Author's Note: I have a prequel for this story ready to be posted (It's been ready for a long time); but due to its long (longer than my other stories) length, I will be uploading two chapters a day. (Had to let you know so you wouldn't get confused.)

Chapter 12

Rye and Erickson were meditating in the shuttle, which was flying to a Tatooine spaceport -that their Tantive shuttle, which was their ride to Coruscant, laid- and all was peaceful, until they felt an ice-cold feeling engulfed them both, scaring them awake from their meditation.

"Our team is in danger. We have to turn back and help them" Rye shouted, hoping the pilot would hear him. And he did, because the shuttle immediately turned around and proceded in the direction of the Jundland Wastes.

Lightsabers clashed. Pride aroused. Fear arose. One side of this battle might not be going home alive. Thoughts of doubt, concern, and determnation filled the minds of Exar, Aang, and Jo. The thought that they might lose this battle, and descend the galaxy into chaos -therefore having people blame the Republic, specifically Rye, Erickson, and Ephraim- filled their minds.

Erk used his muscle to push the Jedi away, so he could formulate his next move. Jo jumped up high, with his boot jets, from behind Aang and Exar, and descended towards Erk. Erk swung his lightsaber around, poised, then jumped up at Jo, retaliating his moves. Jo used one of his lightwhips to grab one of Erk's blades and pull down, restraining Erk's blade from hitting him. Jo then kicked him the second before they hit the ground. Erk swung his legs around and tripped Jo from under his feet.

Aang used force-speed to stampede torward Erk, and knocked him over. Erk then realized the strategy of his opponents. They were hoping to have the advantage of switching his adversaries, taking him by surprise. But the Jedi were the ones soon to have the surprise. Aang and Exar charged at Erk, and Erk did the same. As they were about to clash again, Erk dissipated into a cloud of smoke. Aang and Exar froze, then waited for Erk's next move.

Erk then appeared behind Aang and Exar, then force-pushed them away as a diversion. Jo noticed, but was a second too slow to warn them. As Exar and Aang were pushed to the ground, Erk flipped backwards towards Jo, and landed in front of him. At the sudden action, Erk swiftly drew out a blade of his lightsaber and swung down upon Jo, who shielded the attack with his lightsaber-proof backhand. Then Jo swung his other wrist at Erk, while igniting one of his lightwhips, which was also swung at Erk. Erk then rolled out of the way to evade his move.

Erk decided to attempt -and most likely fail- to start to end it by using the force to hold Jo in the air. At the moment where Erk swung down upon Jo, his lightsaber was struck from his hand by a lightsaber that was tossed at him. Erk turned and saw Aang -who was using the force to draw his lightsaber back to him- and Exar running towards him. Erk then used the force to do something the Jedi couldn't quite equate, because afterwards, the ground started shifting and barracades started rising and lowering from the ground in random places and at random times.

"Quite a course you have here." Aang somewhat complimented Exar.

"Heh. Yeah. They used to have guns firing down upon the contenders, to give a live battle feeling to it." Exar said.

Just then, guns started firing down upon the Jedi.

"Are you kidding me!? He reinstalled them!" Exar said, starting to freak out.

"Well this does have a live battle feel." Aang said as he and Exar ducked behind a barracade to avoid crossfire among Erk, Jo, and the lasers firing from above. Aang ignited both sides of one of his double-bladed lightsabers and held it above them.

"Exar! Reach in my cloak and reach for the two manacle halves." Aang commanded.

"How do you fit manacles in your cloak?" Exar asked loudly.

"Hurry!" Aang pushed, making Exar comply. He pulled out two skinny, metal rings and held it up.

"That's it!" Aang said.

"These are not manacle halves! Manacles are much thicker!" Exar said, handing it to Aang.

"It's the only term I could come up with." Aang said. And with that, he connected them to his lightsaber and it immediately resembled an inquisitor lightsaber. Just then, Jo landed over by them. Aang then pressed a button on the ring and the blades started spinning around, rapidly deflecting the lasers.

"How does that even make sense? Those really aren't manacles." Exar exclaimed, now really confused.

"There's a lot of unrealistic stuff out there, Exar. For instance, lightsabers shouldn't even be able to spin like that. The kyber crystals-" Erk's double-bladed lightsaber came and sliced the barracade in half, going right between Jo and Exar. "The crystals should be up where the lightsaber spins if the blade will stay emitted while being spun. But they're not."

Erk jumped high in the air and landed near the Jedi. He then caught his double-bladed lightsaber and threw it towards them again. They rolled out of the way, but before they could quickly recover, Erk's blade came and sliced Exar across the face, extirpating his right eyeball, knocking him to the ground in pain.

"Exar!" His team shouted, dashing towards Erk, and giving him all they had. Jo was well handling Erk as Aang ran over and checked on Exar, who was slowly standing up.

"How're you doing?" Aang asked.

"My right eyeball just got scourged! How do you expect me to answer?" Exar shouted, still clearly in pain. Aang got a good, yet terrifying glimpse of his injury. There was a short cut on each side of his eye-socket, and blood was pouring from it. Aang didn't even look towards the ground to see his eyeball.

"Well I meant that in the context of 'are you dead'?" Aang replied as he and Exar looked at Jo fighting Erk.

"You okay if I leave you off here to help Jo?" Aang asked. Exar hesitantly nodded, and Aang rushed off to fight.

Erk then pushed both Aang and Jo away, then force-sped towards Jo, and swung down.

Aang and Exar gasped loudly with wide eyes.

Jo's more-organic half slowly descended to the ground, while the other more-mechanical half stood straight up, sparking, then slowly breaking down to the ground. Bits of Jo's skin were taken along with his mechanical half of his head. Little blood was shed due to the abundance of technology. Then Erk immediately turned around, conjuring a dark magik ball and launching it towards Aang, knocking him out completely. Then he turned to Exar.

...

Exar was standing, looking at his taken-out teammates, emotions flowing all throughout his mind.

"What're you going to do? I beat your teammates." Erk asked meniacally.

Exar's eyes were closed for a moment. Erk patiently waited for Exar to make a move. Then Exar looked up, opening his eyes. His remaining eye turned completely yellow, no pupil showing, and his eye socket, still temporarily bleeding, started pouring out green mist. Exar tapped into the dark side.

"Hello Erk, you remember me?" Erk recognized the voice-compilation anywhere.

"It's been a while Mirtis. We gonna go at it one last time?" Erk asked.

"Definitely. I'm going to permanently end it this time." Mirtis stated as he drew out both sides of his double-bladed blue lightsaber, held his arms and lightsaber out, and charged forward at Erk. Mirtis harshly swung down, knocking Erk off-balance, and stongly hit Erk with his forearm, knocking him to the ground. Erk was lifted in the air, and Mirtis, lightsaber in hand, slowly, creepily approached Erk, ready to strike him down.

And conveniently, a blast came down -creating a big hole in the ceiling of the arena- and knocked Mirtis out of his dark-side trance. Rye and Erickson came down from a shuttle and picked all three Jedi up. They looked around and saw the sith nowhere, then they borded back on the shuttle. The Jedi masters were horrified at the sight. Jo was in half, Aang was severely unconscious and showed almost no signs of life, and Exar had his right eye severed... and the blast that separated Exar from Erk blew off Exar's right forearm.

The shuttle ascended upwards and flew out of Erk's sight. Erk was watching them as a shadow on a wall, hoping for a moment to strike. But noticing the Jedi masters' strength in the force, he knew he couldn't beat them.

Meanwhile Rye and Erickson, doing what they could, used the force to keep their team alive. Jo, being in half, was hard to keep up with. Aang and Exar's blood was pumping, so there wasn't much to worry about when it came to keeping them alive. The shuttle docked in a Tantive ship, hovering above the ground. Rye and Erickson quickly carried Aang and Jo inside where medics waited for them. Exar regained consciousness and managed to walk.

"Get these three to the med-bay pronto!" Rye commanded.

"Jo has a blueprint of a new cyborg design he'd like to install on himself. Use that. He keeps it in the med-bay." Exar said. His voice was a bit scratchy.

"We'll have to stabilize him and insert him into a bacta tank, first." A doctor replied as Jo and Aang were placed on stretchers.

"Come on, we'll have to give you a new arm and a little upgrade." Another doctor said, guiding Exar along with his team.

Rye and Erickson could only watch as their team was making it safely. They were still distraught at the recent happenings, yet relieved with the outcome.

"Well. I guess we know what we need to do now huh?" Erickson asked.

"Yeah. We can't let our team face this sith by themselves anymore. Exar was right. They couldn't beat him." Rye said.

"But hey, they're still alive, we're still alive. Things could be worse." Erickson said.

"They could be. With this experience, we know what we can do to stop a new war era from coming. The sith is going to get what's coming to him." Rye said.

"Well it looks like things are slightly turning out alright, already." Erickson said as he and Rye looked forward in hope.