Eleven

Republic Outpost, Telos

13 ATC

A'tro pivoted out of the way of the Republic soldier's swing, twisting around the angle of his vibrosword to drive her left lightsaber deep into his torso. He should have known better than to engage a Sith blade to blade. As he staggered, she kicked his legs out from under him, letting the momentum of his fall drag her lightsaber and extend the wound from survivable to fatal.

She pushed the body off her blade with a casual blast of the Force, letting it fall with the other two who had first engaged her. There had been one more, but he had fled like a coward when she started cutting down his comrades. She had let him. He was only prolonging the inevitable.

She turned to face her next opponents. There were eight of them, heavily armored commandos by the looks of them, and they raced towards her from over the nearby hill, readying heavy weapons.

Beyond the hill lay the Republic encampment, half a dozen walkers that served as little more than a base for their scouts. The Imperial forces should have eliminated the lot of them a long time ago. When A'tro returned to the base, she would make Moff Drayle answer for his failure to act.

At that moment, however, she had more pressing matters to think about. Eight enemies were a challenge for most Sith to fight alone. For many, it would even be impossible. She knew that she shouldn't have gone running off on her own, she should have at least taken Janeth and Zariel with her, but she had wanted time to think.

There was nothing quite as relaxing as a fight to the death.

Here, with the dark side smoldering like a furnace deep in her consciousness and more ordinary adrenaline coursing through her veins, she could finally think clearly.

Emperor's blood, I needed this, she thought as she leaped for the center of the cluster of enemies headed towards her.

She was still in the air when she gave herself over to the Force's guidance. By the time she hit the ground and started killing, she didn't have to think about it at all anymore.

Some Sith went berserk in combat, going on mad rampages that they couldn't even remember when it was over. Darth Evendre had taught A'tro that she had to control the darkness, or it would consume her. Even though her master had turned out to be a traitor, A'tro had continued to follow those teachings. It wasn't the light side. It was just logical.

It was her control, her will that let her think clearly in the heat of battle, let her allow the Force to guide her actions even while her conscious mind contemplated something else entirely. So while her lightsabers moved in a deadly scarlet whirl, she let her mind's eye finally bring up the images she had been suppressing with all her might.

Quinn. She was still physically attracted to him, that was for certain. Several memories came to the surface, vividly enough that she faltered for an instant. The solid impact of a blaster bolt against her left shoulder, making a small crater in her armor deep enough to bite into the flesh beneath, shocked her back to full awareness. She quickly counterattacked, driving both lightsabers through the vulnerable faceplate of the soldier who had landed the shot.

And there was the problem. Quinn was a distraction. Every moment she spent in his presence was a moment spent lying to herself, denying that what she really wanted was him. Back on her crew, back in her life, back in her quarters every night to don't think about that now, you'll get yourself killed.

He had told her that he loved her, once.

A'tro found herself lowering her sabers into a guard stance. She looked around to see all eight commandos arrayed unmoving on the ground around her. Awareness of the world came rushing back. She breathed in the scent of scorched armor and blood and the raw, lingering fear that was still echoing in the Force. Her wounded shoulder started stinging. She ignored it; that level of pain was barely worth acknowledging.

Keeping her lightsabers at the ready, she stepped over the corpses and crested the hill. There were the Republic walkers, six of them, laid out in a semicircle in a flat-bottomed depression at the center of a loose ring of hills. A considerable number of soldiers were pouring out of them, arranging themselves in defensive formations and setting up heavy weapons and war droids with a degree of speed and efficiency that A'tro had to admit was impressive. As she watched, a number of them fanned out on either side of the encampment, probably intending to flank her and cut off her escape route. She would have to keep an eye on that.

At the head of the defenders stood three Jedi, one more than had been reported. Two were human; A'tro gave them a quick look and immediately dismissed them, focusing her attention on the third.

It was K'saria. She said something to her companions and started walking towards A'tro, alone. Her lightsaber stayed on her belt.

A'tro kept her own lightsabers out and lit, letting K'saria come to her. As the distance closed between them, identical golden eyes met from identical faces. Though they were not completely identical, not anymore—A'tro's scar, her gift from Evendre, ensured that. And it appeared, much to her amusement, that K'saria was still dyeing her red hair black. She wondered briefly if the Jedi knew, and if it were against their rules.

In a few moments, it wouldn't matter.

"K'hera," K'saria said as she drew close enough to be heard without shouting.

A'tro scowled silently and leaped for the kill.

But K'saria was evidently prepared, and moved with Force-enhanced speed so that by the time A'tro had reached her, her lightsabers met a shining blue blade rather than K'saria's torso. A'tro landed, disengaged, and dropped into a Juyo opening stance. Her eyes were fixed on K'saria, but she kept her other senses and the Force focused on the Republic troops, which were now behind her.

"K'hera, what happened to you?" K'saria asked. She lowered her blade, holding it diagonal to her right side. She still spoke with an Imperial accent. "There's such darkness within you, now. Such hate. You didn't used to be like this."

"You never knew me, K'saria," A'tro said, her jaw clenching. "And my name is Darth A'tro."

"They said you were the Emperor's Wrath. How did this happen?"

"I became powerful," A'tro said grimly. "More powerful than you could ever hope to become."

K'saria shook her head. "That's Sith rhetoric talking. I can't believe that this is really you."

"And that's Jedi naïveté talking," A'tro countered. "Look deeper, K'saria. Remember your Sith teachings. You know where true strength lies."

"I do. And it is not with the dark side."

"Spare me your Jedi sentimentality. I have no interest in debating with you."

"No," K'saria murmured, "I suspect you're only interested in killing me. Isn't that right?"

"Did the Force tell you that?" A'tro asked dryly. "You always did like to go on about how it spoke to you."

"I am a Jedi," K'saria said firmly. "I am one with the Force, and with all life in the universe. Your intentions are clear. I ask only that you consider this, before you attack: do you truly wish to kill me of your own accord, or have you been conditioned by your upbringing?"

"You're delaying me so your men can surround me. It won't make a difference."

"We are sisters, K'hera—A'tro." K'saria's mouth twisted at the word. "Twins. We have a special connection, even if we've both tried our whole lives to deny it. We shouldn't be fighting one another."

"Just because we're family doesn't mean I have to like you." A'tro tightened her grip on her lightsabers.

"Our mother taught you to think that way."

"Don't pretend she didn't teach you, too," A'tro spat, the perpetual flame of rage within her suddenly burning white hot. "Don't pretend you're any better than me! You were her favorite, her precious little Sith princess! And you failed her, you failed our whole family, the whole bloody Sith Order, and now you think that you can stand there and preach to me about right and wrong?"

"I failed no one but myself for not realizing the truth sooner."

A'tro shook her head and attacked. K'saria sprang into action, deftly parrying every blow.

"You think because the Jedi took you in, that gives your life meaning?" A'tro demanded, pressing the offensive. "You have no meaning. You're nothing."

"We don't have to do this!" K'saria protested, moving backwards as she deflected the rain of attacks. "It doesn't have to be like this!"

"Did you tell the Jedi that no Sith Master wanted you?" A'tro taunted. "Did you tell them that you left Korriban as a nobody with no master and no future?"

"That was true once," K'saria said. She turned her defensive maneuvers into a series of quick, neat attacks. "The light gave me a purpose. The Jedi gave me a future. It doesn't matter what I was before."

"Nothing about you ever mattered," A'tro said derisively, twisting away from the attacks and countering. "You're going to die here on this insignificant speck of a world, and no one will remember you or care. Just like it should be."

"Even if you defeat me, our forces have you surrounded. You can't win."

"If you're going to ask me to surrender, my answer is no."

"If you fear the Emperor's retribution, the Jedi can—"

"Why?" A'tro asked, flurrying attacks against K'saria's blade, forcing her way to the center of her defenses until her single blue saber was locked against a cross formed by A'tro's two red blades. "Why do you keep trying? I fight for the future of the Empire, and I would gladly die for that cause."

Across the deadly bars of red and blue, K'saria's face showed only calm tinged by sadness, though A'tro could feel her straining against her blades with all her might. "And what is the Empire's future? A galaxy awash in blood, ruled by fear."

"The blood of our enemies," A'tro hissed. She pushed forward, trying to overwhelm K'saria with sheer physical strength. "I'll pour yours out into the dirt of this place."

She saw K'saria's jaw clench, felt her guard start to falter—

A shadow fell over them. The Force whispered danger, and A'tro leaped backwards as something went screaming through the air to hit the ground where she had been standing and explode in a sizeable fireball.

She looked up and saw Imperial landing craft circling like vultures, dropping more bombs and soldiers on the Republic troops. Blasterfire and explosions started to fill the air as fighting began in earnest, turning the scene into chaos.

It seems I was missed, she thought, and looked around for K'saria.

It took a few moments to locate her amidst the mayhem, but A'tro finally spotted her sister's brown-clad figure on the other side of the encampment, moving back among the walkers in a defensive formation with the other two Jedi.

A'tro almost went after her. Almost.

But there was a wall of battle between them, and she knew that by the time she had fought her way through, K'saria would be gone. Rage surged in her chest, nearly clouding her mind, but she released enough of it in one short, sharp sigh that she could think clearly.

She kept the rest of the anger close, let it fuel her as she raced over to the nearest knot of fighting and began laying waste to the Republic soldiers. Having the opportunity to settle the score with her sister was maddening, but an Imperial victory was more important than her old hatreds.

Besides, she thought sourly, I still don't know what I'm going to do about Quinn.