CHAPTER 12

=Back aboard the Falcon=

Kylo's eyes widened slightly behind his mask, "What the hell…?" He muttered as he saw Toshiro's power. Kylo shook off the feeling of dread building in him, and launched himself at Toshiro with his crossguard-saber held above his head to be brought down on the boy in a slash.

Toshiro blocked the attack and allowed his mastery of the Force to be revealed to the Sith in front of him by allowing his Blade to freeze over as he swept it outward, making an arc of cold air that froze the things it came into contact with. he then held his weapon in true Makashi style to goad Kylo into approaching him. "Lesson one. Don't underestimate your opponent." Toshiro said using Flash Step to seem to be in several places at once.

"Lesson two… don't trust your eyes" He added as he slashed at Kylo's right leg.

Kylo looked around frantically before he felt blood seeping down his right leg and felt pain. He staggered back as blood soaked his lower robe. "Damn...you're better than I thought. But this is pointless….if I don't come back from this...the Eviscerator above you will blow this ship into space dust."

A voice sounded out as two new cloaked figures boarded the ship from the other docking bay. "You put too much worth on the value of your life." Vladimir said from the shadows as Ichigo ran into the room "I couldn't shoot the- oh shit!" He said as Toshiro sheathed his weapon. "Friends of yours?" He asked Kylo.

Rukia ran into the room as Vladimir ignited twin crimson blades. "This doesn't concern you, woman. Cythe! Mop the floor with Kylo, and I might let you command another battalion after our last failure."

"Yes, master!" Cythe said obediently as she ignited one of her staff's blades. Kylo grinned beneath his mask, "So...my instincts were right...you are part of the Knights of Ren. Should've known you were both too mediocre to be full time Darths."

"Vladimir Ren takes orders from no one! Do not lecture me on the Sith code!" The Chagrian Knight said angrily.

"We'll see who that applies to!" Cythe spun her blade and attempted to strike Kylo's torso, only to find her blow expertly blocked as Ren taunted her. "If you hope not to die here, you'd better activate that second blade, whore!" Blasting Cythe back with a shockwave of force energy, Kylo charged Vlad with his crossguard-saber.

Vlad blocked the hit, but was forced back a bit as the hit scarred his face and managed to derail its intended target and remove one of his horns. As he attempted to block another hit, he lost his right hand to the hit and staggered back. "You think you've beaten me… you think just because of a cheapshot and a crossguard you can win? you think… I am running out of things to say-"

Kylo Ren prepared to impale Vlad through the chest, but he gasped as Cythe's blade penetrated through his back and out his abdomen. "Grk! Y-you….bitch."

Cythe smirked, "See? I only needed one." She threw Kylo to the floor where he struggled to get up, she slashed his mask off with her lightsaber, it clattered to the floor as Ren was revealed to be a young man with black hair. He glared up at his opponents as he coughed up blood.

Seeing that these Knights of Ren were willing to kill each other for the simple reason to hold a better title, Ichigo couldn't stand by any longer. "You bastards! Bankai Vaapad Zangetsu Gōkei de!"

WIth that his giant carving knife changed to a stylized katana with a spiked back end and a purple aura. Vladimir looked at the blade. "Crap… Windu's Guile. Cythe… We have killed Kylo. We're leaving. question me again and I will find another to take your place."

With that said, Vladimir returned to his shuttle along with Cythe and the Star Destroyers left the orbit of Mandalore shortly after. Toshiro knelt by Kylo. "I may have my own feelings towards you, but I sense you harbor no ill will towards us. It would be wise to accept our aid."

Kylo looked into Toshiro's eyes...and smiled slightly as he struggled to pull himself over to a wall to lean against. Coughing bits of blood onto his robe he grinned a bloodstained toothy grin. "Can't...argue...with ya...there. Though….if….you wish to finish...me…..now would be an equally good...time."

"We're entering Mandalore's atmosphere! Hold onto your butts!" Han said as they docked onto a platform, and the sounds of loud chanting coming from nearby met their ears.

"The first noble sons of Mandalore!"

Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame.

Our vengeance burns brighter still!"

"Huh… trippy..." Rangiku said as they followed the sounds of the chant. Rukia parted a bush and all of the Reapers gasped. Ichigo in particular as he stammered, "K-Karin?"

"The gauntlet of Mandalore strikes without mercy.

We are the rage of The Warriors of the Shadow,

The first noble sons of Mandalore!"

Karin was found to be wearing a mandalorian armor plated suit and chanting along with several others.

"Dinner's ready!" A voice rang out cheerfully as Yuzu popped her head out of the tent she had been cooking in.

Ichigo rushed into the clearing, hand on his blade hilt.

Dead silence.

"Take him down!"

"Wait!" Karin shouted before anyone could make a move. "Ichigo! how did you get here? We haven't seen you for days!"

A small squeal was heard as Yuzu ran outside and smiled "You have great timing! I just finished cooking dinner! You'd be surprised how easy it was for me to adapt to cooking wild game here! And Rukia and Toshiro came with you?"

At the mention of Toshiro, Karin looked over at the silver haired Taicho and smiled slightly.

The other Mandalorians looked at Ichigo and the others. "Sisters, who are these people?" A voice as a green armored Mandalorian with a shoulder cape bearing the Mythosaur skull, asked as he approached. Han walked out from the bushes, "Huh….thought you were dead, Boba."

Boba chuckled, "It'd take a lot more than you with a pike to get rid of me, Solo."

Karin smiled. "This is Mand'alor Boba Fett! some of his men found me and Yuzu wandering around the desert on Tatooine and offered us a place in their ranks!"

"So… you helped my sisters survive then?" Ichigo asked the group of Mandalorians collectively.

"Yep!"

"Mhmm!"

"Why wouldn't we?" Boba asked Ichigo. "Yuzu is an excellent chef and Karin is one hell of a sniper."

"Well I didn't know Karin was good with a blaster, but I agree with you on Yuzu's cooking."

Yuzu piped up. "Which by the way is getting colder the longer we wait to eat! and It's Nerf Steak today too!"

A chorus of voices cheered at the mention of Yuzu's Nerf Steak. As they ate, Boba explained who he was and his apparent history with Han Solo..which neither of the twins even knew of.

"I was a bounty hunter for a long time, my employer Jabba the Hutt wanted Solo here...and so after Vader froze him in a block of carbonite I delivered. Of course it didn't work out too well, when the jedi Skywalker took us all by surprise when he and the others were to be executed by being thrown into the Sarlacc at the Pit of Carkoon."

Han butted in to explain to the others what a Sarlacc was, "Basically it's a giant hole in the ground with teeth that slowly digests you in its stomach while you're kept alive for centuries. It's pretty unheard of for anyone to escape...especially with a busted jetpack." Han glanced at Boba with a questioning look.

Boba took a sip from his mug of sweet tasting Ne'tra gal (called Mandalorian black ale by outsiders). Rangiku had been introduced to the bitter tasting but extremely potent ale: Kri'gee.

"I used a couple of flash grenades to agitate it's insides and piss it off. It contracted it's stomach walls around my jetpack, causing it to explode and allowing me to get free."

Han chuckled as he took a sip of beer, "You're one hell of a case of indigestion, ya know that?"

Toshiro was sitting cross legged with his steak 3/4ths of the way gone, having not had Yuzu's cooking for a long while. "So your armor must be quite resilient if it could stand up to an explosion in such a creature."

Rangiku snorted. "Indigestion my ass! Does any'un know if there's any strong'r stuff 'an 'hiss 'roun ere?"

Ichigo and Rukia were on the same page as Toshiro, and Ichigo looked over at Karin as he felt the Force coming off her in waves. He then remembered the Jedi that had sent them here and realized that she was probably the reason they were here, so he looked over at Yuzu and tried to feel the same, but felt nothing. "Strange..." he muttered.

A Mandalorian ran into the tent at this point. "Lord Mand'alor! the Jedi has not stopped his advance no matter what we tell him regarding our laws!"

"Must be the guy who sent us here. Quinlan something-or-other. He instructed us there was a Force sensitive among you." Toshiro said, getting straight to the point. He then looked directly at Karin. "And she can't even sense her own power."

Yuzu came in at this point. "Who wants seconds?"

Boba sighed and stood up, taking his blaster carbine from it's propped up position against the hut. "Fine, maybe I can convince him to leave." Boba gripped his blaster carbine as his shoulder-cape blew in the wind. "And if negotiating with him fails?" A female mando asked curiously.

"Take a guess." the messenger Mando spoke over his shoulder as he walked alongside Boba to the Jedi's location.

Karin stood and followed Boba with Ichigo in tow and Rukia behind him. Toshiro held up his plate to Yuzu. "I'd go for seconds." He said, deciding it would be better if Ichigo handled this. Rangiku was too drunk anyways.

Karin drew her blaster and said, "Warning shot or take him out, Brother?" as her sight was trained on the Jedi who was jumping around dodging blaster fire like a badass while trying to talk his way through their defenses, albeit cockily.

"Warning shots only...unless he shows intent to do harm...then blast his face off." Boba spoke his order.

She nodded and took aim, shooting with deadly accuracy singeing her target's hair and causing a braid to fall to the ground, then she stopped and gasped as he seemed to look directly into her line of vision.

"That's her….she's radiating powerful force energy. It'd be impossible for it not to be her." Quinlan thought as he smirked and said. "Okay, how about we get rid of those things?" Holding up his hand, Karin and the other Mando's blaster jerked out of their hands and clattered to the ground between Vos and the group.

Boba's fingers twitched on his carbine, "You got a reason to be here, jetii?"

Quinlan's fingers at the same time twitched slightly to his lightsaber hilt. "Damn right I do. That girl there, she's force sensitive...EXTREMELY gifted in it….It doesn't surprise me you didn't figure out that's why she's so good at sniping.'`

"I'm… what?" Karin said using the force without even realizing it to reacquire her blaster. She looked down at her hands in disbelief as Ichigo smiled. "Took you long enough sis!" He said as he gestured to Vos and spoke to Boba. "He's actually the one who contacted us. And… well she happens to be my little sister."

Karin blinked. "How… Ichigo I don't understand... " She looked scared as her hands quivered, dropping the blaster. Rukia put a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be fine! to tell you the truth I'm not all that surprised considering your brother's affinity and your ability to sense Hollows!"

Karin looked at Ichigo, who was smiling at her. "What about Yuzu?" She asked. Ichigo shook his head and said, "She'll be happier just cooking for so many people. She always loved cooking more than anything, But she doesn't show any signs of the Force. she would feel out of place in the Jedi Temple."

Toshiro poked his head out of the hut. "We should get back to the Falcon. Quinlan, we have someone there that is injured."

"Why didn't you say so!?" Quinlan rushed off to the Falcon and soon returned with Kylo's arm slung around his shoulder, the dark sider grumbling and shouting all the way. "I can walk on my own! I don't need your pity!"

Toshiro frowned. "If you can't recognize sympathy for pain from pity, you might need more help than you realize."

"Get a stretcher! we've got an injured man!" Karin commanded a lesser-in-rank Mando, all traces of fear gone, not recognizing the Knight of Ren status the Dark Force wielder held.

Kylo was placed on a stretcher and his torso robe and cloak removed. Some Mandos were heard gasping as they saw the scorched hole that had bore its way through his back and out his abdomen. "Get on with it, stop gawking!" Kylo said grumpily.

Quinlan placed a hand to hover over the wound and concentrated, the wound slowly closed with force energy. Kylo grunted and stood up from the stretcher, beginning to put on his robe.

"While I was healing you….I saw…" Quinlan said as the others stood by watching.

"What exactly...did you see?" Kylo spoke with his back turned to them.

Quinlan looked down, "That man in the bone armor, Krayt…..I know the decision to turn to the dark side was not your own. He took you from your family when you were a child...you shouldn't feel the need to walk this path-"

Kylo's back stiffened, and he spoke with a cracking voice before he turned to Quinlan. "DON'T pretend you understand, Jedi! None of you can understand...you're wrong...the decision was MINE, not his!" Kylo had turned around with tears brimming in his eyes.

Toshiro's normal cold demeanor faded and he said slightly brokenly as well. "I understand more than you are willing to find out. I have watched my comrades die at the hands of the enemy, and been able to do little more than bury them and mourn. Additionally… I have watched someone close to me go insane and had to kill my best friend in cold-blood. Do not think there is no way back from such acts. It would also be in your best interest to come with us if you truly wish for Vladimir to pay for his betrayal."

Ichigo nodded and said. "I can sympathize with the insanity bit. Technically I don't have all of my own, and… I am not a Sith despite the malicious intent of the... mindset issues I have. It's complicated."

Kylo shook his head and huffed as he turned away from them, for a long while he was silent before finally speaking his answer. "You don't understand, Vlad wouldn't have acted so boldly on his own. This runs deeper than just him and Cythe...I appreciate your kindness...more than you probably know. You've earned an explanation, and I'm fully willing to give it now." Ren leaned against the hut where Yuzu cooked her meals.

"They didn't let me in on much, I was basically a go between for the One Sith order and the Imperial Remnant, publicly known as the First Order. The destruction of the second Death Star, and the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader did not fully destroy the Galactic Empire...I hope you're aware."

Boba nodded, "Of course it didn't, you take out a leader of something like the Empire...and another one rises to take his place."

Toshiro Nodded and said "While Mand'alor is quite right, it would help if we knew whom we are up against and not just what they are using to pull the strings. What can you tell us about the Blue skinned one called Vlad?"

Kylo looked at the white haired Soul Reaper and sighed, "If you think Vlad and Cythe were acting on their own, you're wrong. They were most likely given the order from someone higher up the food chain than they are, someone who probably felt I was of no use to their plans anymore." The dark haired man looked down,

"Only someone as powerful as Aizen, or at least as strategic could be what we're up against." Ichigo thought out loud. Karin looked at her brother. "Who?" He sighed and said "Long story. It can wait."

"The One Sith have abandoned the Sith doctrine of the Rule of Two, which was created by the Sith lord Darth Bane long ago. The Rule of Two dictates that only two Sith should exist at any one time, a master and an apprentice...the master to embody the power...and the apprentice to crave it. The transfer of power of the apprentice to master...is accomplished by the apprentice slaying their master once they become powerful enough." Kylo sighed.

"But the Rule of One is based upon obedience to a single most powerful Sith lord, with many less powerful Sith following and obeying...all of them with the one purpose decreed by the head of the order...almost like a cult." Kylo nodded as he explained.

"So instead of two people with power… were facing hundreds… or thousands of kill-on-sight Dark Force wielding murderers? Sounds wonderful." Rangiku finished sarcastically

Quinlan Vos spoke up to the Mandos, "Hey...was there a reason that blockade was set up above Mandalore?"

Boba nodded, "They hoped to lay claim our beskar mines, though you call it Mandalorian iron. It's what our armor is made out of, and it is notable for it's ability to stand up to a lightsaber." He turned to Toshiro, "So you were right, this armor is pretty strong."

=One explanation later=

Quinlan Vos placed a hand on Karin's shoulder, "Listen, don't think of this as a goodbye to them. You can come back any time you want to see your sister and clan, but we need to train you to use your gift so you don't one day accidentally hurt someone or yourself...ok?"

"O-okay… as long as Yuzu is safe." Karin said

Boba patted Karin on the head, "We'll take care of Yuzu, trust me. And like the jetii says...you'll always be welcome here on Mandalore, little sister."

The sound of the other Mandos agreeing wholeheartedly and saying their goodbyes to Karin came from the crowd.

Yuzu poked her head out of the tent and piped up: "This calls for a celebratory hunt! The one to bring the biggest steak gets first dibs on desert!"

Several Mandos looked at eachother before scrambling to their weapons. Toshiro smiled and said to Karin, "See, she'll be just fine!" as they boarded the Falcon once more, headed to the temple again.