Jason reached down to help her up, but instead of taking her good arm, he took hold of the broken one. Callista screamed in agony, the pain fueling her Dark power. She shoved him off her with the Force, and struggling upright, she drew her sabers. His surprise was clear through the Force as he drew his own.

She hissed at him, "How DARE you come after me like I was a lost child!" She lunged at him, her blades moving faster than he had ever seen them. he was hard pressed to fend off her vicious attack. He stepped backwards from the fury of her assault, her blades coming perilously close to cutting off a limb. His own green blades flashed and whirled as he fought against her fury.

As the two continued their furious exchange of blows, they failed to notice the small man watching them from a short distance away. Wearing a loose, black shirt and pants, his cleanly shaven face and head bore no trace of emotion nor mercy as he watched the fight. After a few minutes of watching the battle intensify, the man at last began to stride towards them, holding up his hand as he did so.

With a blast of Force energy, he sent Jason flying away from Callista. Gesturing again with the same hand, he brought a lightstaff to his grip from his belt and activated it. Callista scrambled to her feet to face the new adversary. She was now caught between both men, and didn't know where to strike first. Turning, she presented her profile to both men, to lessen the target. She glared at the other man. "What do you want?" she growled at him.

"Outcast Callista", he said, dripping contempt from his voice despite any trace of emotion on his face, "For your treachery of the Sith Order, your life has been made forfeit. Lay down your weapons and you will be executed cleanly. Fail to do so, and you will be made to suffer as your gross negligence of your formal loyalties deserves."

She hissed at him, her lip curling. Jason was rocked back on his heels by the amount of anger he felt rolling off his friend. his every instinct screamed for him to fight her, but his heart said no. He sstrode over to stand with her, but she shoved him forcefully away. "Stay out of this!" she roared. He nodded. She turned back to the other Sith. "I will not die without a fight..."

The man appeared unimpressed. He merely nodded, gripping his saber tighter and moving swiftly towards her, flourishing the blades before he brought them hurtling towards Callista. Her own blades rose to meet his, and they flared as they crashed against one another. She kicked out, putting the Force into it as she connected with his left knee.

The Sith instinctively buckled his knee and shifted his weight to the other leg to avoid any serious damage. Using that same leg, he flicked his body around and slammed his shin into Callista's knee, pushing off with his other foot as he did so to put himself slightly behind her and poised to strike.

Her knee wnet out from under her, and she went down. Scything her blades around behind her, she felt them bite into his leg as the stench of vaporized flesh filled the air. She pivoted on her knees, her blades meeting his not two inches in front of her face.

Using his superior positioning, the Sith bore his weight down on Callista, testing her strength. Sensing her resolve, he quickly sacrificed this approach, and lashing out with the Force again he pushed her away from him before thrusting towards her with another strike. She caught herself, and regained her feet as he charged her once more. Sidestepping the strike, she drove her knee into his gut. The air exploded from his lungs and he went down.

Despite a hard landing, the Sith managed to roll himself back up into a crouched posture. Still taking deep, long breaths in an attempt to recover from the blow, he assumed a defensive posture and waited for Callista to make a move. She leaped at him, her blades swinging around like she meant to strike him in the side. At the last moment, she twisted in midair, her booted feet striking him hard in the chest.

Instead of fighting the assault, the Sith rocked back and allowed the momentum to carry Callista forward. Kicking his legs up, he pushed her past himself as he swung up his saber to graze her back. Her back exploded in agony as she fell to the ground. Jason made a move twards her, but she threw up a Force shield to keep him away. Picking herself up, she spun just in time to knock his blades aside. The Sith moved in closer as he wove his lightstaff in vicious, tight arcs towards Callista, hoping to impede her movement as he attacked.

Her strikes came short and quick as she attempted to work past the solid wall of light that was his blade. She whirled, and realized too late that she had her back to him. Her concentration broke as she felt him seize her, rendering her arms immobile. She tensed as she felt the heat of his blade a centimeter from her neck.

"Drop your weapons, Jedi. This is your last chance to end your suffering swiftly." The Sith brought his blade even closer to her neck, the heat slowly cooking her flesh. She flinched as the blade bit into her skin. Using the pain to fuel her, she rotated her wrists, and stabbed him in the leg. She fell with him, landing with her own blades to his throat.

The Sith gripped the lightstaff even tighter, turning his knuckles white, but no other sign of emotion escaped from him. Gazing directly into her eyes, he summoned the Force and wrapped it around her neck, constricting her windpipe. "Finish me, Jedi. What minor consequence is death to a Sith? All physical things fade in time; true power lives on forever." His dark grip on her throat tightened further.

Her lungs screamed for air as blackness crept in upon her vision. Sommoning the Force, she sank both blades into his chest, her face twisting from the stench of burnt flesh as his spirit departed. She rose above the corpse, her blades still lit, as her shield came crashing down. Jason ran toward her, his blades ready. His progress halted abruptly as he felt himself lifted into the air by way of her Force grip on his throat.

"What righ have you to interfere!" she screamed at him, all her raged boiled to the surface once more as she gazed at him. He felt the grip on his throat tighten, and he did the only thing he could. Touching her mind, he planted the image there of mark in her grasp instead of him. She paled, and a strangled cry escaped her lips. "Master?"

Her grip loosened, and Jason felt him plummeting towards the ground. He caught himself, and glanced up warily as she approached. Her eyes had lost the crazed look, but now it was replaced with the look of one who is haunted. She sank to her knees, suddenly lacking the strength to stand. He gently helped her to her feet, and guided her towards the ship.