Ok, I finished plotting out the entire fic, there's going to be a grand total of 19 chapters… starting with this one #17 and on we're going to see… a lot of lightsaber fighting. Enjoy it, I've worked out the sequences and I'm trying to make them original, however I've been easier on myself this time around. I'm going to spread them out in the chapters, inter cut with other stuff such as the battle in space… if I could I would do an epic all out lightsaber battle chapter like I ended the Unknown Son series with but I have to say that nearly killed me so I am going to make a very big epic lightsaber duel spread out between 3 chapters. Anyway I'll get on with it. And I will say right now, don't believe everything you see… or read in this case… oh yeah and enjoy the cliffy I will be leaving. And also the name of this chapter changed about three times. I finally settled for The Abyss, you'll see why.

Chapter 17: The Abyss

Executor, Main Reactor Maintenance Catwalks

Lumiya extended a blood red lightsaber as a woman with a metal appendage where her right arm would have been approached the Sith Lady; she carried an amethyst blade in her flesh hand. The two would-be combatants stood on a catwalk, to the left of them was the Executor's colossal main reactor, and to the right was a mere wall, the ground was a good ten feet below them and bathed in blackness, this maintenance room was lit only with crimson emergency type lights which gave the place a dark, sinister feeling, several bombs attached to the main reactor itself added their own tiny, blinking scarlet lights to the darkness. Lumiya possessed the detonator in a pouch on her belt; all she had to do was overcome the obstacle in front of her and then get off the ship and use it.

"I want to make this easy for you." The woman with the purple blade said. "Hand over the detonator and I won't kill you."

At this threat, more like a joke, Lumiya rolled her eyes.

"You can't compete with me girl. I am a Lady of the Sith."

"I am a Jedi." The woman retorted violently.

"The daughter of Anakin Skywalker I sense… you are the lesser offspring of a fabled Chosen One."

"Enough!" Leia snapped. "I tried to make this easy for you… I really did, I said hand over the detonator, you chose not too, now I'll just have to take it from you."

"If you feel up to the task I invite you to try. How's your footing?"

Leia took one step forward; saber in a defensive position, Lumiya mirrored her, taking a step back. It seemed this Jedi girl was getting more and more irritated with each passing moment, exactly what the Sith Lady was hoping for. She almost laughed, this girl… it would seem that Anakin had spent more time grieving for his lost comrade Obi-Wan rather than training his daughter, and his son as well most likely, to be ideal Jedi. Then again anger was common among young padawans and eventually faded away; this was a dangerous time for young Leia, and young Luke…. Lumiya was sure, given the proper length of time and allowed all the subtleties that Leia, like Obi-Wan could be turned to the dark side.

Time was short though, Lumiya did not really have a choice but to kill the poor girl and she had the ship to blow up on top of that. Giving up on taunting Leia about her dueling style Lumiya struck up a defensive pose and waited. The young Jedi leapt into the air, becoming nothing but a blur of motion and the glow of an amethyst lightsaber. She landed behind her foe, flipped her weapon once, twice, and stabbed backwards, it was her intention to impale Lumiya through her spine, or perhaps synthetic spine, sadly her blade never pierced the cyborg's body and before Leia knew it she was flat on her face, the Sith Lady had delivered a disturbingly agile, accurate, and wicked kick to her back.

"Come on," the cyborg taunted. "That was pathetic."

Leia gritted her teeth in frustration, and in one slick move, spun into the air, landing firmly on her feet. She swiped at Lumiya's head, however her cunning enemy ducked fast and stabbed, forcing Leia to twist out of the direction of the blow and lean against the guard rail. Before she could react, Lumiya's foot, which looked like nothing more than a blurry shadow in the dark maintenance room, contacted with her neck. The padawan Jedi's violet blade fell onto the catwalk and deactivated instantly, emanating metallic clanks as it spun on the gritted floor, Leia was not as lucky as her weapon, she fell over the edge falling head first towards the unseen ground, she was about to die!

Lumiya shook her head, Leia was far too easy to defeat, she was almost disappointed. However that feeling vanished like the rest of her flesh had in that terrible crash the moment Leia flipped at the last moment and grabbed onto the catwalk. With one hand supporting her she looked up into the Sith Lady's eyes, and then down at the dark abyss below her feet. As Lumiya's black boot rose up to come crashing down on her hand Leia propelled herself into the air and back onto the catwalk. This time it was her turn. She hopped into the air and kicked the Sith woman in her groin, landed and then delivered a round house kick to Lumiya's head. Leia watched as her enemy flew off of the catwalk sank into the darkness, a moment later she heard a dull smack… and then nothing but silence… for several long moments the confused padawan simply stood there, contemplating her next move. Tapping into the Force she mindlessly called her dead blade back to her open palm while searching for any sign of her fallen foe.

She sensed nothing.

Anxiety gripped at her stomach, twisting it into a tangled mess of knots, the adrenaline began to course through her veins, and she did her best to calm herself—

Leia whirled around, while simultainously activating her weapon to face… nothing but the wall… but she had just heard, finally she realized the noise that had alerted her had simply been her own boot squeaking on the catwalk floor. She turned back quickly and looked down, half expecting Lumiya to come flying out of the darkness, weapon in hand, and attack her. Then something horribly ominous happened….

Nothing.

Leia deactivated her weapon, but kept the dead hilt in her tight grasp, taking a deep breath as if to blow her anxiousness away she made her choice. With a simple hop, without even the aid of the Force she leapt over the guardrail and into the darkness below, bracing herself to the landing and the terror the blackness held.

XxX

Chimaera, Hanger Bay, ID Number Unknown

Obi-Wan and his odd company of Jedi, former assassins, and previously presumed to be dead people all filed out of their advanced X1 TIE craft and into an empty hanger bay aboard the Imperial's apparent capitol ship, the Chimaera. Anakin strode up next to his former master who was staring at the black doors before him. Mace Windu, Siri Tachi, Mara Jade, Raz Vena, and Luke Skywalker (who had recently rendezvoused with the group in space) all jogged up behind them.

"What is it?" Mace asked.

"That was too easy." Obi-Wan replied.

"That was not easy!" Siri cried. "With a dozen TIE fighters on my tail it was all I could do to roll out of the way without being incinerated. That was not easy!"

"I mean there is no welcoming party here. This is too easy." Obi-Wan said.

"Obviously it's a trap." Mara stated, looking at her father gravely as he looked back at her.

"Next move?" Luke inquired, looking at the red headed woman next to him.

"Spring the trap." Mara said quirking an eyebrow. Luke was looking at her… rather mischievously; Obi-Wan shot the Jedi padawan a look of warning.

"We should just move on with it now." Siri said. "I'd like to kill the Emperor today if that is alright with everyone else. There's a battle going on outside!"

"I agree." Obi-Wan said, and before anyone else could concur (unnecessarily) the former Sith Lord began to walk, his former Jedi apprentice at his side, his wife, his daughter, an old Jedi friend, and his former apprentice's son tailing behind. Before they reached the black durasteel doors however, something unspeakably horrible happened. A ripple, no, an explosion that tremendously upset the balance of the Force rang out so loudly they all nearly fell over. A Jedi was dead… for half of a horrible second Anakin and Luke both suspected Leia… but… it was Yoda.

They all stood there in silence for a moment, completely oblivious to their surroundings and the fact that the door was slowly opening….

"How?" Mace finally choked out, the revelation this brought out put a very dreadful feeling to whatever morale they had come with. If Yoda was dead… how would any of them survive? That question could easily be answered by the mass of white armored troops encircling them… they would not survive. The group barely acknowledged the presence of the storm troopers, not seeing them as a real threat.

"Hands up Jedi!" one trooper called out.

"Oh will you just shut it?!" Raz snapped impatiently, lost in thoughts as were everyone else.

The trooper that had just ordered them to throw their hands into the air and surrender exchanged glances with him comrades, then he cocked his blaster rifled and spoke more firmly this time.

"Get on the ground and put your hands on your heads or we'll have to use force!"

Raz snarled angrily, swung around while drawing a sai, and plunged the incredibly sharp blade right through the trooper's armor and into his heart. She pulled it out swiftly and tossed it right through the left eye visor of the troop to her right, swung to the left and kicked the remaining enemy that was in her reach hard in the groin, followed up by activating her lightsaber and beheading him.

"I told you to shut up!" she shouted, that drew the attention of her comrades as well as the remaining storm troopers and the hanger was a light with glowing blades. The troopers were dead before any could fire a single shot. Raz wiped her hands together lightly and retrieved a bloody sai from the trooper's face, she picked up his gloved hand and clenched his lifeless fist around the blade, using it to wipe his own crimson blood off of her weapon, she then sheathed it and turned to face the group of Force users who were currently deactivating their respective weapons. Raz twitched her nose slightly.

"I hate the smell of charred flesh." She commented.

"Is that why you use those things?" Mara asked, referring to the vibro sais.

"No, they're just more fun." Raz replied simply.

"I think we should get a move on." Mace stated. "Yoda's death is… tragic, but it is a distraction that we can't afford to weigh us down."

"I agree." Obi-Wan stated. "Let's move."

The mixed assembly of bounty hunters, former Sith Lords, former Jedi, as well as current Jedi then proceeded to run out of the hanger bay doors and into the hallway behind them. It was there they came upon their next problem, halfway down the hall a ray shield materialized in front of them, Obi-Wan and Anakin grunted in frustration and the group reversed direction, only to find another shield in their path, the former master and apprentice exchanged glances. Each strode up opposite walls of the hallway and plunged their light lightsabers into them, only to find out they would go no further than ten inches, as that was the thickness of the wall and as far as their blades could penetrate since another ray shield halted them.

"Damn." Obi-Wan and Anakin both muttered under their breaths.

"Ray shields." Luke stated gloomily.

"We can see that genius!" Mara snapped, fighting the temptation to slap the young man upside the head.

"They're probably under the floor and above the ceiling too." Anakin said.

"So what do we do now?" Siri asked.

The former Sith Lord and his ex-Jedi apprentice exchanged glances once more.

"Wait." They stated in unison.

XxX

Chimaera, Bridge

"Milord," Grand Admiral Thrawn addressed from behind the Emperor's back.

Darth Sidious stood facing the triangular view ports, gazing out into space and observing the carnage his fleet was unleashing upon the group of disloyal Imperials, and irritating rebels.

"Yes Grand Admiral, what is it?" The Emperor asked.

"The Mon Calamari cruiser that pulled up along side us is almost down sir, the Nebulon-B frigates are no longer a problem and the rest of the fleet is progressing nicely."

"Is that all?" Sidious asked drearily, this was not news that he really cared about.

"No sir," Thrawn replied. "The intruders have been locked down in hallway 2019."

"Excellent, release a bit of knock out gas and bring them all to the bridge, with their weapons. I will kill them personally with their own blades. It would seem Lumiya is running behind."

"Of course sir."

"And have an open channel ready. I want everyone to see this, our ships, their ships. Open up a channel to everyone. Let them all watch as I kill their leaders… personally. An example will be made today Thrawn… no one shall ever again betray this Galactic Empire!"

XxX

Executor

Leia swung around silently and swiftly, ready to activate her lightsaber… however she stood facing only the wall, a creak from somewhere had alerted her. She spun again, facing the main reactor, this floor was so plain, and nearly pitch black, she could hardly see a thing. Where the hell was Lumiya?

Leia began to walk, her feet making no sound as they fell against the durasteel floor, she could see nothing but shadows in the. The floor around the main reactor was incredibly massive, she was at the far edge of it would not be that far fetched to suggest that the reactor was half a mile away from the very spot she stood.

Lumiya could literally be anywhere. The question was where? Leia tapped into the Force to search for her adversary once more, her efforts once again proved futile…. This woman, this cyborg was good, she was excellent. For a brief moment Leia felt as though she were out of her league, Lumiya could simply stab her in the back, and she would not even know what it was that killed her. Leia's ears picked up a sound once more, something that sounded quite like barely audible footfalls right in front of her, in a flash of movement she activated her amethyst blade and charged like an angry bull towards the source of the sound, pulling her lightsaber back she swung it forward at the silhouette in the darkness, her blow was not parried and her opponent's head fell to the ground with a clang.

It was just a maintenance droid… just a—

Leia swung her saber behind her and successfully stopped a blood red blade from separating her torso from her legs. As soon as Lumiya pulled her saber back Leia spun and struck at the Sith Lady's head, her strike was parried and directed out of the way by a scarlet blade. Lumiya followed up with a kick towards Leia's stomach which the young Jedi dodged.

"I'll give you credit." Lumiya hissed. "You know what you're doing… somewhat."

"I'm starting to get sick of your voice so if you don't mind I recommend we continue."

"You want to come closer to the moment of your funeral? Fine with me."

Lumiya didn't waste a second; Leia barely had time to parry the flash of crimson flying for her head. Cyborg woman here was excellent. This was nothing like the sparring sessions with Luke, this was a real, blood thirsty Sith Lady who was trying to kill her, the… sense of danger was exhilarating, coupled with the adrenaline coursing through her veins (despite the attempts to calm herself), as well as the Force being her ally Leia found herself slashing, cutting, and hacking at an almost unmatchable speed, almost, Lumiya was doing a damn fine job parrying all of her blows.

Finally Leia slipped up and spun to get more power in her next strike, she was fast, but not nearly fast enough. The moment her peripheral vision caught sight of Lumiya, who looked horrific lit by the crimson and amethyst light, a lightsaber ripped into her stomach and ripped a huge gash across it.

Leia was so shocked for a moment she didn't even feel the pain, she desperately tried to direct a blow at Lumiya but her muscles did not cooperate. Her blade went dead and fell to the ground, she arrived on the durasteel shortly after it, all she could see was the blackness engulfing them, pierced only by crimson light from Lumiya's blade, the darkness grew and seemed to swallow her up… then… she saw nothing at all.

Hmm… what are your thoughts here, be brutal. I was trying to make this chapter a little suspenseful, was it?