planning to do when they let you leave the academy?" Leon asked. The woman turned to him, surprised.
"What do you mean, let me leave? I am allowed wherever I wish," she explained, the cold glint of her voice much softer – recognizably so even through the heavy distortions the mask created.
Leon groaned and raised his hands exasperatedly to the side of his head. He stared up at the ceiling of the cavern and shouted angrily at nothing. "What!? Kriffing Var," he growled when he finished. "The guy hasn't let me so much as talk to my friends! Oh, I better get a hell of a vacation after this."
The Sith's head cocked to the side. "Oh... I see," she mumbled. The two of them walked on in silence.
"Uhm... what happened to your arm?" Leon asked as the silence grew too heavy.
The woman looked towards him, almost ready to answer. Then Leon grinned widely and pointed forward. "We're here!"
The woman turned to follow his gaze. Her knees suddenly fell weak as she saw the monumental cavern of crystals growing from every available surface. It was a rainbow, a virtual smorgasbord of colors that collided with the eye in a way that could only be described as cacophonous. Leon breathed out in elation. "Ah, too bad we can only take one," he whispered. "I'd love to get Mari somethin'."
The woman glanced over at him. "Mari?"
"Oh, just someone I know," Leon answered absently. He walked into the cavern, running around like a wild child. He jumped between what must have been every single crystal structure in the cavern. Blues. Reds. Oranges. Gray. White. Nothing felt like he should use it, nothing felt like him. He probably ran around the entire cavern a dozen times before he started to feel like he would never find the crystal that had bonded with him.
But then he felt it, like a whisper of the wind in the air. He turned around with wide, disbelieving eyes. He couldn't believe it, he almost didn't, but there it was, sitting there and shining as if he was always supposed to find it. He leaned down with wide eyes towards the black and white crystal, running his gloved fingers across its smooth surface with the utmost care. He saw his face reflected in the crystal, darker and angrier than he hoped he would look. Still... it was perfect. Leon gingerly clutched the crystal between his forefinger and thumb before tearing it off of its structure.
With shaking hands, Leon pulled the saber hilt he had made from his hip and cautiously exposed the crystal matrix. He carefully pulled the training crystal from its housing and placed it into a pouch on his belt before replacing it with the weapon's new focusing crystal. With a simple flick of the activation switch, Leon brought his new weapon into being.
He was sure he'd never seen anything like it. The blade was a deep black, like the void of space. It crackled with faint, white stars that would appear and disappear throughout the entire length of the blade and further cemented the similarity of its appearance to that of the night sky of some rural planetoid. Curiously, this same "starlight" effect also caused the blade to give off a faint, white glow. It was almost like a faint outline of white light surrounding the black blade that was visible no matter which direction the weapon was twisted. It was a hollow star.
Leon turned and watched his new partner activate a one end of a scarlet doublesaber. She twirled the weapon around her body before activating both ends and spinning it again, letting it rest parallel to her arm. With another flourish, she deactivated the blade and clipped it to her belt. Leon grinned and did the same with his own saber.
"Well, congratulations," a voice echoed through the chamber. Leon's saber was back in his hand, ignited and ready for a fight. Darth Vallen and Lord Var walked into their apprentice's field of vision, the old man smiling and the woman's face plastered with apathy. Vallen continued to speak, though Var's apprentice did not move to deactivate his weapon. "You've made it to your last trial."
Leon's brow furrowed and he shook his head. More lies... How cruel. "So it's true? I didn't think you had it in you, Var!" he snapped. He took a step towards the man, but was thrown away. He collided with a pillar of smooth crystal and fell to the ground. His lightsaber clattered, deactivated, on the ground next to him. He glared up at Var, whose face had become cold. The man's outstretched arm was directed at his apprentice.
"You do expect us to fight to the death," Leon's partner mumbled, a hollow rage in her voice. She shook her head. "I would rather not."
"Then we kill you both," Vallen stated. Leon glared at the woman. "Fight or die, those are your options."
Leon shook with rage. "NO!" he screamed. He pulled his saber along the ground and ignited it as soon as the metal touched his hand. He stood up and, with his free hand, gripped his outer robe in one hand. He tore his hand upward, sending the cloth flying into the air. "I'd never attack an ally!"
The young man rushed towards Vallen, slashing horizontally at her head. "Do it or I will kill Marien," she said quietly. Leon stopped his blade just inches from the woman's face. Yellow eyes gazed into his. Leon lowered his blade to his side. He wouldn't... He couldn't fight this person who was going.
"Now fight!" Vallen ordered. Leon's head fell, but he still ran towards his partner. The masked woman barely ducked in time to avoid death. She rolled across the ground, eyes wide behind her mask.
"I'm so sorry that we have to do this!" Leon shouted as his partner raised his saber to block another slash from the saber. She attacked and Leon bent backwards to avoid a slash from the other direction.
The woman continued to block him. "Don't demean this with apologies," she said. She was shaking and screamed, most likely a lie: "I was going to kill you anyways!" A heavy rage erupted from his deepest depths, a hatred for the betrayal he had just suffered. A betrayal that his master had forced him to become party to. It sickened him, made him so deeply angry. Leon lowered his saber to his side and advanced on the woman, her attacks suddenly missing him. He was altering the path of her attacks with the Force, making her aim for the wrong places. He swung his black saber against the woman's doublesaber. She moved to dodge, but Leon's blow landed. The heavy attack sent the woman's saber flying across the room, inactive. Her eyes widened and she brought her fist up to land a blow. As her left fist approached, however, Leon twirled his saber.
The woman fell to her knees, gasping in pain. Sparks flew from where, once, machinery had been. Leon hard metal clunk against the ground and he raised his saber to the woman's throat. "I'm sorry," he said as he stared into the mask's angry eyes.
Vallen sighed and shook her head. She had failed, despite all of her planning. "Do you want your credits now, or would you prefer to publicly shame me?" she asked the man at her side.
Var turned, his eyes cold. "You don't understand, do you?" he asked, rage trembling in his quiet voice. He shook his head and disgust and returned his attention to the young man's saber, still trained on the red eyed mask of Vallen's apprentice.
Vallen snarled. "And what do I not understand, Doron?" she hissed. She placed her hand on the Gray Lord's shoulder and forced him to turn towards her. His eyes were filled with anger. "You won. Do not flaunt it over me in such a manner."
"I haven't won yet," Var growled back. He turned his attention to the young man who had not made a move. Var raised his voice. "Well? What are you waiting for!?"
Leon was not aware of their conversation; he had been too absorbed in the choice he now had to make. He gazed down at the sparks flying from the woman's arm, feeling cold dread filling him, quelling his rage. He looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he whispered quietly to himself. He slashed his saber through the air at his target.
Var's saber came up just in time to deflect the blade that had been thrown towards him. Leon summoned his saber back to his hand, a defiant look in his eyes. His saber seemed to be alive in his hand, virtually charged with white light. "I will never kill an ally."
Var smiled and turned to Vallen. "I'll take my creds via public shaming," he said with a grin.
Vallen snarled. "You wanted him to defy us? No... me."
Var shook his head. "Eh, you wouldn't understand. Let's go, Leon. You passed," he said. He smiled down at the woman clutching at her broken arm. "Which means you might be ready, both of you."
Leon shook his head, sighing, and turned to the woman kneeling on the ground. She was shaking in fear, clutching at the shoulder above her prosthetic arm. "Let's get out of here," Leon finally suggested, his arm outstretched. The woman looked up at him. Her mask's wide eyes seemed, for the first time, to convey surprise rather than menace. She reached out, hand shaking for but a moment, and grabbed his hand. He pulled her up and smiled. "Sorry about the arm."
The mask fell. "I should've trusted you." the woman said, her voice tinged with self-loathing and regret.
"No, you really shouldn't have," he replied. He rubbed the back of his head and half-grimaced sheepishly. "I barely made the right choice."
"How come whenever you save me, it costs me an arm?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the ground still. She put her good hand up and unlatched the mask. Leon's eyes widened as the woman tore off her disguise and brought him into a tight hug with her remaining arm.
He stood still in shock for a while, not sure what was going on. He had been so worried about her that he couldn't notice what was obvious? After a moment, though, he pushed that thought away and let his weaponless hand rise to her shoulder so he could hug her close, too. His black saber, marking him as a Knight of the Empire, crackled with white embers. "It's been too long, Mari."
