Chapter 4

Ariela stirred her bowl of hot cereal slowly, not intending to eat it but not wanting to get up. She glanced quickly over to the empty chair near the end of the long table. It was early in the morning, earlier than she had ever gotten up before. She had to be sure, though. She wanted to be certain.

"No, he didn't come back last night."

Ariela had hoped against hope that this was the case, and now that she knew for sure, she couldn't keep the smile from spreading across her lips. With this traitorous expression plastered across her features, she kept her face down in her steaming, creamed fimps and continued stirring.

"You know," continued the man behind her, "he had pulled off 27 straight jobs without the slightest hint of failure - until last night." He bent down to her ear when he said these last three words. His closeness helped wipe the smile off her face, and she shrugged her shoulders violently, catching him in the chin. He stumbled back slightly, and she put the first spoonful of the cereal in her mouth, hoping to keep away another smile. It was surprisingly good.

Ariela spun away from the table, still sitting in her chair to look at the vile henchman. She hadn't seen him before, but Borgan had so many underlings that this was not surprising. Her shoulder had apparently caused him to bite his tongue, and he was in considerable pain. "You better hope they don't send me after him."

This was as obvious a threat as any he could have made. Ariela started a retort but bit it short. Just ignore him, she thought. She turned her back on him and shoved another large spoonful in her mouth.

"You just tell your boyfriend to be ready."

Ariela spun back around fast enough to almost knock herself out of her chair. "He's not my boyfriend!" she tried to yell, but with a mouth full of creamed fimps, it sounded like animal growling, spraying the cereal with each syllable.

The man looked at her, barely holding on to her chair with brownish cream dripping onto the floor. "Whatever," he said and walked away.

Ariela turned back to the table with a naive look of triumph somewhere under the creamed fimps that covered her face. "You have a little, uh," Borgan was sitting across from her suddenly and was wiping his chin, "you have something on your chin."

Ariela tried to hold back her surprise at the sudden appearance of the giant man. She brought a napkin up to her face and attempted to remove the mess. "What do you want?" she snapped.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about Jacen."

Ariela looked at him with contempt. The look was unmistakable. Borgan ignored her as he continued. "Yes, we have been through this before, and we are now going to go through it again. You will also tell me the truth this time. If I don't think you are telling me the truth, we will go through it a third time; only then we will use some devices keyed to helping you with your memory."

Ariela had seen those types of interrogation before. No matter how absurd or embarrassing, any question would be answered without thought. She didn't want to go through that. If she told the truth now, she could tell only what she wanted. "He approached me," she started, taking a sip of a tall glass of juice that was in front of her. "I was looking at an art piece. You wouldn't know what it was, so I won't get into it." Actually, Borgan likely knew more about the art Ariela stole than she did. "He came up to me, and I tried to ignore him, but he had this kind of presence about him that made me talk to him. Then out of the blue, he started expounding on the philosophical meanings of this sculpture we were looking at.

"I had to admit that I was impressed. After that, the night went smoothly. We danced and talked. Nothing happened," she said this with added emphasis and stared Borgan hard in the eyes. The big man didn't flinch. "When the unveiling of the necklace came, I asked him to tell me what he thought about it. I had already stolen the real one, and I wanted to see if he was for real or if he was just full of it. I didn't really expect him to recognize it as a fake, but he did. In fact, he recognized it in about five seconds at a distance of five meters." Ariela paused as she took another mouthful of the creamed fimps and a swallow of the juice.

"Well, he got mixed up with all the royalty and security, and I slipped out of there as fast as I could. I had stashed the necklace and a change of clothes in a janitor's closet. I thought that I had a massive lead on everyone, but someone chased me down as I was just about to the roof. I couldn't believe anyone could have made it up the stairs that fast because I had taken the lift, and there was only one. My surprise was tripled when I saw it was Jacen. I evaded him on the stairs and got to the roof ahead of him.

"When he made it to the roof, we had a little fight." Borgan's expression turned to one of disbelief. "I know what you're thinking. 'How could you, a mere thief, fight and escape from a man who has single-handedly defeated four of my men at once and my most trusted assassin?' I just got lucky. I had a weapon, and he didn't. He simply parried me until he had a chance to disarm me, which he did pretty effortlessly. It was obvious he didn't want to hurt me. He never hit me once. I don't think he knew it was me until the end, though. He had me pinned against the wall when he realized who he had been fighting this whole time.

"Jacen was so shocked that he let down all his defenses. I dropped him with a well-aimed kick and put him out with a pair of darts. I believe you know the rest of the story." Ariela was referring to the fact that they both knew that her slipping away the morning previous was an attempt to meet up with Jacen again.

"Why did you go see him again? Do you lo-"

"Do I love him?" Ariela laughed out loud. "I met him once for about an hour. I was just curious, that's all. It's not every day that I meet a nice-looking guy who knows all about art, dancing, and can fight better than anyone I have ever seen." Ariela spooned in some more of the cereal, which was rapidly becoming lukewarm. The advantage of telling the truth so openly was that she could hold back little tidbits of information that would have come right out under hypnosis or truth serum.

"Did he do anything that seemed to be supernatural?"

Ariela nearly choked to death on her fimps. She reached for her glass as tears streamed down her face from the effort of breathing. She slowly drank down the clog and took several moments to compose herself. "What did you say?" Both of them knew his question had been answered and that her tidbits of information were no longer held back.

"Do you expect he is going to try and kidnap you now?"

Ariela noticed his choice of words. Anyone else would have said rescue. "Do I think that he is my knight in shining armor? No, I don't. Do I think he will try and confront the people who, on two different occasions, tried to cause him severe bodily harm for no reason whatsoever? I don't honestly know." Borgan was smiling slightly at what she had said. "What?"

"You're right that he doesn't wear shining armor, but he is a knight, of sorts."

"What are you talking about?"

"He didn't tell you, did he?" Ariela didn't waste her breath by asking what again and merely shook her head and shrugged. It was the first time Borgan believed she was telling the whole truth. "We did a little research on your friend Jacen Solo. Did you know that he is the son of the chief of state of the New Republic?" The shock on Ariela's face told Borgan that she hadn't had the faintest clue. "Your boyfriend seems to have quite a history surrounding him. He is a Jedi Knight."

Ariela realized that this should mean something to her, but it didn't. She started to ask, but Borgan cut her off. "He'll come, probably today. When he does, we will get him. If he manages to get to you first, I want you to remember where your loyalties are."

Ariela stood up so she could look down at the seated giant. "I will be loyal to whoever treats me fair and decent!"

Borgan rose out of his chair slowly until he towered over Ariela from across the table. He looked at her with eyes capable of burning wood. "You would be wise to obey, or else you will see what true unfairness and indecency is." With that, he turned from the cowering form in front of him and left the dining room.

Ariela stood silently for several moments, soaking in the threat. She finally sat down in a defeated plop. Was she crazy? Was the tiny thread of hope worth chasing when failure was not only more likely but also much more costly? She looked around the room, taking in the fine tapestries and exotic architecture. She did live in luxury if she chose to take advantage of it. There were facilities to accommodate her every desire or whim. She worked out in the gym and took advantage of the luxurious steam baths and massage treatments. She enjoyed the superb dining and couldn't deny that the atmosphere in the complex was exquisite. Everything she could desire was at her fingertips. Almost everything. But was freedom worth the price that came attached to it? If she managed to escape, they would hunt her down. If they let one escape, others would be encouraged to do likewise. It was odd, she thought, that no one else seemed to be eager to leave. Was she stupid? Or was everyone else just so naive that they thought this was all there was to life?

What about Jacen? What was it about the man that intrigued her so? The answers that she blurted out to the thugs around her didn't come so quickly in her head. Did she love him? No, she loved the hope that he represented. There was a difference, right? She tried to convince herself there was as she took another spoonful of the cereal only to find that cold fimps were disgusting.

The sun rose slowly over the dilapidated building. At least it looked dilapidated. Jacen reached out with the Force for the umpteenth time, but he came up against the same block that had struck him on all his previous attempts. Ysalamiri? No, he had felt them before. This was different. It was like reaching out for a stone but getting a handful of sand. You grasp the stone, but it seems so small that it blends in with its surroundings until it is just another grain of sand. It felt like trying to locate a drop of water in an ocean. Everything just blended together in a general mish-mash.

It had to be some kind of force field that masked energy sources from not only his sensitivity but very likely from outside scanners as well. Jacen crouched under the elevated grav-rail and peered into the glowing morning sun. There was a small valley up ahead, and the grav-rail ran level across it, reaching down with its cylindrical steel fingers into the treetops of the valley and girding itself on the solid ground below. Jacen guessed that from the deepest part of the valley to the grav-rail, it was about 50 meters. It was in this deepest section that the warehouse was nestled. It fit snugly between two grav-rail supports and dug into the valley as the ground sloped upward on both sides of the narrow crevice. Jacen saw a small stream skirting through the valley and was straddled by the large building. Jacen guessed (and guessed correctly) that the building used to be an old mill and used what had once been a large river for a cooling agent in the metal forging process. The building came within ten meters of the bottom of the grav-rail, and Jacen figured that would be the best way to get in. Being the part furthest from the generator, the top of a ground-based force field was often the weakest.

Jacen looked the scene over for traps. They had to assume that he'd be coming, and they probably recognized that the top of the building would be the best place to enter. Jacen was counting on it. At first, he had thought that the gang Ariela had gotten herself mixed up in was just a petty operation, but Jacen was beginning to realize that this wasn't the case. When dealing with clever opponents, you always had to take your reasoning one step further. If they knew that the top of the building was the best place to enter, hopefully, they would consider it too obvious, and Jacen would be a fool to try it. With this attitude, they would focus their defensive efforts elsewhere. Jacen was counting on it and hoping at the same time that his enemies weren't triple guessing him.

Jacen climbed up onto a nearby rock and surveyed the grav-rail from above. He knew how the thing had worked. Of course, it was obsolete now, but it had been quite a big deal in its time. With all the advanced superconductor technology and the electromagnetic propulsion system of tube trains, this type of transport was outdated. Jaina had tried to see if she could improve on the idea some years ago while they were still in the academy. The rail consisted of two narrow cylinders that ran the width of the rail apart and were girded every three or six meters with a brace. The rails produced a small hyperspace field, which compressed the nearby space slightly.

The principle could be explained with an illustration involving a sphere. If you pressed down on the top of the ball, nothing would happen. So long as you always pressed precisely perpendicular to the curvature, the sphere wouldn't roll, and your finger wouldn't move. But, if you slid over slightly and pressed, your finger would begin to slowly move down the sphere, gaining speed as the slope increased. The grav-rail was built exactly parallel to the curvature of Estassia, so gravity always pressed down perpendicular. Since the space was compressed slightly using the hyperspace field, what used to be a point load of gravity, now had a small area that was off-center. The result was that gravity now had a small tangential component of force. The force wasn't much, but the result was like building a long road that only sloped downhill and never up. Once the train achieved a considerable speed, it could coast the rest of the trip and actually gain velocity as it went. The system was inadequate because of the difficulty in stopping the trains. Braking was harsh on the very friction-sensitive rails, and since gravity was the only force being used, it took as long to decelerate the train as it did to accelerate it.

The rails were off right now, and Jacen climbed down onto the structure from his rock. Actually, though the idea of entering the force field from above seemed to be the best way to enter, moving along the rails was probably the most challenging mode of travel. There were only three members to walk on: two rails and braces spaced every six meters. During turns, the braces got closer, but this was a straight section of the rail. Jacen tested his footing on the rails, but it was like walking on ice. The incredibly frictionless surface had worn down some over the years, but not enough to make travel by foot reasonable. Jacen decided that the best way was to leap from brace to brace.

Before Jacen started, he took one last survey of the large building that was his destination. The Jedi kept his Force sensitivity at bay and merely observed with his other five senses. He couldn't see anyone on the roof, and there didn't seem to be any lights near the top of the building. He had to be sure because it would be hard to stop once he started getting his momentum going on the rails if someone appeared. It was about 400 meters to the building. Not seeing anyone, Jacen filled himself and took a long leap. The young man flew gracefully to the next brace, landed smoothly on his right leg, and sprung out with his left leading. He continued the leaping jog, gaining speed as he went. He kept his breathing down and let the life force around him do all the work. When the building approached below, he started to time his leaps. Three braces later, he took a little longer leap than usual, flew over the next brace, and fell between the parallel rails. As he fell, he began to wonder if the shield was just an energy shield or if it would reflect particles. If so, he was in for a very unpleasant collision.

Jacen alighted on the roof like a bird, having felt only a slight tingle as he passed through the shield. He looked around slowly, keeping his hands hovering over his lightsabers. He was wearing his forest green robe like always, and it made a whisper of noise as he turned to and fro, checking his surroundings. The rooftop seemed empty save a few exhaust stacks that hadn't been used since the metal refinery had been in operation. At first, Jacen didn't see any way down into the building but soon spotted a small service door, not unlike the one that had been on the museum's roof. Jacen remembered where he had first met Ariela and smiled. Why was he doing this? Was he acting as a warm-blooded male or a Jedi Knight? He shrugged his shoulders. It didn't really matter to him.

Herink watched the monitor with interest. He had just watched Jacen flip down onto the rooftop. "That fall should have at least injured him."

"Any man who can travel the grav-rail like he just did can survive a ten-meter drop," Borgan commented from behind him. "That's the same man who bested you in the alleyway?" Borgan asked the question without any hint of animosity. He had no intention of humiliating Herink with the outcome of his last meeting, but Herink's feathers were ruffled regardless.

"Yes," he snapped, "he is the same one." Herink let his temper simmer as he watched Jacen entering the door on the roof and then the screen flickering to another camera to continue tracking the Jedi. "What do we know about him? About Jedi, I mean."

"As a planet, we've kept our noses clean when it comes to inter-galactic affairs and have managed to stay out of the wars that have occupied most of the rest of the systems. In particular, the New Republic, the government courting our world for membership, has been heavily involved with these wars. In almost every case, the war has focused around these interesting people - the Jedi. I can't really tell you much about them other than lore. They are good in battle and are said to draw their energy from the Force, an all-present energy well that emanates from every living thing. As far as their limitations and special abilities, I understand that it varies from Jedi to Jedi and from the level of experience."

"He is young," Herink said, trying to downplay the man they were watching on the screen. Jacen had just waved his hand in front of a locked door, and it had opened. "He is young," he repeated, "he cannot be that powerful."

"He beat you."

"I had a pipe; he had a sword." Herink drew his blaster and held it up as if to impress the giant standing next to him. "We'll see how he does this time."

"Your men are in position?" Borgan asked, not in the slightest way impressed with his next in command's show of confidence.

"Yes. They won't fail this time."

"Why don't you join them, just to be sure."

Herink holstered his gun quickly at the unmistakable rebuke. "Yes, sir."

Borgan watched as the large man scampered through the door and then turned his gaze back to the monitor to watch the "rescue" take place.

Jacen found only descending staircases and locked doors lying in his path. He began to wonder if he was totally wrong in thinking that this was the place when he felt something coming from down the next flight of stairs. There was a definite mood down below. Someone was waiting for him. As much confidence as Jacen had in his abilities, he thought prudence was still the best choice in this case. There were no alternate routes available to him, so he decided to make his own.

Jacen thought he had figured out the layout of the stairwell and was sure he could bypass the next landing by cutting away a section of the wall. His lightsaber was out in a flash, and a new doorway was created a few seconds later. Peering down through the hole he had made, Jacen saw that four meters below was indeed a landing. He leaped through the hole and landed quietly on the floor below. Above him and right around the corner, he could hear about five men waiting for him. Jacen played with the idea of attacking them from behind, but noise from below caught his attention.

"Hey!" Someone was yelling at him from the descending staircase in front of him. Jacen leaped down the flight toward the guard as the startled man tried to draw his weapon. Jacen clipped him on the side of the head with a deactivated lightsaber. The man fell silently, but the alarm had been sounded. The commotion from above was obvious, and Jacen turned down the next 90-degree stairway turn, just avoiding the blaster bolts that turned the last wall he had profiled into a permacrete sieve.

Jacen leaped down each stairway, opening and closing each door he came to, knowing that he was quickly outdistancing his pursuers. The next door opened, and Jacen ran right into a broad chest. Jacen stumbled backward and crashed into the steps behind him. Herink smiled as Jacen lay sprawled in front of him. "Nighttime." The big man said as he drew and fired in one smooth motion. Jacen was in no position to block the close-range shot and rolled over, feeling the section of steps he had been leaning against explode beside him. Before Herink could shoot again, Jacen rolled back over, swinging an ignited lightsaber wide. Herink took a considerable step backward through the door, and Jacen leaped up from the stairs as he shot again.

Jacen plastered himself against the wall in the wide hallway, giving Herink, who was on the other side of the doorway, no angle to shoot. Jacen tried to compose himself when his forgotten pursuers made their entry from above. Jacen made his mind up quickly and leaped through the doorway, lightsaber leading.

Jacen rolled into a ball, careful not to impale himself on his own weapon, all the while expecting to get shot. He came to his feet to find himself in some kind of dining hall. Herink was across the room waiting for him. The man was sitting in a chair turned away from a large table. A quick examination of the room told Jacen that there were only three exits: the doorway he had just leaped through and two behind Herink.

"Good show, so far, but now you will give up to me." Jacen looked over toward the stairwell, expecting the men to come through any second. "They have orders to shoot on sight, you see. So, you have two options: surrender to me or be killed by them. What's it going to be?"

Jacen grabbed his other lightsaber from his belt. "Neither." He stepped up to the stairwell, and as the men came through, he cut them down. He made sure to keep the attacks non-lethal by first striking at their weapon and then rendering them out of action with a swift kick or a lightsaber handle to the head.

Jacen stood still suddenly. There had only been four men, and they all lay quiet on the ground. Herink tried not to be impressed, but he had seen such efficiency by only a select few. "Ah, you choose neither. That would be the choice where I get to shoot you." Herink raised his gun slowly. Jacen stood ten meters away at point-blank range. Herink fired. Jacen deflected. Herink blinked. Had he just seen the young man in front of him deflect a bolt that traveled at near light speed with a weapon that was no more than a couple of centimeters wide? "Lucky son of a -" He fired again — same result.

"By luck, do you mean random chance," Jacen asked as he walked toward the seated man, "or do you mean the advantage one opponent gains through superior skill."

"Luck, luck, luck!" Herink fired as quickly as he could pull the trigger. Jacen's blades moved in what seemed to be a memorized pattern of parries and motions. When Jacen got close enough, he took one long swipe and relived the trigger-happy man of his weapon. "Impossible!"

"Yes, quite," Jacen replied nonchalantly. "Now, where is Ariela?"

"Right behind you." Jacen spun around to face Borgan, who had Ariela in front of him. They had come in through an entrance that Jacen hadn't noticed. Thinking Jacen's attention to be elsewhere, Herink rose from his chair and brought a blow aimed at Jacen's neck. Jacen casually belted one weapon, reached up with his free hand, caught the attack, and flipped the much bigger man over his shoulder.

Jacen acted like nothing had happened and kept his attention focused on this new opponent. He had never seen Borgan before, and his size did not escape notice. "Hello Ariela," Jacen said almost as an afterthought.

"Hello Jacen," she responded unemotionally.

"How touching," Borgan spoke up. Herink was getting up from the floor, found that he was directly between the pair, and quickly decided that this was the wrong place to be. "Of course, now you realize that you again have two choices. You can drop your weapons, or you can watch me crush Ariela's pretty face."

"How do I know that if I pick choice 'A,' you won't go ahead with 'B' just for the fun of it?" Jacen asked.

"You don't, but I've held off this long; I might just hold out a little longer. But at the rate she has grown to be a pain in the neck, 'B' is pretty much inevitable. The choice you have is whether you want to watch."

"What makes you think I care what happens to her?" This question brought a startled look from his audience, especially Ariela. "I'm here to get the necklace back. Where is it?"

Borgan threw his head back with laughter. Had Jacen been ready for this, he might have been able to plan an attack. He hadn't been, and he didn't. "What a tangled web we weave! The necklace," he repeated, laughing again. "You expect me to believe that you broke in here to take back a necklace? Surely Jedi Knights have better things to do with their time."

"We do what we're hired to do," Jacen responded, trying to hide his surprise at his identity being known. He hoped that the full meaning of that title was still hidden to them. "We are like any other mercenaries. We work for money. I plan on making quite a lot of money for returning the necklace. So, if you just hand it over, I won't have to beat up any more of your men, and I can leave you so you can get on with crushing as many faces you want."

Again, laughter came from in front of him, but it wasn't from Borgan or Herink. The laugh was much higher than a man of either of their sizes could produce. From the shadows behind Borgan came an old, frail man. He looked miniature next to Borgan, yet Jacen could sense an unnatural aura of power surrounding him. Jacen reached out with the Force but was at a loss to identify it. The Jedi looked at Herink for his response to the arrival of this old man and was not disappointed when the thug cowered away and left the room. The newcomer was still laughing. "A mercenary, you say. Hired for money? How the galaxy has changed. The Jedi used to fight for justice and freedom with personal gain far from their main motivation."

Jacen knew his cover was blown but could think of no alternate course. "Yes, well, times have changed, gramps. But if you could just show me the necklace, I'll leave, and you can contemplate the changing universe all day while your walking demolition machine here crushes people's heads." Jacen wasn't sure that the disrespect was a good thing, but he was sick of talking.

Apparently, the old man was sick of laughing. His face turned cold. "Drop your lightsabers before you lose the hands holding them."

Jacen contemplated his situation. He stood about ten meters away from the trio. It was too far away for a physical attack by either party; therefore, his lightsabers served little purpose. He deactivated them and began to place them on his belt. "On the floor, Jacen Solo." His last name shocked the weapons from his hands, and they clattered to the floor.

"I don't believe we have been properly introduced," Jacen said as the older man began to walk closer to him, with Borgan as a much bigger shadow.

"No, we haven't," he said but left it at that. The trio stopped when they were about half the former distance from Jacen.

"Well, maybe we would feel more comfortable negotiating if we were properly int-"

"Enough talk," the man said as he extended his hand and made a fist. Jacen's windpipe snapped shut, and he fell to his knees, nearly startled into unconsciousness. He struggled to breathe in vain. He was on the verge of blackness when he regained slight composure and fought back with the Force. He felt a little air seep into his thirsty lungs, then suddenly his throat was open, and he was gasping on the floor. Jacen looked up at the older man in shock.

"How pathetic," he said at Jacen's prone figure. "You think that you have all the power in the universe, don't you?" Jacen tried to speak, but his adversary raised his hands and sent lightning bolts tearing into the Jedi's body. Jacen writhed in agony at this new onslaught. He was still out of breath from the previous attack and was in no position to defend himself. He reached out for one of his lightsabers. The weapon flew through the air but changed direction drastically in mid-flight and instead soared into the old man's hand.

The lightning bolts stopped, and Jacen didn't bother getting up. All of his muscles were quivering from the electric shock, and he had no control. "Wh-who-"

"You are so insistent on that introduction, aren't you? You may call me the Master."

Jacen felt the twitches subsiding and crawled a couple of meters over to the table. He slowly tried to get himself upright. "How-"

"How am I doing this?" the Master finished for him, still not letting Jacen speak. "How am I doing this when I'm not Force-sensitive? You're right; I'm not. But you tell me. How would someone inferior to you do something like this?" He waved his arm at Jacen, who was now almost totally erect. A shock wave hit the young man and lifted him off his feet, sending him five meters back and landing on the edge of the table. Jacen hit the table with half of his back and fell off, landing hard on the floor. He started to rise, and another wave hit him, throwing him like a rag doll into the wall.

Ariela watched this whole scene with one of Borgan's hands clamped like an iron brace on her shoulder, ensuring her silence throughout the demonstration. She nearly cried out at this last blow. Jacen's head rebounded off the wall like a ball off a bat. She looked at his figure lying motionless on the floor. A tear came to her eye. She had done this. She should have walked away from him back at the museum. She was foolish to have thought of doing anything else. She had been hopeful. He had gotten further than anyone else had, and he had somehow been different from the start as well. Everyone else she had met had been so one-dimensional, so uninteresting, so Estassian. Jacen was special, but now he would end up like everyone else: a statistic.

Jacen stirred slowly on the floor, showing he wasn't done yet. "I think it is time to quit, son," the Master said as he walked toward him. Jacen moved so sluggishly Ariela thought he would pass out from the effort. Jacen looked up into the Master's face. "Time to come quietly."

Jacen lifted his head, and the Master kicked him hard under the chin, flipping him backward. "Stop it!" Ariela could stand it no longer. "Can't you see he's finished," she managed before Borgan's hand adjusted itself on her shoulder to clamp down on her throat.

The Master turned to regard her outburst, and Jacen couldn't ask for better cover. Without warning, the lightsaber the Master had grabbed leaped out of his hand and into Jacen's. The Jedi moved with surprising speed, stood, ignited the weapon, and struck at the frail, old man. The Master turned at the sudden movement but didn't flinch as the blade crashed down on him. Jacen's swing faltered as he watched his blade bend away from the Master's form when it came within a few centimeters. Jacen had never seen a lightsaber blade reflected by any kind of shielding before. The Master reached out with his hand and sent two lightning bolts into Jacen's temples. The Jedi dropped his weapon as his mind went black. He fell, landing hard on his back, and didn't move.