Kentra screamed and backed away as Cryos's power lever skyrocketed. His eyes glowed bright red as he powered up to the maximum he could without going Super-Sayian.
The Jedi came closer and went into a fighting stance for an ancient form of hand-to-hand combat while Tran and Draco dove for cover Pahrac dove into the rock with the intent of burrowing in close.
Cryos dashed at them and the Jedi barely jumped away in time. Kentra met him head on and, using all of her strength, was able to stop him, barely.
Cryos put on another burst of speed, popped out his arm blades and ran around her at Tran and the Jedi. They had no hope of escape this time. But at the last second, Pahrac exploded from the rocks and sunk his fangs deep into Cryos's arm and snapped one of the blades clean off.
Cryos made no notice of the pain and punched Pahrac right in the mouth. Pointed teeth rained down as the alien fell, unconscious, to the floor.
Cryos glanced at his arm as the wounds closed and a new blade sprouted from his wrist. He smiled and started after the Jedi again but Kentra called out to him first.
"Cryos! Over here!" He looked and saw her standing with her arms at her sides and tears running down her face. "I'm right here, come and get me."
Cryos smiled again and ran towards her. He swung his arm blade but she didn't move. He looked in puzzlement as his arm seemed to stop all on its own.
He tried to power up an energy bomb to fire at her, but he couldn't do that either. He looked up at Kentra in puzzlement as she leaned in close and kissed him.
With her kiss, memories and dreams came flooding back. He was here for a reason, and it wasn't to kill his loved ones, it was to save them.
Cryos turned to face the shadow that had been controlling him. He powered up another bomb to launch at the man, but the dark figure raised its hand and Cryos could feel the evil thoughts creping back into his head. In a moment, his bomb was pointed at Kentra again!
Cryos focused all his strength and managed to force his hands back at the evil man, only to be pushed back at Kentra again.
Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. It wasn't going to be fun or pleasant, but it was the only way to save Kentra's life.
With one last contest of wills, he pulled his hands up towards his face. "Let me and my family go, or I'll do it"
The man laughed. "You think you can threaten me with your life? Go ahead and do it, see if I care."
Cryos heard the words, but knew in his heart that the man didn't believe it. If he blasted himself away, he would have no slave to protect him from the rest of the group. And he couldn't control them all. The dark Jedi would be killed.
Kentra screamed as Cryos let the energy erupt from his hands and blast up over his face.
He could actually feel his skin evaporating followed by his muscles and bones. Soon, an all-encompassing darkness wrapped himself around him as his headless body slumped to the floor.
………………………………………….
The Dark Jedi blinked in surprise. With all his powers, he hadn't expected the alien to destroy himself. He didn't have time to ponder it, however as the Jedi started to come at him.
He had been taught well and wasn't going to go down without a fight. He focused on filling the entire room with his dark energies and lighting started to zip between the floor and ceiling, striking down the Jedi as well as the female alien.
He smiled and focused a powerful blast of dark power on the MonCal Jedi Master. He was dead in seconds and vanished moments later.
The Dark Jedi turned to his master in the darkest shadows behind him.
"Very good, Darth Mange. You are becoming quite the adept pupil."
"I owe it all to my master." The appetence bowed low as he spoke.
"Yes, you do." Said the master evilly. "But a Sith does not leave any lose ends. You need to kill the rest of them."
"Very well, my lord."
Darth Mange turned back to the room to do his master's bidding, but it was empty. All that remained was the dead Jedi Master's empty clothes.
He looked around trying to figure out who was awake, when he caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye.
Mange dove just in time as the broken blade wielded by the young human known as Tran sliced down right where he had been standing.
His eyes narrowed. "How did you do that, and how did you escape my force lightning?"
"I don't know," Admitted Tran, "but I am going to stop you. You have caused too much death and destruction to let go unpunished."
Mange smiled evilly and unleashed another barrage of lightning, but Tran raised the broken blade and the dark energy bounced away.
The Sith glared at the boy and reached behind his back. His hands came up with a sword.
Tran shouted and rushed at his opponent, who responded in the same way. The two blades met and clashed off each other once, twice, three times!
But as Mange swung his sword a fourth time, Tran's salvaged blade snapped the metal sword in half. The Sith fell to the ground and covered his face, but the killing blow never came.
There was a muffled thump, and when he opened his eyes, Tran was lying on the ground and the alien girl, Kentra was standing over him. "He's not going to kill you, I am. And I'm going to enjoy it…" She said and grabbed the front of his shirt before blasting off into the sky like a rocket.
………………………………………..
The Sith master sighed. It looked like he would need a new apprentice again. He had several options. The small alien Jedi was still alive, but he would be hard to convert.
The human who had fought Darth Mange seemed promising. Even with his righteous streak, he was untrained and still powerful. It might be worth a try.
The alien girl was still his first choice, but she was still young. Too young and innocent to train properly. Maybe he should take them all and kill whichever two failed the tests. Yes, that seemed like the best idea.
He went over to collect them, when a sudden movement caught his eye. At first he couldn't comprehend what it was, but then it staggered out of the shadows into the light and the strange form was explained.
It was a headless body, and it was walking around.
It took a moment longer before he recognized it as the alien that Darth Mange had been mind controlling. The alien must have some kind of backup systems. He thought. There were other sentient species with such redundancies built into their nervous systems. They could still run away and crawl around for a short time after death.
He shrugged and started over to collect his potential students.
As he walked, he kicked a rock that clattered across the cave floor and the headless body of Cryos turned towards the sound and lunged, catching the edge of the Sith master's dark cloak.
The Sith turned and blasted at Cryos with Force lightning, but the headless body rolled surprisingly fast and knocked him off his feet.
As he struggled to free himself from his tangled cloak, the headless body next to him stood up.
The Sith looked up in amazement and, even as he watched, the alien's head started to regrow!
His chin and jaw reformed first, followed by his nose, ears, and the top of his head. He had no hair, but impossibly, his entire head had regrown in a matter of moments.
Cryos opened his dark eyes and glared down at the shocked Sith. He raised one hand and a glow appeared.
The Sith rolled away just as Cryos blasted away a huge chunk of the floor. He sprung to his feet and shot more Force lightning.
This time, Cryos didn't move. He grimaced as the dark energy crackled through his flesh but he showed no other reaction.
The Sith blasted with all his might, but Cryos didn't move.
"What are you!?" He shouted.
Cryos managed to smile through the pain. "I am the unstoppable light, here to cast all creatures like you into the darkness." And he started to walk forward.
The Sith roared and poured all his power into the Force lightning. He could feel his own skin cracking and burning from the energy but he didn't care, Cryos was still coming and he couldn't stop him!
Soon, Cryos was within arms reach. The Sith put his hands on the alien and started pumping his dark power directly into him.
Cryos lurched with the sudden onslaught, but he didn't stop. He forced his hands up and grabbed the Sith as well.
Cryos's hands completed the circuit of the Dark Side, and they both screamed as the power flowed through them both.
The dark power surrounded and filled them as the entire world went black…
