Last time: The Jedi, the Mandos, and Cien face off against Dracul's forces.

Now: Cien and the Jedi face down Dracul.

Chapter 18- Battle of Light and Dark

They made it up the side of the hill, to the entrance of the cave, Cien still leading the way. As they entered, they did not hesitate. The cavern was a small space, maybe twenty five meters wide and twenty deep. In the center was a crude, raised dias. Dracul was standing squarely in the middle of the space, expectantly. His hands were clasped in front of him, patiently awaiting their entrance.

"Cien." He said, taunting her as she entered a little ahead of the others, "so glad you could return to my service."

"I will never be in your service again!" She growled.

"Ah, but you have already done so well." He said, opening his hands in a grand gesture to encompass the Jedi as they entered the cave and fanned out.

"Cien, what does he mean by that?" Viran asked as he shot a brief look of confusion that was slightly mixed with a glare to Cien before looking back to Dracul.

"This was all part of my plan to bring you here." He said, looking squarely at Oppie, a mocking tone in his dark voice. "And she played her part so well."

With a growl, Cien rushed forward, her saber ignited as she tried to pierce his heart.

"CIEN!" Sasha called after her, but Cien didn't listen. Her focus was solely on Dracul.

His saber snapped to his hand and he parried her thrust easily. She let loose a series of quick slices before the Jedi could even approach, and Dracul blocked them all with his red blade. The Jedi attempted to move in to provide her aid, but with a simple flick of his wrist, he sent the Jedi skidding backwards away from their fight. Obviously, he didn't want the Jedi to interfere with their duel at the moment. Then Dracul crashed down on her saber with a diagonal slice meant to behead her that she barely stopped, using one hand to push down against her blade while she strained with a two handed grip, trying to keep his blade at bay. She rotated out and back, and shot lightning at him, which he dismissed with a minor wave of his hand. The Jedi were just getting back into position to join the fray, and he used the Force to pick her up by the throat, and slammed her against the wall with a burst of his own Sith lightning. Cien fell to the ground with a cry of pain and did not move, unconscious or dead the Jedi could not tell.

Sasha watched Cien crumble to the ground in a heap. As she was the closest one to her, Sasha felt the burning need in her bones to rush to Cien's side and check on her. However, she could still sense Cien's presence through their unique bond, but it was weak. That was enough to reassure Sasha that Cien would be okay for now while they now had their chance to take on Dracul. So she turned her gaze back to the Sith Lord before them.

As one, the three Jedi charged forward, their sabers ablaze. Oppie leading the charge slightly ahead of the others, Viran on his left, Sasha on his right. The Dark Lord fell back into a more settled stance, preparing to deal with them. He used the Force to push out at Oppie, he spun around the blast as though it was a lightsaber blow, while around him Sasha and Viran swept in from his sides. Viran reached him first just slightly, facing Dracul's saber and attacking it with a quick series of blows, trying to distract long enough for Sasha to get an opening.

Sasha swung at Dracul, sending a strike at his side. Without even looking at her, Dracul used the Force and deflected her attack back, sending her back, staggering.

Oppie rushed in, using his twin sabers to slice at different targets on the Dark Lord while Viran still kept his saber busy. Dracul stepped back, modifying his stance so Oppie's shorter shoto off-hand was no longer a threat. Oppie's main hand saber was simply stopped by the Force with a movement of Dracul's hand, locking it in the air as if it was embedded in stone.

With Dracul distracted, Sasha found an opening and went in with an overhead strike. Dracul turned his attention away from Viran for a moment to glance at Sasha and Oppie, using his hold on Oppie's main hand saber to sweep it up, blocking the blow from Sasha with Oppie's blade as both of them went flying, caught in the current of the Force as he dragged the saber through the air.

Oppie and Sasha dispatched for a moment, Dracul turned his full attention back to Viran. The Dark Lord attacked with a series of vicious chops, but Viran danced around the Dark Lord's blade, avoiding the swings while he moved in with his own counters. The Dark Lord advanced, and Viran stepped back, using his agility against the brute power of Dracul to keep him busy. Subtly, he turned the line of his retreat away in the opposite direction from where Oppie and Sasha were already recovering from the previous blow. Behind him, then ran in, their sabers ready. Dracul countered, picking Viran up with a sweeping gesture and sending him up over his head as the Dark Lord turned, sending Viran flying into Sasha like a missile.

Skidding to a stop, Sasha lowered her blade just as Viran collided with her. They both crashed to the ground, groaning. It was a solid moment before Sasha could even breath as the wind was knocked out of her. Once air returned to her lungs, Sasha moved to sit up with a wince as the impact hurt. Viran couldn't move, he was out cold.

Oppie had swept past the scene, a split second of worry for Viran and Sasha was overshadowed by the need to end this, quickly. He ran for Dracul, his sabers out. He caught Dracul's saber between his two blades, forking it up and over his head as he rotated around the Dark Lord and brought his main hand around, trying to cleave through them. Dracul stepped back and brought his saber down to block. With his free left hand he sent a burst of Sith lightning at the Jedi Knight, which Oppie deflected with his shoto as he swept his main hand upward from the ground, trying to slice the Sith in half. Dracul parried the upward blow to the side with his saber as Oppie stepped in with his left foot, trying to cut off the Sith's right hand using his shoto. Dracul rotated out and slammed his saber into the offhand, knocking it out of the Jedi's hand. Instantly falling back to a two handed grip on his main, Oppie locked sabers with the Dark Lord as they looked face to face across their sabers, trying to push against each other's block. Oppie struggled, looking into the iron face of the helmet, as he was pushed back, slowly.

Sasha managed to get to her feet, her ribs, that she assumed were bruised, protesting her movement. She reactivated her lightsaber and charged forward, taking advantage of the opening as Dracul and Oppie were locked. She couldn't even get in attacking distance before Dracul, with just a glance, sent her flying back again. She was starting to find it really annoying how he kept throwing her aside like a rag doll each time she tried to attack.

The glance gave Oppie an opening, using Dracul's strength to push him back and out, rotating again and flaring his saber out behind him to keep his balance. Dracul swept around, bringing his free left hand up toward Oppie, and sent a storm of Sith lightning his way. Oppie threw his hand up, and the lightning disappeared through a fold, reemerging behind Dracul, who turned and deflected it with his saber. He turned back to Oppie, his entire body language belying his anger. He lifted Oppie with the Force, a great pressure crushing his chest like a fist closing across his entire body. Oppie reached out with his hand, his forgotten shoto flying across the room, igniting mid-flight and straight for Dracul's helmet. It stopped, midair, its movement arrested instantly, and the tip of the blade only a few centimeters from the Dark Lord's helmet. The Dark Lord, still holding up Oppie, turned slowly to look at the tip that was so near.

Taking advantage of the saber's distraction, Sasha raised both her hands and used the Force to try to push Dracul back, in the hope he would release Oppie. The shoto dropped, the blade extinguished, as Dracul rotated Oppie around to shield the Dark Lord from the Force push. The energy visibly impacted the Jedi as he grunted in pain. Sasha grimaced slightly as she didn't want the attack to hit Op. Dracul, still holding Oppie, now focused his attention on Sasha, and plucked her from the ground, surrounding her in the same closed fist that encased Oppie, and dragging her through the air to float next to the other Jedi.

"Enough of this." Dracul declared, spitting the words out as he regarded the two Jedi floating before him, struggling against the crushing pressure of his grip. He turned to look at the Master. "Open the portal for me to access the world between worlds, or she dies in front of you."

"No…" Sasha gasped against the crushing pain. "Don't do it Op…"

Oppie looked at the Sith incredulously. Despite the situation, he was shocked. "You… need me to...?" Oppie asked, as he tried to speak through the crush.

Dracul crushed Sasha more tightly, and she cried out in pain, refocusing Oppie.

"I can't." Oppie said, struggling to speak.

"Do it, or she dies." Dracul stated, his voice filled with menace.

"I don't know how." Oppie gasped, "I can't."

Dracul's head slowly tilted to the side in puzzlement. "You've opened the portal twice. Do not lie to me." He crushed the two of them harder, eliciting cries of pain from both.

"No, I didn't…" Oppie said, trying to explain, gasping the words out.

Dracul looked at the Master for a moment, and then the realization dawned. "The first time was just a mistake." He growled, crushing Oppie tighter, Oppie gritted his teeth, bearing the pain. "And the second time…" He trailed off, and his gaze slowly rotated to look at Sasha instead. And then he laughed, his malicious, evil laugh dripping with untold madness. Then he cast Oppie aside, throwing him against the cavern wall with such force that Oppie fell to the ground, unconscious as fragments of the wall fell with him.

Dracul dragged Sasha closer through the air to stare him in the eye, face to face. "A rarity you have the privilege to witness, Jedi." The words dripped with disdain. "I was wrong."

A gasp escaped her lips, not only from the shock of the words Dracul had just uttered, but also from the pain as he still held her tightly. There was a flash of black, as if she had just blinked, and she herself blinked several times, dismissing the flutter.

"Open the portal for me, or they die." He told her, still looking her in the eyes. "I can be very imaginative in such things." He said with dreadful humor.

Glaring at him, Sasha shook her head. "I won't do it." Determination lined her voice, despite the pain she was in.

Dracul looked her in the eye. "Truely?" He asked, then he turned his gaze to Cien, and her limp form rose from the ground. Her limbs and hair hanging limply, she was aloft in the same grip that held Sasha. Dracul turned his gaze back to Sasha.

"No…" She struggled to let out as she looked over to Cien, but winced at the pain in her body as his grip didn't loosen.

Dracul followed Sasha's gaze to look back at Cien. With a sickening crush, the Sith's body and chest collapsed in on itself, the fist that had been holding her aloft closing. Her torso and chest were squeezed in, her flesh reduced to a pulp as shattered fragments of her bones and ribs ripped through and punctured outwards through her tunic, and a spray of blood painted the walls. Her ruined remains dropped to the ground, forgotten by the Dark Lord as he turned to look Sasha in the eye.

Tears threatening to escape, Sasha glared at Dracul as she tore her eyes away from Cien's dead form. Even though Cien was still a Sith, she didn't deserve that cruelty. And the pain that started to rise in her heart told her that she truly did care for Cien as a friend. But she couldn't fail her either by letting him win. "I won't open it. I'm...am not afraid of you." However, her voice betrayed her as she said that.

A sick dragging sound rang across the cavern floor as Oppie's unconscious body was dragged before them. Without breaking eye contact, Dracul lifted him aloft. The movement had woken the Jedi up, but he seemed in a daze, his eyes focused on her. "Sasha… don't" he managed to say, before Dracul ripped into his body with Force lightning. Oppie's screams filled the cavern as he writhed, falling to the ground, completely enveloped in the lightning as he was tortured to death. The screams rose to inhuman shrieks, and then he fell silent, the lightning faded away as nothing was left but a smoking, burnt, ruined corpse covered in unrecognizable black burns.

"No… no… please stop!" Sasha cried out as she watched Oppie die. Her tears now falling as she stared at his body. She just got him back and he was dead again. But Dracul can't win. The pain that was now enveloping her heart told her to stop resisting and just open the damn portal, but something very deep down inside of her told her to not believe everything she was seeing. However, that voice was muted compared to sorrow and despair she was feeling. "Please...Oppie...no..." Her voice trailed off as she dropped her chin to her chest, trying to control her sobs as it hurt while still being held in Dracul's iron clad Force grip.

Viran, still unconscious from when he had been used against her as a weapon, floated up, and Dracul cruelly rotated her to look upon his form as he hung there, limply like Cien had.

"Open the portal." Dracul commanded, his voice a low growl.

Shifting her gaze to Viran's body, Sasha immediately felt her body pale. No, not Viran. She couldn't live if Viran died. Not after he just proposed to her. She wanted to marry him. Start a family with him. Even grow old with him. But she couldn't open the portal either and let Dracul win. She was at war with herself on what to do. Every decision she would make would have consequences. If only she could move, then she could slash at Dracul and maybe save Viran, but her arms were frozen to her sides. As she stared at her beloved Viran, her voice escaped her as she visibly shook with fear, anger, and a deep sadness. "I...a…" She tried but words were just not forming.

Dracul rose his hand, and red lightning poured out. The pain awoke Viran for just a moment, and he looked at Sasha one last time, the surprise, the pain, the agony, his love for her all evident in a split second before his eyes closed, and his body slumped in death.

"NO!" She screamed as she felt his life force slip away.

The lightning continued, for long, anguishing moments before it stopped. And Dracul let him drop. He landed, lightly on his feet, and looked up at Sasha. His face spread in a euphoric smile. "Oh, Sasha." He said, his voice airy, his eyes focused on her, but distant, and resembling nothing of the Viran she knew, empty of the life they always shone with, and most of all of the love they always held for her when he looked at her. "You should experience this."

"Viran… no…" Her voice shook as she stared at him. "NO!" She released a blood curdling scream as she realized all of her friends were dead. The man she loved most, her fiance, was dead. Her brother, dead. Cien, dead. Sasha felt her heart break as she continued to scream out in pain at their deaths and the Force around her shook. She had failed… she had failed them all… and at what cost?

Sasha, a distant voice called out to her.

"Open the portal for me." Dracul commanded again.

Sasha, Cien's voice rang out weakly, it's not real.

A gasp escaped her lips as Sasha heard Cien's voice reaching out to her. Whipping her head around, Sasha looked over to Cien's ruined body. But the gruesome corpse didn't move or speak or even breath. A wave of confusion washed over her face as she looked at Cien's body.

"Cien?" her voice cracked in a whisper as Sasha looked at her.

He's like us, her voice gasped from so far away, it's the mindspace.

With a growl, Dracul dropped the charade. The whole thing dissolving away and they appeared in the infinite blackness of his mind, Dracul still gripping her cruelly in the air, before she thrust back into her body back in the cavern. Sasha gasped as she looked around at what just happened to see if it really way just a dream or was real. Viran was still unconscious where he had lain before, as was Oppie. Cien had lifted herself off the ground, laying there with one arm propping her up, it was obvious she was in pain, blood poured across her scalp, and from her mouth, she was having trouble staying conscious, but she was looking at Sasha.

A breath of relief escaped her lips as she looked at her friends still alive. It had been fake, but it felt so real. And apparently the tears she had been crying in the mindspace, she had been crying in the real world too. But now the tears that fell were of relief for her friends being alive, instead of their deaths.

Dracul turned to look at Cien, then turned to look back at Sasha. "I will show you their deaths a thousand times, a thousand different ways until you open the portal for me." He threatened, carelessly sending a backhand at Cien through the Force, which knocked her head back, and she fell back to the ground. She was still conscious, but barely, so grievously injured she could not move, and watched helplessly.

Sasha turned to look back at Dracul. She held her tongue as she thought about what he said. She couldn't witness that again. Let alone see another thousand times. Her heart was still recovering from what she had just seen, even if it was fake. Sasha gulped as a lump formed in her throat. She closed her eyes and lowered her head in defeat. She couldn't believe she was about to say this, but she couldn't lose them again. "I'll do it," she whispered, defeated. "Just please… don't hurt them."

Dracul opened his fist, and she fell to the ground. He stepped aside, and watched her closely, to learn the form. Sasha groaned as she pulled herself from the floor. Her body protested every move she made as it felt like it could breathe again. Sasha then looked past Dracul towards the dias and walked forward. Taking a shaking breath, Sasha wiped her tears then closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry…" Sasha whispered under breath and through the Force to the others. "I can't lose you again."

Just like on Arbortarum, Sasha moved through the form once again, feeling the Force move around her. After a few moments, the portal opened before her. Slowly opening her eyes, Sasha held the portal open. Her arms were already starting to shake as she held it open due to her sore body still protesting any movement. And just beyond the opening, she could see the void once again.

Dracul, understanding of the power finally within his grasp, usurped control of the portal from her and held it open. He looked her in the eyes. "Thank you." He said mockingly, before he used the Force to send her flying backward, slamming into the same wall he had Cien, she fell to the ground, next to the other Sith.

When she impacted the wall, she felt ribs break as well as a few other bones. And when she hit the ground, her head connected with a rock. Instantly, Sasha blacked out as blood started to drip down her face.

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