Andrew pulled out his lightsaber and lit it as he stepped into the gym, the indigo blade illuminating his face. He looked around and heard the familiar hum of two lightsabers turning on behind him. Andrew whirled and saw James with his lightsabers, both his own violet one and Glen's red one.

"You were quite brave to face me by yourself." James said as he started to circle around Andrew. "Takes a lot of guts to do that."

Andrew looked at James with astonishment. He heard another lightsaber turn on and saw Henshaw running from the side door. He skidded to a heavy stop as he readied his lightsaber.

"He's not alone," Henshaw said as he looked into James's eyes. "I don't want to have to kill you, but I will if necessary."

James had the most interesting look on his face, a combination of confusion and amusement. "Well, I never figured that I would have to do this." James said, hiding the amusement in his voice. "I have to fight both my apprentice and my master. Shocking."

Andrew had never seen James like this before, so calm and almost careless. Andrew could sense James's emotions through his higher connection in the Force, and found a slight trace of fear inside James. Andrew had to figure it was his higher level of the Force, but then again the Dark Side could reduce even the highest Force user to a novice.

Henshaw, on the other hand, was terrified. The fear was pulsating from his body in currents, his thoughts quite clear on the situation. He didn't know why he was there and almost seemed to not want to be there.

James was a different story, however. He seemed amused by the situation, almost glad about it. His entertainment was radiating off of him as he put both of his lightsabers in his ready position, one above his head and the other across his waist.

"Andrew," Henshaw said nervously, "don't under-estimate him. He's a lot more deadly than he looks." That was all he had time to say as James struck forward at an alarming speed. Andrew blocked off the violet lightsaber as Henshaw parried the red one.

Andrew readied himself again as Henshaw countered James's attack. Andrew waited for an opportunity to strike and found it as Henshaw pulled back. Andrew blocked off both lightsabers and then launched his attack. James easily deflected the blows, leaping over Andrew and putting himself between Henshaw and Andrew.

That was only a few seconds and I'm already winded. Holy Christ! Andrew thought as he brought his lightsaber up and deflected the red one, Henshaw fighting fiercely at James's right. Henshaw didn't seem as tired but looked as though he couldn't keep it up for longer than a few minutes.

"I would have thought you would have put up more of a fight than this!" James exclaimed as he simply started to block off the attacks, not even trying. He got so preoccupied that he didn't even hear the sound of another lightsaber turning on. He sensed it, though, when a silver blade knocked his red lightsaber out of his hand.

"Oh, do we have another guest?" James said as he followed the path of the lightsaber. It slapped back firmly into Nicole's hand, who readied it almost immediately in her odd stance.

"James, what's wrong with you?" Nicole said as Henshaw and Andrew collected themselves, catching their breaths.

James called his lightsaber back to his hand and switched it back
on. "I never actually thought I would get to use this little feature." He flicked both lightsaber and the ends opened up like three triangles with grooves on them. He took the ends and pushed them together and twisted, apparently locking the two together, creating a double-bladed lightsaber.

"That's new," Andrew said as he and Henshaw sprang forward and restarted the attack, Nicole joining them. James seemed to be even fiercer than he was before now that the lightsabers were just one big one.

To Nicole it reminded her of when she fought with Alixa in the tournament and that tiny bit of experience seemed to give her an advantage. Henshaw had never fought someone with a double bladed lightsaber and neither had Andrew, so this was new for them.

James was doing moves that almost seemed impossible to actually perform and doing katas that seemed to be made up on the fly. James spun the large lightsaber deftly in a smooth circle, knocking the other three weapons away. Before anyone could compensate, James whirled and did a back flip over Andrew, raising his lightsaber to deal the killing blow.

Andrew jumped into the air as James brought the lightsaber forward, actually landing on the long hilt of the lightsaber. Neither person seemed to expect it judging from them not moving, just staying perfectly still. Nicole took it to her advantage as she ran forward to strike at James, but he simply parried the strike, knocking off Andrew.

All four of them sensed a change in the area as ten Dark Jedi filed into the lower gym, running to the far side to see the fight. James smiled his evil grin as he jumped over the railing to the lower level, clearly wanting them to follow.

Nicole leapt over the rail first, followed by Andrew then Henshaw. When they hit the bottom they saw James standing twenty feet from the Dark Jedi, all of them with their lightsabers drawn. James held up his hand as they tried to advance, stopping them dead in their tracks.

James raised his lightsaber lance and leapt into position between Andrew and Henshaw, already attacking them even as he landed. Nicole looked from the duel to the ten Dark Jedi standing in front of her. No matter what, even if they beat James, they were heavily outnumbered unless the cavalry arrived soon.

She decided to join the rampaging fight and try to see if she could help. Even with it being a three-on-one, James still held the upper hand no matter what. James blocked off anything they threw at him and counter them with fierce strikes. Nothing seemed to be able to break his defenses, not even with their combined efforts.

James blocked off one of Andrew's strikes and then called the Force to throw him back, repeating with Henshaw. James waved his hand and froze the two in their spots, neither of them able to move. James quickly descended on Nicole, grabbing her wrist and knocking her lightsaber out of her hand. He shoved her to the ground as he separated his lightsabers, shutting off the red one and hanging it on his belt.

"Sorry bout this, nothing personal," James said wickedly as he raised his violet lightsaber. As he brought it down, the tip of the hot energy stopped just inches in front of her face. Nicole looked at James's face, which looked stricken with pain and guilt. The blade retracted as James shut off the lightsaber, stepping backward until he hit the wall.

"My God," James said, sliding down the wall. "What have I done?" Andrew and Henshaw unfroze and stood, looking at James then at the Dark Jedi. They all seemed to be prepared to attack and just as they did, the ceiling exploded as twenty hums were heard.

Jedi, all with various blade colors, leapt down into the gym. One with a yellow lightsaber called out, "Don't worry about them, we got it covered." But he spoke this too soon as more Dark Jedi flowed into the gym, tripling the numbers.

"I guess not," Andrew said, attacking the closest Dark Jedi, Henshaw following suit even though they were both exhausted. Nicole kept looking at James, who was still slumped against the wall staring blankly forward. She sighed as she called her lightsaber to her hand and sprang into the fight, still thinking of James.

Andrew had already taken out two of the Dark Jedi and was working on his third when he saw another man enter the room. Andrew could see that he had a lightsaber drawn but not on and just seemed to be waiting. Andrew resumed his fight, trying not to lose any momentum or break his alignment with the Force.

Henshaw had taken out four of them but it seemed to him that if you kill one two more pop up. He too saw the man enter the room but thought nothing of it since the man was not doing anything for the time.

Everyone, however, heard another hum as a figure leapt from the
upper level with a double bladed lightsaber, the twin blades an color orange. All fighting ceased when the person landed, the young woman said, "Sorry for being late. Did you miss me?"

Henshaw stared for a moment before saying, "Alixa! About damn time you showed up!" With those words, Alixa reversed her lightsaber and stabbed a Dark Jedi through the stomach and the fighting resumed.

James, however, was still slumped against the wall, still motionless and staring forward. Nicole was still keeping an eye on him from time to time to make sure he was OK, but still fought while she did.

She dispatched two more and then decided to go after the man that had entered the room. She readied her lightsaber as she charged at the man who swiftly ignited his own and blocked her attack. The move caught Nicole off guard as she attacked again, the man blocking her again.

When she struck again, the man blocked her and punched her in the stomach causing her to lose her breath. She fell to the floor as the man calmly walked up to her, lightsaber ready for the kill. He raised it up and brought it down swiftly.

Nicole closed her eyes and waited for the searing heat. She heard the blade ring and then a low hum and heard a cascade of sparks and the telltale sound of two lightsabers locking.

That's not right, Nicole thought, slowly opening her eyes. She saw a violet blade in front of the red one. What the hell?

She followed the blade of the violet one and saw James with a look of sheer fury on his face. The two separated as Nicole stood up, retrieved her lightsaber, and ran next to James ready to help him.

James looked into her eyes then said, "No. You help them; I'll handle this." With that, he kissed her gently and pushed her back into the main fight.

James looked into the man's eyes, raising his lightsaber. "Didn't your mother teach you not to kill girls, Chris?"

Chris laughed at that, then said, "Nope never did."

"So was that your way of taking out your anger from being expelled from the Academy? That's kind of stupid, don't you think?"

"You don't know what it was like, that feeling of rejection, even though they knew I was better than all the..."

James was fed up now. "You know what, your mouth is moving but all I hear is blah, blah, blah. You need to die." James and Chris sprang at each other, locking blades instantly. Glen's lightsaber struck at James's thigh with his every movement and he knew it would be distracting after a little while, so he unclipped it and threw it aside.

"Taking away your only other weapon, how brave," Chris said as he parried one of James's strikes. James and Chris were locked it a graceful lightsaber duel, like a very violent dance. The two became so caught up with the fight they forgot about everything else except this fight.

James blocked off several of Chris's strikes then fought back with a few of his own, Chris blocking them as well. The two back off as James sensed a Dark Jedi running up to them, the intent of helping Chris in mind. He was charging James from behind, who just stepped out of the way and ran the Dark Jedi through.

"Well, now that's out of the way," James said, getting back into position, "shall we resume?"

"With pleasure," Chris said as he leapt at James, resuming the fight at an even more intense level. The two combatants were using every single skill they knew against each other, both resisting the call of hatred.

Chris smirked with indignant glee as he parried a blow, "You're resisting the call back to the Dark Side well considering you just left it."

"What can I say, I'm better than you are at that," James said while not admitting that resisting the call was very hard for him. James jumped over Chris and tried to land a killing blow, but Chris staved it off and whirled around. Chris feinted a strike at James and then administered a Force Choke on James. James grabbed his throat as he was lifted into the air, an invisible hand crushing his air pipe.

Chris released after a few seconds and held his lightsaber loosely at his fingertips. As James crashed to the floor, Chris went into a dark laughter.

"I'm going to do something and your actions will determine who lives and who dies. I'm going to throw my lightsaber and you'll have two choices. You can give in to your rage and strike me down, but in the chain you will lose someone dear. Or you could save your friends and let me live, your choice."

Chris threw the lightsaber in a guided path past James, who stood for a split second thinking. He tried to resist the urge but he gave in to his rage, raising his lightsaber and charging at Chris. Chris went into a hysterical laughter as he rippled the Force and pushed James away.

"Bad call," Chris said as he guided the lightsaber in a straight line into the mass of fighting Jedi. James leapt into the air and threw his lightsaber at Chris's, hoping it would be quick enough. The lightsabers were flying differently as James was guiding his to try and knock Chris's off balance.

Chris's red lightsaber was flying at Henshaw who was too busy fighting a Dark Jedi to notice it's coming. James's was flying off on the side; James putting every bit of energy he could into it to make it faster than Chris's did. For one brief moment it looked as thought James had gotten his to break off Chris's lightsaber, but James's passed directly under Chris's.

Henshaw finished the Jedi off then looked up, his face twisting with horror as he saw the lightsaber flying at him, to close to reflect it. The lightsaber passed cleanly through Henshaw's chest, piercing through his left lung and severing part of his heart.

"NO!" James screamed as Henshaw crumpled to the ground, letting go of all pretenses as he ran up to Chris and tackled him. The two fell but Chris shoved him off, called his lightsaber to his hand and signaled a retreat. All the Dark Jedi fled after Chris, the twelve remaining Jedi lowering their weapons but not extinguishing them. Once the last Dark Jedi left they all did simultaneously, Nicole running from the masses to James, who was still laying on the floor, shaking.

Nicole knelt down next to him but wasn't quite sure what to do, but James stood up as she got down, walking over to Henshaw's still form. He picked up Henshaw lightly, cradling his head in his hands.

"Master?" James whispered, shaking him lightly and getting no response. James resisted the welling in his eyes but he just let go and began to weep uncontrollably over Henshaw's body. He didn't know what to do anymore, all he knew was that he had just lost his mentor.

"It's my fault," James said, standing up and wiping his eyes. He looked down and saw Henshaw's lightsaber on the ground. He picked it up, stared at it for a moment and then burst into tears again, burying his face into his hands.

Alixa and Andrew both walked up to Nicole and watched James weep over the loss of his Master. James crumpled to his knees still sobbing uncontrollably into his hands. The only thoughts that were going through his head were just how much he had changed in a year. One year ago Henshaw could have died and James wouldn't have cared, but now he was crying over his passing.

"God it's all my fault!" James shouted, looking up at the shattered ceiling and into the night sky above.

Andrew looked from Nicole to Alixa, saying, "What should we do?"

"We need to leave him alone, that's what's best for him right now," Alixa said, turning and walking over to one of the Jedi. Andrew slowly backed off but Nicole stayed glued to her spot on the floor. She couldn't take her eyes off him, just he way that he was handling himself.

He had told her once that he never cried for the loss of anyone, not even his grandparents passing. But now he was on the floor weeping for a man he used to despise in every way. It was almost unbelievable to watch the way he was carrying himself, weeping as though the family pet was just killed by your drunken father.

James's face, now shining with tears, kept staring up into space. He looked a moment longer then shouted again, "It's my fault! Damn it, it's all my fault! Chris, I know you can hear me you rat fucking son-of-a-bitch. The next time we meet, you shit, I will kill you! I will kill you with no regret or remorse! I'm gonna make you suffer until you beg for me to kill you! But I'm not just gonna kill you, I'm gonna fucking murder you! Do you hear me, I'm gonna murder you!"