"Wake up!"

A smack hit him across the face, and Sasori Dragus woke up burning with fiery rage. As he tried to stand, his body was pulled back down and he realized his hands were tied, around a pipe as far as he could feel. The pipe felt warm against his back. He tried to break free but there was no escape from it. His feet were tied too. He looked around and realized where he was being held prisoner.

Fresher stations were lined up on either side of the room, and three stalls were stacked up next to him. All of the freshers had mirrors over them.

And lounging against one of the freshers was a gray-clothed man in an impressive stealth suit. Sasori tried to focus on the man's face but he couldn't make it out. All he saw was a blur. "Who are you?"

The man didn't answer.

Sasori pulled at his restraints but they were tightly bound. There was no escape. "That suit?" Sasori thought it looked familiar. "You a SonGol?" SonGol were a group of mercenaries, he remembered selling a batch of those stealth outfits to them a year back. The suit itself was vintage, dating back longer than he could remember. It was out of age and several new models had been designed since then. Some he'd made himself. "What do you want with me?"

"Answers."

That voice. Sasori tried to trace it back. He'd heard the same gruff voice when he had been held up, but he'd been too panicked to identify it. It was a voice from the past. Someone linked to the Jentarana. Someone once a great prize. A target.

And as Sasori found out the source of the voice he damned himself for not thinking about the stowaway on the ship first. It had completely slipped his mind.

The Jedi Knight.

"You - you're the Jedi. You came for the Jentarana."

No answer came.

Sasori blinked, struggling to see more clearly. "But your ship was following us, how did you get onboard?"

The man laughed, but the sound was dark as night on Nar Shaddaa. "I've always been here."

Sasori didn't understand, but he had a hunch. "A drone ship?" Sasori smiled. "Nice thinking."

"Yeah, I figured you'd enjoy that. Being a man of war," his voice was full of contempt, "being another innocent bystander at the crash site."

Sasori swallowed. "You know me?"

The man nodded, he could see that much. "Sasori Dragus."

Sasori wasn't surprised the man knew his name. "You've been watching us ever since?"

The Jedi shook his head. "No, I came back a few weeks ago. Waiting for you to slip up."

Sasori felt fear pay another visit. "You came for the Jentarana? Or to avenge your uncle?"

"He wasn't my uncle," the Jedi said flatly.

Sasori didn't accept it. "Yes, he was," Sasori remembered the name, "Lwen Kando. You freed him." Sasori tried to remember the details. It seemed so long ago. "And the woman. He wasn't your uncle?"

"No."

Sasori realized the inevitable: "Then….there were two Jedi."

"Three would be more accurate."

Sasori swallowed hard. Three Jedi? How had that many survived the Purge? "What do the Jedi want with the Jentarana?"

The man walked over to Sasori, whose eyesight had become clearer and he looked closer at the Jedi. The man had long brown hair tied up in a bandana. A look of hate and contemplation painted over a face that seemed incapable of smiling. Sasori spotted lightsaber and silenced blaster on the belt.

"We're gonna end the tyranny, set a stand for humanity for once. To end all wars."

Sasori frowned. "Not even Jedi can do that. Raydoen was right. War is inevitable. You can't stop it."

The Jedi turned. "We can."

Sasori laughed and hoped the words would sting as intended. "How? Can you remember a time when there wasn't war? When there wasn't battle? A time when warriors weren't needed?"

The Jedi didn't answer.

Sasori pulled in a deep breath and opened his heart. Words came out that he didn't even know he had in him. "War is so much part of the spirit. Its immutable. No talk or action can stop it." Sasori took in another breath. "We are all warriors, you and I. Don't think we're not, because we are. You say you want to stop wars? But then where would you be? The world needs men like us. We can't lose our place. There will always be war."

The Jedi hunched down in front of him. "I remember a time when peace reigned, not fear."

Sasori looked into the Jedi's blue eyes and saw that the sincerity in his eyes, this man was buying his own words. Sasori shook his head. "Those days are over. As long as there are people there will always be war."

The Jedi smiled. A subtle smile of animosity. "Balance."

"What balance?"

"I agree war can't be put completely to rest. The world is too big…too different for peace. But we can create a balance where everything stays in one place. No progressing military taking over world after world. No children waking up wondering if their home is next. Stability. Unity. Safety." The Jedi turned and nodded. "A republic."

Sasori snorted. "Why a republic? Control would be too hard to maintain. You saw what happened the last time!"

The Jedi leaned up against the wall. "Control was corrupted then. It won't be this time. Not with Jedi at the helm."

Sasori laughed. "A Jedi republic? That will never happen. Xenophobia wouldn't let it. Jedi were once respected but they were equally mistrusted."

"Not this time."

"Why not?"

The Jedi's face turned grim, even more than it was before. It seemed a great heartache had gripped the Jedi in its very grasp. "Because the world is about to see what kind of commitment the Jedi have to the people. To life itself."

Sasori flattened himself against the pipe. "What?"

"The Jentarana."

Sasori felt the room growing smaller around him. "What are you gonna do?"

"Sacrifice it. In the name of the Jedi."

Sasori wanted to jump for the Jedi's throat but the restraints kept him impotent. The thought of destroying the Jentarana sent waves of anger through him that he didn't know he had. Feelings of ownership.

"You're stupid! You can't do that." Sasori felt the blood rushing through his veins, like an angry storm. "The weapon is indestructible. Its power will never diminish." Sasori smiled, his lips trembling with rage. "Its here to stay."

The Jedi pulled away from the wall and walked around in front of Sasori. "Not if you have the key to unlocking it. Anything will give up its secrets...if you love it enough."

Sasori swallowed, fighting back his own anger. Knowing it was useless to get himself worked up. The Jedi was in control. "You know it well."

The Jedi looked down at him. "We've had a couple of run-ins in the past. I have a close bond with it. We are bound to each other. Destiny."

Sasori didn't know what to say. "When we stole it on Corellia - we stole it from you, didn't we?"

A smile crept across the man's lips, but it was a sad one. "It doesn't matter. We would have found each other one way or another."

Sasori lowered his voice. "Then why do you want to destroy it?"

"Anything truly revolutionary is created by a few who see what is true and are willing to live according to that truth; but to discover what is true demands freedom from tradition, which means freedom from all fears. When the Jentarana is destroyed, a new Republic will born from its flames. The Jedi will be in charge this time, their loyalty unquestioned. The world will gather and ask for their help, and the Galaxy will be protected beneath the Force." The Jedi looked at him, a sad lonely look in his eyes.

Sasori felt his hands shaking. "What do you mean, 'flames'?"

"The Empire is still alive. Their loyalty still in check. Some factions of it still salute the Imperial crest. They've lost their Emperor but their seat of power still stands as a mock of everything I stand for."

Sasori didn't want to hear the rest but still asked. "Seat of power? You're talking about Coruscant."

The Jedi only nodded.

Sasori's shaken mind remembered the word 'flames'.

And the name Coruscant.

"You can't - "

"I, of course, will die." The Jedi unholstered his blaster and as he made a sad smile, Sasori swore he saw tears in the Jedi's eyes. "But, as you said, there would be no place for me."

Onboard the soaring Witty Shinran pulled herself away from another lesson on mind-calming techniques with Jedi Master Bo-Hi. The lessons were based on Jedi routines and training so they required more from her than she could give. The Force had not blessed Shinran with its empowering gift, it had not showered her presence in life with its glory.

The techniques were useless on her.

Master Bo-Hi nodded and she retreated down the shaft into the barrack. She dodged beneath pipes and controls before reaching the dimly lit corridor where Skar Kjoil sparred with his Holocron.

The golden lightsaber loomed over him when their eyes met.

Skar had not seen her lessons with Master Bo-Hi, but his mind had been with her all the while. Ever since their connection that night, after they'd made love, Skar had been feeling her on the inside. She walked around his mind non-stop. She existed in between his thoughts and emotions like a supervisor. Every thought he had was embedded with her, every emotion he felt he could trace back to her.

Skar had not seen her lessons, but he had felt them like they were his own. The woman who'd seemed so lost from society, so hopeless, was now glowing internally. She had been shifting in emotions during the lessons, but being in his presence again, Skar felt her brightening.

Her long hair was tied in a knot and she leaned herself against the wall. Her curious and endeared smile flowed mercury through his body. Skar ran a hand through his hair and combed it back. The lightsaber powered down and he threw it on his hammock.

"Being a Jedi," he said and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "has taken away my use of greetings like 'how are you?'"

She titled her head. "Because you already know how I feel?"

"I feel it also."

She frowned. "Doesn't this ever wear you?"

The words surprised him, Skar hadn't expected that. "I was wrong. I hadn't seen that one coming."

"Care to answer it, anyway?"

Skar sensed a level of hostility in her, turned off the Holocron and walked over to her. "What's wrong?"

She turned her face away from him, but he moved her face back to look at him with a careful finger. The pain burning inside her eyes was undeniable.

"Talk to me."

"What is it you expect to find on Soliton, Skar? Meaning? Purpose?"

Skar felt a touch of anger and this time he was the one who moved away. "Haven't we been over this? This conversation?"

She snorted. "Is this really all for Kayupa, or is it - "

"Yes!" Skar shouted. "Its all about Kayupa. Its always about Kayupa. Its about a friend who's in trouble."

"But he put himself there, he knew the risks. He didn't accidentally get into trouble. He walked right into it!"

"And you don't think that takes courage? Strength? To set yourself aside into dangers, when the goal is worth it."

She sighed and sat down on the hammock. "Don't you see something wrong? Don't you see how he forced you to come to him? He's hiding something from you, Skar."

Skar had wondered at how Kayupa had known about the second ship, the Witty, on Kryuu. Kayupa had turned out to be an enigma after his seclusion to the desert, and Skar still didn't quite understand what had happened to him out there. Kayupa hadn't been able to make Skar grasp it all.

Indeed Kayupa was hiding something. But Skar was somewhat used to Kayupa keeping his secrets. While Skar saw them as friends he guessed there were some things he would never quite know all about the Jedi Knight. They were great friends, but Kayupa was the biggest mystery Skar had ever faced. Even more difficult to unravel than the Force.

"What do you think he's hiding then?"

She held up her hands in despair. "I don't know! Can't you see that? I know he's hiding something that could tear us all apart. Maybe his goals aren't what you think. You have to suspect that he's using you for something."

Skar stepped closer. "But why? Why should I - fear him?"

She laid down in the hammock and put her hands over her eyes, trying to block invisible tears. "You're going to have to make a choice, Skar. Its us or him."

"What?"

"You can't keep jumping back and forth between us or Kayupa. Whose side are you on?"

Skar bit back his impulse to shout. "I'm on our side. I thought you knew that."

"So you'd sacrifice Master Bo-Hi for Kayupa?"

Skar's hands clenched into fists. "Of course not!" Skar hunched down next to her. "I'm torn between the two. I can't help one without failing the other."

"That's why you have to choose - "

"But I can't! I can't choose!" Skar felt his own batch of tears now tingling at the corners of his eyes. "I'm torn apart on the inside, but no one sees it."

She leaned out from the hammock and touched his cheek, her hand a warm comfort. "I see it, that's why I'm telling you this."

Skar looked at her, afraid that he was losing her. Afraid as he'd always been to lose anyone. "Shinran, do you - have you ever loved Kayupa?"

She tilted her head. "As a friend?"

Skar shook his head, and every move hurt more than a thousands cuts with a blade, knowing he'd put himself in a situation that would make or break him. "As more than a friend. Have you ever thought of him in another way? Ever desired him?"

She pulled away from him. "What?"

"Did you ever - make a choice?"

She shook her head. "No, Skar. I never did. I never had to make a choice."

Skar remembered his feeling of inadequacy when being in the presence of Kayupa, his control and strength surpassing Skar's by miles. He'd always had to live up to Kayupa in his own mind, and measuring himself by the same standards he believed others did so too. He believed Shinran even had measured Skar next to Kayupa, judging each to find the better man.

The Force held them both in its breath, in a tightly sealed bubble, while they searched to find a common ground.

"You were never torn between us?"

She smiled. "No. You had all the things I wanted, the things I needed. Kayupa, he never even seemed to be an option. Something about him is preoccupied, he searches, and I don't want that. I want someone to stand still with."

Skar wanted to smile but wasn't sure he could. "What do I have that he doesn't?"

It didn't take her long to answer. "Nothing."

"Then why?"

Shinran touched his cheek. "Because you're everything he's not." She leaned in and kissed his lips. "I love you because you're nothing like him."

Skar nodded. "So you never found it impossible to choose? The answer was always obvious?"

"Yes."

Skar nodded again, resolute this time and stood before her. Her eyes seemed to look for some spark of hope in him that just wasn't there this time. "Then you know how I feel now about Kayupa." Skar closed his eyes. "There is no choice to make. To help him is the only option."

She nodded, though he knew she didn't agree with it. "I don't want any of us to get hurt."

"We … don't know what's gonna happen, Shinran. The future is always in motion. We can't read it."

Her eyes locked with his and Skar could feel her making a hard decision inside. "I want you to promise me something. If you find yourself in a situation where I can't be saved, don't risk yourself."

"What?"

"Don't you ever sacrifice yourself because of me."

Skar wanted to nod to show her that he understood but something felt very wrong about the conversation. And her talking about sacrificing herself made him feel sick inside. "I can't promise you that. I will do whatever I can for us to be together, to keep you safe."

She looked unaffected. "You can never sacrifice yourself because of me," she repeated herself. "You're too important."

Skar wasn't sure how to respond to her words, and he found that it didn't matter. He nodded to her, but he knew inside he would never let her endure any pain. "Don't talk about it like it's already over."

She shrugged, her shoulders weak and her eyes telling him something else than what she said. "Like you said; the future is always in motion. We can't read it."

"I am a Jedi. Fighting has been my life. Its not always been clean. I've left much blood in my wake and I have a lot to walk through yet. After my death they will have to wash my boots thoroughly to get the blood off," he snorted at his own words, "but I don't suspect there will be much to bury."

Sasori listened to the sob story, not affected by it, merely just hoping the Jedi would save time and shoot himself right now.

The Jedi turned and Sasori shuddered at the loss of compassion behind the blue eyes. "Don't worry, Sasori. I'm not gonna kill you. Killing may be the only thing I'm good at, but I won't do it if it can be avoided."

Sasori smiled uneasily. "Thank you. What now?"

"You're gonna tell me how to get to the Jentarana."

Sasori wanted to laugh. "Listen, we're competing forces. I still have some pride."

The Jedi snorted. "You lost your pride the second you began selling weapons. You're a politician, not a warrior."

Sasori begged to differ. "I make weapons - "

"You make weapons! But you don't fight. You provide the tools but you don't care about the outcome. You can't care what damage the Jentarana can do. You care about profit. Money."

Sasori shook his head. "Money - "

"Am I wrong?"

Sasori couldn't make his tongue say the words, because he didn't know the answer.

"You're not a warrior. You don't care about the consequences if the Jentarana falls into the wrong hands. You don't care what damage it can do."

That he did know. "You just told me what you were gonna do with it. What makes you think you're right?"

The Jedi turned his back on him. "You wouldn't understand. You're not a Jedi."

Sasori frowned. "What you got planned didn't sound very Jedi to me."

"Again you wouldn't understand." The Jedi looked in the mirror. The Jedi seemed to reflect on something, something painful. "I am a prisoner of fate, a prisoner of emotion and destiny, the curse in all genes. My past cannot be undone, nor my future."

Sasori snorted. "Great speech. It makes no difference."

"The Galaxy needs leadership to strive."

Sasori spat. "People can follow any movement, that doesn't mean they understand it. Safety is an illusion. They just want to think they're safe. But the more laws you make, the more thieves you get! What makes you think you can change all that?"

"Man must believe in something, and in absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." The Jedi hugged himself. "Its time for an era where power doesn't grow out of the barrel of a blaster. Time for compassion. The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children, to the next generations. The future belongs to those who live intensely in the present."

"But - "

They both stopped talking as the room rocked under duress. Then it resumed to normal. The Jedi closed his eyes for a second. Then he opened them again.

"We've landed. We're on Soliton."

Sasori tried to pull at his restraints but nothing happened.

The Jedi walked over. "Listen. I've got no more time for you. I'll find the Jentarana without your help."

Sasori felt his fists clutching the pipe. "You won't make it. Its too well guarded."

"But its about to be moved, isn't it, Sasori?" The Jedi smiled cunningly. "I can snag it in transit."

"You can't! The Empire will be guarding it too closely - " Sasori's voice slurred as he just realized he'd signed his own termination.

The Jedi reached for his blaster and placed the barrel in Sasori's mouth instead. "So you are selling it to the Empire?"

Sasori was barely able to nod and couldn't help but taste the barrel's taste of ozone.

The Jedi pulled the barrel out and his face clouded with contempt. "Don't you have any honor at all? Did you even stop to think about what you were doing?"

Sasori pleaded. "It wasn't my decision! Raydoen is the one in charge!"

The Jedi tilted his head in curiosity. "Raydoen Jayant?" The Jedi holstered his sidearm. "I promised I wouldn't kill you. And I'll keep that promise." The Jedi looked at him and Sasori saw mercy in his eyes. "Sasori, get out of here, while you still can. Someone will come and find you. Use that new chance to get out of this place. Start over."

Sasori shook his head and spat on the floor. "Just go, Jedi," he said the words with the greatest sarcasm, "I'll be fine."

The Jedi nodded, clearly having given up on helping him. Sasori didn't want his help anyway. Seemingly breaking his promise the Jedi lifted his blaster back up.

Sasori's blood froze.

"Wait! You said you weren't going to kill me! You promised!"

The Jedi trained the handgun on Sasori's forehead. "As a Jedi you're taught that even a hundred steps in the right direction, won't make up for the one step you took in the wrong direction."

The Jedi pulled the trigger and Sasori felt the heat coming out of the barrel long before he felt the shot burn into his forehead.

Far from the desert planet of Kryuu and the bustling metropolis of Nar Shaddaa, Soliton with its iron-gray surface and a pearly glow hovered silently like a specter from which Skar's fate would be decided. Its ashy landscape of scattered craters and huge rock mountains suggested a world in which no indigenous life existed. Its paper thin surface, in some places, was cracked in large areas and huge canyons drove like a knife through the landscapes.

The gray world loomed into sight, as the Witty retracted from hyperspace. The gray ball grew in size as the small but fast Witty flew straight for it.

Skar looked around at all his controls. "We're clear." His eyes locked on the planet hanging outside in space like a gray pearl.

What a desolate place.

His fingers tapped the controls and Skar read the readout on a console. "We're early. No ships in sight."

Next to him Jedi Master Bo-Hi Dzog shook his head slowly. Then he looked at Skar with sad enlightenment. "No, we are late. They have already landed."

Skar played his Master's hunch and reached out with the Force. Indeed Skar could feel some small hints of life-forms moving around. Skar read the console again. "Four ships. One shuttle, the Nosfery, two starfighters; X-Wing class, and a transport, Offeyyu, a big one."

Master Bo-Hi nodded. "The transport. That's our target."

Skar felt something in the Force. A familiar sense. The presence of his uncle. "The Jentarana is onboard the transport."

Master Bo-Hi looked at him, his face painted with confirmation. "And so is Kayupa."

Skar was about to try and reach Kayupa with the Force when a beeping noise came from the controls. As Skar checked it he found it to be a homing beacon. Skar checked its origin.

"The Koniduz!"

Behind him Shinran came up to stand beside him. Skar could sense her rushing heart. She pointed out at the stars. "There!"

Skar and Master Bo-Hi looked out to where she pointed. The Koniduz was there, hovering silently in space, its crimson hull an easy recognizable mark, just above Soliton. Skar reached out to hail the ship but his hand was intercepted by Master Bo-Hi's trembling claws.

"Kayupa is not onboard."

Skar held out his palm. "What is the ship doing here?"

"He must have programmed its computer to follow the transport as a decoy. So they wouldn't suspect he was onboard the transport."

Skar smiled. It sounded like Kayupa's thinking alright. "Good thinking."

Master Bo-Hi just stared at the consoles. "It may have worked to his advantage, but not ours."

"Huh?"

Master Bo-Hi pointed out the screen as two ships came streaking out from behind the Koniduz to meet them. Their S-foils locked in attack-position, the two fighters fanned out to attack from different vectors, four wings on each fighter blasting red beams of light.

The X-wings.

Skar powered up the sublight drives and directed all the ship's energy to them, as he pushed the ship's nose down, diving beneath the two starfighters as they swooped over them, scarlet beams blasting from their cannons.

Skar eased the ship back and fired up its engines, heading straight for the gray orb hovering before him.

Master Bo-Hi began running a weapons check. "So much for coming in quietly. We'll have to face those fighters if we are to destroy them."

Although Skar felt connected to the ship, he wasn't sure he wanted to test his skills in a dogfight. "Let's just hope we can outrun them."

Behind the speeding Witty, the two starfighters broke off and came around behind them, their lasers lighting up. Beams passed alongside the Witty, as well as over it, while Skar jerked the ship around to dodge the shots. Controlling the ship with an expertise he could only blame on his connection to the ship through his psychometry. Skar pulled the ship up in a figure eight pattern, losing the starfighters in their disorientation, but it didn't take them long to catch up with him.

"Don't we have any weapons we can use against them?" Shinran asked behind him.

Master Bo-Hi sat pulled back into his seat. "All our weapon systems demand our target is in front of us."

Skar cursed. He didn't want to risk coming headfirst into those guys. The chance of him foiling the attack and getting them all killed prevented him from even considering it.

When he turned the ship back around to face Soliton, the planet had taken up most of his viewscreen and Skar punched the throttle again, intending to ram through the planet's atmosphere.

Raydoen Jayant reached his chamber, just as the small beeping on his desk console began. He tapped the switch and a scurrying voice came through.

"Dr. Oteyu here, Master. It seems a second ship was following us. This one has live subjects onboard."

Raydoen licked his fangs in confusion. Another ship? "Any identification on the second ship?"

The speaker rumbled. "Identified as the Witty, Master. No owner enlisted."

This Jedi is amusing. He brought reinforcements. "Any word on the stowaway Jedi?"

Dr. Oteyu's voice was very low. "We've…just found Sasori Dragus."

Raydoen's brows raised. "Dead?"

"He's alive. Stunned," the doctor didn't sound too happy

Raydoen however was glad to hear Sasori was not dead.. "The Jedi has already gotten to him. Send him to me. What are we doing about this new ship?"

The doctor said; "I've launched the two starfighters to intercept it. Do you want it alive?"

Raydoen scratched his goatee. "No. I only have one last game to play. Kill them, whoever they are."

"As you wish."

"Any word from Admiral Stamper?"

Dr. Oteyu's voice responded with determination. "He should be arriving in ten minutes."

Raydoen looked at the chrono on his desk. There is still time. The transfer should take about an hour. My game is about to start. He opened a drawer and retrieved an old dusty energy clip from a blaster. One he'd had in his possession for two years.

A reminder.

Then Raydoen looked over at the two dangi blades hanging on the wall behind his desk. He smiled, exposing his fangs.

"Then I must dress more adequately for our respectable stowaway. You are in charge of the transfer. Raydoen out."

The connection faded.

"This is Alpha Lead, in pursuit."

The X-wing pilot pushed his green fighter to its limits as he entered the gray glass canyon, forcing the ship to go as fast as it could manage without falling apart. The walls of the canyon shone brightly as his red lasers reflected in their surface. He knew the walls could cave easily even with the slightest tremor, creating a landslide of sharpened glass shards.

Using his instinct to guide his hands over his control-stick, he centered his T-65 fighter directly in the wake of the Witty, letting off quick bursts of red laser fire. His torpedoes were depleted, and he cursed that fact. The torpedoes hadn't been loaded up, since their take-off had been conducted in a rush. He would have liked to have had just one right about now.

He hated sloppy killings.

The fighter was top of its kind, as usually armed with everything from proton torpedo launchers to laser cannons. His astromech droid, situated just behind the cockpit, assisted him by watching all the fighter's onboard systems while he concentrated on the hunt.

The Witty dove hard, missing the canyon floor by centimeters, and his X-wing flew directly overhead. Pulling back on his stick, he performed a loop that put him right behind the ship again, along with Alpha Two, his wingman.

"Two, got any torps?"

"Negative, Lead. Old fashion way?"

"No choice, Two," he smiled and tightened his grip on the control-stick, "time to bring the fire down."

Gray walls of rock rushed by him on both sides. With guns blazing, the pilot got as close to the Witty as he could afford without hurting his fighter from the Witty'sexhausts. His loop had given him some distance to the Witty, but he closed the distance within seconds, delivering painful shots to the Witty's shields.

Orders were to kill, not salvage.

Emptying his lasers in the stern shield of the Witty wouldn't take long, but it was a nasty kill. He preferred quick kills. There was no sense in prolonging death for anyone, not even the enemy.

He spiraled down, as the Witty headed in a new direction. "Two, see if you can get in front of it."

"I'll try, Lead."

He pulled left while Alpha Two pulled right, putting distance between them, as well as giving the crippled Witty a little more space.

He leveled out and put himself directly behind and above the Witty, keeping his eye on Alpha Two as the fighter pounded the fleeing Witty with precise and relentless blasting.

The Witty buckled beneath their feet as another blast rocked the ship. Skar checked his readouts. "Direct all energy to our stern shields!"

Master Bo-Hi tapped switches. "Done, but it won't be enough. We can take one more shot and then the shields are gone."

Skar read his screens again. The Witty was cruising through a valley not far from the transport site. They were a few hundred meters from the Jentarana. Walking distance, Skar noted. Skar lunged the Witty into a roll and loop, which gave it no real distance to the fighters but would certainly confuse them.

They had no chance of taking out the X-wings, their weapons all required for the target to be in front of them. The maneuverability of the fighters greatly undermined the Witty's. They had to land, fast, if they were going to survive. But how could they land and get rid of the fighters at the same time?

If he could get them on the ground they could get to the Jentarana on foot. No doubt the Rancor League would send troopers after them, which was another problem. But they wouldn't send troopers if they thought they were dead.

Skar rotated the ship 360 on its own axis to evade shots, and flew closer to the ground, closer than he would have liked. Wild red blasts exploded on the landscape in front of them.

Then an earth-shattering blast pounded the ship down hard to the left, sending it hurtling towards the valley floor. Skar regained his awareness and checked the computer only to see all the screens turn black and the entire ship going dead all around him.

They'd lost power.

"Master, what happened!"

Master Bo-Hi reached out to the Force. "We've lost the stabilizer brace."

"So?" Skar looked out the canopy to see the wing lost on the left side of the hull, the ship was flying straight ahead into the valley. And they couldn't change its trajectory without the brace.

Skar got the point. "Oh."

"Shields went with it. We're dead in the air." He pointed out at the oncoming valley-wall. "We're going down and nothing can stop it."

"What about ejecting?"

Master Bo-Hi shook his head. "Not without power."

Skar closed his eyes, calmed himself, and allowed the Force to enter him. Through it he saw a way, but a dangerous one. But with crucial time slipping away faster and faster, he knew it had be done.

Master, is what I'm thinking possible?

Next to him, Master Bo-Hi saw what he had in mind and nodded. Its possible for us. I don't know about Shinran.

Don't worry. I'll protect her. Skar prepared himself for impact.

Admiring the force his wingman used, the X-wing pilot took a quick glance away from Alpha Two -

"Two, look out!"

He pulled left and up to avoid flying directly into the same suicidal fate as the Witty. A blinding flash stole away his vision for many seconds, but he concentrated on pulling back as hard as he could on his stick. When vision returned he found himself momentarily in the midst of an explosion, tendrils of fire reaching out and clawing at his craft. He cursed his own mistake and forgot all about the Witty as he concentrated on staying alive.

Huge blocks of rocks and sharpened shards flew past, each of them threatening to end his life with a single touch.

"Two, forget about target, stay alive," he stuttered through barred teeth.

"Trying to, Lead."

They cleared the canyon at the last minute and he sighed mournfully. With one eye on his screens he saw that the Witty had exploded in a huge ball of fire against the side of the valley. All that remained was falling flaming debris and a burning heap of fire on the floor of the canyon.

He settled the X-wing in a guard patrol around the wreck site, while standing by for orders. He watched inside the cockpit of his X-wing, as the remains of the Witty became a glowing dot in the darkness of the canyon.

Satisfied with the result he looped his X-wing around towards home base.

"A bad way to go, Two. Let's get out of here."

Skar dared to open his eyes.

The world was on fire. He was surrounded by the bright flare of the burning ship. He could hear the fire cracking and small explosions as the fire reached fuel pods or other flammable instruments. He looked down and saw fire. Looked all around him and saw only fire. Pushed back to form a bubble of protection around him, Shinran and Master Bo-Hi.

They were sitting in the middle of an explosion. Skar looked left and made out the blurred shape of his crouching Master Bo-Hi, deep in the Force, maintaining the bubble. Skar added his own strength to it, but still enjoyed watching it unfold. Skar held on to the Force with a delicate touch. It was like stringing a robe between two trees, leave it loose and the rope would fall, hold it too tight and the rope might break. Balance was the key.

Skar looked down at Shinran sleeping in his arms, her arms folded into his. She was asleep. Better that way, he told himself. Skar was afraid she would panic if she knew what was happening around them. The flames grew thicker and the air around them shook as the torpedo launcher caught on flames and exploded.

Skar looked up to see rocks falling on their bubble only to bounce away and die in the flames. Pieces of what looked like glass, melted on the bubble and ran down the sides like gray silver. It looked like it was raining and burning at the same time.

Then Skar felt Shinran coming alive again in his arms and she looked up at him lovingly. She saw his smile. Then she looked at the fire, but instead of panicking she smiled too. She held onto him and felt protected in his arms. She didn't panic. She knew she was safe. She'd seen his smile and knew if he was smiling then everything was fine. Skar hugged her tight and held his lips to her hair. Hugging her so hard he was almost crushing her, but she didn't complain.

They were together in this holy twist of reality. They were seeing something normal men would never see and survive. They were sharing this experience, this paradox of life. To be standing on the borderline of life and dreams. They celebrated the extraordinary moment with a passionate kiss, knowing they were perfectly safe within the love of the Force.

Skar heard the starfighters' engines roar above them as they left airspace and headed back in the direction that he knew their base was. Their scheme had worked.

When the flaming ended and it was safe to move on, they started climbing through the rubble. Skar patted himself free of dust and caught Shinran standing by Master Bo-Hi, they were both staring up the side of the canyon, a section of it looked climbable. Master Bo-Hi would lift Shinran with the Force and then he would join Skar in climbing the wall together. Shinran couldn't make it alone, but they could with the Force.

Skar began walking towards them, but suddenly he felt dizziness trip his legs. He felt like he was standing on ice. His legs blew away under him and he fell facedown on the ground. He wasn't in any physical pain, but a part of him had suffered nonetheless.

He heard Shinran running to his side and felt her hands touch his face. "Skar, get up." She sounded sad. "What's the matter?"

He didn't know, but he managed to stand and supported himself against Shinran. Master Bo-Hi came walking slowly towards them, blurry at first then later crystal clear. His face the very image of sadness. "Master, what's going on?"

Master Bo-Hi's face lit up as he looked back at the burning corpse of the Witty. "You're feeling the ship die."

Skar shook his head. "But I've never felt something like a ship die. Why can I feel it in the Force?"

"Because the ship to you is more than just a ship."

Shinran nodded to Master Bo-Hi, she understood. "Its his uncle's ship, right? That's why?"

Master Bo-Hi nodded. "You're feeling a part of Skind Kjoil dying. The Kjoil were closely intoned to everything in the Force, even the soulless."

Skar felt like he understood, though wasn't sure. A Jedi could feel connected to a lightsaber, but he hadn't heard of a Jedi being emotionally bound to a starship. Skar remembered hearing starship captains back on Nar Shaddaa sitting in dusty bars talking about their ships as if they were lovers or mistresses.

He laughed slightly and it eased his mood, but the feeling of death still bitterly hung in the back of his throat.

Seeing Master Bo-Hi and Shinran already walking away from him, Skar followed after them, signing it off as just another Jedi trait. Brushing it off as another gift given to him by the Force.

Unimportant.

Kayupa shrugged the last remnants of dizziness off.

He's here. Skar is here.

He looked out and around the corner of the corridor. They would have found Sasori Dragus by now. He would then warn the guards and mercenaries to increase security around the Jentarana. And all Kayupa would have to do was to follow the flow of guards. Skar being there was a great joy to Kayupa, but one he had not suspected so early

Things are not ready to be revealed yet. Kayupa felt the last of the wavering dizziness disappear and he scratched his beard. A shame I had to lose the Witty. But, no matter. When I leave here, it will be in the cockpit of the Jentarana.

Pulling on the Force again, he snaked himself around the corner and used the Force to disguise himself from two lonely guards, frozen in time. He walked by them and sliced open the hatchway they were guarding without them even seeing him. The effect would last until someone touched the guards again. It was a Jedi technique, like persuasion or blinding.

Kayupa sealed the hatch behind him and found himself in a towering cargo bay. Bigger than the secondary bay from which he'd entered the Offeyyu in the first place. With a quick touch of the Force he knew to go straight across the hangar to the separate hangar beyond it where the Jentarana was.

I'm close now. Close to destiny.

Sasori Dragus was not happy.

The red marks on his wrists still hurt from the cuffs and the bulge on his face was throbbing from where the Jedi had punched him. And he could also feel the pounding headache he'd gotten from the stunblast. The wound on his hand from the incident in the workstation had somehow magically clogged up, leaving only a scar from the experience. That was amazing to him. The wound should still be open and the bleeding shouldn't have stopped. Yet it looked months old now.

The suicidal Jedi had worked his magic on him, no doubt.

He walked determinedly, escorted by his bodyguard, to Raydoen's office. He entered the office and found Raydoen leaning up against the desk. Sasori took note of the room, because it looked almost sickeningly like a cave. No, not cave. More like a tomb. The room was giving off some aura of evil that clung to Sasori's eyes, making him slightly wary inside that maybe it was a tomb for him. The vampire's eyes were glowing red and the tattoo was burning brightly on its own fuel.

The vampire had donned his dark suit and the black as night robe. The look on Raydoen's face was not a happy one as he held out his palm.

"Sit down."

The door whooshed shut behind Sasori, locking the bodyguard outside, and he felt soaring pride creep its way into his mouth. "I prefer to stand."

Raydoen snarled. "It wasn't a request, Inferior!"

Sasori found reservoirs of anger inside himself that he had never touched before. "Sing it to someone who cares, Raydoen. I'm through taking orders from you. I resign from the Rancor League."

Raydoen looked surprised. His mouth opened and closed with a sudden exhalation of air. "Resign?" Surprisingly Raydoen began laughing and clapping his hands together in odd enjoyment. "At last you find the truth inside, the warrior in you steps out. The cry of manhood."

Sasori snorted. "Keep your preaching to yourself, Raydoen! I'm not impressed."

Raydoen's smile was even grander and he pulled away from the desk. His hands were rubbing against each other in obvious excitement. "This Jedi has worked his spells on you, and he has done so well. A delightful prize he is indeed."

Sasori stepped forth. "He didn't…" Sasori stopped talking. Had the Jedi done something to influence his mind? He didn't know, but right now he didn't care. "He showed me what was wrong with my life - "

Raydoen shook his head, silencing Sasori with that mere gesture. "No, he told you lies. Denied you your right and your pride as a warrior. Took away your dignity."

Sasori dissolved into himself. Had the Jedi actually corrupted him? Had he filled him with illusions about himself? What the Jedi had said had made sense, he wasn't acknowledging what kinds of damage he was bringing into the world. He had been too absorbed in profit, not considering the consequences. All he really wanted was to design something and see it come to life, but he'd always imagined his designs were helping people, not crippling them.

Sasori lifted his head and looked into the demon's eyes. "What is the truth then?"

Raydoen dropped himself into a leather couch, crossed his legs and stared at Sasori with absolute calm. "That we are warriors. You sold weapons, but you did so under my orders. You hired mercenaries, under my orders. You are my warrior, fighting for me and my cause."

Sasori contemplated ways to insult the demonic man that wouldn't get him killed, but came up empty. "What cause?"

"The Rancor League is through being a spectator in life. We're going to branch out. With the Jentarana, we can rid the Galaxy of these last remnants of the Empire. After that - the Rebellion."

Sasori wanted to spit Raydoen in the face and he remembered the Jedi's words. "In the end, the truth is revealed. You're a politician, not a warrior."

Raydoen shrugged. "Wars have always furthered politics. Every politician knows that weapons and soldiers are the easiest ways of convincing the general public. The easiest way of getting support, even if it is forced."

"So that is the way its gonna go? You're gonna take on the Galaxy?" Sasori couldn't believe the man was so deranged. Stuffed with bloodlust and megalomania. "Was that why you got into the weapon market?"

Raydoen waved his hand. "No, that was merely by accident. Later I realized it would put me in the center of many battles, and I would meet many adversaries. I've fought in many battles but they were all for myself."

Sasori shook his head. "I used to think of myself as a soldier, maybe even a warrior, but only because I was in the war business. I've never killed anyone. I've never seen combat. I create weapons, but I've never used them for real. I am capable of creating destruction, yet I've never harmed anyone!" Sasori felt his insides writhing in disgust in himself. "That's not a warrior, its the direct opposite. A creator." Sasori looked the vampire right in the eyes. "What do you hope to get out of challenging the entire Galaxy?"

Raydoen's smile vanished and he looked at his hands, those pale works of murder. "You know, Inferior, all my life I've killed, hunted, shed blood, carved bones, destroyed. Never created, only devastated. Never given, always taken. It is the purpose of the warrior. His life is nothing in comparison to the battles he wins. My clan-heritage binds me to the bloodlust, the craving of drinking that reddest of wines."

For once Sasori thought he saw silent, but somewhat sympathetic, sanity in those red eyes.

"I am a Dfieeluain, our beliefs follows the code of finding only release from all the killing in death. We search our whole lives for challenges. Looking for the one that is destined to kill us. That is how all life works. Warriors meet and clash and the strongest survives to fight another one, and another one. Until only the strongest warrior remains. The victor. I myself am not revolutionizing the Rancor League for personal conquest. I have no interest in marching soldiers all over the Galaxy and spreading fear. I care about finding peace in this life."

Sasori glowered at the vampire. "What about the revolution? If you don't care for it, why did you mention it?"

"It is my gift to you, Inferior."

Sasori only nodded. Not really surprised. "But how am I supposed to take the Jentarana away from Admiral Stamper?"

Raydoen said nothing, his eyes blank. He didn't care. "You're a creator; be creative."

Sasori frowned. "What about you?"

"Death abandons no one, not even me. I went to Soliton for one purpose." His eyes brightened and Sasori caught a sheen from the dangi blades in the vampire's belt. "To fight the Jedi."

Sasori's eyes went wide. "The Jedi?"

Raydoen made himself really comfortable. "I planned for the Jedi to come here so I could face him. So I could fight him. This world is an illusion to the Dfieeluains, its not the real world. In this world we are warriors, and we can only achieve our enlightenment through death, so we can cross to the real world. And only so if we die at the hands of someone truly worth our blood. The Jedi is my redemption."

Sasori wasn't sure he understood. "So - you're out here to die?"

"Only if the Jedi is superior to me." Raydoen rose from his couch and walked over to stand in front of Sasori. "He is the first who has shown himself worthy of claiming victory over me. I don't pretend that I might survive an encounter with the Jedi, so if I die, the Rancor League is yours."

Sasori waved the gift away. "I like it the way it is. I would never commit war against anyone, not for domination."

Raydoen crossed to him, his eyes alive with freakish calm. "But you see, it is in you. The warrior. For a long time I've watched you scour your way around here, conspiring, planning, and what has it gotten you? You're not looking for a sale. You're looking for a cause. I'm giving you something to live for; and that is war."

Sasori felt something cringing inside him. Some undetected pain. "That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for hope that this life doesn't have to be all about pain. Some meaning to it all. I don't want to know that my being alive kills someone else."

"The warrior in you cries out for air."

Sasori shook his head. "He cries out for truce."

Raydoen snarled. "Truce?"

"Peace. Something that makes me sure that the work I do will someday not be necessary. That someday war will be obsolete. I can't run anymore from the man I am inside. And I can't identify myself with the warrior ideal you've laid on me, Raydoen. It's just not what I want with my life."

Raydoen looked angry and disappointed. "Perhaps I was wrong about you, Inferior. There isn't a shred of a warrior in you. Only a humanitarian. A philosopher. A poet."

Sasori wanted to turn his back to Raydoen but feared the dangi blades would be unsheathed if he did.

"How clear truth is when it's curtains are pulled back."

Now who's the poet? Sasori thought.

"You and I seek the same thing, Inferior. Peace. Only unlike you I'm proud of the warrior inside me."

Sasori swallowed as a sudden illumination cleared his mind of an old bothering question. "So that's why you call me Inferior. Because I could never kill you?"

Raydoen smiled, his fangs shining in the dim light, a sight that would haunt Sasori throughout eternity.

"Isn't it reason enough?"

Raydoen moved with his feline quality, his dangi blades out, the first striking through Sasori's ribcage and the second blade slicing his throat. The blades retracted, spewing blood over the floor like a geyser. Sasori dropped to his knees, blood gushing from throat and chest.

Raydoen moved his face in and licked the blood from Sasori's throat. "Even your blood tastes of cowardice. The body holding you has been killed, Sasori Dragus. Your unchained spirit free to find hopelessness in the afterlife."

Sasori wasn't even dead, when the vampire sank his teeth into his throat and came away with strips of bloodied flesh hanging between his fangs. He spat Sasori's own blood in his face. Sasori finally reeled over and his dead body slammed against the carpeted floor.

Raydoen spat saliva and blood on the corpse as he walked out of his chambers.

Outside the door Sasori's bodyguard was standing guard. He looked questioningly at Raydoen, saw the blood running down his chin, dripping on the floor. The vampire snarled and pointed to the corpse in the doorway.

"You're his bodyguard," Raydoen turned and left, "now he won't be so hard to keep track off."

In between the stars and the gray orb of Soliton, a grand wedged-shaped vessel winked into existence, tearing itself free of hyperspace and arriving to announce its supreme superiority. The Atrophos' engines roaring and its very presence an omen of evil, the Star Destroyer immediately settled into a stationary orbit.

Admiral Ankit Stamper smiled from inside the bridge, a certain giddiness manifesting in his heart and mind, as the planet of Soliton hovered before his eyes. To him it was more than a target, it was a sign of getting closer to the goal, the resurrection of the glorious Empire.

He turned to his General Koan, whom snapped to attention. Koan was the stereotypical Imperial officer, lean and thin, a narrow face with sharp corners. "Launch two troop-carriers at once," Stamper ordered. "Kill whomever is done there and bring me the Jentarana unspoiled."

General Koan's face paled for a moment as he looked up, surprised. "Admiral?"

"You have your orders."

General Koan remained perplexed. "Yes, Admiral, but why attack? The Rancor League is one of our most loyal assets."

Admiral Stamper nodded. "Now they will be a reminder for the rest of our assets."

The General stood his ground. "You're making a mistake."

The Admiral was usually able to control his temper quite well, but now was one of those times where it was important his orders were fulfilled immediately, not to produce any particular result, but to feed his own desires.

This was his moment, and he wasn't going to let someone else ruin it. "You will issue the command. I want Raydoen's head thrust on a spike and showcase it for the rest of the Galaxy to see. Then they will know that the Empire still breathes and that we will not let some tiny Rebel faction take over everything we have created."

The General nodded and marched off the bridge.

Admiral Stamper moved to his chair and read the details on the planet and its occupants on his small screen. Four ships were situated on the ground. No visible defenses; a mistake Raydoen would regret in the coming hours.

So he chose to bring additional ships anyway? That was only to be suspected, I suppose. Nevertheless those two starfighters will be no match. Soon my troopers will scale the transport and the Jentarana will be brought to me.

Outside the Star Destroyer two troop-carriers dropped from inside its belly and floated gracefully down towards Soliton's atmosphere. Onboard some hundred stormtroopers were preparing themselves for the battle that would win or lose the Empire's future.

Admiral Stamper smiled and his bulbous cheeks looked like bubbles.

The Empire Reborn is about to make its first grab for power. One of many.

A shame it has to be such an unworthy battle.

Skar Kjoil came running up the hill and as he reached the top he flattened himself on the ground. In the not so far distance he saw the transport ship, a huge bulk of a ship shaped like an oval, except for a cavity in the front of the ship where the bridge was. The engine department was a rectangle of some twenty drives. Skar reached out to it, he could sense the minds of some forty men inside it.

The starfighters were abandoned just outside the transport for re-powering. Although it seemed like a small group of enemies, Skar still felt something disruptive in the Force.

And he didn't like it.

Although he didn't give much credit to the abilities of mercenaries he still couldn't let go of the gut feeling that him, Master Bo-Hi and Shinran were not enough. They were too small in numbers to take over a ship like that. Perhaps they should have joined up with the Rebels before going for this.

Skar shook it off. It was too late now. They couldn't wait. He almost voiced the concern to Master Bo-Hi lying next to him but stopped since he knew what the Master would say.

The Force will guide us.

The sweat on his hands from anxiety and the hot atmosphere on the planet had made his palms sticky, his entire body moist and the stealth suit clinging to his body. He blocked it all out with the Force and concentrated on the mission. In the Force he found a sympathizing coldness.

Skar looked up at Master Bo-Hi determined. "The Jentarana is near."

Master Bo-Hi nodded.

Skar sniffed in the acrid smell of ash and sulfur. "Master, what are they doing here? If they're going to sell the Jentarana, where are the buyers?"

Master Bo-Hi looked over at him. "Good eye, Skar. I was wondering that same thing. The buyers should show up soon. This isn't a permanent station. There isn't any plant life or indigenous life-forms to sustain an operation here. Being the numbers they are, they wouldn't survive a week here."

Skar listened while pulling out his blaster.

Next to him, Master Bo-Hi suddenly raised his filtered eyes to the sky and seemed to have found something. "Ship," he said before he closed his eyes and deepened in the Force.

"Just one?"

Master Bo-Hi opened his eyes again. "Two ships coming down towards us. And another ship. A big one. Many men onboard. Many minds." The Jedi Master shivered. "A Star Destroyer."

Skar felt his own heart beating rapidly. "The Empire."

"I can sense a great amount of spirits on the two ships on their way."

Skar frowned. "Stormtroopers, no doubt."

"They will advance on this compound, aggressively."

Skar gave Bo-Hi a sidelong glance. "Fouling the deal?"

"Maybe. The Empire must be getting desperate."

Skar smiled. "That will work to our advantage. Let them take out each other."

The Jedi Master saw things from a different perspective. "Our enemy has just doubled in force, Skar. This will not be easy."

Skar looked up at the sky but saw nothing. "What do we do? Hide?"

Master Bo-Hi shook his head. "No. We might lose Kayupa. He is still in there alone. He will need our help." He turned to Skar and lowered his head. "We will face this enemy head on."

Skar looked up as he heard the familiar sound of engines roaring up above. Two, as white as could be, shuttles dropped down to the surface in the middle of the camp. White armor clattered out and soon a small war broke out.

The soldiers of the Empire struck with frightening anonymity, their faces completely obscured by unmistakable white armor. The stormtroopers set up a few strongholds, while blasting away at the guards running around the camp floor. The Rancor League's shuttle, Nosfery, was immediately blown up and the starfighters followed soon after. Skar saw the carnage unfold as the stormtroopers took possession of the outer station. Only the transport remained to be taken under control.

The transport was big however, and Skar estimated it would take them quite a while to take it all. Twenty stormtroopers remained guarding the outer camp, while the others filed up and advanced inside the transport.

Skar looked behind him at Shinran. He worried for her safety. He climbed down the hill and caressed her cheek. "You ready for this?"

She nodded bravely. "Go do what you have to do."

"Wait here."

As he began to climb up again, she pulled him back down and raised a finger in front of her face. "The only thing you need to promise is that you make it back in one piece."

Skar reassured her with a smug smile. "If I die, it'll be your fault."

"Why?"

Skar smiled. "I'm sore all over!"

The Jedi Master launched high into the clouds like a missile. Below him some twenty stormtroopers found and followed him with their eyes. His descent seemed to last forever, as if gravity itself held no control over his leap, much to the bedazzlement of the stormtroopers whom did not believe their own eyes. They couldn't perceive anything capable of moving like that.

Master Bo-Hi's cloak flowed behind him like a pair of wings for a bird in flight. His plunge had been at full speed, though perceived like slow motion, and his final landing should have crushed him.

But Master Bo-Hi landed on all four, perfectly softening his landing with the aid of the Force. His palms and feet softened the deadly touchdown with supernatural power. He stood on all fours for just a few seconds, to let the impression fade inside the troopers, draped in his cloak which covered all of his body like a blanket, his head covered by his hood.

Finally he raised himself slowly. His bended joints seemed to work forever to stretch him into his full length. He stood tall, in their eyes a dark nightmare, clothed in cloak and hood, no visible signs of him inside the cloak.

A shadow of a shadow.

All troopers turned their blasters at him, but none dared shoot at what their minds had trouble understanding. Their eyes, still trying to piece together the mystery, didn't see his hand under the cloak casually dropping to his side, clutching the lightsaber in his fist, releasing it from the belt and holding it ready by his side.

Master Bo-Hi's other hand moved up to pull back the hood, showing off his head and dead-calm, probing eyes. The Jedi Master felt the Force flowing through him, brushing off the fear inside the troopers. He remained calm, in complete control.

The closest trooper shook his helmet, trying to brush the phantom's persona off as a mind-trick. "Don't move!"

Master Bo-Hi lifted the lightsaberhandle to his chest, in plain sight of the troopers, but none reacted. He held the cylinder in place in front of himself, obviously preparing for battle.

"Don't move!" The trooper repeated himself.

Master Bo-Hi's fingers worked around the controls on the handle, almost caressing them, as if he was comforting an old friend, or touching the shoulder of someone who was sad. Master Bo-Hi smiled behind his weapon.

"Put your weapon down!"

Just then another perfect flight came from the hill, flying over them at a great height, this one clothed in a gray stealth suit and with the same graceful bird-like appearance that Master Bo-Hi had executed. This one more perfect, more aggressive in movement and style.

Landing even softer than Bo-Hi, this one perched himself like a gargoyle on top of one of their troop-carriers, the bandana flying in the wind, for the troopers to watch in fear. This one was shorter than Master Bo-Hi, but the image of another one just like him induced more fear in their hearts. The gargoyle's face was horrific to watch, barred teeth and cold relentless eyes.

Slowly he rose, even slower than Master Bo-Hi had, and more leaner. The man cracked his neck loudly to loosen the muscles there.

The lead trooper had forgotten all about Master Bo-Hi by now, as all the other troopers had. The stormtrooper tried to force his eyes to ignore the second arrival which had defied all the knowledge he had of gravity and common science. The lead stormtrooper turned back to Master Bo-Hi.

Slowly his ears picked up on the hissing sound -

Six troopers already laid dead at Master Bo-Hi's feet. The vision of the six troopers, severed joints and bloodied armor, lying around Master Bo-Hi's feet joined the hum of the green lightsaber in a vision of their worst fear.

"What the - "

Master Bo-Hi circled the green blade in his hands as he pivoted on his heel, cutting the lead trooper down half way through the move. The trooper's armor fell apart, and the remaining thirteen soldiers quickly improved their reflexes, their self-preservation instincts enhancing immediately.

They all raised their blasters at Master Bo-Hi, but Bo-Hi's free hand opened and the thirteen troopers were pushed back with the invisible wind of the Force -

Into the fire-like blade of Kjoil Knight Skar Kjoil, the second perfect being, who made quick work of three troopers, whom he cut down as they flew past him. The other ten troopers got to their feet again and started blasting their weapons.

Feeling surrounded, Skar bent down in his knees and jumped straight up, dodging four blasts. He balanced his flight with the aid of the Force, which gently pushed his jump ninety degrees in the other direction.

Master Bo-Hi jumped into their masses, swinging left and right. The confusion made Master Bo-Hi's and Skar's work much easier. The troopers had lost all combat-orientation, and the Jedi made sure they never regained it. The troopers shot random shots at Master Bo-Hi and Skar, but their speed made it impossible for the shoots to even come close.

More troopers came pouring out from inside the transport, instantly firing and joining the fray. The troopers were almost on top of Master Bo-Hi. He moved quickly to dispatch as many troopers as he could, but even he could not hold off some twenty of them at a time. Skar leaped to help Master Bo-Hi, and took down one of them from behind.

His blade was still pierced inside the trooper's back when he moved the blade left, cutting through the side of the trooper before entering a second.

By that time Master Bo-Hi had already taken care of a third trooper, circling the blade above his head, warding off shots, as he struck down, severing the trooper by the shoulder.

Skar came full circle, gutting two troopers as he went, ending the circle settling down to one knee as Master Bo-Hi came somersaulting over his back, cutting down the trooper who intended to ambush Skar. The two Jedi ducked in and out of their midst, ending lives at whim and chance. Skar used all his powers to make even the luckiest shot seem hopeless. His moves were graceful and beautiful as he switched between his stances.

Master Bo-Hi looked up to take a quick count, the troopers were down to only four now. Skar came close to him and their fire and green-colored blades hummed in sync. Their minds congratulated each other mentally, not letting their guard down in front of the four troopers. Master Bo-Hi circled his lightsaber in front of himself and ended the move in his favorite defense-stance.

Skar and Master Bo-Hi brushed their backs together, their blades humming side by side. Master Bo-Hi lifted his chin. "You take the one on the left, I'll take the other three."

Skar's smile sent a wave of reasurement through Master Bo-Hi. "You jest."

Skar jumped over Master Bo-Hi, and went flying for the troopers on the left. Master Bo-Hi jumped right, their tactic forced the troopers to split up, making them easier to take out. The troopers blasted away, but Skar's fire blade let none of them come even close. Master Bo-Hi let his troopers do their work, deflecting their blasts for as long as he could. He was leading them on, forcing them away from Skar.

Skar was the first to take out a trooper. He came close enough to cut through one trooper's blaster and finished him off, placing the tip of his blade through his chestplate. The trooper dangled there for a morbid second, before he pulled the blade out and went for his second trooper. The trooper backed up, blasting away at him, but Skar's blade sent the shots flying to the sky.

In the other end of the battle, Master Bo-Hi had the troopers right where he wanted them. At point blank range he dodged their shots with perfect precision. In a split second, Master Bo-Hi moved in between them. Before any of them could react, he slammed the hilt of his lightsaber into the helmet of one trooper and kicked the feet away under the other. The trooper fell hard on his back while Master Bo-Hi circled to face the first trooper, still shocked by the blow to the helmet.

Master Bo-Hi's blade came up and the trooper came down.

Skar's last trooper kept backing away from him, as Skar deflected each of the trooper's shots. Suddenly Skar leapt straight up into the ashy sky and vanished from sight. The trooper watched as Skar disappeared into the dark sky and paid no mind to Master Bo-Hi at the other end of the battle.

Nearby Master Bo-Hi reversed the grip on his lightsaber, making the green blade point downwards, as he plunged the tip of it through the armor of the final trooper on the ground. Master Bo-Hi's face was calm as he rose, assessing the situation.

Only Skar's trooper remained.

Master Bo-Hi opened his palm and Skar's remaining trooper flew tumbling through the air, straight into Skar's fire blade as he came flying back down from the sky. The trooper flew on through the air, but in two pieces. His armor clattered as he banged against the hull of one of the troop-carriers.

It seemed they were all dead, but Skar could tell by Master's Bo-Hi's stance that things were not over. Out of the rear end of a troop-carrier came two speederbikes, speeding up as they raced for their lives. If they got away they might warn the Empire of the events and more troopers would arrive.

Rather than having to deal with more stormtroopers, the Jedi found it prudent to take care of the two speederbikes as fast as possible.

As the speederbikes passed by him, Skar tossed his blade into the air, guided it with precision through the Force, to execute an attack on one of them. One speederbike pilot looked up to see the fire blade coming down like a guillotine, decapitating him.

The second speederbike got away over the hills and Skar cursed before seeing Master Bo-Hi unleash the Force upon the speederbike that'd just lost its pilot. The speederbike lit up again and whined as it sped across the hills, piloted only by the Force. Master Bo-Hi clutched his hand into a fist and in compliance the speederbike increased its speed. Off in the distance Skar could feel the pilot looking back at the ghost speederbike following him. Rather than deal with it, the pilot turned his speederbike around and came flying back to the camp.

Skar readied his lightsaber as he saw the two speederbikes coming over the terrain, only one of them with a pilot.

Then Master Bo-Hi eased his speederbike up on the side of the other and began ramming it into its side. The pilot stayed on, but just barely.

Skar slowly realized the danger. The speederbikes were coming right for him, there was no way he could destroy them without taking himself out too. Instead Skar, as he realized Master Bo-Hi's intent, dropped to his knees and closed his mind from the events. He secluded himself in the Force and added power to the shield he'd previously been able to put over Master Bo-Hi and Shinran.

The bubble came up just as both speederbikes crashed into it, exploding no more than two feet from where he sat. The fire blazed over his head and he watched the small pieces of burning debris as it folded around the bubble, leaving him again as a spectator to the more intimate and unbelieving details about how an explosion looked like from the inside.

When the fire died down, Skar removed the bubble and he joined Master Bo-Hi. Seeing the carnage of the dead troopers sent shivers through his spine. Skar couldn't take his eyes off the dead bodies. Killing, no matter what, was never a good thing. There was no right part in murder. They'd done it in self-defense, but they had taken the lives of someone else.

The Force called for them to make others and themselves safe, but that didn't mean they had to approve the thought of killing another person.

While Skar did not see killing as one of his vices, he did notice the changes he had undergone over the last two years. Changes not on the outside but within. He no longer searched for the meaning of his being as a Jedi, the purpose he knew waited for him somewhere in the future. He wanted it, he craved it, he desired it. It wasn't his wanting that so much drove him, but more the resolution it would bring. He hoped it would shed some light on the events he had witnessed.

He longed for someone to tell him that the killing, the murder and the death, had a purpose, a meaning.

Master Bo-Hi stepped up beside him and they both shut off their blades. Skar rested his determined eyes on Master Bo-Hi. "A Jedi fights the war only to end it."

Master Bo-Hi nodded and they walked across the camp to the transport. "Justice exists. There is justice in our world, sometimes enforced through the Jedi's power. We are that justice, Skar."

Behind them, Shinran came sliding down the hill. She took an impressed look around the bodies, not being a stranger to blood and violence, and muttered under her breath, "Right...remember his good sides, Shin. Remember his good sides."

They made it up the ramp and through the hatch, all around them bright corridors led deeper into the ship. The walls were all painted in a scarlet red, except the floor which polished and shiny surface was black as night.

Skar stepped off the ramp and took a look around the corridors. They were all empty but Skar knew and felt that someone was still on the ship, deep in fighting somewhere beyond. His right hand stayed near his lightsaber, keeping his guard up. Skar saw a lift and counted the floor options, 27 levels in all.

Master Bo-Hi nodded and pointed to a corridor. "That is your path, Skar." Then he turned and pointed at another. "We'll go this way."

Skar was about to argue the order, questioning the reason for splitting up at all, and why Shinran wasn't going with him. This isn't the time. Not now. Skar looked to Shinran and gave his bravest smile.

"Go with Master Bo-Hi. You'll be safe with him."

Shinran nodded, though Skar could feel she wasn't happy either with the split-up. Sharing one last warm tight caress and a kiss, they split up.

Seconds later Skar was on his own, following the bright corridor, relying on the Force to guide him. He could feel and hear combat nearby and stayed clear of those areas, his lightsaber never leaving his hand.

As he walked by a reflective surface he noticed the gray skin-tight stealth suit that he had been given by Kayupa for this mission, the black boots, the changes in his physical appearance as well. He looked, acted and dressed as a warrior. And like a warrior many obligations were weighing on him, Shinran, the Jentarana, Kayupa and Master Bo-Hi. All of them combined into one massive task that was his life. And he longed to solve them all, hoping to find happiness beyond them.

Right now all he wanted was to be with Shinran, to be alone with her. To find a quiet space in time where they could be alone. He knew he wanted to settle down with her, and just enjoy being with her. But it contradicted the life-style he'd chosen. As long as there was a Force, there was the need for him.

Skar remembered her scent, that intoxicating fragrance. The taste of her skin. The feeling of being right next to her, sleeping next to her. To lose himself in minutes at a time just staring at her as she walked around in the room. To feel his heart freeze when her fingers ran over him.

Ahead of him Skar spotted a pair of red doors and a bright corridor behind it. Yet again no one was there. The bright tunnel ended in a T section, left and right. Skar had no idea which road to take, and the Force allowed little hints to guide him. Skar walked through the red and black doors, only to hear them slam closed behind him. Skar rushed to the side of the bright corridor and unsheathed his lightsaber.

He was trapped.

Fear is a killer. Stay focused.

He felt a quiver in the Force. Reacting fast, he brought the hissing fire-colored blade to life. A salve of laser blasts came flying past his head, and Skar identified two shadows in the hallway, both of them holding blasters.

By the looks of them they must've both been part of the Rancor League, clothed in red and black just like the ship with pieces of armor strapped over vulnerable spots. Their faces were blank as they blasted in his direction.

Skar lifted his lightsaber, horizontally, and deflected two shots, then rolled forward, closing the gap between him and his assailants, These weren't any of the Empire's goons for sure, for one thing they shot better than stormtroopers. Secondly their weapons weren't standard stormtrooper equipment.

They had to be Rancor League mercenaries.

Skar reached out to them, but found only a flicker of disarray in the minds of the attackers. It was close to what he felt when he tried connecting with a droid. These men have no minds, just commands. The emotion he'd felt from them was that of someone with low intelligence and little self-control. These men were unnatural in regards to their brainwaves and their thought-patterns. A bit crude and primitive but all the hallmarks of a sentient being was there.

Cyborgs, technologically advanced killers.

The firing died out slowly, when their minds gathered that he could deflect each of their shots. Skar took pride in knowing that he could. Revealing one more in their party the three thin, almost identical men came from left and right down the corridor, nodded briefly to each other at the intersection, and then they began to move towards him, each of them holding a blaster ready. Skar powered his weapon down, the cyborgs presented no real danger. Skar wanted to give them a chance to reveal their intent before cutting them down.

Two of the men stayed behind while the third walked up to him. The man's face was pale and emotionless, he held out an open palm and said, "You would be wise to lower your weapon."

Skar tried to calm the rage inside himself, the hate in finding that these cyborgs were not meant to stop him, only delay him. They were a desperate act from someone who knew he was onboard, most likely the Rancor League.

Skar cursed in disgust and the fire blade roared to life and plucked the head of the nearest man as a prize. The cyborg's head bounced around on the floor before rolling to a halt by Skar's feet. The cyborg's carcass gushed sparks from its neck before tumbling to the floor. The two other men, cyborgs in kind, looked down confused at their dismantled counterpart.

Skar looked back up at the two others, a dark frenzy emitting from his eyes.

A second later they too joined their mechanical brother in a droid afterlife, as Skar walked on with clunking steps down the metal grating, ducking behind corners, checking every room, always keeping his guard up and dedicatedly moving closer to the Jentarana. Trying not to think of how easily it had become for him to take life, artificial or not.

Trying not to think that somewhere someone watched him, disapproving.

Kayupa damned his luck. The main entrance to the hangar holding the Jentarana is sealed. And I can feel the last remaining mercenaries conspiring inside. They're going to bunk up with the Jentarana and see if they can hold the ship from there. Its a good plan against the Imperials.

Kayupa smiled.

But not against me.

He knew that the hangar holding the Jentarana was accessible in two places; the entrance he was standing by now that had been sealed shut, and another route which forced him to move through a storage bay further down the corridor. That way he could sneak up behind the mercenaries and perhaps even sneak his way to the Jentarana without them even spotting him.

Kayupa could also feel Skar moving around somewhere nearby. Kayupa felt guilt picking at his heart; he'd been the one to send the cyborgs after Skar, not the Rancor League. He'd found them in a workstation and programmed them to be where he knew Skar would turn up. It was essential for Kayupa's plan that Skar be kept at bay for a little while yet.

Master Bo-Hi would be confronted first. Once Kayupa had made him see the ills of his way, then Skar and Kayupa could escape with the Jentarana. If Master Bo-Hi was to join them, remained to be seen. Kayupa was Jedi, but even the future so close he couldn't see.

Kayupa moved on down the corridor. His cautious and almost mute steps undetectable to the human ears, only traceable by the deepest touch of the Force. Eager, Kayupa moved faster now, running down the corridor, his steps still mute and soundless. Up ahead he felt danger rushing to meet him, and he embraced it.

Two lonely mercenaries had set up a post outside the storage room, seemingly to stop anyone from breaking into the Jentarana bay from there. They weren't that stupid after all, it seemed.

But that didn't make them smart enough to evade the threat he presented to them. He blocked out his appearance with the Force and ran towards them. At least one of them held a comlink to radio in any danger coming from that vector. Kayupa embraced the Force and used it to defy gravity as he began running up the wall, running sideways down the corridor as he closed in on the mercenaries. Then he defied it even more, as he moved up and began running upside down across the ceiling.

He unleashed his lightsaber and fired up the blade. The two mercenaries never even saw him coming as he moved through them upside down, chopping off heads as he ran on and moved down the left side of the corridor, sliding down the wall, and running on down the corridor, his feet now back on the floor.

Kayupa shut down his lightsaber and reached the storage entrance, the bodies behind him only then falling to the floor. Kayupa broke through to the storage bay, not noticing the darkness inside his heart, spreading through veins, and inevitably conquering every light left in his heart.

One level up from the storage bay, Skar entered a ready-room for pilots. Chairs rowed up like spectator seats before a hologram-projector. Datapads were filed on a desk in the corner in high stacks. Skar sneaked across the seats heading for the door on the other side that would take him above the main hangar.

As he touched the pad, he felt the tingling of his danger sense. He stepped back from the door and reached out.

A booby-trap.

He touched the door. Memories unattainable to him, but taken from the fabric of time and Force of previous battles, flooded to him. Memories of fears and uncertain futures. Memories of rookies making their first flight into battle. Memories of unspoken prayers to gods Skar didn't know. Memories of adrenaline. Memories of dedication. Memories of sorrow. Memories of the pilots heading out to shoot down the Witty. Memories of coming back from that mission.

Memories of the booby-trap's internal wiring set by two mercenaries as they planned to trap those coming this way.

Skar scratched his chin. It was a simple detonator. A detonator was a compact and powerful explosive contained in a sphere. Once activated, an internal fusion reaction starts within the sphere which eventually grows into a deadly explosion. The weapon had a blast radius of five meters, commonly used as a grenade. It was activated by touch and would detonate ten seconds after.

This one had been rigged to blow up the second that touch was lost. The explosion would take out him and the entire room. Someone had welded a bar to the other side to the door, and then pinned the bar against the detonator. The mercenaries hiding on the other side down in the hangar must've taken a detonator from one of the dead stormtroopers.

Skar had encountered many bodies of dead stormtroopers, as well as mercenaries on his way here, results of the battle going on between the Empire's soldiers and the Rancor League's men.

Skar touched and held the activator switch on the detonator with the Force. Then he reached out with his hand and touched the pad beside the door. The door opened and right there on the wall in front of him was a floating little gray ball. The detonator.

"Don't move!"

The filtered voice that could only have come from a stormtrooper's helmet almost broke Skar's concentration. And Skar realized they couldn't see the detonator, he was standing in front of it. They hadn't seen the gray ball he was maintaining with the Force and didn't know the danger they'd just put themselves in. Skar heard the footsteps of two stormtroopers behind him.

"Turn around."

Skar shook his head. "I can't…"

He heard the rifle moving, sending off invisible waves through the air, to point at his head. "Turn around!"

Skar still concentrated on making the tiny detonator stay hovering in its place. It glided slowly from side to side. The stormtroopers behind him came closer, still aiming for the back of his head. They were almost in place -

"Turn around or I will shoot you!"

Skar diverted a little of his concentration to the desk with the datapads on the other side of the room. Budging them slightly with the Force. It was hard to focus on two things at once, especially when his break of focus on the detonator could kill them all. The datapads moved inches at a time, going for the edge of the desk. Eventually the stack tipped over with a loud clatter and the datapads fell to the floor.

Both stormtroopers turned and blasted at the sound. Shooting innocent datapads to bits and pieces, while Skar jumped forward into the door way, punching the touchpad as he went through. The door closed behind him. Skar crouched down to meditate and embraced himself in the Force.

After the stormtroopers had executed the datapads and turned back towards where Skar should have been, they didn't advance on the door, due to the small gray ball hovering slowly towards them. Their hands trembled. And then the detonator dropped from the air, bouncing once off the floor as the invisible hand that had held the detonator in air, went away.

Skar focused on the Force as the door in front of him suddenly bulged under the superhot heat. He held it firm, even as fire washed out at the edges. Even as small bobbles of overheated metal started to form on its surface. The bubbles eventually popped and fire blazed out.

Skar locked his mind. The door had to hold. Focusing his mind was not that difficult but keeping it was. The thought of what would happen if he couldn't keep it, peaked through his control slowly. But the Force worked to down these fears. His focus was locked.

Skar didn't even open his eyes to see the door trembling and shaking in its place. Didn't want to see the spot of the metal going red from the onslaught of the flaming ball of fire on the other side, turning the door into nothing but hot slag. The roar died out and the trembling began to calm down.

Skar dared to open his eyes. Black scorch marks were all around the edges of the door. Several places the door had been melted and splats of liquid metal had cemented the door in its place.

Skar rose slowly and then felt the drain in his muscles. He had to support himself against the wall to remain standing, it had taken a lot out of him to do the telekinesis. And he felt tired. Could barely stand up.

Skar slouched up against the wall and tried to find strength. Why did it drain me so much? Why was my control so fragile? I used to do stuff like this all the time on Nanh?

Skar snarled.

Kryuu. Master lied to me. Maybe that's why.

Skar shook his head clear. He broke out the lightsaber and firmed it in his hands.

The mission has to go on.

Kayupa stepped inside. Avoiding the sealed main entrance to the Jentarana's holding bay, Kayupa had picked the lock on the entrance to the storage bay. He knew that way he could access the holding bay from there through a ventilation shaft. Dim lightning and huge metal crates, as tall as himself, were stacked on top of each other, some of them stacked three or four times. It created the illusion that the storage bay was more of a maze. Kayupa wondered if someone had meant to trap him here, to confuse him, it seemed to be an obvious trap, but it was the only route he had left.

Though the storage facility was a longer way around, he suspected it to be less guarded. This route was longer, but safer.

Using the Force he found his way through the maze without any problems. He tried reaching out even deeper in the Force to scout for enemies or danger, but the Force failed him. It flickered on and off like a bad bulb. Kayupa had a feeling why. His mind was stuffed with the obsession of reaching his goal. But he still kept moving. If he couldn't have the Force on his side, he would have to do without.

His hand wavered close by his lightsaber as he made his way across the room. Still testing the Force for results, he got a light thumbing that felt like a heavy heartbeat.

Trouble?

Kayupa stopped and looked slowly up at where the danger seemed to be coming from. Somewhere on top of that third crate.

His heart pounded faster as he saw the danger. A black-clothed man with short dark hair and wearing what appeared to be knifes in sheaths attached to his belt. The man sat up there staring down at him, but there was something in his hands. A helmet from a stormtrooper.

And then as Kayupa watched, the man began eating out of the helmet, his face coming away with blood smeared around his lips.

Kayupa's heart almost leaped out of his chest.

In a blurred motion the man jumped from the crate and landed gracefully in front of the vent shaft, that Kayupa hadn't even seen yet, blocking his path. Kayupa took a step back, thrown off by this sudden appearance.

The man rose very slowly to his full height, uncurling his body and Kayupa noticed the tattoo on his forehead, the symbol of the Rancor League, the same mark as the ones on the ships outside. The man dropped the helmet on the floor, and what little that remained of the head inside it spilled out on the floor by his feet.

The man held his hands close to his blades, but Kayupa maintained his posture and noticed sharp teeth and two pointed fangs as the creature, in lack of a better description, opened his mouth to pronounce his challenge.

"I've been waiting for you."

Kayupa stepped back and let his hand fall to his lightsaber. "Who are you?"

The man pulled something from a pocket and held it out for Kayupa to see. It looked like a energy-clip. Like one of his. When the man spoke his voice was charged with excitement. "Neither equal, nor superior." Kayupa watched the man bow like a champion and then he held up the energy clip to his face and sniffed it. "I've followed your scent." The man threw away the clip. "I've been preparing for this moment for a long time."

Somehow Kayupa just knew, it could be no one else. "Raydoen Jayant."

Raydoen bowed, even that gesture a mock and a challenge. "And you are the Jedi. And you've come here for something."

Kayupa unclipped his lightsaber, its weight in his hand a reassurance. "Yeah…"

"Are you planning to steal it from me?"

"No, I'm returning it to its owner."

"Ah, but not before this is settled." The man smiled, a smile of deception and evil. Kayupa saw himself in the man's cold dead stare. "Pain is merely an illusion, our key to redemption. You are mine, and I am yours."

That sentence, it was the one he had deciphered while spying on Dragus back on Nar Shaddaa. This man had indeed waited for him, wanting to face him for whatever reason Kayupa could not guess at. Kayupa calmed his own thoughts, this was nothing new, he was used to combat. This man's obsessive thoughts about him wouldn't work to distract him.

And yet, something was moving beneath the surface of everything, something unrevealed. It shouldn't be, but this fight seemed to be different from the rest. Kayupa felt the hair on his arms rising, a chill floating through his heart, worry began to manifest itself in his head.

Could he fail, this close to completion?

Raydoen seemed to know his thoughts, the man's cold eyes confirmed it. Kayupa felt like he was standing on thin ice with a Rancor on his shoulders.

Something bad was about to happen.

"This battle has been anticipated the both of us. I want to fight you."

Kayupa faked surprise, followed by a sardonic smile. "Really? Well, let me just adjust to the shock." His acting was not all an act, something told him this wasn't going to be just another duel.

Raydoen shook his head, a slight tisk tisk sound coming from those pale lips. "We've both chosen to be here. Both chosen to reach this moment." The vampire unsheathed his blades, the moves blurred in a flash of gray, holding them up like a cross in front of his chest. "Dangi blades, shaped from cortosis ore. A matter I think you know," he chuckled subtly, "they can withstand even your lightsaber."

Kayupa looked down at his lightsaberhandle. Suddenly it didn't seem so effective. The blades Raydoen held, he couldn't slice through them. What was happening? Why now? Knowing he could not back out of this fight, Kayupa bowed as a champion would before his adversary, then his lightsaber flashed, the blue blade snapping to life.

Raydoen laughed, his face devious and filled with perverted pleasure. "You are the first who hasn't backed down from my challenge. But fret not; I will stir the fear in you."

"The only thing you stir in me is my lunch." Kayupa positioned himself in his defense-stance and circled his blade to provoke the man into attacking. "You're a Dfeeliuan, aren't you?"

The vampire's eyes brightened. "You know of my kind?"

"I thought they'd all been killed by the Empire."

The man nodded. "We're more alike than I thought. Both our kinds have been sought out by the Empire for extermination. We both abide to a higher power, our destinies at the mercy of something untouchable. Something higher, something neither of us can ever fully understand, yet we're willing to devote our lives to its wishes."

"I don't follow - "

"In the days of the first Age, we were all shaped of the same spirit, but with time we possessed our own forms. We're all trying to return to that order, to the same power. You and I are formed from the same matter, Jedi. But who of us will return to the one that bore us?" Raydoen smiled even more and licked his blades, tasting the material that might make or break this fight. "Who will receive his redemption?"

The blue blade was throbbing in his hands, adding to his tense emotions. "I've got your redemption right here!"

Raydoen snarled. "You are too eager. I had expected more from you. More commitment. But, no matter. You will learn soon enough."

"Learn what?"

Raydoen smirked. "I know your anatomy, Jedi. People consider killers and murders to be insane and vile creatures, but they've merely made a living, a survival, on knowing things about the anatomy of others, a knowledge that would match, if not exceed, the education of some of the greatest medical staffs in the Galaxy. But we use our knowledge for survival, not healing. Its benefits us on a higher level than money to know these things. A doctor can live off this knowledge, but we can survive off it. Knowing these things keeps us alive, while our victims fall."

Kayupa's mind was reeling with incomprehension. "Is there a point to all this?"

Raydoen nodded. "Information in our age can be quantified easily, broken down in little ones and zeros. But information changes shape, purpose, meaning, depending on who it is transferred to. Information is subjective, and its forces in the wrong hands can spell disaster one place, while it could benefit another. Information is free to anyone who desires it, but its reincarnations differ from soul to soul. You and I share many genes; save for a midiclorian count, we're nearly identical. But through the information difference in our cultures and upbringing, you have been trained to preserve life, while I have learned to take pleasure in killing."

Kayupa felt insulted. "You and I are nothing alike!"

Raydoen shifted his feet, bringing one blade stretched out behind him, and the other dangling before his face. "Fighting is the primordial soup of all we accomplish; its where we find ourselves and lose ourselves. I've embraced the killer within, the hellish fires of my own primal instincts; to kill to live only to kill again. I wonder how long it will take for you?" Raydoen ran his hand over his lips, as if tasting himself, tasting the perspiration on his hands, taking pleasure in the body's reaction to his excitement. "There's only one way to find out."

Kayupa reached out to the Force, but it still pulled back from his touch. Accepting its betrayal he lifted up his blade, feeling its warmth and gloom shroud him in its protection.

Kayupa couldn't tell who attacked first. It was all a great blur. And as the battle raged, Kayupa, in truth, found himself for the second time in his life pitted against an enemy who might stand a chance against him.

Skar touched the wall, feeling information and knowledge of the entire ship and the memories of those others who'd touched it, ever graced its interior, seeping through his palm, like an external memory-bank. The memories lingered there for a short period, enough for him to examine it and find that which was important and sort away that which was unimportant. He could feel the thoughts of the rioters in the Jentarana bay, some thirteen mercenaries, all of them cursing the day they signed up for this mission, all of them ready to trade off their payment to have their lives intact.

Skar found it humorous how many of them didn't seem to grasp what giant play in time they were participants in. This day would mean nothing to all those people outside Soliton, none of them knew that he was out here, trying to prevent them from ever being hurt or terrorized by someone manipulating the Jentarana. They would never know his name, but here he was. Standing on the front line doing his very best as a Jedi to serve those unknowing sentients.

Skar mentally stumbled over the stormtroopers who had set up posts around the entrance to the Jentarana bay, ready to storm it on command. The rest of the troopers had gathered outside the Offeyyu and were busy picking up the corpses of their dead comrades. Some troopers were carrying out the dead from inside the ship, Imperial and mercenaries, to pile them up outside. He knew that burning would be one of the ways that they would rid themselves of the bodies. Cremation.

A flowing impulse fed through his skin, updating him with new knowledge, and Skar knew immediately that reinforcements were on their way. Two more Imperial shuttles were coming down. And one of them was carrying someone important.

Probably the commander or the one who had issued the order to attack the Rancor League.

The fighting had calmed down inside the Offeyyu, the mercenaries locked up and trapped in the bay, and the stormtroopers awaiting the orders to kill off the rest. There had been no prisoners. The riot was at a stalemate. Everyone waited for the other to make the move.

Skar still found no trace of Kayupa anywhere on the ship. No sign of his presence anywhere. He had hidden himself perfectly, which annoyed Skar. Kayupa should have tried to reach out to him, to let him know where he was so they could regroup. After all, that was why Skar was here.

Why was Kayupa hiding from him?

Master Bo-Hi and Shinran were safe. He could feel them up in a vent shaft above the Jentarana bay, looking down upon the rioting mercenaries. That was one way of entering the bay when the time came. Another was through a storage bay behind the Jentarana bay. Skar had chosen not to go that way, and he had also signed off the sealed main entrance to the Jentarana bay, because that post was now heavily guarded by swarming stormtroopers.

Instead he had chosen to be original. Skar ran a sweaty hand over his face and dried the moisture off on his stealth suit by the hip. He hadn't used his, Kayupa's, silenced blaster yet. He had only used the lightsaber on the outside to take out the guards, the numerous cyborgs he'd encountered not added in the count. Everything had been done with the aid of the Force. He was proud of getting this far without too much incident. Which had gotten him to this work station, just below the Jentarana bay.

Skar looked up at the ceiling and knew from telekinesis that the ceiling wasn't thick enough to withstand his lightsaber. He also knew that directly above him in the bay, were a stack of crates. He could cut a hole and come up right among them, unnoticed by the mercenaries. With the aid of the Force he could block out the noise and sight if anyone should notice, and come up clean.

From there he could group up with Master Bo-Hi and Shinran from above, and take the bay with a little luck.

Be the enemy mercenaries or stormtroopers, the Jentarana didn't belong with them. It didn't belong with any of them. Not even Master Bo-Hi, whatever he might think. All they had to do was secure the Jentarana and find out a way to immobilize it. He didn't even want to think about the Star Destroyer in space above them, and the threat it posed to them.

The mission was to take out the Jentarana, whatever the cost might be.

Skar looked over his lightsaber, the symbols of his heritage were suddenly very clear to him. The heritage enabled him to be a symbol of good in the Galaxy. And it told him that his life mattered little in the face of the dangers he might face. He would go as far as he could, do as much as was in his power.

He was Kjoil, he had responsibility.

Shinran appeared before his mind's eye. She was his responsibility too, and as much as he knew the bond he had to the Force and the love he had to show it, he knew that Shinran was not something or someone he was willing to lose in the favor of the Force. Shinran had to survive. He loved her too much to sign her off as unimportant compared to his duty.

Skar lit the fire blade and started working on the ceiling, using the Force to block out the sounds and the sparks flying from the floor above.

Black and white is one way of seeing the world, Master Bo-Hi thought to himself as he watched Shinran by the vent opening, looking down on the mercenaries huddled up down there. But then there is also red and yellow, blue and green, and more. As many colors as there are directions in life. Forward, backwards, up, down, left, right, below, above, beyond, transcending every path with another. Drawing the very lines of our lives with the steps we take with or without reason. Watch our lives bend under the choices we make and those we abandon.

Master Bo-Hi found himself feeling sorry for Shinran. He knew that having established a relationship with Skar romantically had helped her. And Skar, being so naive that he was, thought it would be enough. He didn't suspect that the trauma would return. She might feel alright now, focused, but later the feeling of inadequacy and loss-of-self would resurface, and she would be no better.

She needs to embrace that which flows to her in life, the random, whatever may come. That was all really one could do to enjoy life. Accept nothing, flow between it. To be bewildered.

At least for humans.

She turned and looked at him in a way that made him think she could hear his thoughts, and in those before nervous and fleeting eyes was now a core of hot confidence. "You don't have to pity me."

Bo-Hi wasn't too surprised she'd known his thoughts. During his time and sessions with her, she'd shown a knack for understanding more than one would believe at first. Shinran definitely had potential. Just not as a Jedi. "I pity only those who can't be helped."

"Don't start with the moral speech, okay? We're through that!" She looked away and that glimpse of an unused confidence withered. "Save it for the ones you can help."

"I want to be able to help you. To understand what you're going through, and why Skar hasn't seen the sadness that still lies in you. I know his love has helped you through much, but he fails to see the neglect in you now." He drew in a big breath. "It hurts you that he came here."

She snarled. "Skar thinks he's solved all my problems, thinks he's worked some kind of magic on me." Tears began to form in her eyes. "He thinks he can solve anything."

Master Bo-Hi moved down the vent and sat closer to her, held her head to his chest as she wept. Her head trembled beneath his hands, and it was all he could do to stop crying himself. "I've never met a more troubled soul than you. Please…let me understand."

She pushed him back. "You're no different than Skar!" She ran her wrist over her eyes to dry the tears. Her eyes burned with inner loathing and despair.

Master Bo-Hi nodded, trying not to appear agitated by his own faulty ability to help, hoping to lure her thoughts away from this melancholy. "I've seen you fall many times, and I've always seen you get back up. This strength you have to kick it back is perhaps your tool to your happiness. Don't hide from the pain, learn something from it."

"You're hiding too!"

Master Bo-Hi found that response quizzical. "What?"

She seemed to pick herself up as she went on. "I do love Skar, I just fear the part of him that thinks he can repair anything. I'm another quest for him. Something to be solved. I'd give everything I own just to have him love me for what I am. I'd give him everything if it could at least be ours alone." She looked at Bo-Hi. "When he looks at me, I can see him trying to work things out, instead of just being with me. He doesn't have to help me, he just has to be there."

Master Bo-Hi understood. "And you think him coming here, is him walking away from you?"

She scoffed. "He came here for Kayupa."

"And you think that's wrong?"

"No, but its another part of him that thinks he can do anything. I love him for it, but its too much. It will get him hurt." She sobbed. "I don't want him to - " She stopped talking.

"Bleeding is believing, Shinran," Bo-Hi comforted, "he has faith in something he can't explain to you, that's why he's here."

She shook her head. "If you knew him the way I do…you would know that's not why he's here."

Master Bo-Hi leaned forward. "Why is he here, then?"

"You don't know the size of his heart."

"Tell me."

She looked at him. In her eyes Master Bo-Hi saw contempt.

"He's here to stop you."

The shock hit him harder than any physical punch and Master Bo-Hi felt his insides writhing in acid. His heart flamed and only confusion and discomfort kept him from flying through his own flesh.

"What?"

"Skar knows, just like Kayupa, that you want the Jentarana so that you can bring back the glory of the Jedi. You want to use it as a weapon of justice. But there is no such thing as a weapon of justice! You can't make up for all the innocent dead by killing others."

Master Bo-Hi shook his head slowly. "You're wrong. That's not why I'm here at all."

"You're hiding from the truth inside you. You're afraid of what you might find if you ever listened to your own heart!"

Master Bo-Hi felt attacked. "Is that…what Skar thinks?"

"Its what he believes. Its his truth!" She raised her voice so much, that Master Bo-Hi feared the mercenaries below might hear her. "When he came here to help Kayupa he came with a separate mission to stop you from taking the Jentarana. He and Kayupa orchestrated it all. They're so worried about you. None of them want to lose you to the Dark Side. That's why they want to destroy it. To save you."

Master Bo-Hi leaned forward to look down the vent and saw the mercenaries still in place, their presence still beaming with anxiety. He found himself wishing to be amongst them, fighting alongside. At least there he would know his enemies. He couldn't believe that Skar had been conspiring against him. And for some heartbreaking reason he didn't find it hard to believe that Kayupa could do it.

Skar was a better apprentice. He had learned the right ways. His recklessness was one that he had inherited from his family. It couldn't hurt him the way Kayupa's could. Kayupa had always been self-righteous, but that was another story.

Another secret.

Master Bo-Hi looked over at Shinran, the light from below gleaming in stripes over his face. "Listen to me, Shinran." He straightened as much as was possible in the small vent. "I have never, never, wanted the Jentarana for that purpose. I am a Jedi, I could never devise such a plan without dooming myself. I know too well the dangers of the Dark Side. You've been wrong about me, and so has Skar. But don't worry, I will set things straight." He looked down into the vent again, seeing the mercenaries moving around franticly. Something was going on. "I only hope its not too late."

Master Bo-Hi saw a mercenary jump forward, blasting away at a target he couldn't see. More followed until the entire squad of hired gunmen were firing blasters. The mercenaries yelled commands to each other. Panic ensued. Wounded mercenaries screamed before falling to the floor. Shots come flying back the other way too, and Master Bo-Hi heard filtered voices.

Stormtroopers.

The ramp lowered and Admiral Stamper came strolling down as fast as his pudgy body would allow. When his boots hit ground all the troopers raised their hands and saluted him. Some of them even filed up for his inspection, but he didn't care for it. In the air he could smell the horrible odor of burning flesh. The cremation of the dead. He didn't even look in the smell's direction.

Admiral Stamper walked on up the ramp inside the Offeyyu. Somewhere above him General Koan was overseeing the operation from the Atrophos' bridge. Hopefully he would carry the weight of command as well as one should expect from a General trained at Carida. General Koan was reliable but he tended to think his ideas were better. Or that they even mattered. He would learn to obey or Admiral Stamper would personally boot him off the ship.

Behind Admiral Stamper a new legion of stormtroopers followed. This tiny rebellious band of mercenaries that had set up base inside the Offeyyu would soon by at an end. And the Jentarana would be his.

And the glory.

They were each formidable swordsmen in their own ground. Kayupa had trained his skills to perfection with Master Bo-Hi. From Master Bo-Hi he had learned everything from attacking, deflecting and even several maneuvers to make quick kills if so were needed. He had learned over hundreds of different fighting styles. Everything from fighting with weapons such as his beloved lightsaber and knives and daggers, as well as fighting barehanded.

But now he was up against someone with a fighting style he didn't know. Someone equally as good as Kayupa but in another realm of fighting. The short sharp dangi blades moved fast within the devil's reach, always swirling and cutting in air, and Kayupa had a hard time keeping up. He couldn't guess or find any rhythm in their moves that he could break down to find a weakness.

The vampire had two blades; Kayupa could easily deflect one, but the second always caught him off guard. It was the most grueling battle he had ever been in. His face was drenched in sweat as he fought.

The vampire's smile only mocking his worry.

Raydoen Jayant jumped at him, his face filled with evil, and Kayupa started backing off. When the dangi blades and the fluorescent lightsaber met it sent sparks over the combatants, showering them in flashes. Kayupa's blade merely tapped against the dangi blades but made no damage to their compound. His feet were always moving, always jumping, and it seemed whenever he thought he had an advantage he was only going where Raydoen wanted him to go. There were moves within moves.

Traps within traps.

Kayupa began feeling weary from this prolonged match of the inevitable. His legs pounding with pain, and his head washed in confusion, he tried lunging for the man's head with a long strike, but the devil's tattooed face moved too quickly.

Instead Kayupa's blade cut through stacks of crates causing them to landslide down upon them both. Kayupa found enough strength in the Force to ward off the falling debris, but it did him no good when he tried to sense Raydoen's pattern. Before he had the ability to read his antagonist's mind and then plan to find a weakness there, but his enemy moved too fast, too fluidly for Kayupa to keep up.

And the Force was betraying him.

But in its usual place breathed a new energy, one he had been trained to avoid, one he had been trained to be cautious of, one he had been trained to abandon whenever faced. And in this new energy came waves of words from people he had known, and yet not known.

Anger, fear, aggression, the Dark Side are they, Master Yoda had once said.

The sentence lingered in his head while he struggled to find its origin or discover how he could remember the sentence in the first place. Or how he even knew Master Yoda. He had heard of him from Skar's Holocron but he had never known the Jedi the way he felt familiar in his head now.

Beware of the Dark Side.

Again the words teased him with unsolved enigmas that he couldn't focus energy on now to find the truth beyond.

Kayupa felt the strain in his arms and the lightsaber began to feel like lead his hands. The bandana's trails was running down his face, brushing against the pearls of sweat on his cheeks and nose. His feet were dragging and there was no escape that this might turn out to be his final match. Raydoen seemed to toy with him like a child.

He had to run sometimes to catch up with the sick vampire creature. The feline-like quality that the man moved with was impressive to view. The man never stayed in one place for too long, and Kayupa began to suspect he was trying to wear him down so he would easier to kill.

Kayupa felt the rage inside him, corrupting him. He skidded to a halt and Raydoen watched him with unmistakable confusion from far away. Kayupa powered down his lightsaber, in itself a tremendous effort of strength and one he was not used to in the middle of a fight. Seeing Raydoen's mocking smile from across the room, Kayupa snapped his head back in anger, screamed at the ceiling, trying to free the tormenting clouds building up inside him. He screamed again, a giant cry for a liberation that wouldn't come in this lifetime.

Raydoen squatted down and seemed to be curious about Kayupa's outcry. Maybe even scared.

Kayupa pointed his lightsaber's hilt at the vampire man. "Are you gonna keep running all day?"

Raydoen sheathed his blades, so fast Kayupa barely caught it. The vampire stared at him, his teeth barred and his breath not even shallow. "You question my honor?" Then he snarled like a wolf and his tattoo lit up with fire. "Next you're gonna ask me if my blades are tainted with poison!" Raydoen clenched his fists. "You dare insult me!"

Kayupa had never felt this tired, and though he figured Raydoen was telling the truth, he wanted to call him a liar. His chest ached. He placed his hands on his kneecaps and tried to keep from falling over.

A fatigue like no other was coming over him, he felt sleepy, his entire body screamed for rest. "Why should I fear you at all, Raydoen?"

Raydoen moved closer with small steps, but Kayupa watched each of them, watched as his assailant came closer, perhaps to kill him in a flash while he was weakened. "The Dfieeluains are known for their honor in combat. We don't cheat, we don't trick and we fight fair."

"I weep for the species." Kayupa looked up at him, and again felt the urge to call him a liar, while feeling his skin grow warm. "But…there is no shame in fighting for what you believe in." As the words left his mouth he had no idea where they had come from. Or why.

Raydoen stared at him as confused as Kayupa himself. "Do you yield?"

Kayupa shrugged and waved the remark off with his hand. Finding strength in an unforeseen power source he lifted himself to his full height. His fingers cradled around the lightsaber as he tapped the activation switch.

The lightsaber bloomed in his hands. Kayupa could barely keep himself standing. "Come on, Raydoen, kill me. Isn't that why you're here?"

Raydoen unsheathed his blades and cracked his neck. "Your death is only a small part. And soon it will be even smaller."

Kayupa nodded and positioned himself in his defense stance. "Enough foreplay." Kayupa dragged his weakened body across the floor, lightsaber in one hand, and another against his belly to try and stop the hurt that had compounded there.

Raydoen backed, blades dancing in his pale hands. keeping distance between them which confused Kayupa. The man had claimed he wouldn't mind dying under Kayupa's blade, it was some weird part of his religion to do so, and still he kept the game going. There was truth in the freedom of death in all religions, Kayupa guessed, and this one was no different. Yet Raydoen kept postponing his freedom to the extreme.

Kayupa swirled his blade in hand, and tried to straighten. "You're getting a real kick out of this, aren't you?" he mustered. "To see your enemy in pain."

Raydoen smiled, his fangs clear and his tattoo brightening, not a hint of perspiration on his face. "You are different, Jedi. I'm learning. You don't look away from the pain, you do not distance yourself from it. Instead you use it as fuel to keep on going, to meet this battle full-heartily. I admire that. We Dfeeliuans neglect the pain. It weakens the mind, it opens the door to defeat."

Kayupa coughed. "You should have been a monk."

Raydoen bathed in his own self-confidence and ideology. "I am on the edge of living and dying. Just like you. Don't you feel the … embracing fact that you are alive?"

Kayupa wiped his long hair back along with the bandana trails. "What are you talking about?"

Raydoen chuckled, his chest rising with each horrid sound. "Warriors such as us only feel truly alive when we stare Death in the face."

Fed up, Kayupa lifted up his lightsaber and held the pommel with both hands. There was nothing he wanted more than to finish this crock right then and there. But…the words coming out of the vampire's mouth were not only familiar.

They were also right.

I used to feel that way too. I put myself in mortal danger, engaged in dangers so that I could feel that I was truly alive, and that my actions had some meaning other than just being random acts in a giant lottery. I was testing myself to see my worth, to see if it mattered that I lived or not.

When I confronted Master Bo-Hi about my resignation it wasn't about the Jentarana really. It was about me feeling lost. And in that self indulgence I gave up the first part of me. And then, now, here, I realize in truth how much I have forsaken, how much was taken from me.

I am not who I think I am, who anyone thinks I am. As full and bright as I am, this light is not my own. The Jentarana is coming down. And with me alongside it.

Kayupa twisted his face at the thought.

Give me the strength to become who I want to be.

And forgive me for who I am.

Seeing no other option, he channeled himself through the Force in a way he'd never done before. But in a way he knew would come for him sooner or later. Embracing the finality inside, Kayupa placed himself in the grip of the Dark Side as he raised off the floor.

His body was vertical, his hands stretched out. His long dark hair flowed behind like a veil. Lightning snapped around him, and the air picked up. Wind coursed around him, as the Dark Side granted him its unlimited powerful sources.

For long in the days of the Republic the Jedi had been the guardians of peace and justice until the reign of Palpatine. He killed off the Jedi and kept only a few Force-sensitive sentients alive. Himself and the Sith Lord Vader.

Since only few remained with the power in their grasp, those few were superior. Sith were born from the primitive and aggressive emotions that plagued anyone, but were lethal and final for a Jedi. The Sith were free in ways that Jedi could never imagine, their power selfish and cold. They used their power as they wished so their own despair would be released and their dark desires would be granted.

In the other end of the hangar, Raydoen fought to free himself of the blizzard pulling him inevitably towards the Jedi warrior. Raydoen's eyes widened, as the Jedi looked at him from inside the inferno, his face alight with ungodly fire, a thunderous laughter pounding through the room.

Raydoen used to think of himself as powerful, but when he saw the Jedi's closed eyes and the grim smile on his lips, he realized his conception of power, was very outdated.

Inside the center of the tornado Kayupa felt the power of darkness strengthening his rage and fear. He convulsed as its power ran down his spine and sent waves of light through his body.

There is no weakness, there is the Dark Side.

Kayupa's hands strained as he tightened them into fists. He felt his own nails digging into his palms, delving deep into his skin, punctuating his palm, and drawing blood. The air swirled around him, charging, letting off lightning as it went. Feeling the Dark Side rejuvenate him Kayupa felt his body rising even more with the current and he held out his arms.

Raydoen started shaking his head slowly, not believing what he was seeing. The Jedi lifted himself higher than before, hanging in the ceiling of the hangar, lightning and wind flying all around him. It was as if the Jedi himself had become a god. That laughter still stuck in Raydoen's ears, that deep dark and gritty laughter of evil.

Kayupa forced his eyes away from the confused and, perhaps, frightened Raydoen and looked at his hand, seeing his own blood flowing down his wrist.

It was time.

Kayupa gave Raydoen a stare of hatred, and held out his bleeding hand to point at the now terrified Raydoen. "The next blood I see," his teeth clenched and his eyes turned white, "will be yours!"

Skar Kjoil sneaked himself onto the Jentarana bay of the ship. Boxes were stacked against the wall in the far end where he came in and he immediately dashed for cover behind one, when he observed what the hangar was holding now. The change he hadn't felt while embedded in the Force.

Hundreds of white armored stormtroopers.

Lined up like domino pieces in long lines. It almost hurt his eyes to look at the brightness of the shiny uniforms of the Imperial troopers. The military soldiers were unswervingly loyal to the Emperor, and represented the extension of Imperial might. Stormtroopers abandoned individuality in exchange for their loyalty. Skar thanked his luck that he'd chosen the only way to get in without them noticing him. They all had their backs to him.

It seemed like they were waiting for something.

Just then Skar remembered the tinniest fact about where he was. And his eyes, by their own will, looked to the ceiling to find the one occupant of the bay that deserved no introduction.

The Jentarana.

It was perplexing for him to see it at last. The holo-images didn't do it justice. The sheer size of it was overwhelming, daunting. The blue and gray armor plating was slightly illuminated by two projectors sitting on the floor on each side of the stormtroopers. Skar didn't realize until then how big the hangar bay in itself was. Spanning a good 200 meters and the Jentarana took up over half that length. It hung over the stormtroopers like a god preaching to its followers. Skar almost smiled as he realized he might qualify to be a follower.

My uncle was…

Skar couldn't decide whether genius or lunatic was the correct word. Skar said a silent prayer to himself.

Maybe he was both.

Skar studied the Jentarana to find the entry he'd seen in the holos. It should be on the side of the belly, right between the hip and arm. And there he found it, on the right side of the belly. He could even spot the access panel which required a code he didn't know. Safe in the knowledge that Master Bo-Hi and Kayupa knew, he continued his studying. When comparing the size of it to the ships he knew, he figured it must have been two times the length of the Koniduz, and the Witty would be dwarfed in its shadow.

Skar saw the bulging arms on his uncle's masterpiece, those huge hands, metal platted to the tips of those gigantic fingers. He could stand inside the hand with no difficulty. Skar took notice of the clamps that held the Jentarana to the ceiling. They looked operational.

Then he spotted a gangway running from a lift in the upper levels. If the Jentarana could be lowered with the clamps, the gangway would lead right into the hatch on the side of the Jentarana.

Skar reached inside the warm grasp of the Force for guidance. Seeing the Jentarana again he noticed irregularities.

The tail is different. The tail was pieced together with a dozen servomotors, platted also in armor. He knew when in action the tail used super fast vibrations so that it could cleave through even spaceship hulls. But the tip of the tail looked too bulky compared to how it had looked in the images. A bow laced with small drives was crafted to its tip like an anchor.

Sublight drives! This thing's spaceworthy!

With the drives the ship could move between the stars and go anywhere, even further if it was equipped with a hyperdrive. Skar cursed the Rancor League for doing this, they were furthering a mistake that should have been stopped long ago. Skar felt sour disgust collecting in his throat at the sight of the blue and gray metal creature.

If he could just get inside...His uncle had told him he would know the key to the Jentarana when he was there. Trusting those words he knew he would have to penetrate. Skar reached out to Master Bo-Hi but to his distress there was no contact. He could feel them both up there but Master Bo-Hi didn't respond to his mind touch. Shinran was worried, he could feel her familiar edgy emotion.

Don't worry, Shinran. We'll be together soon.

Skar glanced down from the ceiling and saw someone else coming into the plot. An Imperial. Skar couldn't see the rank on the uniform from the yards away as the large bulbous man walked through the stormtrooper ranks and mounted a podium in front of the troopers. This must have been the commander he sensed coming down with the reinforcements.

He activated a microphone on the podium as he addressed his men. His nervous voice boomed over the bay.

"You all know the sad news of the Emperor's death. His loss has scarred our pride and our strength. Its no secret that his death will affect the Empire's efforts in the future, but the Emperor was but one man. We were his strength. We were the ones who gave blood, gave faith, in belief that his vision was right. I believed in him. I followed the path he had chosen for our Galaxy. I gave blood, I've slain enemies by his orders. I've left men to die on his orders. And now my, our, great leader is dead."

The officer looked down at his feet. "But the Empire is far from dead! The Rebels seem to think they have defeated us, but they have no idea what they have in store. Its an undeniable fact that the Rebels have crippled us by taking away the Death Stars. But today," he lifted a finger into the air, "I will show you the future of the Empire. Of the New Empire."

Skar could feel the growing tension and eagerness to obey and impress flowing among the troopers like a bad scent. Testosterone bouncing off the walls.

The officer raised his voice. "We are the burden-keepers, we hold the destiny of the Empire in our hands as well as in our hearts. And we must confront the Rebels before they mass together more strength. We must meet the Rebels at their own ground and thwart their idiotic crusade. We must rid our homes of their lies and their corruption. We must stand together and stand strong."

Skar sensed heightened moods among the troopers. They bought his words and swallowed them easily.

"The Empire will enter a new era and its future relies on our faith and our loyalty. I wish us all luck and strength so that the Emperor can rest in his grave, knowing that we will carry on his flame from here. That we will not forget his sacrifice."

The officer saluted his men, and Skar heard the loud echo of clattering armor coming through the hangar like a wave, as the hundreds of troopers snapped to attention and returned his salute.

"He died for you all, and for the glory of the Empire." The officer raised his fist and shouted. "For the glory of the Empire!"

Skar dumped down behind the crate.

By the Force! These boys are totally insane. Skar peeked back behind the crate at the troopers. But there sure are a lot of them…

One thing he'd learned during his training was that everyone had a different perspective on life. Someone's god is another one's joke. Someone's belief is another one's wasted time. Everyone finds different ways of finding strength to make hard decisions and help them through life. How could he disrespect that? He chose to be a Jedi to find his own way. Did the Empire deserve ridicule because their faith was different from his?

Skar checked his blaster, determined to fight for what he believed in.

Their faith brings no new hope, only devastation. That is why I'm here. To prevent tyranny.

The officer then placed both his hands on the podium and pulled out a small pad. "Now for the unveiling of our greatest weapon, and the tool that will rid the Galaxy of the very memory of the Rebels. I knew the Emperor by his name, I knew him back when he was just a senator and I know the ideals behind his vision. He was the perfect leader, strategic, shrewd, wise of the world, and dedicated."

Skar saw the officer touch the pad and heard the huge automatics of the clamps holding the Jentarana move, as the Jentarana was being lowered to the gangway.

Its moving!

"I promise you victory and I promise you glory. It doesn't take an Emperor to make an Empire. This is not the end, this is the beginning!"

A whale cry sounded from the grinding motors as the Jentarana moved and hung over all the stormtroopers like a blanket of shadows. The soldiers all retreated to the sides of the hangar and sought safety from below their newest weapon of terror.

Skar reached down for his silenced blaster as some of the troopers came a little too close to his hiding place. He moved back and found a better hiding place behind a higher crate. Skar secluded himself from the scene and reached out to the Force. This time getting a respond.

Master, they're loading the Jentarana.

I know. I'm watching from above.

Skar looked at the gangway in the ceiling. When the Jentarana was fully loaded the gangway would lead straight to the Jentarana's main access. Skar couldn't see Master Bo-Hi, but he knew he was up there. In the vent shaft above the gangway.

We must take the Jentarana as soon as its loaded, Master.

With a little luck.

Skar smiled. Who needs luck when you've got the Force? But what if someone is heading for the gangway to supervise the Jentarana when its loaded?

We'll be safe. I've locked down all the doors that lead up here. It'll take them a few minutes to unlock them, but that'll be enough time for us to do what we need to do.

Right, Skar agreed. I'll be with you shortly.

With all the stormtroopers neatly positioned on each side of the bay, Skar began to wonder if he had chosen the right place to enter the bay. He needed to get onto the gangway in the ceiling if he was to get to the Jentarana.

He spotted Master Bo-Hi Dzog and Shinran jumping silently onto the gangway from the vent shaft. Their move went unseen by all the stormtroopers, and Skar congratulated Master Bo-Hi mentally on a successful infiltration. Shinran went into the shadows of the gangway and the Jentarana for cover while Master Bo-Hi shrouded himself enough that he could keep an eye out.

By now Skar was not only worried but dead scared as to why no one had seen or heard from Kayupa yet. It was mysterious, bordering on impossible. Skar, by himself, had scoured through most of the ship, and Master Bo-Hi, with Shinran, had also covered a great deal of the grounds. Skar was worried about him now, and was beginning to wonder if Kayupa was even onboard. Right now Skar didn't know who to trust, and in his head he heard his uncle's warning;

He will stand in your way and confront you. This someone has been lying to you, has played you like a fool. This someone who has driven you to this moment.

At the time he had thought and believed the warning to fall on Master Bo-Hi. The great, wise and powerful Kel Dor Jedi Master supposedly a ticking bomb. But now Kayupa was worrying him, along with the allegations that Shinran had planted on him.

Maybe his goals aren't what you think. You have to suspect that he's using you for something.

At least Skar felt the comfort in knowing Shinran was not an option for an enemy. And as Skar began sliding out from the crates, he suspected there were still secrets to uncover, still lies to confront, and still terrors to face.

If I'm gonna get out of here, I need a diversion. These troopers will spot me if I move out from behind these crates.

Skar kept his steps light as he moved closer around the edge of the crates, trying to find a vent shaft or a hatch, even a door, a ladder, something that would take him out of there.

Skar tapped into his Force. Master, we're short on time. I can't get out of here!

His Master replied in a wave of reassurance. I'll create a diversion. You'll have to use it to get up here. Don't bother with being spotted. I'll buy you enough time.

Skar prepared himself, and flexed his muscles. He would have to jump up there using the Force as a boost. The effort in itself was dangerous, possibly impossible. But if he focused enough the Force would lift him all the way up there.

But only if he focused enough.

Now!

Skar ran, his footsteps tapping the metallic floor, straight into the bay. Immediately he was the attention of every stormtrooper in the bay. His heart pounded but not from the running. From absolute fear. It only now came clear to him that what he was doing required that his faith in Master Bo-Hi would come through.

And if it didn't…

He'll never get a better chance to set me up.

Skar felt through the Force the confusion in the stormtroopers, and could sense ripples in the air as each of them moved. Felt their arms lifting their blasters to aim at him, felt their trigger-fingers getting itchy. Felt the hairs rising on their arms as they detected foul play. Felt their blood rushing at the thought of killing him.

Where is the diversion?

The fear hitting him came on a wave of anger directed towards Master Bo-Hi, had he finally found his proof?

Skar began to run faster. He kept himself linked to the Force and was wary of even the slightest moves within the bay. He could feel very stormtrooper separately, and feel how they functioned as a group, as an army. The first shot came wheezing past his ear and he rolled to evade it.

Another shot required a jump and a flip to dodge the third. Skar came down running again. His hand freed the lightsaber from the belt and he blazed up the blade. In a second he sensed all of the stormtroopers in shock. All in awe at witnessing a Jedi Knight. The very kind they had once helped vaporize from the Galaxy.

Skar was just upon his target destination now, just a little more running and he would be right below the gangway. No doubt when he got there, hell would be released upon them, but it was acceptable. It was the only way they could protect the Jentarana.

Now for the hard part.

Skar stopped running, wondering again where Master Bo-Hi's diversion was, and hunched down. Then he extended his legs to the fullest and leaped through the air, hurtling towards the gangway. Blasts rocketed past him, scorching the ceiling above.

Skar's hand reached out to grab the gangway.

Come on, almost there…

Just then the entire bay, perhaps the entire Offeyyu, shook under a violent blast. In the other end of the bay a door leading to a storage bay flew through the Jentarana bay by the wave of fire compressing on the other side.

The door sliced through stormtroopers like a projectile. Leaving bloodied pieces of white armor in its wake. The flying door finally came to a stop carved into the crates where Skar had been hiding earlier, like a giant throwing knife.

Skar was still flying through the air, the gangway almost within reach, when his eyes caught a black figure came tumbling out of the scorched doorway to the storage bay. Slowly crawling, almost rolling, across the metal floor seeking refuge from the fire roaring out of the open doorway.

Skar's hands entwined around the railing on the gangway, and he held onto it for his life. Ignoring his personal safety he gazed curiously at the new events unfolding below. The stormtroopers were backing off too. Even the big lumpy Imperial officer seemed paralyzed with confusion.

Only then, adding to the compounding terror and confusion of everyone in the bay, another presence showed itself. A river of recognition flowed through Skar, lighting up unknown parts of him, bringing old memories and hopes for the future back into conscience. Skar almost let go of the railing in overwhelming happiness. He felt like a cloud had vanished and the sun was shining on him in superbright brilliance.

Flowing through the fire on an invisible cloud, came a soaring Kayupa flipping across the figure on the floor and landing on all fours, his long sweaty hair clouding his face. Skar witnessed the conquering fear washing through the room, through everyone, at the sight of Kayupa.

And then it hit Skar.

Kayupa was not the same. Lightning seemed to strike all around him, reaching out and touching the floor, ceiling, and the stormtroopers like the tentacles of a blind creature trying to figure out where it was. The electrical currents ran over the bulky Imperial officer, the man stared curiously at them in fear of their intentions.

Then the surging powers retracted and wrapped themselves around the hunched-over shadow lying on the floor behind Kayupa. The lightning ran over the entire man, fortifying around him as it lifted him slightly off the floor. The unidentified man didn't seem to resist as he was being savagely ransacked by prying electrical shocks.

Skar felt his grip slipping. What is going on?

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Master Bo-Hi running across the gangway to help him. But he came too late. Skar was already slipping, tumbling through the open air, as his body fell from the immense height. His hands and legs trailed deathly behind him as he fell to the ground like a rag doll.

Once the electrical waves, brought on by his Dark Side allegiance, died out, Kayupa rose clutching his lightsaber in a bloodied hand, and turned to Raydoen Jayant lying in a defenseless heap on the floor. Kayupa started walking slowly to him, ignoring the hundreds of stormtroopers watching him in the bay. His mind had already noticed the life forms of Skar, Master Bo-Hi, and Shinran.

Pounding hate soured his mouth at the thought of standing face to face with Master Bo-Hi again, but he let it slide. He wanted to settle this new problem before dealing with the old.

Raydoen licked his lips clean of his own blood as he stood. The fire soared behind him, making Raydoen stand out only as a dark shadow in a flaming inferno. Kayupa allowed the colorful image pass over him and instead concentrated himself on his own fire, burning in the shadow recesses of his heart.

Raydoen's tattoo had never shone so brightly. "I've never felt as…rich as I do now." His eyes were cemented on Kayupa as their distance shorted with slow steps. "We share many traits, you and I. You feel it too. I see our connection. Jedi are strong - "

Kayupa shut his mouth with the move of his hand, clutching Raydoen's throat with an invisible hand. "Where I come from we don't play with fire." Kayupa added pressure to the clutch, and Raydoen's hands flared at the grasp, trying to tear himself free. "And whatever connects us, has burnt this hole between us also."

Raydoen smiled as he looked into Kayupa's hateful eyes even though his windpipe was about to be crushed. A knowing smile that his freedom might at last be coming. "So, this is gonna happen? We're still going to fight to the death?"

Kayupa tilted his head and talked very slowly. "You are condemned to your desire, my illustrious friend." The invisible hand disappeared around Raydoen's throat and the vampire set himself on the floor. "This is it, the moment of your death. The passing to the beyond, to be one with all and nothing with the past."

Raydoen pulled out his blades. "I welcome it."

Kayupa rammed his lightsaber down upon the vampire, only blocked by the dangi knives as they created a nexus. Kayupa's blade pounded down in their center, showering them both in sparks. Raydoen jumped back and then leaped forward to strike. Kayupa blocked both the blades with one clean swipe.

Ducking, he moved in close to Raydoen and grabbed Raydoen's black collar, pulling him up and throwing him mercilessly behind him in a blur of motion. Raydoen pounded to the floor hard. The vampire wrestled for air, then jumped to stand and turned to Kayupa, holding out two dangi knifes pointed at Kayupa. One of them was dripping with blood.

Kayupa's blood.

Seeing the blood, Kayupa felt a delayed brain-splitting pain running across his shoulder. Kayupa held a bloodied hand to his right shoulder. He snarled in disgust with himself.

Raydoen had his all-confident smile ready. "See, I drew first blood."

Kayupa removed the already bloodied hand and let the blood wash down his chest in a thick flow. "You will have to get closer than that - "

Raydoen's hand flung forward, allowing one of the dangi knives to fly through the air. Reaching into the Force he just barely found the power to push himself sideways to dodge the flying knife. But only enough to keep the knife from reaching its real target; his heart. Instead the knife sliced through his stealth suit and perched itself in his chest. The pain magnified with the already present pain in his right shoulder, and as he felt the necessity to scream in agony, his right arm went numb and his lightsaber fell from his hand, rolling away across the metal floor.

Kayupa pounded onto the floor writhing in pain, curling up in a fetal position. His teeth clenched together as his right hand reached for the knife that had pierced through his chest, and sat there now like bloodied evidence of his frailty.

Already towering over him Raydoen roared in victory, with one knife still in hand. Kayupa still clutched the knife in his chest with a blood-red hand but couldn't find the strength to stand and fight on. Moreover he couldn't find the strength and courage to pull the dangi blade from his chest.

He reached for the Force for help, it glowed inside his heart like a bright ball slowly mending his bleeding wounds, but not even close to as fast as it had in the past. He tried pushing Raydoen back with the Force, but it was hopeless.

The Force was weakening.

Raydoen hunched over and reached out to pull his dangi blade from Kayupa's chest. As the pale hand held the knife around the hilt, Kayupa grabbed onto Raydoen's wrist with the bloodied hand and used Raydoen to pull him up. Using Raydoen as leverage Kayupa got on his feet, his blood spilling over the floor as he moved.

The dangi blade was still pierced through his chest, but Raydoen couldn't get away. Instead Raydoen snarled like a captured predator. His second hand moved the remaining dangi blade forward to kill Kayupa. But Kayupa pivoted 180 degrees to the left, still holding onto Raydoen, and the new blade struck past his right shoulder.

Then Kayupa released his grip on Raydoen's hand clutching the knife in his chest and moved the right bloodied hand up to grab the knife over his shoulder from Raydoen's hand. Kayupa broke Raydoen's wrist with a quick snap and the knife fell neatly into his palm.

Raydoen's other hand could no longer hold onto the knife in Kayupa's chest as Kayupa bent his leg and struck a kick backwards into Raydoen's stomach. Raydoen tumbled back, weaponless, holding his broken wrist inside his armpit.

Kayupa whirled, flung out his left hand and the lightsaber slammed into his palm, igniting before it even got there, then faced Raydoen, dangi blade in one hand, lightsaber in the other. The second dangi blade was still lodged inside his chest.

"A warrior should know when he is defeated!" Kayupa cried out, his voice filled with agony, echoing forever through the chamber.

Raydoen looked scared out of his mind as he backed away from Kayupa, crawling backwards on all fours, like a coward. But Kayupa embraced him within the Dark Side's grip and pulled him closer. Dragging him against his will across the room, as if he was a puppet on a string, inevitably into Kayupa's reach.

And when he was close enough -

"I would see it coming."

With wide arms Kayupa brought the lightsaber and dangi knife together, cleaving the vampire man in their nexus and the two sliced heavy pieces, what had once been a man craving death, slumped to the floor.

"You wouldn't."

Raydoen laid in two lumps of meat on each side of him. Kayupa dropped the bloodied dangi blade to the floor next to its owner. He powered down his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt, before kneeling down on the metal floor. All around him enemies were waiting for a chance to kill him, the stormtroopers bedazzled as to it all, confused about their role in the scene, but health came before desperation.

Kayupa clutched his fist around the hilt of the dangi knife still in his chest, his fingers slipping in the blood and he had a hard time getting a good hold. Then he inhaled as much air as he could, closed his eyes and entered his meditation pattern. While his darkened soul traversed along the waves of the Force, his hand slowly pulled out the blade inch by inch, spewing blood down his stealth suit as it carved free of his flesh and scraped against bones.

Kayupa found that his sense of meditation had changed, as his feelings sought naturally dark emotions now. The Dark Side was strong with him and feelings of negativity, hate, fear, desperation, aggression, and despair flowed easily to him.

Once the knife was freed, a thick stream of blood sprayed over the carnage around him, blending with Raydoen's blood and painted the corpse in dark red.

Shinran looked away and held a palm to her mouth after surveying the macabre display. Behind her Master Bo-Hi placed a hand on her shoulder, comforting her. She could sense a change in herself immediately. The nausea went away and she no longer felt like throwing up. He'd used the Force on her. She looked up at him and saw a change in his face.

His jaw was tight with anguish.

Then she dared to look down on Kayupa again, seeing the powerful Jedi Knight surrounded by Imperial stormtroopers, but ignoring them as he meditated. The stormtroopers walked around him, seemingly confused on whether or not to attack. While he might seem an easy prey in meditation, there was no saying he wouldn't come out of it in a flash and kill them if they tried anything.

It was like watching archaeologists examining a figure or a shrine carefully, afraid they might awaken an evil spirit if they touched it or talked to it.

Shinran almost didn't believe what she was thinking. She'd had her reservations about Kayupa all along, but never thought it would come to a fate such as this. Even with her limited knowledge of the Force she didn't need a huge sign saying that what she had seen was the Dark Side.

And Kayupa was in its loving care.

Master Bo-Hi stirred next to her, grabbed his lightsaber and threw his cloak on the gangway floor. Then he rose and leaned over the railing, one foot on each side.

She reached out to him, her voice trembling with fear. "Don't .. don't leave me."

The Jedi Master didn't even turn to look at her. His eyes were fixated on his dark apprentice. "I have to stop Kayupa before he goes too far….it's time to blow this fire out."

Shinran finally reached him and held onto his tunic. "Don't do this! What if you die!"

His sad expression as he glared at his former apprentice made her heart cringe. "I'm not invincible, I know that much, but that doesn't mean I don't have a responsibility. I can't give that up."

His words made her furious. "Don't you do this! Don't you leave me here! I can't make it on my own!"

Now he turned to look at her, a look of despair and utter resignation. He looked like he was ready to die. "You don't need me anymore." He reached out a claw to wipe a tear from her cheek. "Do not doubt him, Shinran. Skar loves you. Don't try too hard to think." He smiled sadly. "Sometimes its better not to think at all."

She pleaded, crying her eyes out. "I'm frightened!"

He eased his other foot over the railing, holding on with one hand while the other waved his lightsaberhandle below him. "You must let go of your fears, Shinran. Make your peace with those fears, let it make you stronger. Free yourself of worry … or be engulfed by it."

His hand let go and he fell gracefully downwards down into the bay.

Shinran cried as she watched the Jedi Master fall to the ground, twirling in the air to position himself in a way that would soften his landing. She realized in a way that she had viewed him as much as a Master as Skar and Kayupa had. In a way they were all family. Seeing Master Bo-Hi fly away, sent her to her knees, and she started banging her head against the railing in tormented frustration.

When she opened her eyes again, she spotted Kayupa surrounded by stormtroopers and being confronted by the fat Imperial officer who held a small blaster pointed at the back of Kayupa's head. All the stormtroopers were pointing blasters at Kayupa too, she noticed now. It looked like he wasn't going to make it.

Maybe if Master Bo-Hi got there in time. But even if Master Bo-Hi did make it, would he be on Kayupa's side? Shinran looked around for the one person who might know what to do in a situation such as this, but was no where to be found.

Skar, where are you?

Slowly Skar regained conscience. Around him laid debris and flaming pieces of both metal and wooden crates. The flying door that had pieced his previous hiding space had ignited flames among them. Something inside them must have been flammable because bits of them were everywhere.

He pushed himself up on his feet and made sure his lightsaber was still with him. He found it lying along with the flames, used the Force to make it fly to his hand and secured it in his belt.

Washing off the dreariness with a hand, he blinked his eyes of couple of times to regain full vision. Even before he achieved that he could feel the tension building all around him. He lingered at the familiar sense of Kayupa somewhere among the stormtroopers who were huddling around him. The Jentarana seemed untouched, hanging above them all like a parent watching the stupid children unfold in dangerous activities.

Skar slowly treaded between the fires and walked assuredly towards Kayupa to aid him. Even without the Force he could feel something was not right. Assertiveness, but aimed at the wrong things, were flowing in the Force. He could feel Master Bo-Hi being very worried above him. Shinran was feeling queasiness. Skar damned his frailty and wished he had known what had happened while he was unconscious.

As he slowly marched across the bay to reach Kayupa, he cradled the lightsaber in his palm, feeling motivated to fulfill a task he no longer was sure was the right one.

Skar felt his fingers twitch. As if by umbilical connection his danger sense flared. Newly awakened from his internal euphoria Skar rolled forward headfirst, his hand unleashing the lightsaber, firing it up as he came out of the roll.

As physical evidence of the danger sense came a lonely stormtrooper rolling across the floor in front of him, spraying bolts at Skar who, lightsaber blazing like fire, managed to deflect one shot back into the man's thigh.

The stormtrooper's roll stopped short as his leg was pierced by the red flame. The man fell to his knee, his blaster sliding away from his hand and he knelt down, only his hands keeping him from falling over. He watched the man, trying to crawl to his blaster.

Skar felt sympathy for the guard, edging to fight for his life, fight till the last drop of blood he had in him. It wasn't evil necessarily, it was pure survival instinct. Skar held out his hand, opened his palm. In front of him the stormtrooper dozed off in mid-crawl. He slumped to the floor, snoring instantly.

Skar picked up his pace towards Kayupa. Only to come to an abrupt halt even before he'd even begun running. Kayupa was crouched in midst of stormtroopers, blood all over his body, and a bad look on his face. The Imperial officer cradled a blaster to his head.

Now Skar started running.

Kayupa couldn't contain his smug smile. A geyser of pure confidence was spewing inside him. His fingers were trembling but doing so was good, he felt excited though enraged at the same time. His mind collected the feelings of some hundred stormtroopers in the bay, all of them holding him at gunpoint, all of them craving to end his life in the pull of a trigger.

The Imperial officer, an Admiral by the look of his decorations, was also holding a blaster to the back of his head, muttering threats Kayupa didn't care about.

Elsewhere he felt Shinran in great grief and he felt a silent sympathy for her. She didn't have to be here, she didn't need this. Her life was troubled enough as it was. Master Bo-Hi was advancing somewhere beyond the troopers, dedicated to alter the situation in the Jedi's favor.

His petty life would also soon be one accompanied by Death. Even Skar, who also was coming closer, seemed at least to grasp that things were about to change drastically. Kayupa felt sorry for the young Kjoil Knight.

And above, like a god collecting the dead and writing the future with blood, hung the Jentarana. Ready for action. All it needed was its key.

Kayupa couldn't contain his smugness, he greeted all the troopers with a satisfied smile. "Everyone always wants the latest technology!"

The troopers all brandished blaster rifles, all pointing directly at him. He did a quick count and came to the even number of twenty stormtroopers surrounding him, the other eighty or so had retreated or were occupied somewhere in the distance, he didn't know why so many had left or what they were planning to do, but decided for now he could wait to learn that. His lightsaber was cradled in his hand, the only protection he had. Even with his developed skills in deflecting, he knew he could not protect himself against all of them..

Kneeling in front of the Imperial Admiral, Kayupa decided to change the cards a little bit in his favor too. His fists rested at his kneecaps. He took a deep breath and allowed the Force to flow through him, allowing his heightened sensation of victory to silently die. He looked around at all the troopers, looking and sensing for a weakness.

Abiding to his wish, like a loyal puppet to the will of the Force's mind-trick, one of the troopers stepped forward. "Drop your weapon."

Kayupa complied and rolled it across the floor, rolling past the boots of the Imperial stormtroopers and coming to a halt somewhere behind them. The position was perfect. Behind him the Admiral holstered his blaster and stepped up in front of Kayupa, looking down upon him like he was a common prisoner or slave. Kayupa returned his gaze, adding hate to them.

"I surrender."

The troopers immediately began laughing in unison, sounding like an avalanche. At the end of the roaring voices of contempt towards Kayupa's offering, the Admiral shook his bulbous head, still laughing, and looked back at him.

"Your surrender is accepted then, Jedi."

Kayupa nodded, accepting himself into the hands of the Admiral. Two troopers ganged up around him, both of them had holstered their blasters and they grabbed onto his shoulders. They pulled him to his feet.

Sensing the attack Kayupa closed his eyes as the Admiral stepped up in front of him, coiling a fist and pounded it hard into Kayupa's ribcage. The wound that was already there brought a stabbing pain to his body. Kayupa tried to scream but the air had been blown out of him. The Force hurried to calm his torment. His mind calmed and the hurt of the blow vanished as if it had never been there.

"Raydoen Jayant," the Admiral said, "he was my associate. While that implies no friendship between us, he was still working for me."

The Admiral pounded him again, but Kayupa was ready. The pain was fast, and left him even faster, Kayupa felt it only as a small prick. He knew even though the Force was covering the pain, his body still felt the sting. He would have bruises later. Kayupa felt the rage, tempting him to choke everyone of the troopers right there and then, but kept it contained. Events were not in place yet.

Kayupa spat blood on the floor. Then he raised his voice for all of the troopers to hear. "He found what he was looking for, what he prayed for…. Death."

"So will you!" A third fist flew across his jaw, and Kayupa's head flew back. He tasted blood and spat out a mouthful of it. A fourth fist stroked across his stomach, hitting already hurting muscles from the fight with Raydoen.

Kayupa still kept his smug smile behind a torn lip. "Your confidence is your weakness, Admiral," Kayupa searched the fat man's mind, "Stamper. Ankit Stamper. You really think the Jentarana will give itself to you? You really think you're worthy of this power?"

The Admiral pulled back his fist for a fifth hit. "No, not to me. But to the Empire Reborn!" The fist hit home and opened the wound on Kayupa's chest again. The blood flowed down him, and Kayupa noticed how his gray stealth suit had turned permanently black in some places.

Kayupa was still smiling, a sick paleness to his face. "The Empire Reborn? What a joke!"

"Silence!"

As the man struck again, his fat body moved with the punch, and Kayupa found himself briefly hypnotized by the way the pockets of fat moved over the body when he landed the punch on Kayupa's forehead. Kayupa's face was punched down, and his chin hit his own chest, nearly breaking his neck in the move. Kayupa lifted his eyes again to look at the Admiral, blood running from his mouth along with saliva. His eyes were slits, his eyelids prying themselves open to gaze upon his attacker.

Still the smile persisted. "You want to kill me…but you can't."

The man heaved for air, the effort of beating Kayupa obviously one too great for such a heavy man. "You can make it up to me. If you promise not to die too quickly."

Kayupa swallowed blood and looked around, feeling a great amount of hate and a desire for revenge in each of the stormtroopers. Still striking the confident smile, Kayupa looked down at the floor.

"I can't promise that."

The Admiral laughed, his entire body moving with the chuckles. "Oh? You have some last card you'd like to deal before we end your pitiful existence?"

Still smiling, Kayupa knew the Admiral was seeing the confidence in his eyes. And Kayupa knew the Admiral, if he survived what was coming, would remember that smile the rest of his life. Kayupa closed his eyes and opened himself, praying that the Force would show him a path. He tapped into the Force, the larger portion of it that kept life alive, and connected every single being in the universe. Even creatures from far away. Even the littlest beings which crawled through areas he'd never seen or thought existed. Even the largest creatures in life, that were so huge you couldn't see them, even if you were right beneath it.

To his mind life was one, no single object in existence could be without life, and life was all that connected everything into one larger being. One world of powerful forces channeling through every fiber of itself. Again it powered him and prepared him for battle against his enemy. Filling him with confidence and strength to take on even the most impossible odds.

Kayupa felt it surging in waves inside him, swelling into an inner specter of power that he had only begun to understand.

The Dark Side.

Kayupa stretched his body beyond its limits and found what he was looking for. Then oblivion to all the stormtroopers came in the poetic beauty of a Jedi lightsaber snapping to life inside the stormtroopers' midst with a blue blade blazing. Instantly Kayupa dropped to the floor where he rolled over on his back, smiling at nothing. Through the Force invisible hands cradled the lightsaber and it moved intersecting between the troopers, gutting one, decapitating another, mutilating a third, quickly decreasing their numbers as it moved through them.

Mowing through them without prejudice or sympathy. Kayupa held the lightsaber in his head, using the Force to guide the lightsaber around.

The Admiral threw himself to the floor, as the lightsaber flew over him, aiming for a trooper nearby. The stormtroopers could do nothing to evade it. It moved too fast to shoot it. They tried holding up their hands to grab it only to lose their limbs in the effort.

In seconds Kayupa's lightsaber was all over the troopers, who only got a few shots off. Kayupa heard the screams mix with the hum and tear of that the blue lightsaber made while slicing through the troopers' armor, killing them easily before the troopers could even spot the Jedi saber coming at them. Hovering in air the lightsaber killed off the stormtroopers, ignoring their screams as it slaughtered them all.

His mind blocked the sounds as he rose amongst the carnage. He tried not to look directly at the scene unfolding around him as the Jedi lightsaber sent human blood flying in all directions.

Kayupa almost tripped over a severed head as he moved his way out of the mass of dying storm troopers. When it was all over, like a loyal pet, the lightsaber returned to Kayupa's open palm. He took a long, calming breath and shut off his lightsaber. The light dimmed and the hum vanished.

Stamper.

The anger and rage of knowing how he had suffered at the hands of the man, swelled in him, making him forget his own pain. Kayupa felt the fear inside the man and he felt relishment in sensing the man's pain. Kayupa clipped the lightsaber to his belt, ignoring the slaughtered souls around him as he walked over to the cowling Imperial Admiral, lying with his hands over his ears, as if he somehow hoped that would make the screaming stop. As if it would somehow save him from what was coming.

Kayupa couldn't help but bathe in his own amusement when he towered over the cowling Admiral. His fingers itched to hold the lightsaber in his palms, to hold it above the Admiral, to scare the life out of him. And then to finally take his life.

I didn't used to think like this. The world has done its work well…

The Admiral looked pleadingly into his eyes.

"Something kinda sad about the way that things have come to be, don't you think?." Kayupa held out his arms, his one hand tainted in blood. The wounds on his shoulder and chest had permanently repainted his stealth suit in black. Kayupa knew he could patch his entire body up later with the Force. Even with the blood loss he would be good as new. "But why should it mean anything to me if I really don't feel anything at all?"

The Admiral's eyes watered. "… spare me."

Kayupa contained his rage and anger. His hand still twitched to hold the lightsaber again, but he controlled the emotions. "Want a eulogy? Fine by me. Mind if I make it … a tad dramatic?"

Kayupa opened his body to the Force, and slowly felt its healing. The wounds were cleaned and mended. Then the skin pulled itself together to leave only a thin purple line on his chest and one running along his shoulder. Fed up with the stealth suit, he pulled off the upper part of it, baring his chest and belly. He ran curious fingers over the wounds, smiling at their recovery.

Then he started walking in circles around the Admiral, giving the eulogy as promised. "Every sentient being has this natural ability to question themselves and the governments has always monopolized on this. Politically trying to guide us into being mindless animals. Easily manipulated. All the while everyone feels comfortable under these orders and rules. The leaderships of the Galaxy don't want to reveal that the world is heading no where, that life is frantic, dislodged and pointless. But all these governed puppets don't see this. They don't dare to think beyond themselves." Kayupa snapped his fingers. "Like your stormtroopers. Your puppets of Death. They don't dare think for themselves. They just obey the Emperor's vision of what was right and what was wrong."

The Admiral cowered. His fat cheeks trembling in ripples.

Kayupa felt his insides crying, his heart felt like a moist sponge. "Its because of people like you, Admiral, that people haven't dared use their inherited free will. People like you who dare, no, they hope that weapons mean control. The Empire has only gained their power by fear, they threaten, and even though some admit to have a free will, they still cower under the barrels of your guns."

"But - what about the Rebels?" the fat man asked, his voice merely a whimper.

Kayupa shrugged. "I'm not saying Rebels are different. They also use weapons, and while they hope to someday govern the Galaxy under the guise of good, they neglect to see that many people are just using them as long as it means they aren't being threatened by the Empire. They command the strength from the will power of those edging to leave Imperial rule. But the Rebel Alliance is just a way-point between the Empire and true freedom."

The Admiral spat. "What freedom?"

Kayupa tilted his head. "Philosophers dare look beyond the confines of these regulations. They dare question authority. But intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong, the philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. Being a Jedi," saying the words Kayupa couldn't help but feel remorse, "I have an outlet to how the Galaxy works. I've sensed intentions shattered by fear. I admire courage, but I despise those who stay mute without ever trying to go for it. We're here to learn and evolve, and the pursuit of knowledge is what alleviates the pain of being human. One of the characteristics of the human race is that it has grown by creatively responding to failure."

The Admiral looked confused. "What does that have to do with freedom for the people?"

Kayupa's lips formed a sad smile. Then he held out an open palm towards the Jentarana. "See that? Its a weapon. No different from a Star Destroyer, a Death Star or a blaster. It commands fear. Only without weapons can there be freedom."

"But then … how would anyone protect themselves?"

Precisely. Kayupa flared his arms in a disarray. "That's it! I don't know! Every time I dare be optimistic enough to say that protection shouldn't be necessary I know its a lie. The option tempts me, drains me, then leaves me cracked and empty. Dragged down by some bitter gravity. Complete disarmament is an impossibility."

Admiral Stamper licked his lips, tasted the sweat. "But, with the Jentarana, someone could end war everywhere."

Kayupa shook his head slowly and then looked at the fat Admiral with disgust coming up his throat like bile. "I hope so too. But," Kayupa swallowed hard and bitterly, "the world needs to fight. Wars must be fought to have peace. Even if its only for a short time. To restore the balance. Every war ever fought has brought good into this world...its given hope, if only for a short time. Maybe the Jentarana could change all that," he unclipped his lightsaber, "but I'm not the man for it."

The Admiral stared into Kayupa's eyes, while his hand slowly moved towards the blaster on his hip. "Why not?"

Kayupa smiled and looked to the ceiling. His eyes began watering, the unmistakable self-awareness of himself being the wrong guy for the job. "I used to be a man who could do all those things. Now … I'm praying for the ground to give way," his voice was dark and evil, "I wanna watch it all go down."

His watery eyes looked at the Admiral again, spotting the hand reaching for the blaster.

"I've been hiding from the world and I don't want to go on like this. Angry and dislodged from who I wanted to be, who I was. I wish that I could disappear, could be no one again." Kayupa a made sardonic smile. "I know the answers to all the problems in the world; I just can't seem to care."

The Imperial Admiral seemed hesitant now. His fingers wavered at the blaster, unsure if whether or not to go for it.

Ignoring the Admiral Kayupa went on. "I thought I could make a difference as a Jedi Knight. But I was wrong. Coming here I had ideals of destroying the Jentarana at the heart of the Coruscant. I thought that as long as I held on to that wish I would still be who I thought I was." Kayupa saw his own reflection in a blood pool by his feet, not recognizing the man he saw there. "When I fought Raydoen, I became aware that my internal conflict could not be quenched so instead I embraced the nature of the identity there. And found it to be evil. More evil than I dared fear." Kayupa wiped away a tear and said a silent prayer for all the dead that had laid in his path. Kayupa stared through tears at the Admiral. "The hidden man inside me."

Now the Admiral's hand was nowhere close to the blaster. "What are you talking about?"

"His real self!"

The Admiral, as well as Kayupa, turned to see Jedi Master Bo-Hi Dzog standing outside the line of the stormtrooper corpses. His blade illuminating his sand-colored tunic in a green glow. His assertive stance the mirror image of a Jedi Master's strength and power.

Kayupa wiped away the last tears and his voice shuddered when he spoke. "You - you hid it from me, Master!" Kayupa unleashed his lightsaber and fired up the blue blade. "Now you'll choke on your own wisdom and secrets!"

The Jedi Master circled his former apprentice, a heavy sadness in his voice. "Don't blame me for this, Kayupa. The path you chose, I didn't push you down it. I tried to help you." Master Bo-Hi's shoulders sunk with sorrow and regret. "I never wanted it to be like this. I treated you like a son - "

"A son! Since when has my screams been loud enough for you to hear!" Kayupa spat. "How could someone as weak as you ever claim to be my father!" he shouted, his anger echoing through the chamber. "Your teachings are outdated, Master!"

The Jedi Master allowed the Force to flow through him. "You can still push back the darkness of your heart. It doesn't have to end like this."

Kayupa chuckled, a sick coarse laughter. "Only I know my own heart, Master."

Master Bo-Hi pointed to Stamper with his blade. "Let the man go, he's not part of this."

Kayupa pulled his eyes away from his former Master to the cowering Admiral Stamper, whom he gave a fresh smile. Kayupa's blue lightsaber spun twice in his hand before straightening out protruding through the man's midsection. The fat man lingered there, rattling and shaking in unspeakable pain, before the blade retracted, loosening the man on the ground like terminated cattle, only a smoking hole evidence of his execution.

Kayupa swirled the blade and shifted his side to Master Bo-Hi, cradling the lightsaber in strong grip. Mentally remembering each and everyone of his lessons of sword-fighting and fencing. Then when he was ready, he carved a semi-circle in the floor in front of him. His cold eyes never left Master Bo-Hi. Kayupa swung his blade in a wide arc to show off his ground and finished it off with a high guard by his right ear.

Kayupa felt his own rivers of contempt inside him, this was beyond jealousy, this was beyond anger. This was the Dark Side. This was pleasure in taking revenge. Where once a proud and strong man stood, was now a fountain of hate.

"Step across, Master. Its the only way you will reach me, the only way you can undo the evil you have made."

Across from him, Master Bo-Hi sat down in a meditative-state, not to mock Kayupa, but to ready himself for the duel that would end one of them. This was no test, it was actual combat and only one would walk away alive. Even while Master Bo-Hi gathered himself in the love of the Force, Kayupa would kill him without hesitation. Bo-Hi didn't believe Kayupa wasn't interested in a fair fight.

He wanted Bo-Hi out of the picture.

Master Bo-Hi's eyes were closed. "In the name of the Force, in the name of peace, and in the good of every living soul, I will strike you down."

Kayupa scoffed. "Change is coming, Master; now is my time!"

Master Bo-Hi rose, moved forward, bent on crossing that line in the floor. "I knew it would end this way, Kayupa. And like you my evils must be undone. You and I will share the consequences, nevertheless that doesn't mean I'll kill myself just to vanquish you from this world."

"Enough!" Kayupa shouted, and the Dark Side of the Force bellowed through his words, pushing outwards in a giant circle around his darkened form, pushing the corpses of the stormtroopers away from the scene, making room for their fight.

As the wave reached Master Bo-Hi, the Jedi Master added his own strength to it, and pushed it back, channeling its energy through him and threw Kayupa back, tossing the apprentice through the air to crash against the wall.

Though Kayupa was powerful in the Dark Side, ancient Sith teachings racing through his arsenal of power, Master Bo-Hi was more than able to propel the man through the room. The Jedi Master's power laid in calm and patience, not hatred and anger, harder to control but vastly more powerful when exercised. Kayupa got back on his feet, his anger growing even more.

Master Bo-Hi kept his outstretched hand aimed at Kayupa, ready to push him down again if needed. "Don't make me do this…"

Kayupa nodded, then lifted his blade. "Don't worry, Master." He smiled, his lightsaber illuminating the pearls of sweat and blood running down his chest. "Soon I'll be dead, and you with me."

Please…Let it be a dream.

Across from him a duel had commenced between the two people he'd learned everything from. Kayupa, the Jedi, the inspiration, the friend, was clashing swords with Jedi Master Bo-Hi Dzog, the father, the mentor, the guide. Circling each other like giants, lunging at each other. Green versus blue blades were sparking, striking, parrying, slashing. Kayupa's face was tormented in anger and hate, clenched teeth and wide open eyes, long sweat hair clinging to his neck. The bandana trailed behind him like the tail of a serpent.

Master Bo-Hi's face was focused. The lighting reflected in the metal appendage over his mouth. His moves were precise, well-thought, contemplating, counteracting Kayupa's frenzied attacks of passion.

He didn't know who to rout for. He didn't want to lose any of them, but fate seemed to crave the death of at least one of them. There was no reward to reap. He couldn't choose between them, and he wouldn't help either of them.

If Kayupa won, the Jentarana would be destroyed and the terror would end. But that would cost him Master Bo-Hi, whom Skar believed didn't have to die for the Jentarana. And if Master Bo-Hi won, he would lose Kayupa. And Skar would have to face Master Bo-Hi himself. None of the options were in his liking.

Someone's blood would spill and whoever survived would be Skar's fate. But how could he accept that? Whoever died, Skar would still resent the victor. Hate him. My demons are my friends.

Maybe they both should survive. Maybe none of them should.

Skar started to run towards the fighting, not knowing what he was going to do when he got there but knew he had to do something. Before he got very far he was slammed back by a thick invisible wall in the Force, preventing him from entering the battle. Skar didn't know what to do. Every instinct was telling him to break it up, to stop them, but something held him back. A aura of necessity loomed over him. This had to be.

This battle had to take place.

The events in progress had to be decided from this moment.

Reaching out to Kayupa, Skar felt the Force in him as a strong wall, three meters thick and un-climbable. Kayupa was arrogant and self assure, which was a weakness since a Jedi needed to be humble and realize that he was no better than others. Kayupa felt and sounded like a waterfall within the Force. A constant hammering of loud noise, strong in nature, but very loud.

Too loud.

Skar tried the same technique on Master Bo-Hi, whose connection to the Force, in likeness to Kayupa, was strong but as humble as Skar imagined a Jedi should be. Master Bo-Hi was strong but he was aware of what that strength was required for. The aiding of others and the sacrifice of oneself if needed be.

Where Kayupa had been a waterfall, Master Bo-Hi was a steady stream. It felt natural within Bo-Hi and its flow was beautiful in simplicity and purpose. Calm, yet moving towards something. Perfect, yet always in motion.

Skar watched as Kayupa hunched down, lifted his blade, and struck Master Bo-Hi's blade up, removing his defense. But before Kayupa could vantage this weakness, Master Bo-Hi's open palm sent him flying away, sprawling onto the floor.

Kayupa rolled with his fall and came up ready to fight again. Master Bo-Hi's presence, felt through the Force, was re-powering in the Force. He refreshed his mind and body, bringing himself back to its previous glory. Kayupa raced across the room, swirling his lightsaber.

Skar could sense change in Kayupa. He had tapped the counterpart of the Force, the Dark Side. Skar had sensed it in him before. Kayupa was the kind of individual who, like Shinran, didn't take failure well. Kayupa knew too well how to grieve at his own lack of strength. That made him a lethal man to know, any false step would torment him and a rival would surface.

Skar had never judged Kayupa on this weakness, rather respected it and made sure to stay on his good side. The turn to the Dark Side had been inevitable. Skar had seen it coming a long time ago, when Kayupa had resigned from the Jedi. He had never spoken out loud about it, because he didn't want to jinx Kayupa. Even now he knew that had been his real motive to come here. His real motive to save Kayupa; to save him from himself.

Skar admired Kayupa still, his free spirit, his unflinching loyalty to whatever task he set for himself. He resembled a Kjoil in so many ways that it scared Skar. They were so alike in nature, which had cemented their friendship along the years. Skar knew that Kayupa was an inward man, he kept aggressions and agitation to himself. Therefor Skar had heard only little of his intents here on Soliton. Kayupa was always plotting, always thinking, always analyzing.

Skar calmed his breathing, kept his heartbeat even and slow. He kept himself aware of the events unfolding in front of him. Kept his emotions in check and in control. And then he knelt down at the invisible wall, calmed his inner emotions and could only watch as it happened.

May the Force have mercy on them.

Kayupa stared at Master Bo-Hi through the hate glaring behind his sharp eyes and ready-to-kill smile. Kayupa raised the lightsaber and started running towards Master Bo-Hi. Green and blue blades clashed sending sparks over their holders. Master Bo-Hi pushed Kayupa back and released his blade from the clash. He held his blade high to pound on Kayupa, but Kayupa's blade parried and then sliced down, nearly cutting Master Bo-Hi in half with his own blade.

Master Bo-Hi ducked left, dodging the blade and settled in a new attack-stance. Kayupa snarled and cut in the air with his blade in frustration and anger.

Master Bo-Hi reached out to the Force again, and felt it enforcing his body and mending his bruises. Seconds later he was good as new. "You can't win this, Kayupa."

Kayupa raised his arms in tired confusion. "Win what?"

"Your old self."

Kayupa laughed. "You can't get caught up in emotion when your enemy is upon you. You forget yourself and you fight to survive." He spat. "There is a war going on. But it is a war between you and me. Grudge and mistake. Only one of us can survive." Kayupa held out a hand towards Skar, staring at them both in despair behind the Force's obstruction. "He and I share a fate."

"It will never happen, Kayupa," Master Bo-Hi mocked.

Kayupa jumped at him and Master Bo-Hi parried his three quick strikes and finished off with four rapid lunges that Kayupa blocked with the skill of an expert swordsman. They fought each other through the room, Kayupa giving in to his anger, kicking and screaming as he pounded at Master Bo-Hi, who could only take the blows and parry them as best as he could manage. Kayupa stretched out for any comfort the Force could provide him, but there was nothing.

Only a dark, deep, soulless hole, where once his best ally had been.

Enraged by his futility he raced at Master Bo-Hi. Master Bo-Hi bowed down when he was close enough and pivoted on his heels, delivering a high kick through Kayupa's defenses, landing directly on his jaw. Kayupa fell down, bleeding through his gums. Master Bo-Hi didn't waste time, the Kel Dor jumped up and struck down at the fallen Kayupa. He rolled away and the green blade melted through the metal floor beneath him.

Kayupa finished his roll and came up, snarling.

Master Bo-Hi turned to him. "I feel the fire within you, Kayupa, the weakness."

Kayupa attacked and Master Bo-Hi parried his strikes as Kayupa drove him back further into the Jentarana bay. Kayupa struck at his legs and Master Bo-Hi jumped over his blade. When he landed again he hurried to duck as the blue blade of Kayupa's weapon flew over his head.

"That fire you sense, is hate."

Kayupa continued to rain blow after blow on Master Bo-Hi who was losing his ground. Kayupa was an excellent swordsman, his moves were elegant, sophisticated, and efficient. Kayupa's fighting style was more in the lines of fencing than that of Master Bo-Hi's, Kayupa could move faster and better than Master Bo-Hi. Master Bo-Hi had great strength, but Kayupa was young, quick and smart.

He could easily outrun Master Bo-Hi and outsmart him, if he had been concentrating the right way. But the Dark Side had consumed him and his previous knowledge was now spoiled by primitive emotions.

His anger had made him forget the proper attack-stances and Kayupa fought more unwisely now. His teeth were barred, and the blood had dried on his face. The salt in the sweat stung inside his cuts on his face and it fueled his rage even more.

Master Bo-Hi, on the other hand, had complete control. He fought as he had always done, thoughtfully, focusing on strategy rather than speed. It came naturally. It was as much a part of him, as anything he had ever learned. Master Bo-Hi knew that Jedi must do what most men cannot, develop a sensitivity to this Force. He must feel it, feel one with it, feel it flow through him, then his conscious awareness must join the Force so that the knowledge through the Force will become his own.

At some point a Jedi learns to abandon reliance on his own mind and its effort. He learns to stretch out with his feelings, to let go of his idea of himself, and to move with the deeply instinctive levels of his being. By listening, by becoming peaceful, by turning his attention to the Force, he finds that place where his individuality is joined to the knowledge and power of the universe.

As it stood, Master Bo-Hi had the upper hand, Kayupa was falling back and couldn't protect himself as good as he had until now. He looked weary and his blocks were clumsy. Master Bo-Hi noticed it too and was working to find a way to immobilize Kayupa. He struck hard, but his moves were already several strikes ahead, thinking in strategic-methods rather than pure strength.

Finally Kayupa twirled his blade and struck a clean cut at Master Bo-Hi's face. Master Bo-Hi parried the cut with his saber but he then realized the feint. Kayupa's move was so fast, but Master Bo-Hi still felt he had mountains of time to blame himself and curse himself for not seeing it sooner. His powerful apprentice pushed outwards with the Force just as their blades had touched, creating a wall in their center pushing Master Bo-Hi back

He landed hard on his back, immediately reaching out for his lightsaber on the floor next to him. But the lightsaber rolled away, as Kayupa nudged it with the Force. Snarling victoriously Kayupa towered over the helpless Master Bo-Hi, blue blade hovering over him.

"Such a tiresome old fool you are, Master."

Master Bo-Hi nodded resolutely. "You've grown strong, much as I suspected. Thus I came prepared."

Master Bo-Hi opened his hand and out flew a second lightsaber from a hidden compartment in his boot, just in time to block Kayupa's powerful downward slash with its shimmering green blade.

Kayupa lost his confident smile. He was an excellent swordsman but as his fight with Raydoen had proven he was not as effective against two blades. Kayupa backpedaled away from the Master, the Kel Dor rising, flinging out his free hand, the second green lightsaber on the floor slamming into his other fist, swirling both blades at his sides.

Kayupa snarled in anger, knowing the Master had resorted to this level of fighting as a way to mock and defeat him. "Two blades, Master?" Kayupa asked coldly, "It won't save you."

"No," the Jedi Master agreed, striking into a defensive stance, one blade held high over his head and the second in front of him, "but maybe it will save you."

Kayupa took a step backwards, wanting more than anything to leave the fight. Kayupa knew he had no chance against the Jedi Master now. But before he could make such a choice, the Jedi Master thrust forward so powerfully, his green blades whirling with such speed that he was merely a blur inside in their green light.

Kayupa put up his best blocks, meanwhile admiring the level of skill his old Master portrayed. He had trained himself well in the use of two blades, working them in perfect harmony, spinning them over and about with blinding speed and precision. Kayupa tried to retreat from the battle but the Master wouldn't let up, he kept coming with both blades, striking endlessly at Kayupa's poor defenses.

The Jedi Master lifted one blade up high to pound on Kayupa and the apprentice managed to block, but left his sides open for the second blade. As Kayupa reverted his blade to block the second blade, the first one came back at him, forcing him to return his blade to its other position. It was like fighting two enemies at once. The Jedi Master repeated this tactic again and again, and Kayupa was helpless against it. Kayupa was forced into defensive stances while his former Master was the aggressor.

Kayupa deepened himself in the Force, allowing what little strength it could give him, to guide him. But it was almost impossible to find a calm place within himself, he couldn't concentrate and he was left worried and wary of the oncoming defeat that was inevitable.

The Master had him, he was sure of it.

Master Bo-Hi attacked with both blades, slashing forth, requiring a strong parry from Kayupa, but with the strength of two blades the parry was harmless and Kayupa fell with its strength, almost pushed to the floor, but managing to stay afoot with a quick change of stepping. The attack gave Kayupa more space and Master Bo-Hi was still in revolution when the apprentice came around, ready to attack.

Kayupa darted forward, turning into the aggressor, coming at Master Bo-Hi with an unequaled ferocity, letting his hatred drive him, pushing himself forward, his anger fueling his motions and actions, pounding on the Jedi Master with his single blade as best as he knew how.

But the Jedi Master parried all his attacks with little effort, the twin blades creating a sphere of defense around him that Kayupa had no hope of penetrating. Kayupa still charged, kicking and screaming, knowing it would definitely kill him, but his anger was too powerful. There would be no surrender. If he was to die now, he would die fighting, expending all the energy he had.

Master Bo-Hi crossed his blades to intercept a low attack, Kayupa reverted his blade and came down with a powerful lunge, and Master Bo-Hi raised the crossed blades to intercept the second attack in their center.

But it never came.

Kayupa pulled his blade back just in time to stab it forward, beneath Master Bo-Hi's crossed blades and pulled inside and up, shattering the unified blades, and left Master Bo-Hi wide open. Kayupa lunged forward, the tip of his blade piercing through Master Bo-Hi's shoulder. The Jedi Master cried out in pain, dropping to the floor, both blades flying from his hands. Kayupa jumped onto him, reverting his blade over his Master's face, the tip of his lightsaber hanging directly over Master Bo-Hi's face.

Though a lightsaber gave off no heat from its blade, the Jedi Master was sure he could sense the warmth of the blade as it hovered over his face. The Jedi Master laid perfectly still, his breathing heavy.

Using two blades the way he had would exhaust its user eventually, even someone as powerful as Master Bo-Hi. The Jedi Master knew that Kayupa wouldn't need much more reason to kill him now. However that might hurt to think, he knew it was true. Kayupa was not the young man who had once begged Bo-Hi to train him anymore.

Instead of killing his Master right then and there, Kayupa stepped back and lifted him up with the Force and watched the weak Jedi Master suspended in the air before him. Kayupa's hand reached out in pity and touched his master's cold yellow cheek, and his eyes went sad.

His voice was no more than a whisper. "As I drown the snake, and look into his eyes, my fear fades. I promise you, Master, when I recall this moment, I'll think; I should have cried then."

Master Bo-Hi, completely at the mercy of Kayupa, gasping for air and aching in pain, looked over to see Skar.

Skar could feel his Master's emotions twirling around, his thoughts desperate. For a long time, Master Bo-Hi and Skar stared at each other in silence. Unable to do anything but be held in the breath of the Force. Skar's eyes watered and his hands trembled in fear. He was powerless to do anything. Yet he felt a great deal of shame too, he was doing nothing to prevent his Master's death and in that was the greatest betrayal.

Kayupa raised his lightsaber and the blue glow bathed over Master Bo-Hi, who was helpless to change to his fate.

Kayupa's eyes went blank, cold and merciless as he reversed the blade, intent on stabbing through Master Bo-Hi's chest. "Death is not the end, Master."

Something clicked inside Master Bo-Hi, Skar could feel it from where he stood. Kayupa had given him an advice, but as to why Skar didn't know. Skar saw as the Jedi Master raised his pale clawed hand up to hold onto the metal appendage over his mouth.

As he did he looked over at Skar, his yellow hand unattached his breather from his mouth, then his hand carelessly threw it away. Then he removed both of his goggles, letting Skar see his eyes for the first time.

Fate has swept away our kind, as must I follow, came the last sorrow-filled words from the mentor as he deepened himself in the Force.

Skar's heart bleed. He understood the sacrifice that Master Bo-Hi had just made. He'd chosen to take his own life. This way he would be ready for death and he would prove himself right to what Kayupa had told him about death not being the end.

He's killing himself.

Screaming, Kayupa dropped to his knees and plummeted the blade straight up through Master Bo-Hi's chest. The blade drove through his internal organs and exited right below the back of his neck. Master Bo-Hi gasped blood from his punctured lungs.

"Noooo!" Skar cried.

Kayupa pulled his lightsaber free and Master Bo-Hi slipped off its end, pilling together in a heap on the floor. Kayupa cocked a smile, and then spat once on his former Master. With that he turned away from the dying man, a man he'd once called father, a man that had once called him son, cold and oblivious to the feelings he should have felt. "Not all martyrs see divinity - but at least you tried."

Master Bo-Hi was hunched over, his crying the only proof that he was still alive. But Skar knew it wouldn't last long. Skar could hear Master Bo-Hi take a long deep breath of the unfiltered air, the air itself dangerous to his already depleted health. Skar held onto his Master for two more seconds, before Jedi Master Bo-Hi Dzog vanished from life and became one with the Force, physically as well as spiritually.

Skar's hands flew to his face. His entire fragile world fell apart inside the warmth of the Force. The fourth person he'd thought of as a parent had died. Lwen, Sasa, Koll, and now Master Bo-Hi. All of them taken from his life. They'd brought him up only to leave, only to disappear from life faster than he could say goodbye. His tears dripped onto the floor, and Skar felt a burdened relief in knowing that Shinran and Kayupa, whatever was left of him, had not vanished from him too.

Skar looked over at Kayupa, the anger directed at the man biting at him, yet he knew it was meant to be this way. The moment passed between them, neither of them ready to look each other in the eyes and go on with the mission to destroy the Jentarana.

Skar raised himself up, wiped away the last tear with the back of his hand and turned to see Shinran come running across the bay to him. And Skar began to weep again in her warm embrace.

"He's gone." she said softly into his ear. "Bo-Hi…"

"I know," he said. He didn't know what else he was gonna say. No words could express his feelings at this point. Nothing came close to describing his thoughts. He just knew he was glad she was there. "Stay here with me."