Legend of the Harp

By Hemaccabe

Episode III: The Crucible

Chapter 19: Wanted Dead or Alive

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

*** Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Relay Station ***

I was hiding behind a conduit. There wasn't much of me left. I could still extend out and be a full body, but my skin would be paper thin, and I would be hollow. I would also be physically weak and worse, with so much of my thinking matter gone, stupid and slow. Each time I had met Master Burana he had defeated me. He was getting better at finding me quicker than I was getting better at hiding. I didn't have long.

While my thinking might not be at its very best, I could calculate how much of me was being lost in each encounter. If I lost as much me as I expected the next time he found me, I would lose enough that I wouldn't be able to continue to think and function. This next encounter would be my last.

Master Burana was coming, so I started to prepare. I stashed one pair of sabers. In a previous encounter, Master Burana had cut one double saber in half and they didn't work well. I undid the other pair. I put three blades into the conduit. I salvaged the best remaining power cell from the four sabers and placed it in the blade I kept, my own dark blue blade. One blade would be enough in our next fight, it was about all I could manage.

I could feel Master Burana coming down the corridor. I could hide, make him look for me a little longer, but decided to have some dignity in my last battle. So, I dropped to the floor and formed myself. The floor was grimy and there were bits of detritus scattered about. My blade hung at my side.

I noticed the corridor where I chose to make my last stand had an unusually large viewing window. As the Force would have it, the station's orientation currently placed the window with a view of the system's star, a massive, unstable red giant. The star had a ring of dust and debris around it's equator, probably the remains of her own planets that had been destroyed with her expansion. The star was unstable and normally an installation like the one I was on, with it's substantial Credit value, would not be placed in proximity to it. It was a magnetic storm released by the star that had forced the station to be evacuated and lost years before. However, like the Separatists, we now needed a station in this region and the needs of war outweighed good sense.

Master Burana came down the corridor and, when he spotted me, he smiled.

"Finally decided to face me? Good. I'll give you a quick death."

"What if I surrender?" I asked. "Your mandate is for 'Dead or Alive?'"

"That again? You're much too tricky for that aren't you, youngling. If I try and take you, no doubt you'll make a fool of me and escape. Perhaps find a way to fix a long-range transmitter like I caught you doing before and call for help. No, your remains will be coming back dead." He replied.

"Even if I gave my word as a Jedi?" I asked.

"You know the Jedi Order is dead. Such a word means nothing." He replied.

With his last reply, he ignited his saber that was already in his hand.

I lifted my saber and ignited it.

His last words made me think. I had been so focused in my training with the saber on technique, on mastering my new form. I had stopped thinking about using the Force.

Maybe it was too late, but I opened myself to the Force and I felt it flow through me. Then he was on me.

He swung, and my blade met his. Our blades crossed and then crossed again. He kept striking and I kept parrying. Even with the Force, the duel proceeded as it had already done many times. Eventually he struck at my right lower quarter guard, normally my weakest point and where he had bested me many times before.

Except this time the Force moved me. In previous duels, Master Burana would begin to pound at the place of my weakest defense and eventually break through. This time, rather than try and defend my right lower quarter guard, I spun around to the right as Burana's blade slashed through the space where my body had just been. My Force strengthened right elbow met his chest and he went down hard on his back. Before he could do anything, my sword was at his throat.

"Yield." I said simply, the way one might have said it a thousand times in saber practice at the Temple. I waited a long second, and Burana's body clearly relaxed.

I had to add "Drop it." Then another long second and his saber seemed to be rising slowly.

Once more, as my saber closed the very small distance to his throat, with more urgency, I said "Drop it." His saber clattered to the corridor floor.

I reached down and took his saber, never moving my saber from his throat. Then I looked down at him, I could feel, despite having finally won, something almost breaking in me. If there could have been tears in my eyes, there would have been.

Finally, I gasped out, "Why?"

"Why what?" He answered confused.

"Why did you hunt me? Why did you try and kill me? We're brothers! You're a Master!" I asked with desperation in my voice.

His head leaned back to the floor and his eyes closed in resignation, "I had nothing. All I wanted was a cabin, a little land. Enough Credits to live."

"You coined your fellow Jedi's lives for a few Credits?" I asked unbelieving.

"The Order is dead." He answered with a resigned tone.

"So long as I live, the Order lives." I answered.

I took some binders from his belt and put them on him. He had many bits and pieces secreted about his person which I removed.

I led him back to where I had food. I fed him, cared for him, never took my eyes off him for a second and we waited.

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