Chapter Twelve
Arriving alas to the chamber at the top of the Citadel's tallest tower, Arden Lyn was disappointed to see very little change in this either though not surprised. Immediately, she was greeted by five priests trying to stop her with electric-tip rods, the purple bolts painful at touch. However, a wave of Force Destruction saw the deaths of these hapless youths (compared to Jupiter, her target). Three additional priests rose to take their place but Arden sensed them behind the doors that led to the chambers long before she saw them.
Using Kinetite, she brushed the doors aside and used telekinesis to make sure that each door crushed one of the members of the trio attempting to oppose her. The remaining one had his neck Force Crushed before Arden even entered the room to face Jupiter and his younger second-in-command. "Arden Lyn, it has been millennia since last we crossed paths. I am so sorry for the deeds of the past, can you ever forgive me for having let my second take the bribe that compromised our honor?" he asked.
Arden was temporarily halted in her advance by the comment of his second accepting a bribe rather than the priest himself. But suddenly, it made sense: the seconds did not feel as bound to the code as the priests themselves were and had often exerted that confidence passionately in her day. However, the second that had accepted the bribe was no longer alive and had definitely been replaced by many. "I forgive you Jupiter, do not mistaken that but your second is not here to take his punishment. Therefore, I must deliver my vengeance on the only one living today that was there to see it: you," she replied.
Jupiter nodded, accepting that even though she could sense that he was fearful of her newly improved powers. She didn't entirely blame him considering that he was substituting that treacherous second's life with his own due to the millennia that had passed since his death. "Just allow us the courtesy of an honorable fight to the death, at least," Jupiter said in reply. Arden nodded before activating her lightsabers to engage the one-ended electrostaffs of the priests she would face now. Jupiter's right-hand man, the ever-confident Nobunaga, attacked first by swinging his body in diagonally angled spins whilst positioning his staff accordingly in an attempt to use it somewhat like a sword.
Arden fended this off whilst also deflecting Jupiter's own head-on attack with an overhead stroke. After several moments of crossing weapons with both of them, Arden broke off the hold and began to slowly back up especially after the cannons she had felt earlier were shooting at the Citadel. Jupiter was first to return with an aggressive barrage that she fended off with relative ease before attempting to stab at him with the green blade of one of her sabers. Unfortunately, this left her open to a wide variety of attacks from the flank which Nobunaga was quick to exploit when he could.
In a matter of seconds, Arden was hit with enough force to send her flying just by Nobunaga ramming himself into her side. Damn, even in in old age, Nobunaga still packs an excellent punch. I guess this kind of shape is one benefit of being a true master of Terras Kasi she thought quietly. However, it took her only split seconds more to figure out a strategy to counter this and save herself from a massive fall to the base of the Citadel.
Desiring to continue the duel and escape the shooting of Imperial cannons, Arden used the Force to pull Jupiter and Nobunaga down to the base with her. Using telekinesis, she slowed her fall so that she could literally glide down most of the several thousand meters she would have to fall. Undoubtedly, Jupiter and Nobunaga had figured out to do the same thing as soon as they were also falling and all three glided to the stairs of the base. When they finally landed several minutes later, Nobunaga was once again first to attack despite missing and having to defend.
However, Arden found herself pinned in a crossing between Nobunaga and old Jupiter who had come in from the opposite side with another overhead stroke. But she soon kicked him in the chin to get him off and attempted to hack him down with both blades overhead. Placing the blade on her right hand over her shoulder, she blocked another attack from Nobunaga and elbowed his face with her free arm. Jupiter tried to kick her in the face by swinging his legs into the air though Arden dodged this by simply leaning back far enough for him to miss before propelling herself into a forward backflip.
After righting herself unto her feet, she turned her focus to Jupiter who she hoped would make the next attack as he had before. However, Nobunaga leapt over her and she watched where this was going long enough for Jupiter to try and ambush her. But she swatted his staff aside and dodged a punch in such a manner that she was able to kick Nobunaga several meters away from her before he attacked. However, Arden knew that they were trying to weaken her so that they could easily bludgeon and electrocute her to death at their leisure for it was their style sometimes when facing an opponent.
So she decided to end this duel quick by reducing the number of opposing contestants a little further than it already had been by first Force-Pushing Jupiter aside. The result was Jupiter flying up the rest of the stairs above them and rolling a little ways out of the picture before Nobunaga rose back up. Bravely, he tried to cover the ground between him and her but she jumped out of the way just in time for him to miss when he tried swinging at her legs. His stupidity began to show, however, when he tried several swatting strokes that she easily deflected or repelled with her lightsabers.
Then she went full-offensive and Nobunaga's age was most prominent here as he could not call Force Valor in time to neutralize her application of it. As a result, she was able to suppress his own and continue to bombard him with Force-fueled spins, twirls, and slashes from her lightsabers. It all came to an end when he decided to use Jupiter's specialty of overhead strokes only to be placed into Stasis. The seconds that Arden had after using the Force to place him there were used to impale him in the chest with both of her lightsabers before throwing him aside with the a burst of telekinesis.
Jupiter recovered in time to see what happened and Arden watched as he called Nobunaga's staff into his free hand and used a primitive version of Arden's Jar'Kai against her. However, the ferocity of the attack was so shocking that he actually managed to disarm her of her sabers. Despite this, Arden was not helpless and disarmed him with her own application of Terras Kasi to equal him. Jupiter made no attempt to retrieve his weapons, realizing that there was no honor in doing so when she was unarmed unless he allowed her to also retrieve her weapons which he didn't want.
Immediately, he fought with the agility to be expected of the Variant of the Snake though Arden was quick to counter this with the defense of the Variant of the Assassin. At the first opening, she quickly switched into the Variant of the Rancor long enough to break two ribs with one punch. That severe blow forced Jupiter to stagger several paces back and recover his breath before readying again. Here, Arden decided to switch into the Variant of Anger and show him where her true prowess in Terras Kasi lied.
In a series of kicks and furious punches, she forced him to give several meters of ground to her even with his masterful application of the Variant of the Assassin's defensive capacity. Then he surprised her with something she had not seen before even in the Variant of Anger and her mastery of it. It was a series of chops and swings of his arms that ripped through her offensive and allowed him to hit her. Landing the palm of his hand on the middle space between her breasts, she was forced to back down a little and recover her breath as he had been forced to do earlier thanks to her.
"The last time I faced the Variant of Anger was against your husband Xendor. In him, I saw the dangers of allowing a master of the technique to ravage the galaxy unchecked and developed a contrast. Allow me to introduce what I call the 'Variant of Serenity', the direct counter to the Variant of Anger," he said. When he exercised the technique, she initially fell back onto the Variant of the Assassin before going full defensive with the Variant of the Absorber.
Absorbing as many of his blows as possible, hence the name, and dodging the kicks that she couldn't allowed Arden to discover the secrets behind his technique. He called the Variant of Serenity because it required a calm, rational mind to properly wield it, a worthy contrast to her favorite Variant. However, she also observed that it was a combination of the Variant of the Snake with the agility and endurance as well as the Variant of the Rancor for strength and power to complete the offensive side. But she also observed, whenever she struck back occasionally, that he had traded all this offensive for only the defensive capacity of the Variant of the Assassin should he be forced to fall back on it.
She knew these techniques and knew that the Variant of Anger was the same combination with only one difference: the Variant of Anger had no defensive technique but it did have relentlessness. In addition, it had far more endurance and required the strength of one's anger in order to be wielded. If Arden's anger was stronger than Jupiter's serenity, she could easily destroy his rationale and kill him. She also remembered that she had the advantage of amplifying the strength of her punches on her mechanical arm through the Force and vowed to do just that.
Giving into the full depth of her anger with a manner of seconds, she resumed her attack with the Variant named for it. So overwhelming and furious was this renewed vengeance that Jupiter's defenses proved inadequate as she managed to punch him in the breastbone with her artificial arm. The impact nearly shattered the bone though it did rupture a lung and force him to gasp for air even as he fought. Additionally, he was sent flying several paces back and slid on his back when he landed on his backside after the flight.
He barely managed to arise quick enough to counter her but he stopped to ask her what it was that gave her this strength. "The Variant of Anger, like any other, has it's name for a reason: in order to master it, one must delve into the more murderous part of their psyche. They must become as angry as a carnivorous mothering animal protecting her young or worse if they can in order to use it. That is why a true master is angry to the point of gnashing their teeth but enough talk, I must kill you now," she replied.
Jupiter tried to use the Variant's only contrast against her and was effective only in putting up a fight and not forcing her to give ground as it had earlier when she was forced only to defend. It seemed to him as though her calculating, observing mind had paid off more in the long run than it hadn't for her. No, impossible: the Variant of Serenity has always been able to defeat the Variant of Anger! he exclaimed to himself quietly. "How could you possibly use the Variant of Anger to counter the Variant of Serenity so well!?" he demanded aloud.
"You fought Xendor, a man with little to no anger when he used it against you. He relied on the Talisman to give him the power that he eventually mustered up to beat you. I, on the other hand, don't have that handicap when using it thanks to your corrupted second's actions and the Jedi," she replied. Then she continued to bombard him with a punishing attack that he could only fend off when he used the cortosis gauntlets that gave his stature away to others in the Followers and some rogues like Arden.
But it wasn't long before Arden thought of yet another idea that would spell certain doom to his ability to use the gauntlets as a defense. Amplifying her mechanical hand with as much power as possible, the glow of green light incredibly bright as it did so, she launched to punch him in the face. However, it was meant to bring his gauntlets up to his face so that when the punch collided with them, they would be shattered into millions of tiny, harmless pieces on the ground which made him vulnerable. From here, his serenity began to melt away and expose the fearful little man that was inside and had been living deep within Jupiter's heart for the eons he had cheated death.
As he tried his best to defend himself and fight Arden by switching over the other Variants, his fear of actually losing in fair combat mounted. Arden exploited this and sent strong punches to his chest, stomach and face whilst roundhouse kicking his jaw once or twice. The blows took their toll and Jupiter began to slow down significantly though he was still able to continue the fight like she hoped. All around them, the fortress of the Palawa was being destroyed with the towers of the Citadel having finally fallen.
It was only a matter of time before the base of the structure imploded and melted into the earth around it at which point, Arden would need to run like hell. So she finished up the duel by punching him the chest, lungs, kidneys, and even made one to his nose with her mechanical hand. She knew that he could endure the first three but these were merely distractions meant to set him up for the fourth. For when Arden hit his nose, she did so in such a manner that a shard of the cartilage stabbed into his brain.
She knew she succeeded when blood started flowing from his nostrils and down into his mouth in the very manner that signified shattered cartilage hemorrhaging his brain. But the death was not as instantaneous as she would have liked though nonetheless, it came very swiftly. "How... how is this possible?" he said. Then he fell on his face, having drawn his last breath on the lack of understanding as to how Arden had perfected the Variant of Anger's root concept.
In truth, Arden had very little understanding of how she was able to do it as well though she knew how to do it. Calling her lightsabers back to her before they were lost in the rubble, she thought about this revelation as she began running for her life in time for the citadel to rapidly melt down. Hoar was waiting for her in the city's tavern unless the Imperials drove him out but she doubted that highly. After all, they hadn't even known she was there until she revealed herself to them and there was no way that they would know Hoar was with her just by seeing her there.
Nonetheless, the young Dark Jedi who had been thrown aside knew she would have survived this destruction and would be on the run now. Any rogue who had done what she had done would most certainly have doomed themselves to Imperial scrutiny forever. She knew the Emperor would not rest until he had seen to it that she was destroyed but what she didn't know was that luck would be with her. For aside from Yun, there were others that had seen what Arden had done and were more than willing to take full advantage of the opening it gave them.
Paris Zaarin, son of Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, hadn't been on Bunduki very long when the Imperials engaged the Followers of Palawa with intent to destroy them all. However, he became really interested once he heard a broadcast that stated the arrival of the Emperor's Hand Arden Lyn. The reason he had become so interested because the broadcast stated that she was attacking Imperial troopers in simultaneity to disciples of the Followers of Palawa. I think this is the defect my father is looking for Paris thought to himself just before exiting his hotel room.
He knew that Arden was usually associated with at least one of her students, the most frequent being a Tusken Raider named Hoar and a Gamorrean named Thok. Of course, that was assuming she was not traveling in the company of a fellow human now known as Lumiya, another Emperor's Hand. However, as fate would have it, Paris encountered only Hoar the Tusken Raider for it seemed that he was the only one with a life-debt to Arden Lyn unlike the others.
From the grime on his clothing and the sweat stains on his mask, it would appear as though he had been out hunting disciples of the Followers and fighting many all day. Smiling, he took a seat next to Hoar after asking if the seat was taken and the Tusken shook his head in reply. "You might want to save your credits on the drinking, allow me to buy you the next few glasses," Paris offered. He tossed several dozen credits in the way of the bartender and asked for a whole bottle of Korriban fire whiskey.
"Who are you?" Hoar asked. "The son of an old friend of yours and an old friend of your Mistress especially. Paris Zaarin, son of Grand Admiral Demetrius at your service and you must be the Tusken Raider known as Hoar, right?" Paris replied as he extended a hand for shaking. Hoar took it and confirmed his identity as the pupil of Arden Lyn as well as the only one with a genuine debt to her.
"We knew Demetrius though relatively minimally, Arden scared him off her the first time the two of them met," Hoar added. "That doesn't surprise me, the old man's so easy to intimidate that I could make him wet his pants if I really wanted to. And believe me, that wasn't always the case especially when he was decades younger," Paris admitted, laughing before speaking. "Let me just be blunt on behalf of my Mistress and ask what the hell you want," Hoar said suddenly.
"Almost immediate with getting to the point, I like that in any man. Because it's not what the hell I want so much as what the hell my father wants. He's been looking for a powerful Force-sensitive like your Mistress and has been waiting for precisely the defection display she must've surely given by now. If you and her are both interested, we would like you to join us in our quest to destroy the Emperor and Lord Vader," Paris explained bluntly.
Hoar thought about that as he chugged down a small cup of the whiskey despite his slowly acquired taste for it. "Don't drink that stuff down too fast, you don't want to be passing out before your Mistress returns to receive my message. This is the code to my personal frequency and if she wants face to face contact, here's the number to my room," Paris said as he wrote down both means of contact. Then he handed the small flimiplast napkin to the Tusken Raider who put it in a cleaner pocket to deliver to his Mistress after guzzling his fill on the whiskey as reward for a good and hard-fought battle.
He had collected many trophies from the fallen disciples including several scalps as well as fingers and ears that he pickled for longer preservation. The Tusken had also collected several golden and jeweled apparels to decorate his relatively plain brown robes adapted for the Tatooine dunes. His rifle had only needed to be reloaded twice and his gaffi had been allowed to do plenty of damage also. It was a good day and though he desperately desired to get drunk, he decided to first deliver the note with a comment of his own to the room he had reserved for his Mistress first before doing that.
However, before he even covered the stairs, she returned with dirt, sweat, and grime covering her entire being with some bleeding cuts on her forehead and left hand. Returning back to the first floor, he explained the purpose behind the note and told her there was no rush as far as he knew. "Excellent, that means I can wash this filth off me before I go before men like this Paris Zaarin," she replied. Smiling beneath his mask, he admitted he needed to catch up on hygiene also and walked with Arden to do it.
However, they soon departed since their rooms were separate and Arden had to admit that she had never been so relieved to see the Tusken Raider again in her years of knowing him. When the Citadel was destroyed, it began a meltdown that caused a crater which destroyed everything within. This included all the smaller fortifications the Followers had built as well as Imperial weapons of war and troopers who had failed to escape in time. Arden herself barely managed to get out through the moat exit due to being opposed by several surviving disciples of the Followers along the way.
One of them had even given her the bleeding cut on her forehead with his spear though this insolent young man didn't last very long before the Variant of Anger. Why they had opposed her rather than saved their own lives was beyond her but she did admire their bravery as a result. They chose to surrender their lives in combat against her rather than take a chance of being consumed in the meltdown. Perhaps that was a wise choice and not as quick a death as the one I could promise any who challenged me Arden thought to herself as she turned on the hot water in the shower.
Wiping away the filth and cleaning the wound had never felt better in Arden's twenty-five thousand years alive, not even when she had to bathe the scars on her back and upper posterior. Still, she did somewhat wonder why this Paris Zaarin would help his father; Demetrius was weak, after all.