Kam doubted that he would have been able to defeat Vol even if he had been up to his full potential as a combatant. As it was, with all of the days of torture by his Sith captors, he was barely holding his own against the Grand Lord with the two red-bladed lightsabers that he had claimed as he was constantly on the retreat from his more powerful opponent throughout the hangar bay of the Shikkar's Edge. Indeed, he had to find gaps between Vol's quick and vicious strikes to expand his awareness out just enough to not let himself get backed up against a bulkhead every now and then.
And on top of just keeping his own against Vol, Kam knew that he had to find a way to get the Solo spouses and their Noghri bodyguards to escape with Ben; it was unfortunate that they couldn't make it out with any of the other kidnapped Jedi apprentices, but if they could at least retrieve Ben, then Kam thought that his inevitable sacrifice would be worth it. The only question was, he thought as he parried and dodged each of the Grand Lord's attacks, was what he could possibly use in this hangar that could at least distract, if not outright seriously injure or kill, the captors of the Millennium Falcon's crew long enough to let them make a break for it. And if he didn't come up with something soon, before he tired out just enough for Vol to slip past his defenses and strike a fatal blow, then the Solo party was doomed for sure.
Three minutes into the duel, Kam was backed up toward a parked X-wing; when he was about a meter and a half from it, he used both his confiscated lightsabers to parry away one of Vol's strikes and back-flipped up onto the starfighter's closed canopy. The Grand Lord followed suit with a Force-enhanced leap, and as they both stood their ground on top of the X-wing, Kam got an idea as his peripheral vision allowed him a glimpse of the hangar's ceiling support beams above.
The duel atop of the X-wing lasted for about ten seconds before Kam found another gap into which he could disengage so that he could leap up to the support beams. Naturally, Vol followed again, but once the Grand Lord landed, he didn't even land a strike upon either of Kam's 'sabers, as the Jedi almost instantly began cutting at the beams around them. Vol scarcely had time to react before the beam upon which they both stood fell out; only Kam had already back-flipped to another beam behind him while Vol plunged with the structure upon which he stood mere seconds before.
Meanwhile, upon landing on the next beam, Kam cut the next ones out from around him, and as he soared back again, the chopped structures plunged directly for the gathering around the Falcon. As a result, all of the Sith who were holding the Solo party in place with the Force instinctively threw their concentration into levitating the objects raining down upon them sequentially.
And just as Han, Leia, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh were all freed, the two Noghri sprang into action instantaneously; Cakhmaim took out the Keshiri Sith that had been telekinetically pinning him down with a swift slice across the throat with his vibroblade while Meewalh did the same with her own 'blade for the human Sith. And without breaking stride, they each bodily grabbed up a Solo—Cakhmaim took Han while Meewalh took Leia—and rushed forward to escape from the support beams that came clanging down upon the deck behind them.
Thus, while Vol had Force-jumped back up to the ceiling to deal with Kam, that just left the Solo party to deal with the two Sith children before them. So, as soon as the Noghri let their charges return to their feet, Ben and Vestara, who had just recovered from the initial confusion caused by the fallen beams, faced them with noticeable fear, appropriate for children their age.
"Come with us, Ben," Leia said with determination. "Leave all of this behind."
Vestara gritted her teeth angrily as she unhooked her lightsaber from her belt and activated it in one hand while unsheathing her shikkar with the other.
"Not while I'm here," the girl growled. She then leaped toward the woman.
But Leia simply used a telekinetic wave to knock Ves back by several meters; the girl landed along the deck in a slide before she cracked her shoulder up against the landing strut of an A-wing. She screamed in pain while Ben looked on in horror.
"No!" he cried.
He turned back and activated the red-bladed lightsaber that Vol had given to him to strike down his aunt. However, Cakhmaim had moved in, punched the weapon out of the boy's hand, and injected a syringe into his neck. Within moments, Ben fell limply into his arms from the administered drug's knockout effect.
"C'mon," Han said. "We gotta get outta here while we can."
Leia spared one look above at the duel still raging between Kam and Vol as the two of them jumped among the ceiling's remaining support beams; by then, the Jedi had stopped deliberately cutting them away, as he must have been aware that he had achieved the desired effect.
"Right," Leia said in response to her husband. She turned away and rushed with him and the Noghri back to the Falcon, regretful that she couldn't say one last goodbye to the Jedi, and good friend, who was about to give his life for them.
. . .
By this point in the battle, Kyp, Kyle, K'Kruhk, and Jaden Korr were the only sane Jedi remaining against the four remaining crazed Knights: Zrendak Felds, Nelani Dinn, Bazel Warv, and Yantahar Bwua'tu respectively. And at the moment, the three Masters and their remaining loyal Knight had formed a loose circle around the Mind Walking Luke Skywalker and Solo twins to fend off against their paranoid foes until they either defeated them or died by their blades.
Thus, none of them had time to mourn the losses that they had taken after Octa's sacrifice; Tresina Lobi had been decapitated by Seff Hellin, just like Octa by Felds. But the crazed human Jedi, in turn, had been cleaved in half down the middle by Kyle, who couldn't help but take some small but dark satisfaction at avenging his fellow Jedi Master's death.
And deep down, as he continued to duel off against Felds, Kyp couldn't wait to end the Kaleesh's life to avenge not only Octa's demise, but also Doran Sarkin-Tainer, who had been run through the torso by Felds' blade just minutes before.
Still, even with the rage within him fueling his power in a way that he hadn't felt since he was a teenager being influenced by Exar Kun, Kyp knew that he was reaching a level of fatigue that he could see that the younger Felds had yet to seriously feel. And with his inexplicable power, it seemed that, in the end, he and his fellow crazed Jedi would break through their opponents' defenses, kill them, and strike down the three Mind Walkers behind Kyp and his fellow Jedi.
But before that conclusion could be reached, all four of the insane Knights were suddenly swept off their feet and flung to one side of the chamber by an invisible power, abruptly cutting off all of the remaining duels. And as Felds, Nelani, Bazel, and Yantahar began picking themselves back up, the Masters and Jaden looked to the opposite side and found Jaina Solo awake and standing. She spared them an expressionless glance before she returned her attention to the four rising Knights.
"Run," she growled at them as soon as they all returned to their full height to regard her warily. "Go to Abeloth, and let her know... that Luke Skywalker will kill her. The only way she can truly escape that fate is if she returns to her home planet and never bothers anyone ever again. And you three will just have to learn to live in a galaxy full of imposters. Got it?"
None of the three crazed Jedi responded to her; they only looked back to the four Jedi whom they had been dueling, who, in turn, regarded Jaina with shared confusion and mild anxiety. After a long, silent moment, she looked back at the three remaining Masters and one sane Knight and said to them, "Let them go. No more blood will be shed here today."
"They just killed so many of our own, Jaina!" Kyp exclaimed in shock. "How could you want to let them go?"
"Trust me on this, Kyp," Jaina urged.
"You have a long way to go before you can earn any of our trust back, Solo," Kyle grated.
"We should listen to her," K'Kruhk said.
Kyp, Kyle, and Jaden all looked at the Whiphid as if he had just practiced cannibalism.
"This may be the most peaceful option that we can take," K'Kruhk elaborated.
Kyp looked back to the four insane Knights. "Any of you agree with that?" he asked, partly facetiously.
"You know something, don't you?" Nelani asked Jaina; she and her fellow crazed Jedi had completely ignored Kyp's question.
Jaina nodded. "I do. And, again, if the four of you don't leave right now, Abeloth will never have a chance to escape death. So if you value your lives, and hers especially, you will turn around and leave this chamber, this station, without anymore fuss. Forget whatever she's urging you to do through the Force, and don't try to communicate my words to her through that method, or I'll kill you all myself. Don't test me, just go."
A long, silent moment passed among the gathering, everyone wondering what would happen next: would the four crazed Jedi heed Jaina's command, or would they fulfill Abeloth's?
When that moment passed, however, Felds, Nelani, Bazel, and Yantahar turned around and rushed out of the chamber, leaving the five Force-users alone with their two Mind Walking charges.
However, that didn't mean that the tension in the room had completely deflated, for now the Masters and Jaden had their full attention upon Jaina.
"What did you learn?" K'Kruhk asked her; whatever grief he had for the Jedi who had died around him must have been shifted to the back of his mind. Kyp supposed that he shouldn't be surprised that a man who had lived through Palpatine's Jedi Purge had found a way of dealing with grief in a way that would make Luke Skywalker seem like a mere child in comparison.
"I think I found the Dagger of Mortis," she admitted.
"And?" K'Kruhk asked.
She shrugged. "Nothing else. Nothing all that important, anyway."
Though none of them could sense any deception radiating from her Force-presence, Jaden was the one whose face scrunched up in anger.
"If you're lying," he intoned, "then I will make sure you-"
"Jaden," Kyle interrupted sternly.
The Knight fell reluctantly silent.
"What about Master Skywalker and your brother?" K'Kruhk inquired. "Why are they still Mind Walking but you're not?"
"They are still dealing with Abeloth, I'm afraid to say," Jaina answered. "As soon as I learned where the Dagger of Mortis was, they told me to leave as soon as possible."
This time, however, K'Kruhk and Kyle were the ones to feel just a spike of deception coming from her. At that, the Whiphid stood back while Kyle telekinetically shoved Jaina back to the bulkhead behind her and pinned her struggling form there.
"Now you're lying," Jaden said with a vindictive tone.
Once she stopped struggling, she growled. "Okay, fine. I left of my own accord; they wanted me to help, but I refused. But I do know where the Dagger is, I wasn't lying about that, and I can take you to it if you let me."
"You left your uncle and brother to deal with Abeloth like a coward?" Kyp asked, dumbfounded.
"Disappointed, Kyp?" Jaina retorted.
"A little," he responded bitterly. The sentiment that Octa had sent to him just before she died—that he should protect even Jaina—suddenly soured in his mind.
"Oh, c'mon!" Jaina exclaimed. "Is it really that cowardly of me to place the well-being of my own child above my uncle, who doesn't love me anymore, and my brother, who's too much of a spineless sack of poodoo to do what needs to be done?"
"Sounds like you're the spineless one here," Kyle countered.
"Typical Sith," Jaden backed up. "You all get more power than you deserve, but once that power gets subverted, you're exposed as the gutless, pitiful excuses for sentient beings who ever-"
"Enough!" K'Kruhk exclaimed. "Master Katarn, release her."
"Are you sure about that, Master K'Kruhk?" Kyle asked.
"Quite," the Whiphid answered. "By herself, she can't do any harm to us and she knows it."
Kyle hesitated as he looked between Jaina and K'Kruhk, but finally, he allowed the former to return to her feet. No one said anything further until the four of them all walked right up to her.
"Master Durron," K'Kruhk said without taking his eyes off of Jaina, "would you be willing to accompany Miss Solo to the Solo Quest with her Mind Walking uncle and brother?"
Kyp looked at him in askance. "Why me?"
"Why not?" the Whiphid countered evenly as he directed his gaze at the human.
Kyp hesitated. "Well, I just thought-"
"That your personal history might provide a conflict of interest in looking after Jaina?" K'Kruhk interrupted.
Kyp only nodded.
"On the contrary," K'Kruhk said. "You have the most faith in her out of all of us, even with that being shaken by her attempt at deception."
"But... but I didn't even sense when she tried to fool us," Kyp pointed out.
"True, but now you'll be on your guard, right?" K'Kruhk asked.
"Well, yes," Kyp said.
"What if I volunteer instead?" Kyle asked.
"Or me?" Jaden inquired.
"Hmm," K'Kruhk murmured as he looked between the two of them. "So the both of you mean to tell me that you can view Miss Solo with an objective, detached lens because neither of you have your own personal histories with her that might eschew your judgment of her?"
Jaden's mouth dropped. "Well... that's not exactly true in my case. I mean, I still haven't forgotten our duel on Kashyyyk."
"I'm glad you admitted that, Jedi Korr," K'Kruhk said. "So that leaves you, Master Katarn. Without any notable personal history with Miss Solo. Of course, I assume that you hold nothing against her for placing your former apprentice in a coma from that aforementioned duel on Kashyyyk?"
"I can look past it," Kyle said.
"But it would factor into your thinking of her if you were to be the one watching her on the Quest?" K'Kruhk asked.
"It would," Kyle admitted reluctantly.
Jaina scoffed. "What are you, K'Kruhk, a lawyer? It almost sounds like you want Kyp to be with me for some reason."
"I would caution you, Miss Solo," the Whiphid intoned as he looked back at her carefully, "to not pass up this chance at redemption. You still have a long way to go, as Master Katarn pointed out; longer still, given this obvious backslide to the dark side. But the fact that you're still willing to help us defeat Abeloth, and resolved, at least for the moment, our conflict with those Knights, show that you can still be pulled back into the light. And I believe that Master Durron, out of all of us, is your greatest chance in achieving that redemption. So do not let us down this time."
Jaina regarded K'Kruhk with some bitterness. "Fine. I guess it would be better if it were Kyp than any of you."
"Don't push it, Solo," Kyle scolded her.
"Do any of you think that there is any further reason as to why we should all stay here any longer?" K'Kruhk asked.
They looked around them to regard the bodies of all the Jedi who had died.
"Yeah," Kyp said. "We should give at least stay around long enough to collect the bodies. They all deserve a funeral... even the ones who turned on us."
"I agree," K'Kruhk stated.
"As do I," Kyle added.
"Me, too," Jaden finished.
Jaina, smartly, remained silent.
