Chapter 8
"Sil, it's not too late to return from the dark side! Repent, and I'll bring you before the Jedi Order!" Murra pleaded as she summoned her lightsaber to her right hand and ignited it. Angered by her sister's words, Sil swung her weapon to chop her sister to pieces, but was surprised to meet resistance almost instantly.
Sil flipped backwards to avoid her sister's slashes. When Sil glanced around at her new surroundings, shock consumed her as she realized that she had landed neatly in a turbolift. As the lift took Sil up, Murra used the Force to leap over the rails and toward the fourth floor. As Murra began to fall, invisible hands wrapped around her waist and she moved up again. The red-haired woman's fingers wrapped around the railing on the fourth floor of the palace and used the well-trained muscles in one of her arms to flip her onto the stone flooring. The woman neatly landed feet-first as the fringes of her robes clashed against the floor. She nodded a quick thank-you to her husband before turning her attentions to Sil.
"Please, sister, open up to me! I'm sure whatever happened, the Jedi can heal you!" The younger sister begged with jewel-like tears in her emerald green eyes as soon as Sil emerged from the turbolift.
Sil ignored her sister's pleading as she pranced around the circular railing. Her intense scowl was just above the moons' illuminating lights.
"Please, Sil!" Murra screamed her heartfelt words through her half-suppressed sob.
"You expect me to open up in the middle of a fight. I think that's too much for now." The palace became silent as the sisters glared at each other through hateful eyes. The silence was shattered when Sil reactivated her lightsaber and gestured for the duel to continue. Murra gave a barely audible sigh and saluted with her green saber. The two sisters pranced about half the circumference of the railing that encircled the center of the palace, each scanning for a weakness in the other and not daring to strike too soon.
Sil's patience was running low and she decided to test her opponent by hurling lightning across the diameter of the center of Fountain Palace. She mentally cursed as her sister caught and contained the dark energy. There was an obvious reason why Murra was granted the rank of Jedi Master.
Sil, finally tired of waiting, leapt over the railing with feline grace and lunged at her sister, her lightsaber ready to bisect the other woman at any minute. In response, Murra sent herself flying over the meter-tall rails and two lightsabers clashed in midair with a deafening crack.
"YOU…" Sil hissed as she twisted her wrist to free her lightsaber., sending Murra backwards slightly.
"ASKED…" Just as Murra rebounded, Sil hissed through another slashing attack. The word barely escaped her lips as the two powerful swords clashed again.
"FOR…" Sil twisted her sword of white light as if it were the spirit of death.
"ME…" The older sister gave another word and another attempt at the life of the other woman. Murra swung her lush, green saber, as if it were the sword of life from Hapan myths, to meet her sister's deadly attack.
"TO…" The word sounded like venom to Murra's ears as lightsabers hummed and clashed in midair, with each owner trying to bring down the other. Only the deadly force of the hits kept the two floating, until Murra, with several skillful flicks of her wrist, sent the sisters in opposite directions.
"OPEN…" Sil hissed as she and Murra landed on opposite sides of the circular railing.
"UP…" A gush of wind whipped Sil's face and freed her ankle-length, loose hair from the constraints of her clothes as she made a final aerial attack. Both sisters gathered all the power they could harness through the Force as their lightsabers clashed once again like deadly thunder. When the noise died down, Sil hissed in her sister's face. She then screamed almost as if she was feral. "I shall open up!"
Sil's long, light brown hair stood flowed wildly as she conducted the raw powers of darkness as if it were electricity. She enjoyed each and every single wave of pain, bloodguilt, hatred, fear, and anger as each emotion gave her a thoroughly refreshing, dark bath.
Murra never braced herself for the flood of darkness that threatened to swallow and suffocate her mind. She looked around but could not see, for there was no light in the dark creature that she was forced to call 'big sister'. She reached deeper, but still not even a crack of light that could mean dawn for the older sister. Murra finally reached the core of her sister's mind and found nothing but death and a darkness that made night appear to be child's play.
Murra felt the flames of wrath, the tendrils of blood thirst, no, the addiction to murder, and hatred amongst other feelings that originated from the dark side of every sentient being. There was not a trace of the girl who agreed to help maintain balance in the Force. But how could that be? Sil was so strong, so brilliant? How could you become so bloody? Why are you so dark that no even a ray of light escapes your presence anymore? Why? Why? You can't be gone, sis! You just can't! No! I can't accept it. Ever. No! Her anguished thoughts soon surged out of her mind and into her throat, forcing a loud, heartfelt scream into the elegant halls of the palace.
"Nooo! Make it stop!" Murra's tormented combination of a scream and a sob echoed through the empty, stone halls of the magnificent, dark palace. How could the dear, older sister of hers betray the younger sibling and torture her nearly to the point of breaking? How could she use such emotional weapons and attempt to kill Murra Chume Ta Djo? How could the sweet, shining beacon named Sil betray all the Jedi principles she was taught and become so evil and tainted? Murra thought that she had accepted the fact that her sister was no longer the woman she knew and loved, but deep inside, the denial was as intense as it ever was despite her husband's words. She wondered if Sil was torturing for the sake of torture.
She felt her sister probe her mind and found herself frozen and helpless against the probes that searched for the darkness within her. Sil grinned as she touched the part of Murra that always hated and was jealous of that so-called Prince Anakin and the piece of Princess Murra that was created when she became angered at Sil's 'betrayal'.
Sil's grin widened. Jealousy was a good tool, but anger the anger and hatred within her sister's soul were even better. The dark woman touched the anger and pain from Murra's feelings of betrayal and toyed with them in every way imaginable. She should be able to extract a great deal of entertainment from tormenting her sister's good side, perhaps to the breaking point, if it was possible to break a great Jedi Master.
"Don't resist. Embrace the darkness, for either you will embrace it, or you will miss out on a thousand year's worth of opportunities." Sil spoke softly, her whispers licking Murra's tormented ears in the wicked, Hapan moonlight.
Murra wanted to scream no, but she had not the strength, for her sister had touched and strengthened the hatred deep within Princess Murra. Murra found herself facing her hatred for her younger brother. She, despite the fact that Anakin was already hibernating in carbon freeze, found it tempting to transform her hatred into his suffering. She finally capitulated and smiled weakly as she reached out to her evil sister and prepared to give the strongest hug she had ever given to the darkness within herself. Perhaps the darkness was the best thing the Force had ever given her. Perhaps those Jedi really were wrong in all that they taught. Murra whispered with a wavering voice. "I'm sorry, Father, but I can no longer accept what you taught me."
"Very good, little sister. You have made your first steps into the real universe. You hurt whomever you would like to torture because you can. We are strong and we, as the strong, must dominate and take what we want because that is why the Force gave us strength. There is nothing but havoc. There is no peace, there is chaos. There is no serenity, there is passion. There is no knowledge, ignorance rules. There is no death, there is the night." Sil sensed her sister's thought and encouraged her sister's turn toward all that was evil. Murra was not sure if Sil was using the royal 'we' associated with Queen Mothers.
No. She is wrong. You said so yourself. The Force gave us the power to make it manifest. We can only do that if we use it for the good of others, not anyone's, you're your own sister's, selfish desire. The red-headed Murra heard a masculine voice in her head as she began to touch the evil within her. She felt warmth combating the icy blizzard of her sister's emotions and felt Van supplying his aid to her bending spirit.
"No, I won't." Murra looked with her eyes rather than with the Force and saw a black aura surrounding her sister's darkly elegant form. She then saw that the two were suspended in midair only by Van's Jedi powers. She deduced that he did it because he did not wish for his beloved wife to fall to her death. Sil deemed it a solo match, yet she did not use ysalamiri to enforce her claim.
Murra took advantage of Sil's surprise and summoned about her all the feelings of love and light that she could hold. The light had transformed the princess into a glowing beacon in the night and in the darkness of her sister's heart. Like all the servants of evil described in fairytale books, Sil shrank away slightly when the light was shone upon her, for she could not stand goodness the way she used to be able to. Sil had given herself wholly to evil, which made it impossible for her to even touch what she had abandoned.
Sil responded by summoning more powers of darkness to her, but Murra, in her glory, was able to neutralize it. Murra's light increased in magnitude until it lit up half of Fountain Palace despite the night. For a second, Murra's glowing light faced off with Sil's darkness as equals, each taking half of the palace. Everything seemed to be as balanced as they were when Anakin Skywalker brought balance to the Force with his death.
Despite Sil's words, Van added his strength to Murra's. He might be just a man, but his wife taught him that men were able make the same differences as well as women. The fates of sixty-three worlds was about to be decided in the duel, with Sil being the evil blanket of darkness and Murra being the sharp edge that was cutting the blanket to shreds. No, Murra was not a lone blade as long as Van was able to help. Together, the two would for a pair of scissors. The dark-haired Van'Ya-el Djo gave more energy to Murra than he ever did before, knowing that she would need all the energy her body could contain in the duel of fates that played itself in the palace.
To upset the balance before her, Sil made another move with her saber and sent her sister hurling down toward the basement of the palace. Servants, who gathered around the circular railings of the lower levels, watched in horror as the Queen Mother cast down her opponent.
As wind whipped Murra's exposed neck and sent her short hair into her face, she realized that in saving her soul, Van had shown himself to his evil sister-in-law and was too given to his wife to pay attention to his own surroundings.
Her Jedi cloak was torn off forcefully as velocity increased. Suddenly, as she descended past the first floor, her fall slowed. Her eyes widened as she felt Van again. Somehow, he had fought off the stun bolt and came back to help her. Her feet barely touched the basement floor when she, with help from the Force, sprang up into the air. As if she were riding through a turbolift, she watched as the first and second levels of the palace scrolled past her.
Murra glanced up and found her old sister descending at a speed that forced the black cloak to open up like a parachute. For a minute, Murra felt as if she was an angel from the Hapan myths ascending to the heavens that only children believed in. Angel of Light! Her aura brightened with each meter-high gain in altitude until it blinded the woman. Is this heaven? Were all the stories true, then?
She did not know what she did, but she followed the will of the Force. Just as the woman began to feel the hands of invisible spirits reaching out to lift her out of her physical form, the ecstasy began to fade. Suddenly, Murra awoke and found herself deadlocked in a saberfight with her sister. The descending darkness was struggling to overwhelm the ascending light once again. Limbs and bodies twisted as two lightsaber blades met with deadly cracks time and time again, until Murra send a kick into Sil's abdomen and the older sister fell past the younger.
"Kriff." Murra cursed as she saw Sil just brush by the range of her medium-length saber. With her resistance gone, Murra soared up another level before she followed her sister's plummet.