Chapter 15: A Fatal Blow

A/N: Thank you to I Love Dance, Treenahasthaal, Forever-Luke, and Arya Of Ellesmera for reviewing!

Lunara Seras entered the tower room where the sacrifice would take place, the one with the silvery violet light pouring from the ceiling, shadows dancing in the candlelit room. It was the same room where Skywalker had been held earlier, drugged and tied to the same stone block that he was to die on.

Probably, she thought, the Rebel scum are expecting me to follow through with some brilliant plan that would save all of our lives at the last minute.

But it was pretty clearly over. The New Republic forces hadn't arrived in time, and the best she could hope for would be to survive as long as possible, biding her time until maybe one day she had an opportunity to disappear.

She stood in front of a dark wall, elegantly inlaid with silver mineral to match the glass ceiling. The other Sith were beginning to take their places across the room. It wasn't long before the two Solos were brought in. Although they were blindfolded, with hands tied behind their backs, the prisoners still struggled in the helpless way that womp rats thrashed when they saw the rancor's mouth.

They were shoved over to the wall behind the stone block, midway between Lunara and the other Sith, and chained to the wall. Their blindfolds were taken off, and they blinked in the sudden flickering light.

They glanced towards her eventually, each look being met by an icy and indifferent stare. Lunara felt no need to comfort them, and would be putting herself at risk by doing so.

A few moments later, Luke Skywalker was brought into the room as well. He hadn't been blindfolded, but he had been electrocuffed and was surrounded by six armed Sith. His breathing was already labored from the climb up the winding tower steps, but Lunara was impressed at how much he had improved in the few short days of being left alone by Cinerate – not that it would ultimately matter.

He wasn't chained next to the others but merely stood up against the wall, blaster pressed against his neck.

Cinerate entered next, accompanied by a heavily muscled Sith Lunara recognized as Ronas Cirth. What are they doing together? Cinerate beckoned for her to join them in the center of the room, in front of the stone, and she unhesitatingly obliged. He then nodded to the Sith surrounding Skywalker, who marched the Jedi over, forced him onto the block of stone, and jabbed a needle into his arm to release him from the drugs that prevented Force use.

It was then that the ceiling exploded.

Shattered mauve glass rained down onto the room, harmlessly bouncing off the Sith that had managed to erect Force shields in time and embedding into ones who hadn't. To make matters worse, Jedi with activated lightsabers began to leap into the room.

Lunara didn't let indecision slow her down a single moment. She promptly turned and with a sweep of one of her lightsabers bisected the bindings on Skywalker. Continuing the smooth motion, she lunged with her twin lightsabers at the nearest Sith target, who happened to be Ronas Cirth. Now that the odds were about even, perhaps she could get out of the Cinerate plan after all.

Ronas's eyes, already widening as Skywalker rolled off the table, further filled with shock. For a moment, but he quickly rallied. His single lightsaber, a blaze of orange, matched her own two blades with harsh, powerful strokes.

The two Sith struggled with furious intensity. Lunara's booted feet were crushing glass with every footstep, but Ronas was similarly hampered. Still, Lunara wasn't worried yet. She had had a lot more experience in combat and would probably last longer.

Her entire mind was occupied with the attacks and parries, the stabs and ripostes, until she caught an image out of the corner of her eye. Her master was fleeing the tower. He jumped out one of the newly formed openings in the walls. Luke Skywalker, who had somehow gotten his hands on a Sith lightsaber, was stumbling towards him.

The insane Jedi was actually pursuing him!

Lunara's concentration slipped, and her opponent's blade grazed her side. She hissed in pain and followed Skywalker and Cinerate. "Catch me if you can, you kriffing blue Squib!" she called out as she used the Force to navigate her way down the long fall.

Snarling, Ronas pursued. Lunara took her eyes from the ground underneath her for just a moment to see that Skywalker had managed to summon up enough of the Force to save himself from being squashed, but not enough to prevent himself from falling to his knees as he hit the ground. Cinerate was going to slaughter him.

Lunara touched down softly a few moments later, stirring up some of the metallic dust. The windows of the tower she had jumped off were bright with clashing lightsabers, and the entire base was lit up with blaster fire and explosions, some from the dogfight up in the sky.

Ronas landed, and the duel commenced. Lunara began to fall into the dark spiral of the Force. She used her rage from the injury Ronas had inflicted on her, hate of Cinerate, and urgency to get to Skywalker, channeling her emotions into her footwork and lightsaber strikes as she felt her face twist into fury.

Ronas faltered a bit, falling back then rallying with his own power to match hers.

Luke Skywalker hit the ground with a painful jolt. He quickly pushed himself to his feet and gripped the stolen lightsaber, resuming his chase of Darth Cinerate, who was setting an impressive pace up the valley's sloping wall. Already a deep ache was seeping into his muscles, but he concentrated on the Force to keep himself moving.

He didn't know where they were going, as there was evidently no sign of civilization for kilometers, and he doubted that he could stop Cinerate from whatever he was planning. But he did know was that Cinerate couldn't be allowed to escape.

Luke had spent so much of the last couple months helplessly shot by bounty hunters, tortured as a prisoner of the Empire, and Force-drained nearly to the point of death. He had been carelessly tossed from enemy to enemy, unable to change his fate in the slightest way.

He had to take control of it now. Even if he died, he hadn't counted on living from the beginning. Luke knew that if it didn't end now, he wouldn't survive being a prisoner again, even if he escaped this particular obscure Sith sacrifice.

Without warning, Cinerate about-faced and ignited his lightsaber. Luke barely got up his own blade in time to block the jarring blow, and didn't have time to think before the second was coming.

The pain began to fade. He wielded the blazing lightsaber with a strange, cold, detachment. The Force's strong grasp moved him as he moved the lightsaber.

It wasn't enough.

After only a few minutes, the pain began to return as Cinerate upped the attack, battering down with his crimson blade. It seemed to be everywhere at once, forcing Luke back, pinning him down and giving him less and less room to maneuver.

Then the lightsaber slipped through Luke's defenses, leaving a long burn from his elbow to his shoulder. It wasn't any mistake that he had made – Luke simply didn't have the physical endurance to last.

But he had no other choice. Luke switched his blade to his other hand, and gathered his energy. Cinerate's attack pressed upon him again, and he desperately parried.

Cinerate was openly smirking now, malicious eyes taunting Luke as he employed the full power of the Force behind the next blow. Luke felt the lightsaber wrenched out of his hand a fraction of a second before Cinerate's entered his stomach.

His mouth opened in a silent gasp, as frozen agony spread out from the wound. He did not remember falling backwards, but he could taste the dry dust in his mouth and knew it was a mortal wound.

He could see Cinerate standing over him, lightsaber raised to deliver another blow. A woman that he didn't recognize appeared in the center of his rapidly darkening vision. Was she a hallucination? She planted her blade in Cinerate before he could stab Luke again.

As the Sith lord crumpled to the ground, the woman quickly dropped to her knees and gently placed a white hand on his chest. Luke felt healing energy trickle into him. He breathed out, feeling the life energy leave him far faster than he could be healed, and closed his eyes as he drifted away, into the Force . . . .

He felt soothing energy pouring into him, warming him and taking away the pain.

Jaina Solo finally spotted her mother among the wreckage. With a joyful shout, she clambered over some fragments of stone and embraced her around her middle.

"Where were you?" she asked Leia, slightly accusingly. "I've been calling you and calling you, but you didn't answer. Uncle Luke didn't either. Where is he, and where is Dad?"

Then she noticed the look her face.

"What is it?" Jaina was beginning to get a bit apprehensive. "Why aren't you talking to me?"

Leia cleared her throat. "Jaina," she began, giving her a grave look. "Your father is fine. But I'm afraid that Uncle Luke . . . isn't coming back."

"What do you mean, 'isn't coming back'?" Jaina asked, getting angry at her mother for being so vague. "What do you mean?"

Leia spoke again. Jaina could now see that her eyes were oddly swollen. "Jaina, didn't you feel it in the Force?"

"Feel what?"

Leia shook her head slowly, as if she was about to tell Jaina something terrible that she didn't want to understand but had to hear. "There was a surge in the Force," Leia said quietly. "Then he was gone."

"No," Jaina said, relieved. "He's still here. Is that why you think he's gone somewhere?" She watched a flicker of uncertainty alight in Leia's eyes. "Look!"

Luke Skywalker was standing behind them, next to a tall woman with reddish hair. He was covered from his chest down in blood, and there was a long rip in his shirt, but he was very much present, and very much alive.

Jaina watched her mother take a step towards Uncle Luke. "Luke?" she breathed, sadness rapidly fading from her eyes. "I thought you were dead!"

"He almost was," the woman told her. "Cinerate dealt him a fatal blow."

"Then how . . . ?" Leia's voice trailed off.

"I killed Cinerate. He had spent so much time draining the Force from Skywalker that he inadvertently created a bond. When Cinerate died, his life and Force energy were diverted to Skywalker, and it was enough to heal him."

"Then why couldn't I feel you?" Leia asked.

This time, Uncle Luke answered. "The drugs that they gave us blocked Force use, remember? I was given an antidote, but I expect it's still wearing off for you."

Jaina stepped in front of him and held up her arms. Uncle Luke picked her up, and she buried her face into his neck. "Ew," she said, moving her head back a bit. "You're dusty."

Leia finally grinned, lighting up her face with pure joy and relief. She leaned forward to hug him. "When we get back to Coruscant," she informed him, "I'm going to make Cracken to give you a vacation."

"Really?" Uncle Luke asked. Jaina thought his voice was somewhere between amusement and disbelief.

"After this, I think that even he will admit that you deserve one."

"You need one too," he responded. "I can't go anywhere without my favorite niece." Jaina smiled appreciatively and snuggled closer into his shoulder.

Leia shuddered. "When I get back, I have to see the damage that Borsk wreaked in the Senate. There's no way he's going to let me get away with a vacation!"

A/N: This is the end…but I might write an epilogue. If there's any scenes in particular that you'd like to see to close off the story, please let me know, no matter how specific or general. Thank you so much for reading my story!