METACORN
Kira struck harder and harder against Talon's offensives, changing the direction of her saber's movement to adjust to her opponent's fighting style.
All the while, Kira was forced to move her feet to the rhythm of the duel, in order to both avoid Talon's deadly onslaught and to gain ground against the Twi'lek.
The problem was that Talon was fighting with not one but two lightsabers. Kira had to work twice as hard as a result, tiring out much faster than she might have otherwise.
Talon was lunging in a circle with a whirling motion with both the red and purple sabers, leaving Kira with only the option to retreat without much room to gain the offensive.
"Are you sure you're Skywalker's best student?" Talon asked, "You're even worse now than you were on Ord Mantell."
"At least I don't get just get by as my Master's pet," Kira spat, "Why does Skyler like you so much, anyway?"
"You don't know anything!" Talon shouted, now provoked by anger. Kira felt a strong satisfaction at having gotten under the skin of her enemy, but Talon's increased aggression left her with little room to enjoy it. She was able to backflip a slight distance from Talon, then hold up her blade in a diagonal defensive stance as the young Sith charged with both her own weapon and Tahiri's.
CORUSCANT
Luke and Leia were now completely surrounded on the bridge over with Nihl, Kallus and Paxis on one side with an assortment of Coalition warriors and Judicar and Wyyrlok leading another batch of guerrillas on the other.
"The Master of the Order himself," Nihl sneered, "Here to put the commoners in their place. Well, we'll show these Jedi thugs what we think of that!" This brought a cheer from the Coalition and Cartel forces.
"You do not represent the goodwill of the people," Leia said to Nihl, "These people do not realize that you will turn around and crush them as soon as they are no use to you."
"You mean like this?" Nihl asked. He motioned for the Coalitioners to open fire, and he advanced with his fellow Sith disciples on Luke and Leia at the same time.
Luke and Leia moved in harmony, creating a whirlwind with their two lightsabers that kept both the heavy torrent of blasterfire and the Sith lightsabers from striking them.
The guerrilla fighters charged, and Luke and Leia made very brief eye contact before initiating their next move of defense.
Each Skywalker sibling raised a hand and released a powerful wave of energy, sending several dozen bodies flying out of the Ravine towards the streets.
Nihl, Paxis, and Kallus flew to one side, and Judicar and Wyyrlok landed on the other end of the Ravine.
Eighty Coalition bodies hit the ground, and about a quarter of the attacking strike force did not recover.
Silently, Luke and Leia each moved towards one side of the level divide, with Luke choosing the side of the abandoned nightclub and Leia choosing the freighter-liner station.
Nihl, Paxis and Kallus charged Luke, while Judicar and Wyyrlok rushed to attack Leia.
Both Jedi Masters were able to deflect nearly a hundred laser shots back at the mercenaries who had fired at them before the first red lightsaber made contact with their own swords.
Leia had an easy time defending against Judicar and Wyyrlok, even with Wyyrlok's double bladed saberstaff.
She pushed Judicar's saber away with a hard thrust of her saber while kicking Wyyrlok as his stance left an opening in his torso area.
She looked to the distance where Luke was holding off Nihl, Kallus and Paxis all at once, as well as the remaining Coalition invaders on his side of the Ravine.
Republic Interceptors had begun pouring in, opening fire on the hovering Sycks and Hawk gunships.
Inside the largest transport carrier bound for the former Hutt palace, Aruga the Hutt fretted, "This was impossible from the start! The Dark Master set us up to fail!"
"We can still win this battle," Gorga replied, "Even with the Jedi here."
With the Republic fighters occupied, the large gunship landed safely atop the towering hangar in the hideout. Protected by IG assassin droids, Gorga and Krunge led the way as the entire Hutt council slithered into the nightclub.
"This is Captain McCallum reporting in," the lead Interceptor pilot said into his radio of his Interceptor as he blasted through the Cartel fighters, "Do you read me?"
"Copy, Rogue Two," Trix replied from her own fighter, "Now if only we had the Falcon and the Commander with us, this would be a piece of cake."
"How's one out of two for you?" asked a familiar voice.
Han Solo and Chewbacca had picked up the Millennium Falcon from the Senate, and now sailed through level 1313 into the heart of the battlefield.
Leia could not help but smile and gasp with joy as she sent Judicar flying into the pile of mercenaries fifty feet away, his blade accidentally slicing two of them in half and stabbing a Whiphid in the belly.
Wyyrlok twirled his saberstaff in his hands as he leapt around Leia, directing one end of the weapon at her, then the other.
Leia was more than fast enough to adjust to the younger duelist's unusual style of dueling, and was able to slice down into the long hilt.
Wyyrlok looked surprised as he stared down at his broken weapon.
He then lunged at Leia with both halves gripped tightly in his fists, but she knocked the right one out of his hand with a stroke of her lightsaber against the broken hilt.
Luke, meanwhile, Force-pushed Paxis into Kallus, sending them both crashing to the ground.
Nihl's extra long blade was admittedly harder to push back against, but Luke had far more experience in the Force to make up for it.
He jumped straight up to avoid a low sweep from Nihl, then somersaulted backwards to land in the midst of a group of Coalition warriors.
The bewildered guerrillas quickly fumbled to shoot at the Jedi in their midst, but Luke waved his hand and sent them all flying into the air without touching one of them with his lightsaber. Some guerrilla fighters crashed into the nearby buildings and fell with a thud while others disappeared off the ledge into the depths of the Aradonti Ravine.
"There they are, Chewie," Han said from the cockpit of the Falcon, shouting so Chewie hear him from the gunning turret.
METACORN
Tahiri had run into the bar to take cover, but was met by the drawing of several blasters.
"It's over for you, Jedi," a bearded Chiss said.
Tahiri leapt into the air as the blasters fired, many of them hitting other patrons of the bar who had aimed at her.
Tahiri landed on a table and used the Force to summon a pistol that had belonged to the now-wounded Chiss, running outside to join Kira.
Tahiri pointed the pistol at the occupied Talon and fired.
The Twi'lek dipped the purple saber at Tahiri to block her shot, causing Tahiri to dive out of the way as the laser blast hit the wall.
Kira jabbed low toward the young woman's abdomen, aiming a deadly stab.
Talon swatted her lightsaber out of the way, but the tip of Kira's blue blade caught her hip and caused her to stumble and cry out in pain.
Tahiri was quick to react to this, reaching for her confiscated lightsaber in Talon's possession and summon it back to her.
The purple blade glided through the air into Tahiri's outstretched hand, allowing her to join the duel.
Talon was now forced to retreat from her two opponents, dodging both Kira and Tahiri as they attacked.
As soon as Tahiri trapped Talon's lightsaber with her own, Kira tried to exploit the dark apprentice's injury, striking at her scarred hip.
Talon kicked up at Kira's arm, but Kira caught her foot and pulled.
Talon sprawled onto the rocky ground, her weapon slipping from her long fingernails.
With a furious grunt, Kira tried to bring her lightsaber down into Talon's body, but Tahiri put her hand on her arm.
"Hey, easy," she urged, "We got her already."
Kira glared down at the Sith woman, still full of fury.
"It's the least we deserve after everything we've been through. Somebody has to pay."
"Somebody will," Talon replied, making a fist.
Tahiri slipped sideways and collided with the wall.
Kira's head instinctively twitched to where her friend had landed, and this allowed Talon to get to her feet and pull her lightsaber back into her hand.
"See what you did?" Kira snapped, resuming her attack and pulling her lightsaber back to swing it hard at Talon.
Talon ducked under the blue bar of energy and came up with a swipe of her own.
Tahiri made up the ground and raised her lightsaber to bring it down.
Talon Force-jumped away from the two Jedi, onto the roof of the junk dealership, whose Neimodian owner was hiding behind the counter.
At the same time, Kira and Tahiri jumped up after her, but were met by pieces of electrical wiring flying from the dealership floor towards them.
The two teenage Jedi avoided the pieces of junk flying at them as they landed on the roof.
Talon ran past them and leapt across the street onto the roof of Chalmun's bar.
"Running away now?" Kira asked, automatically rushing to jump over the avenue after her.
Tahiri was slightly behind, but was forced to avoid a heavy, broken-down GNK droid that Talon had used the Force to send her way.
Kira landed on the roof where Talon stood, charging before she had a chance to flee again.
Talon had difficulty keeping up with the invigorated Kira, and eventually backed away to the edge of the rooftop.
Tahiri joined Kira on top of the bar, approaching slowly.
"You're out of your element, you pathetic sycophant," Tahiri said to their foe, "No matter what tricks you pull, you'll never be a real master of the dark side."
"Oh, I have one more trick that just might make all the difference," Talon replied with a wink.
She dipped her blade downwards into the rooftop and carved a circle with it.
Kira and Tahiri dove after Talon and all three women crashed onto the floor of Chalmun's bar.
The white-furred Wookiee roared in anger as Talon quickly scared the remaining patrons from the bar.
The young female Twi'lek approached Chalmun, pointing her lightsaber towards his hairy chest.
"Play it for me," she said to the Wookiee, "you know exactly what I mean."
As Kira and Tahiri watched in confusion, Chalmun turned on a hologram, depicting the Blue Harvest perched on the side of a magma volcano.
Another ship hovered over Sam's attack shuttle, a sinisterly familiar design.
"Sam!" Kira realized with a terrible jolt.
Talon smiled wickedly as a voice spoke from the holoprojector.
"Kira Solo, I was wondering when we'd meet again," Ultor said, "We came close a couple of times recently, but you were unfortunately lucky. This time, your luck has run out."
Ultor's face then replaced the two ships in the holoprojector, showing the full color of his wrathful image. This time, his eyes pierced Kira from up close, albeit from the safety of his SuperStealther.
Inside the cockpit of the Harvest, Sam tried not to panic as Ultor held him hostage. He had no chance of escape, Sam knew. If he tried to take off from his landing point, Ultor would instantly open fire and blow him to bits.
Sam had served the Republic to the best of his ability, he told himself. He had tried to be a loyal friend and comrade on and off the field. Sam would die with that knowledge, and that would have to be enough.
"I will make you pay for this, Skyler," Kira warned, trembling with rage where she stood. Her hands were letting out more sweat than her hair, and her lightsaber hilt threatened to slip from her shaky grasp.
"You see the predicament you have put yourself into, little Jedi brat?" Talon said, "The Jedi have always had the same weakness, and it will ultimately cost you everything."
"You see that I have your dear friend, Commander Fel, helplessly at my mercy," Ultor said from the cockpit of his SuperStealther, "Isn't it a shame that you didn't get to say a proper goodbye? That your last words to him were words of anger and impulsiveness?"
Kira choked on the words stuck in her throat.
"It'll be okay," Tahiri whispered.
Kira could only take out her emotions on the first available target. She once again raised her lightsaber and leapt over the table to strike at Talon, who poised her blade low to retaliate.
Nobody paid attention to the Wookiee Chalmun as he turned and disappeared out the back door, away from the chaos inside his place of business.
As Kira and Talon clashed blades, Tahiri aimed a sideways kick and caught Talon with her foot.
Talon once again stumbled and fell over, little match for the two Jedi women.
"Whatever you do to my dear apprentice, will not change the fate of your precious Sam," Ultor warned.
Kira could now see his face displayed by the holoprojector, looking even more menacing without the mask he had once worn. Ultor's clearly visible eyes and mouth delivered more of a threat than any cowl or cloak could have.
"You hesitate now," Ultor taunted, satisfied at Kira's helplessness, "that the life of your dear commander is at stake. Do you love him, Kira? Do you want to kiss him and have him as your own?"
"Shut up!" Kira shouted, fully consumed by rage, "When I see you, I promise I will MAKE YOU PRAY FOR DEATH!" Her face was nearly purple and she was ready to slice the Dark Master into as many pieces as there were stars in the Core Worlds.
"Kira, please," Tahiri whispered, shocked at her friend's intense rage and vulnerability.
Ultor responded by firing at the top wing of Sam's shuttle, knocking it off without damaging the rest of the ship.
"NO!" Kira yelled, blindly and unconsciously slicing the table in half, nearly missing Talon's headtail Lekku.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Talon rolled out of the way and got to her feet, starting at a run.
"Stop right there!" Tahiri said, starting to chase after her.
However, Tahiri then turned to find Kira banging both her fist and her lightsaber wherever she could, and decided to instead let Talon go and return to the side of her closest friend.
"I hate you!" Kira yelled, practically sobbing, "I hate you, I hate you!"
"You see what I can do, Solo?" he asked, "You see that I can crush your helpless boyfriend with no hope of escape. And by extension, I can control you. That is the problem with love and friendship. It always leads to tragedy."
Finally, Kira was out of energy, her rage deflated into pure exhaustion. She switched off her lightsaber and dropped it without knowing or caring what she was doing, sinking onto the floor with her head and elbows striking the table with a bruising.
"Please, please, don't," she gasped, reduced to begging. She barely registered Tahiri's supportive hand on her shoulder.
"The proud and fierce Kira, begging me for the life of one boy?" Ultor mocked, "Giving up your front of confidence just for love?"
"Don't hurt him," Kira whispered, exhausted and desperate.
Tahiri shook her head with a mix of sympathy and disappointment, saying nothing.
"Of course, I kept you and your little Jedi friend alive up to now for a reason," Ultor's hologram said, taking a falsely reasonable tone, "The fact remains that I still need something from you. Maybe, if you give me what I need, I can return the favor and return your Prince to you in one piece."
Tahiri sensed the danger that was to come immediately, and said, "No, Kira, don't give it to him."
"If you tell me where Master Skywalker hides his Jedi, I will allow the commander to go free," Ultor said, "The choice is yours, and it should be a very easy one."
Kira was about to explode with the feelings racing through her. She was about to betray Luke, Ben, and the Jedi in the worst way, but she couldn't let Sam die, not after everything they had gone through, or the way they had left things.
"I won't wait forever," Ultor threatened, "Patience is not a virtue of the dark side, as you well know."
Inside his cockpit, Sam listened to the Dark Master's broadcast with dread and anticipation. He wished that his ship had a self-destruct system so that he could stop what was about to happen. He only hopes that Kira would be willing to sacrifice him for the needs of the many others who Ultor was certain to target.
"Don't do it, Kira," Sam prayed, "Don't even think about doing it."
"Come on," Ultor urged, "My fingers are getting eager to pull the trigger."
"Kira, don't," Tahiri begged, getting more and more terrified.
Kira trembled, knowing that it was now or never. She would have to either spell doom on her peers and mentors that were safely away from harm in the Academy, or sacrifice the life of one Commander Sam Fel for the greater good, a sacrifice Sam himself would be more than eager to accept.
"Kira..." Tahiri said.
"Now!" Ultor snapped.
"OSSUS!" Kira exploded, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"KIRA, NO!" Tahiri screamed, totally shocked and aghast.
"They're on Ossus, the Jedi, all of them," Kira sobbed, "Just please don't kill Sam."
"Ossus," Ultor repeated, "Ossus, back to the ancient Jedi temple before the Republic."
Kira closed her eyes tight to block out the world, wishing that she could leave the physical state of existing. She hated herself for what she had just done, putting at least fifty lives at risk, but she just had to. She hated Ultor far more, and she would make him pay.
"I hope that your information proves useful, Kira," Ultor said through the transmission, "I've been looking forward to a real challenge. But for now, your commander will have to do."
"NO!" Kira screamed, turning her lightsaber back on without thinking, but all of the sudden, Ultor's communication flickered and faded out.
Ultor had fired at the docked Blue Harvest, but a Jedi StealthX had collided with his SuperStealther at the last second, causing him to miss.
"Ben!" Sam shouted, some relief mingled with his guilt and dread.
He wasted no time in blasting the Harvest off of the volcano slope, swerving the ship around to confront his would-be killer.
"I think that's three now," Ben said to his comrade from his fighter.
Ben pulled his craft away from Ultor's and turned his guns.
Ultor switched on his radio, transmitting a channel to Ben's StealthX.
"So, big brother comes to the rescue once again."
Ben stared directly at the front of Ultor's fighter, as if he could see his former best friend's face from behind it.
"I hear you have a new name, Skyler," Ben said, "Ultor, was it?"
"It doesn't matter what you call me, Solo," Ultor replied, "Not after I kill you."
Ben opened fire on Ultor's ship, but the Dark Master dipped his Stealther straight upward to avoid the lasers coming for him.
Sam joined Ben and fired, but had nothing near the Jedi Knight's reflexes, leaving him more vulnerable.
Fortunately for him, Ultor chose to disengage, steering his fighter away into the crimson atmosphere of Metacorn.
"Leaving already?" Ben asked, "I thought you were going to kill me."
"I'll finish the job in good time," Ultor replied, "But for now I know what I need to know. You can thank your little sister for that."
"What are you talking about ...no!" Ben shouted, realizing the truth of exactly what information Ultor now had.
How could Kira have done such a thing, he asked himself, what could Ultor have done to make her give the Jedi away?
Before he could continue the pursuit, Ultor flew out of sight into the clouds, laughing as his fighter disappeared.
Talon's Interceptor flew behind him past Ben and Sam's ships, leaving them hovering over the volcano.
CORUSCANT
The fight between the Republic military and Coalition forces raged on level 1313. Ships above exchanged laserfire, and bodies piled on both sides of the Arodonti Ravineas the ground forces blasted through one another.
Occasionally, a body hit by a heavy cannon or blaster rifle would fly into the Ravine and plummet to their doom thousands of miles below, with little chance of hitting a high enough ship or level surface sufficiently close to Level 1313.
Fortunately, with the help of the Millennium Falcon, the naval battle was looking good for the Republic side.
In the midst of battling Ultor's Sith apprentices, Luke suddenly felt a terrible disturbance in the Force, realizing that somehow, all of his Jedi were in terrible danger.
He staggered back, feeling a headache coming on brought by the disturbance.
Nihl was quick to take advantage of Luke's brief distraction, knocking the Grand Master onto his knees with his heavy lightsaber.
Luke immediately recovered from his disengaged state, raising a hand to blast Nihl backwards before the younger duelist could cut him down.
He brought his green blade horizontally over his face as Paxis and Kallus attacked, rising to his feet with a powerful jump as he knocked both of them away. As the three Sith charged, Luke ran towards Leia, who had managed to exhaust both her younger opponents and send them crashing into the wall of the freight station and onto the track.
"Running away?" Nihl shouted, "I thought you were supposed to be the best!"
Luke turned around after reaching the middle of the bridge over the Ravine.
"Who said I was?" he panted, sending another wave in the direction of the three warriors charging him.
All three dark warriors flew backwards towards the Hutt fortress, with Kallus as the least fortunate. He screamed as he fell out of sight into the infinite underworld portal towards Coruscant's inner core.
Luke didn't bother to check on Nihl or Paxis before joining Leia on the other side.
Turning off his lightsaber, he said, "Something's wrong."
"I know," Leia replied, nodding.
They took cover as an artillery shell fired in their direction, both diving behind a station pillar and under the canopy of the station next to the docked, vacated freighter liner.
Han was lowering the Falcon to land on the station platform to join his wife and best friend, prompting Luke and Leia to rush to meet him.
Go, Luke, the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force spirit was telling him, Your fight is not here.
Leave, you must, added the invisible Yoda.
As the ramp of the Falcon opened, both Han and Chewie hurried out of the ship.
"You guys are still in one piece," the old general remarked, giving Leia a kiss and Luke a clap on the arm.
"Looking good, flyboy," Leia said, "Turns out you can still fly the ship without me."
"Had to fight my way through Senate security to get it back," Han replied, "It looks like you Jedi made Fey'lya and Omas mad."
"That's an understatement if I ever heard one," Leia responded.
Luke had been silent, but now spoke up with serious urge.
"Leia, we have to go back to the Academy, now. All of the Jedi are in danger now."
Just then, a 2187 speeder sped through the exchanges of laser fire and artillery cannons and came to a grinding halt on the platform.
"Artoo!" Luke shouted, recognizing the astromech droid in the socket.
Artoo Deetoo eagerly greeted his sentient friends and hovered out of the speeder.
"Is that..." Han began, trailing off in disbelief.
"I never knew how fun it was to fly a speeder!" Threepio exclaimed as he climbed out to join the others, "Please, never make me do it again."
Once the group was together, Luke said, "We need to get back to Ossus as soon as possible. Something terrible is about to happen, something only we can prevent. We can't waste any more time here."
"We'd better take the Falcon," Leia added, "and get out of here before Omas and the others target us again."
"So the Jedi are outlaws again?" Han asked as the humans, Wookiee, and droids all boarded the Falcon.
Recovering from the heavy blows dealt during the battle, Darths Judicarand Wyyrlok joined Nihl and Paxis on the other side of the Ravine as the Falcon blasted off over them.
"The Skywalker twins escaped," Wyyrlok growled, "This whole thing was a waste of time."
"They'll still get what's coming to them," Nihl promised, breathing hard with exhaustion, "But for now, let's show the Republic what we're made of."
The Sith regrouped and eagerly strode towards the combating troopers, raising their lightsabers in preparation to deal lethal blows to the Republic front.
