Mel could not help but feel slightly tense. Obviously this was an obscene understatement, given her circumstances. She was currently walking around, falsely nonchalant, in the middle of a space-age war, hoping not to die, while hoping her friend didn't die because that would also end in her own demise. No pressure really should have been her motto today, it really should.

But she'd come up with the apparently brilliant idea that they should hang out in the training area. Not only were there lightsabers there (they hadn't been approved for actually carrying the weapons anyway, but it was self-defense today), but it was a good-sized room that was also fairly out of the way. It was as safe as anywhere, what with the chaos in the skies.

Katie stayed close to her friend, walking nearer than she would have normally. She was tense as well, and more than a little afraid. Now was not a good time to have an attack of inadequacy concerning her skills, but she was never convenient. She was also feeling awfully expendable. Obviously, if she'd actually been important, she wouldn't have been thrown to the wolves! Feeling like a terrible coward, she wished that she were somewhere safe. Anakin would have had some sort of guard, he was important enough, so why couldn't she watch the battle from somewhere behind a desk with him?

Though Mel was having some vaguely similar thoughts, she was oddly excited. She'd been on a sort of adrenaline high all morning and the idea of actually getting to do something with it was sickeningly thrilling. In a way, so was the idea of killing another human being. She'd never actually seen someone die, and obviously never by her own hand. As much as it was wrong, it was fascinating. How would it feel, and… this was the worst part. What if she liked it?

Each deep in their own damning thoughts, both feeling weirdly disgusted with themselves, they reached the door. Oh, that door. It was a large one, what an earthly constructor would have made into a double door, though it now swooshed to one side. Katie could not help but wonder, later, what would have been if they had left that door alone…

But they did not. Mel went first, in her typical role as leader. Katie followed closely, tensing to run (thought where she did not know). They'd made it through and closed that door, halfway to the wall, when they saw them.

'Them' was a group at the opposite door, who looked just as surprised to see the two girls. They were made up of three droids, three Rebel-looking human beings, and a man (or so he looked) in Jedi clothing. There was a brief standoff as both sides blinked at the other, unsure.

Then, three things happened at once. Mel ran towards the sabers, the others opened fire, and Katie reacted. She threw up a massive wall of energy, shielding (or trying to) both her and her friend. So as all hell broke loose, Katie was clutching at her forearms. She'd flung them out, needing a pathway for this energy to travel, and it had hurt. She'd honestly felt burning all along those veins, and for a single, delirious moment, she saw black struck through with flame and an old song ran through her head. There's a fire, in your veins, burning hot, but you don't feel the pain…

But that was over soon, and she found herself catching the saber Mel tossed to her, and then letting her wall fade out. She'd used what seemed like a huge amount of power on that, and now she felt weirdly drained. It was her first major expenditure, and she would feel it later.

Mel rushed headlong into the trio of driods, feeling a heady rush as she flew even higher on the adrenaline surge. It was the best saber work she'd ever done, she thought later. Flawless execution of some pretty advanced moves, though her opponents did not appreciate that. Spare parts flew about, creating a fair spray of shrapnel. She did not see this, but one of these managed to whiz by and slice open a rather nasty wound on the opposing Jedi (was he really? He had a saber, and the clothing, but who knew?)'s face.

Katie had ripped open her first opponent's leg, nearly severing it at the thigh. She'd really only been aiming for that artery there, but he'd made her angry as one of his shots grazed her knee. She had another in the air, trying to choke him. She'd just been shown how to do this, and obviously had been unable to practice. It involved trying to wrap a sort of hand around the windpipe, and then crushing it. But this man was refusing to die! He'd been turning blue for what seemed like ages, but hadn't yet stilled. She was unsure of what to do, and she was missing her blocking because of it. So she did what seemed like the best idea at the time, and simply flung him at the wall. Ignoring the slight crash as he crumpled in a corner, she turned to see how the rest of the skirmish was going.

Mel was currently in a duel of sorts with the other 'Jedi', who seemed to be attempting murder by throwing things. The third human seemed to be waiting until he could snipe Mel off, which seemed to be why the 'Jedi' was maneuvering the girl into a better position. This was entirely unacceptable.

So the man lost his head, in a rather more literal sense than he ever had before. Rather a large chunk of his shoulder came along with it, due to Katie's rather overly exuberant strike from behind. Ignoring the blood that was now covering her hands, she turned to her friend and her assailant.

The mystery man hurled one of the smoking piles of shrapnel at Katie, who tried to dodge out of the way and slipped and fell on the wet floor.

That taken care of, he turned to grin rather nastily at Mel. For a brief moment he realized how very young she was, and how it was generally against his nature to kill females. But then again, most females were unarmed.

Mel glared furiously at him, from where she'd been backed against the wall. Trying to gather the threads of her mind together, determined to actually use the Force for once, Mel found herself with a demented grin. "I'm going to kill you!" She yelled at him, still riding that high.

He laughed at her, his grin as deranged. They were very similar looking, for that split second, Resistance and Imperial alike. "No, you're wrong. You're very, very wrong. I'm going to kill you." There was a wrenching, creaking sound as something began to come apart.

From her place on the floor some feet away Katie desperately tried to gather enough energy to choke him, but found herself terrifyingly dry.

Mel looked up for a moment, and found herself frozen in place. The platform some fifteen feet above her head was coming away from the wall, twisted and jagged pieces of metal glinting down merrily at her. "Oh shit," she murmured.

He laughed suddenly, eyes so happy and blue shining madly. "Oh shit is right." They were both so engrossed in the moment that seemed to be eternity, that neither heard Katie's desperate "No!"

Mel looked up again, one last time, as a half-ton of jagged metal fell on her with a vengeance. Oddly enough, she thought, it didn't hurt that much. As blankness swirled around her, she had one last thing on her mind. And that was the sudden taste of blood.

- - -

The world had seemed to slow for Katie, as she scrambled to her feet. She couldn't hear herself screaming, couldn't tell if the pained yell was echoing in her mind alone. Something, probably a slice of metal blown free from the crash, whizzed by her face. It cut her, opened a slash on her collarbone, though she did not feel it at all.

But she was not completely numbed, at least not in her mind. A wall of rage and pain and hate had risen up, and it had swamped her defenses. No matter how many times she'd been told to leave such emotion alone, she found herself using them. This was a rush beyond that of the adrenaline, one that made her feel vengeful and immune to pain, except that of her friend's almost certain death.

She would have slowed, given she'd had any control left, when she saw that this Jedi, this… man, wasn't far older than she, probably twenty at the latest. But he'd forfeited his claim on life, and that of a decent death.

What had been little more than a chaotic skirmish took on the feel of a more epic battle. He had been looking forward, earlier that is, to returning in a blaze of glory. Now that seemed closer than ever, and he'd even actually run into some Sith! But for a moment, a quick one lost in the motion, he'd been afraid. The look on her face, when that platform had come down… Maybe it would be best if he finished it fast, without a flourish.

It was surreal. Katie could barely feel the ground beneath her feet, and felt like she was somewhere far away, and someone else was her hands. Where there had been that sickening hollow, right between her ribs, there was something burning. It felt wrong, but then it didn't, and she didn't give a damn to the condition of her soul if it meant that he would die!

He would himself wearing down, surprised at the half-mad way she was managing to wear him down. He'd thrown out as much of the force he'd had left, but had lost miserably at that tact. Thinking, for that single fatal moment, he missed her cue. Faltering, he was lost for a single heartbeat.

She drove in and down, catching him right across his saber hand. Severing that, viciously with a grin on her face, she did not give him time to feel the pain. Tearing up across his abdomen she disarmed him again, with a horrible and unconscious laugh.

And he fell, blood bubbling on his lips disgustingly, at her feet. Without a shred of mercy she abandoned her illusions of decency, of decorum, of The Code, and stepped on his throat. Bearing down slowly, eyes locked with his, she eventually choked the life from what had rapidly become a battered piece of humanity.

Riding the waves of pain, of rage, she did not stop. Up to here she had been justified, had felt righteous in her utter destruction of this killer. He had not a name, she did not need one for him, as that would have made him human. This way, he was not, merely something to destroy. Without thinking, beyond rational thought, she began viciously dismembering the corpse, ripping it to barely recognizable parts and pieces.

When there was finally nothing left to do, she came (slowly) to herself. Finding herself standing above this pool of blood, she felt a sudden, painful stab of pity. Quashing it, she turned away to throw up.

But she did not get that far. The man that she had botched the killing of, the one she'd tried to throw against the wall was not dead yet. He was a doomed man, it was sure, but he had a few moments in him yet. Finding his arm utterly without ammunition, he'd done the next best thing. Reversing it, he'd pistol-whipped her, right at the base of her skull.

Spinning about with the excessive force, she (mercifully) blacked out, sprawled out in this gory field of needless carnage. Muttering bitterly to himself the man limped back down against the wall, where he leaned. Letting out a deep sigh with his last breath, he closed his eyes, a smile on his lips.