CHAPTER 22
Parry, backhand swipe, parry, parry left, then right again, left hand vertical block tight foot forward. These were the actions that unconsciously guided Master Oden's body, echoes of her Padawan days began to return to her now more mature physic as she fended off the evil Sith: Oiket. She was quietly in awe at her prowess, so was Jiles. If they kept this rate of dueling for long one of them would eventually give in but that seemed less and less inevitable since Jiles continued to gather his energies from the pain that was inflicted on him earlier and Dorshe' from the still unidentified source. Jiles took a stab for the Jedi's knee. Luckily for her, Dorshe noticed the move and managed to shift her footing so as to let Oiket's lightsabre plunge into the flooring. Dorshe took this fault, to abruptly introduce her right knee to his forehead, which then propelled his body into the air. A loud clink signified his landing as Master Oden parted the distance between them by walking backwards to the door she knew Yoda was on the other side of, as Jiles began to collect himself so he could counter attack. 'Yoda.' her thoughts projected. '.What's taking you so long?'
Yoda was fed up with the wiring but he was almost finished. 'Just one more wire!' he assured as he twisted the red and yellow cords together. "Got it!" He muttered to himself, unaware that he infact accidentally activated the hatches blast shields until the thick metal wall fell from the ceiling and into the floor with a loud clang that could be heard from the other room. Skywalker was disgusted with himself. '.Poodoo!'
'What was that?' Dorshe' inquired in an unpleased tone before she could propel the Sith lord off his feet once more with a gust of Force energy.
'Nothing.' he winced as he frantically began to rework his mig-shift wiring to undo his misfortunate technical mishap.
Dorshe' sneered to herself not letting Jiles have the pleasure of her frustration. 'Whatever it is Yoda, just fix it!' suddenly, a flash of red light streaked pass her face and sparks began to flicker as she returned that gesture with her own, only to continue the duel. 'And Hurry!'
With that said Master Skywalker quickened in his movements, calling upon the Force to guide his hands with the faith that he would get to her before it was too late.
Jiles pulled back for another swipe, but he found his attack converted into a horizontal block by Master Oden's superior reflexes. Sending the Sith to pace back into the open space provided by the relatively small room. Dorshe' held her firm stance against Oiket, defying his every attempt to hurt her once again. Their lightsabre's glared with fury in the small explosions that were created by the clashing blades. Jiles spun around Dorshe' in an effort to slash at her spine, but she parried him away along with an underhand swipe for his knee which only grazed his skin. Jiles returned the wound with another he managed to inflict on the woman's shoulder. Both completely unaware of the explosions that racked and shook the very ship they were on from the fighters outside still continuing the massive dogfight. Dorshe' flung her sword over Jiles's head as he ducked and swiped his own sabre at her shins. Causing the Jedi to leap over the Sith, using him as a stepping stool to project her jump farther up into the air, and flipping backwards into a graceful landing. Jiles's anger was beyond his control, and like an animal, he charged the Jedi master with his lightsabre pointing directly at her. Dorshe' then took a step to the right as the Sith plunged his weapon into the wall, just under her left arm. Dorshe' then released her free hand and powerfully punched her fist into his gut knocking out any air he might have been containing in his lungs. Jiles kept his strong grip on the wall-embedded sabre as his body flew across the room, this time landing on his feet, as he inhaled desperately for oxygen. Dorshe' simply stood her ground in the formal Jedi ready stance, taking this time to collect her thoughts and share them with the dazed Sith. "Where is your Master?" she said in a clear and almost threatening tone. Jiles looked at the Jedi with blood beginning to seep from his teasing smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know Master Jedi?" He sneered. "You the great Master Dorshe' Oden, revered Jedi, renowned warrior and ordained High council member of the grand Jedi order." He mocked Dorshe' with her own accomplishments ".only beloved daughter of Master Cialla and Noble Hodd Prynin." Jiles started to summarize her own autobiography, as if he reviewed it a thousand times over. ".And widow to the 'Late' Pacres." Dorshe' stomped her primary foot into the alloyed floor, but halted her actions, denying her anger and pain to get the better of her. She knew Jiles wanted nothing more than that. "Your husband fought as bravely as you do now." Jiles began to lower his weapon, another sign of his deviant manner of respect while he spoke. ".You should be proud of him. I on the other hand would take immense pride in being known as the Sith Lord who killed the two Oden Jedi." He chuckled as the shadows created by the lights that were subsequently blocked by the large pipes surfed over his horridly chiseled face, only serving to enhance his evil, dark smile. "Be thankful of your unborn Master Oden!" he spat "Were it not for him! My Master would have ordered your death along with your friends." The Sith made a calm patient pace towards Dorshe'. "My Master guarantees that he will make quite a promising warrior." She thought back the swelling of tears that glistened in her silver eyes. "I'd rather die now than have him stolen from me, especially from your Master" her muscles tightened as she expelled her words. Jiles began to chuckle his response while playfully twirling his lightsabre. "As much as I'd like to see you die! I'm afraid that will have to wait. Orders are orders and Mine are to make sure that your son is born to an upbringing with the Sith." His blade stopped as his larger hand clamped down on the solid black hilt. "Then I will kill you!" no sooner had he made his point, did the ship begin to quake as a large explosion erupted on its hull, sending the now aware Jiles into wild and frantic concern. ".Wha.what was that?" Dorshe' was now the one in the room with the smirk, her link to the everlasting Force, and to her brother and sister Jedi of the fleet gave and the answer to Jiles's question. "That is the sound of a thousand terrible things awaiting your destruction." She did a mock laugh that mimicked his sinister one. ".and it is at the hands of your own people no less." His hatred was channeled through his face. "The Sith have Betrayed you! You obviously serve no purpose to your Master anymore!" She keened her sight deeper into Jiles inflamed eyes. "You've already lost!" "SILENSE!" he roared, loud enough for Skywalker to hear through the set of steel doors. "You Jedi might have won this battle but you have yet to win this War." He injected, not breaking Master Oden's confidence. "There are more of us than you would like to believe. I'm not the only Sith out here you know! There will be more and now, with 'Him' in our possession! We will have even more than that." He gave a cold stale stare of evil and darkness. Dorshe' was confused for a moment, she did not know exactly what Jiles meant by 'Him'. "You have taken you last breaths Oden. If my Master has given up on me then 'She' has given up on your child. Which means your life is of no use to me anymore!" Jiles then pointed his blade squarely for her body. "Now die!" and he charged in a one man stampede of flaring anger as he pulled his sabre up high for a powerful swipe. Dorshe', more than ready for a return to the exchange, blocked his deaths blows. She noted that his attacks had become more instinctive, more deadly. Jiles had no need for Dorshe's life, and now he would make sure to insure her death. She parried the Sith's overhead strike, then swung her crisp blue blade of light around with her quick wrist reaction, into a solid lock with Jiles's red blade. Creating small sparks that erupted from the negative polarities caused by the two opposing lightsabres. Jiles countered the lock with a twist of his blade that slipped him free of Dorshe's distraction, also forcing Jiles to spin in his place which left his back exposed to the Jedi. She took this opportunity to strike at him from behind with incredible reflexes. But just as Dorshe' made this incredibly fast attack, the Sith had already strategically placed his blade far over his head, pointing down behind his back to parry the blade in his defense. The Jedi Master then spun herself in the opposite direction in an attempt to cut through the front of his chest. Jiles knew this as her next move before her blade could meet his flesh. He returned his weapon to stand against her blade in another quick parry to his side. Now once again face to face. Jiles glared into Dorshe's eyes, trying to install some amount of terror into her. The Hull was beginning to buckle around them, mostly from the battle that was diminishing outside, but also in part with the tension shared between the sinister Sith warrior and relentless Jedi Master. "You are quite skilled in the art of the sabre Oden!" he said through gritted teeth. "If only your husband had lasted this long." She let her guard down, in spite of Dorshe's upbringing in the ways of the Force. The combined suppression of her hatred of Jiles Oiket and the painful reminder of her husband's death were now released by the Sith's remark, and no longer sheltered by her emotional discipline. Which caused her tense arms to go weak enough for Jiles to brush her arms wide open with the force of his swipe and expose her now defenseless mid section. Dorshe' couldn't feel her body as it fell backwards off her feet. She knew what was next, the point of the Sith's red blade began to thrust it's way through the air and towards her abdomen. In that moment before the blade could make contact with her skin. Dorshe' could only feel sorry that she had to die now. Not for the sake of her own life, but for the life of her unborn Son, for all the bliss that would come with his arrival into the universe as she knew it. For all the joys she would never know as his mother, his first words his first steps the first times he would ever stare back into her eyes and all the joys of his own life, like sharing life with his own true love. She cried bitter sweat tears of a loss that was an event yet to be. Then she felt warmth over flow her being. But to her surprise it was no the heat of a lightsabre stabbing into her stomach. No. Infact it was the opposite extreme of any kind of pain. It was love. Pure immeasurable love, one that could only be channeled by the Force, but emitted from one who brought true pleasure to her life. Not like a friend not like that of a parent or even a lover. No. It was the undeniable love of a child. Her child. She looked down at her abdomen surprised to see that Jiles's blade had not yet even touched her body and also seemed to stop in its place. Dorshe' then turned her focus to her would-be murderer. The Sith warrior was frozen in his place, with his stern gaze still in place oblivious to all that she perceived. The Jedi noted that she wasn't falling, infact she was floating. Dorshe' was in a realm that defied her comprehension of time, a place created by the Force. She could feel her body as it was guided to stand on her feet. Her sabre still ignited was pulled into the powerful grip of her strong but slender fingers. Knowing that she might not have this opportunity forever, she plunged her lightsabre deep into the Sith's chest. As the death blow was finished, Master Oden could see Jiles's face, gradually as time slipped to the norm, turn from complete hatred and into utter shock. The first sound Dorshe' heard was the 'snap-hiss' of Jiles's lightsabre as it fell from his pale hands and fell before his feet and clanged against the steel surface of the floor. Jiles coughed his final words, for he no longer had a functioning throat to carry his true voice. "h-How -cough- did-d y-you." Dorshe' did not know exactly how it happened but she did know why. "I' am a Jedi!" She proclaimed to the dieing Sith "Like my family, before me and like my son, who will be!" the Jedi master deactivated her lightsabre, allowing Jiles corpse to collapse into an extinguishing sack of bone and tissue. She looked down to Jiles, feeling only sorrow for him as he reached out for her, not in a hateful lash or a final effort to take Dorshe in some futile attempt to take her with him to join their places in to collective Force, but like a small, insignificant and frail man. Who feared death. Dorshe' instinctively stretched out her own hand, sensing his open terror, but before she could clasp her palm to meet his fingers. His hand feel to the floor, lifeless eyes that rolled back into his skull confirmed Jiles's death to her. She felt sorrow, not for his life coming to an end, but because she felt no presence merging into the great river of the Force. No new drop that would ripple its endless waves. Such was the fate of the Sith and a horrid fate it is. The room shock once again, which brought Dorshe' back into the normal train of thought and the moment at hand. Then again, she could sense the panic that emitted from the vessel's crew it was not going to be holding together much longer. And again, the floor was in a more constant and less abrupt tremor, she ran for the door hoping that Yoda was still on the other side, but then there was a massive explosion which in combination with the quaking floor almost sent her off her own feet. Dorshe' shielded her face with her sleeve as chunks of smoldering metal were launched at her. As the tiny bombardment diminished, she removed her arm from her forehead and found Yoda Skywalker still at the open door panel, seemingly unaware of how the wall had been destroyed but gave it little fought when he Saw his friend was still alive. ".oops." he muttered as the woman ran over the flames left in the blasts wake, grabbing Skywalker by his arm and lifting him to his feet in a strong grunt of swift thinking. "We have to leave now, this ship isn't going to take this kind of punishment much longer!" She declared. Yoda couldn't agree more. "Follow me!" he shouted over the rattling hull platting before he and the orveasian woman sped off into the hall in a desperate sprint for the Millennium Falcon, which awaited them in the hanger deck.
Parry, backhand swipe, parry, parry left, then right again, left hand vertical block tight foot forward. These were the actions that unconsciously guided Master Oden's body, echoes of her Padawan days began to return to her now more mature physic as she fended off the evil Sith: Oiket. She was quietly in awe at her prowess, so was Jiles. If they kept this rate of dueling for long one of them would eventually give in but that seemed less and less inevitable since Jiles continued to gather his energies from the pain that was inflicted on him earlier and Dorshe' from the still unidentified source. Jiles took a stab for the Jedi's knee. Luckily for her, Dorshe noticed the move and managed to shift her footing so as to let Oiket's lightsabre plunge into the flooring. Dorshe took this fault, to abruptly introduce her right knee to his forehead, which then propelled his body into the air. A loud clink signified his landing as Master Oden parted the distance between them by walking backwards to the door she knew Yoda was on the other side of, as Jiles began to collect himself so he could counter attack. 'Yoda.' her thoughts projected. '.What's taking you so long?'
Yoda was fed up with the wiring but he was almost finished. 'Just one more wire!' he assured as he twisted the red and yellow cords together. "Got it!" He muttered to himself, unaware that he infact accidentally activated the hatches blast shields until the thick metal wall fell from the ceiling and into the floor with a loud clang that could be heard from the other room. Skywalker was disgusted with himself. '.Poodoo!'
'What was that?' Dorshe' inquired in an unpleased tone before she could propel the Sith lord off his feet once more with a gust of Force energy.
'Nothing.' he winced as he frantically began to rework his mig-shift wiring to undo his misfortunate technical mishap.
Dorshe' sneered to herself not letting Jiles have the pleasure of her frustration. 'Whatever it is Yoda, just fix it!' suddenly, a flash of red light streaked pass her face and sparks began to flicker as she returned that gesture with her own, only to continue the duel. 'And Hurry!'
With that said Master Skywalker quickened in his movements, calling upon the Force to guide his hands with the faith that he would get to her before it was too late.
Jiles pulled back for another swipe, but he found his attack converted into a horizontal block by Master Oden's superior reflexes. Sending the Sith to pace back into the open space provided by the relatively small room. Dorshe' held her firm stance against Oiket, defying his every attempt to hurt her once again. Their lightsabre's glared with fury in the small explosions that were created by the clashing blades. Jiles spun around Dorshe' in an effort to slash at her spine, but she parried him away along with an underhand swipe for his knee which only grazed his skin. Jiles returned the wound with another he managed to inflict on the woman's shoulder. Both completely unaware of the explosions that racked and shook the very ship they were on from the fighters outside still continuing the massive dogfight. Dorshe' flung her sword over Jiles's head as he ducked and swiped his own sabre at her shins. Causing the Jedi to leap over the Sith, using him as a stepping stool to project her jump farther up into the air, and flipping backwards into a graceful landing. Jiles's anger was beyond his control, and like an animal, he charged the Jedi master with his lightsabre pointing directly at her. Dorshe' then took a step to the right as the Sith plunged his weapon into the wall, just under her left arm. Dorshe' then released her free hand and powerfully punched her fist into his gut knocking out any air he might have been containing in his lungs. Jiles kept his strong grip on the wall-embedded sabre as his body flew across the room, this time landing on his feet, as he inhaled desperately for oxygen. Dorshe' simply stood her ground in the formal Jedi ready stance, taking this time to collect her thoughts and share them with the dazed Sith. "Where is your Master?" she said in a clear and almost threatening tone. Jiles looked at the Jedi with blood beginning to seep from his teasing smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know Master Jedi?" He sneered. "You the great Master Dorshe' Oden, revered Jedi, renowned warrior and ordained High council member of the grand Jedi order." He mocked Dorshe' with her own accomplishments ".only beloved daughter of Master Cialla and Noble Hodd Prynin." Jiles started to summarize her own autobiography, as if he reviewed it a thousand times over. ".And widow to the 'Late' Pacres." Dorshe' stomped her primary foot into the alloyed floor, but halted her actions, denying her anger and pain to get the better of her. She knew Jiles wanted nothing more than that. "Your husband fought as bravely as you do now." Jiles began to lower his weapon, another sign of his deviant manner of respect while he spoke. ".You should be proud of him. I on the other hand would take immense pride in being known as the Sith Lord who killed the two Oden Jedi." He chuckled as the shadows created by the lights that were subsequently blocked by the large pipes surfed over his horridly chiseled face, only serving to enhance his evil, dark smile. "Be thankful of your unborn Master Oden!" he spat "Were it not for him! My Master would have ordered your death along with your friends." The Sith made a calm patient pace towards Dorshe'. "My Master guarantees that he will make quite a promising warrior." She thought back the swelling of tears that glistened in her silver eyes. "I'd rather die now than have him stolen from me, especially from your Master" her muscles tightened as she expelled her words. Jiles began to chuckle his response while playfully twirling his lightsabre. "As much as I'd like to see you die! I'm afraid that will have to wait. Orders are orders and Mine are to make sure that your son is born to an upbringing with the Sith." His blade stopped as his larger hand clamped down on the solid black hilt. "Then I will kill you!" no sooner had he made his point, did the ship begin to quake as a large explosion erupted on its hull, sending the now aware Jiles into wild and frantic concern. ".Wha.what was that?" Dorshe' was now the one in the room with the smirk, her link to the everlasting Force, and to her brother and sister Jedi of the fleet gave and the answer to Jiles's question. "That is the sound of a thousand terrible things awaiting your destruction." She did a mock laugh that mimicked his sinister one. ".and it is at the hands of your own people no less." His hatred was channeled through his face. "The Sith have Betrayed you! You obviously serve no purpose to your Master anymore!" She keened her sight deeper into Jiles inflamed eyes. "You've already lost!" "SILENSE!" he roared, loud enough for Skywalker to hear through the set of steel doors. "You Jedi might have won this battle but you have yet to win this War." He injected, not breaking Master Oden's confidence. "There are more of us than you would like to believe. I'm not the only Sith out here you know! There will be more and now, with 'Him' in our possession! We will have even more than that." He gave a cold stale stare of evil and darkness. Dorshe' was confused for a moment, she did not know exactly what Jiles meant by 'Him'. "You have taken you last breaths Oden. If my Master has given up on me then 'She' has given up on your child. Which means your life is of no use to me anymore!" Jiles then pointed his blade squarely for her body. "Now die!" and he charged in a one man stampede of flaring anger as he pulled his sabre up high for a powerful swipe. Dorshe', more than ready for a return to the exchange, blocked his deaths blows. She noted that his attacks had become more instinctive, more deadly. Jiles had no need for Dorshe's life, and now he would make sure to insure her death. She parried the Sith's overhead strike, then swung her crisp blue blade of light around with her quick wrist reaction, into a solid lock with Jiles's red blade. Creating small sparks that erupted from the negative polarities caused by the two opposing lightsabres. Jiles countered the lock with a twist of his blade that slipped him free of Dorshe's distraction, also forcing Jiles to spin in his place which left his back exposed to the Jedi. She took this opportunity to strike at him from behind with incredible reflexes. But just as Dorshe' made this incredibly fast attack, the Sith had already strategically placed his blade far over his head, pointing down behind his back to parry the blade in his defense. The Jedi Master then spun herself in the opposite direction in an attempt to cut through the front of his chest. Jiles knew this as her next move before her blade could meet his flesh. He returned his weapon to stand against her blade in another quick parry to his side. Now once again face to face. Jiles glared into Dorshe's eyes, trying to install some amount of terror into her. The Hull was beginning to buckle around them, mostly from the battle that was diminishing outside, but also in part with the tension shared between the sinister Sith warrior and relentless Jedi Master. "You are quite skilled in the art of the sabre Oden!" he said through gritted teeth. "If only your husband had lasted this long." She let her guard down, in spite of Dorshe's upbringing in the ways of the Force. The combined suppression of her hatred of Jiles Oiket and the painful reminder of her husband's death were now released by the Sith's remark, and no longer sheltered by her emotional discipline. Which caused her tense arms to go weak enough for Jiles to brush her arms wide open with the force of his swipe and expose her now defenseless mid section. Dorshe' couldn't feel her body as it fell backwards off her feet. She knew what was next, the point of the Sith's red blade began to thrust it's way through the air and towards her abdomen. In that moment before the blade could make contact with her skin. Dorshe' could only feel sorry that she had to die now. Not for the sake of her own life, but for the life of her unborn Son, for all the bliss that would come with his arrival into the universe as she knew it. For all the joys she would never know as his mother, his first words his first steps the first times he would ever stare back into her eyes and all the joys of his own life, like sharing life with his own true love. She cried bitter sweat tears of a loss that was an event yet to be. Then she felt warmth over flow her being. But to her surprise it was no the heat of a lightsabre stabbing into her stomach. No. Infact it was the opposite extreme of any kind of pain. It was love. Pure immeasurable love, one that could only be channeled by the Force, but emitted from one who brought true pleasure to her life. Not like a friend not like that of a parent or even a lover. No. It was the undeniable love of a child. Her child. She looked down at her abdomen surprised to see that Jiles's blade had not yet even touched her body and also seemed to stop in its place. Dorshe' then turned her focus to her would-be murderer. The Sith warrior was frozen in his place, with his stern gaze still in place oblivious to all that she perceived. The Jedi noted that she wasn't falling, infact she was floating. Dorshe' was in a realm that defied her comprehension of time, a place created by the Force. She could feel her body as it was guided to stand on her feet. Her sabre still ignited was pulled into the powerful grip of her strong but slender fingers. Knowing that she might not have this opportunity forever, she plunged her lightsabre deep into the Sith's chest. As the death blow was finished, Master Oden could see Jiles's face, gradually as time slipped to the norm, turn from complete hatred and into utter shock. The first sound Dorshe' heard was the 'snap-hiss' of Jiles's lightsabre as it fell from his pale hands and fell before his feet and clanged against the steel surface of the floor. Jiles coughed his final words, for he no longer had a functioning throat to carry his true voice. "h-How -cough- did-d y-you." Dorshe' did not know exactly how it happened but she did know why. "I' am a Jedi!" She proclaimed to the dieing Sith "Like my family, before me and like my son, who will be!" the Jedi master deactivated her lightsabre, allowing Jiles corpse to collapse into an extinguishing sack of bone and tissue. She looked down to Jiles, feeling only sorrow for him as he reached out for her, not in a hateful lash or a final effort to take Dorshe in some futile attempt to take her with him to join their places in to collective Force, but like a small, insignificant and frail man. Who feared death. Dorshe' instinctively stretched out her own hand, sensing his open terror, but before she could clasp her palm to meet his fingers. His hand feel to the floor, lifeless eyes that rolled back into his skull confirmed Jiles's death to her. She felt sorrow, not for his life coming to an end, but because she felt no presence merging into the great river of the Force. No new drop that would ripple its endless waves. Such was the fate of the Sith and a horrid fate it is. The room shock once again, which brought Dorshe' back into the normal train of thought and the moment at hand. Then again, she could sense the panic that emitted from the vessel's crew it was not going to be holding together much longer. And again, the floor was in a more constant and less abrupt tremor, she ran for the door hoping that Yoda was still on the other side, but then there was a massive explosion which in combination with the quaking floor almost sent her off her own feet. Dorshe' shielded her face with her sleeve as chunks of smoldering metal were launched at her. As the tiny bombardment diminished, she removed her arm from her forehead and found Yoda Skywalker still at the open door panel, seemingly unaware of how the wall had been destroyed but gave it little fought when he Saw his friend was still alive. ".oops." he muttered as the woman ran over the flames left in the blasts wake, grabbing Skywalker by his arm and lifting him to his feet in a strong grunt of swift thinking. "We have to leave now, this ship isn't going to take this kind of punishment much longer!" She declared. Yoda couldn't agree more. "Follow me!" he shouted over the rattling hull platting before he and the orveasian woman sped off into the hall in a desperate sprint for the Millennium Falcon, which awaited them in the hanger deck.