LordDarthYoda - Yeah you've pointed out the obvious weakness of the way this has broken down, but I did feel like I needed to close the Coren/Tiplee rivalry in a more direct way. I think there a hundred different permutations of how you could have done this final battle, and this might not have been the best one, in terms of suspense, but it was the one on one showdown I wanted to write.

Mr. Insane - I think I've fallen on the 'Sascha gets his butt handed to him' enough times. I've come up with some more creative ways to show how he's in peril in later books.

SpeechBubbleMe - I think all readers should want Tiplee to kill Coren. I don't know if that would be the best thing for her (killing people in anger is a dark side thing...)

IonTheChosenOne - Thank you! As someone who played clarinet in band (not a marching band, fortunately) I think I can understand how much that sort of practice will take out of you.

A/N - At long last the end of the battle for Ubrora (but not the book itself). Sorry this chapter was a bit later than usual!

Anyways, all reviews, follows, and favourites are deeply appreciated as always.

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 63: The Battle for Ubrora, Part Six

Jedi Knight Tiplee had been in many fights in her life. That was just part of being a Jedi. Jedi were peacekeepers, but to keep the peace, sometimes you had to unsheathe your lightsaber and fight. But she couldn't remember a fight where she had been so emotional. To be fair, there was a lot to be emotional about.

She was fighting a rival of hers, one that had almost killed the two people closest to her, Tiplar, her sister and now Nara, her apprentice. And Coren just plain infuriated her on a deeply personal level. He was a man that was cruel just to be cruel, a man that knew what the proper way to conduct himself was, and simply chose to act otherwise. These were the type of people that brought disrepute to society as a whole, brought chaos where there had previously been order and otherwise disrupted the lives of good, decent people.

The fact that Nara had been badly hurt also made her emotional. She, like every other Jedi Knight that took on a Padawan, had pledged to protect her apprentice. And then she had failed at that. Unlike Aurine and Sascha who had a well known tendency to come out of their missions with more cuts and scrapes than they started, she and Nara hadn't faced that much physical adversity. They had been in close spots before and tough fights, but they had both walked away with minor damage. Now on Ubrora, her apprentice had been close to death two, maybe even three times. It was galling. It galled her that she had failed.

But emotion could be a powerful motivator. Jedi were supposed to be calm and balanced, but that was more of a platonic ideal of a Jedi than how it actually worked. Controlling emotion was indeed part of being a Jedi, but controlling meant knowing how to funnel into positive energy and not letting it become negative.

And Tiplee knew how to channel her emotions.

So when Aurine gave her the go ahead to go on the attack, she was totally and completely ready for it.

She sprung towards Coren Vox, swinging her lightsaber at him in a broad arc. Coren was equal to her, using his jetpack to get away from her blade. Tiplee would have loved to continue pursuing Coren Vox, but Coren's companion chose that exact moment to unleash his flamethrower towards her. Tiplee flattened herself out, getting away from the stream of fire. Then she dropped and rolled as the Mandalorian tried to track her with his gout of flame.

Tiplee was beginning to feel the fire literally nipping at her heels when she decided that her evasive maneuvers needed to get more elaborate, or she needed a way to get the initiative back. She decided on the former, getting back to her haunches and executing a short backflip to get out of the range of the flamethrower.

No sooner had she landed on her feet, she was forced to bring her lightsaber in close to her body to deflect the incoming blaster shots from Coren Vox. Coren's shots, as always, were fired in tight, precise groups. One-two-three. Pause. One-two-three. Longer pause. One-two-three-four. All his shots, Tiplee parried away. But now the other Mandalorian was getting ready to fire at her and Tiplee had no desire to be a stationary target for shooting practice. So she took one step towards Coren, feinting that she was going to rush him, then she pivoted hard on her plant foot and sprinted towards Coren's compatriot.

For whatever reason, Coren's companion didn't react as fast as Coren had. Like a fencer, Tiplee thrust her lightsaber towards the flatfooted Mandalorian. She missed once, as the Mando managed to twist out of the way. She didn't miss the second time.

Her lightsaber struck the Mandalorian with a surgical strike, piercing the man just where the heart was located.

The Mandalorian fell, mortally wounded.

It turned out the Mandalorians did have hearts after all, if only biological ones.

Tiplee had been so preoccupied with dispatching Coren's friend that she had failed to realize that Coren had stopped firing at her. She found out the reason for that a second later.

It turned out that Coren's vambraces not only concealed a sonic blaster but a grappling line. One that he managed to fire and wrap around her torso. Before she could free herself with her lightsaber, Coren activated his jet pack and before she knew it, she was going along for a ride with Coren Vox.

Tiplee shifted her shoulders and tried to free her lightsaber but she was wrapped up tight. Her arms had been caught pointing downward, so her lightsaber was pointing directly towards her foot. She just needed to get some room for her wrist so she could cut through this cord that was wrapped around her. But it was proving to be more difficult then she had thought it would be.

Then she realized where Coren was flying towards. This isn't good, thought Tiplee. Coren clearly intended to let the environment work for him. Coren flew overtop the forest, but with her dangling from the grappling line, she was in the trees themselves, getting swatted by branches, leaves and thorns.

But as Coren dropped her lower, she started getting buffeted by the trunks of the trees themselves. At first, she was able to prepare herself for the impact, and was able to brace herself by using her legs to bounce off the tree trunks. But inevitably her being entangled in Coren Vox's grappling line meant that she couldn't avoid solid contact for that long.

Tiplee collided chest first with a tree that she hadn't seen coming. Her breath left her all at once, and it was only by luck that she didn't slice off her own leg with her still lit lightsaber. She decided it was time to turn that off, because it was more of a threat to her than it was to anyone else at the moment. But she also needed a plan to how to get free from this bind. The easiest way to do so would be to get her lightsaber free, then she could simply slice the line and free herself. But even that would be risky because being cut free would send her flying free twenty to thirty feet above the ground in a crowded forest, not exactly a great situation. But neither could she afford for this to be going on much longer, because eventually Coren was going slam her headfirst into a tree and that was going to be all she wrote.

Tiplee wriggled as she was being attacked by branches, pine needles and tree trunks, and eventually she got her lightsaber free. And then she cut herself free of the cord.

And then she fell.

In a stroke of luck, as she fell, she realized that she was falling towards a newer sapling that had not yet reached the height of its other brethren. Tiplee grabbed on to that newborn tree with both hands and used it to slow her decent, grasping on to the main trunk of that young tree and sliding down the trunk. The tree repaid her by gouging her with it's needles, cutting open new cuts on her fingers and hands. When Tiplee was close enough to the ground, she released her hold, and pushed off the trunk with her legs, giving her distance from the tree. She landed on the ground, having to bend her knees deeply to absorb the shock of the landing. Tiplee was cut bleeding and battered, but she had survived. She took a deep breath and thanked her luck and her training for letting her survive. And the Force. Always the Force.

It was a slightly awkward situation now though. She had no idea where Coren Vox was. For all she knew, he was going to return to the main battle and was going to turn the tide of that engagement. She had no way to get back to the main battle herself, besides sprinting, and she was pretty sure that she didn't have enough energy available to do that. She was just so...tired. She had fought one major battle today, and managed to come out relatively unscathed, but she had still expended a bunch of energy in doing that. Then had come this fight, and now she had about a hundred different little cuts and scrapes on her body, thanks to Coren Vox. Tiplee's energy meter was now tipping towards empty.

But she couldn't let Coren just return to the fight and polish off Nara. She had to make herself a target. But how?

"Coren Vox," she shouted, using the Force to project her voice. "I'm still alive! So I challenge you, one warrior to another! Let's finish this!"

Appealing to Coren's ego was probably a bad idea. But Coren probably felt backed into a corner. He had no easy way off the planet. It was possible that all he would be looking to do is to execute his fantasy of revenge against her.

Fate was clearly on her side today, as she heard the distinctive whine of a jetpack coming ever closer to her. Knowing that Coren was potentially heading towards her, she ignited her lightsaber and dropped into a defensive stance. A few moments later, Coren Vox emerged from the trees to her right and fired his sonic blaster at her. Tiplee, caught slightly off guard by Coren's sudden emergence, got pushed backwards and fell clumsily onto her backside.

Coren followed up his first attack by firing his blaster rifle at her. Tiplee stayed on her backside and deflected the bolts, trying and failing to direct them back towards Coren. The Mandalorian floated to the ground and landed. Tiplee suspected that Coren was running low on fuel for his jetpack and wanted to save it for a time when he needed it. But that provided her with enough time to scramble back to her feet.

The two combatants paused for a second. Tiplee knew that only one of them would be coming out of this fight alive. There was going to be no running away, no miracle save from a third party, just Mandalorian vs. Jedi, Dark vs. Light, Male vs. Female.

Coren tossed his blaster rifle aside and drew his twin blaster pistols. A smart move, Tiplee judged. The rifle was a more powerful weapon, but power was not needed here. The Rishati started circling to her left, edging closer to Coren without him realizing it. She had to get close to Coren to use her lightsaber, Coren wanted to keep her at a distance and fire away with his pistols and whatever tricks he had up his sleeve.

So what did she want to do, she asked herself. Take a risk? Use a trick? Or trust that fighting with discipline would see her through? Mentally she assessed the fight. Coren can see that she was hurt, so he would favour a longer, drawn out fight. And he was probably right in that regard, so she had to be quick and decisive. But Coren knew how she fought, so he would have already developed a plan to combat it. So she needed to be unpredictable. But unpredictable how?

Don't fight like a Jedi. Fight like a Rishati.

Tiplee grinned, a feral, toothy smile that she rarely used, mostly because it made people uncomfortable. It made people think that she was considering them to be their next meal. She had no qualms about showing it to Coren Vox.

She locked her lightsaber into the 'on' position and threw it towards Coren. Then she charged.

Coren got out of the way of her flying blade as she had known he would. But she had temporarily seized the initiative by doing something unexpected and throwing her weapon at Coren. Now she was going to fight like a Rishati - up close and personal with fists and feet. Yes, the lightsaber was the weapon of the Jedi and an effective tool, but it concealed the truth from people. And the truth was she was a weapon.

Tiplee grabbed on to Coren's arm and attempted to throw him over her shoulder. She was partially successful. She did manage to bring the Mandalorian over her shoulder, but Coren, showing great agility, managed to get his legs underneath him as he fell and instead of landing on his back, landed on one knee.

But Tiplee wasn't deterred by this temporary setback. Mandalorian armor was weak at the joints, she recalled. So her next blow was aimed at Coren's knee. Coren was able to get his leg out of the way, but was yet to fully recover. Like a whirlwind, Tiplee didn't reset before throwing her next blow. She needed to be on the attack constantly because if Coren was able to get his bearings back she was currently without a lightsaber and would be extremely vulnerable. Her next blow landed clean to Coren's left elbow, popping it with enough force that she probably broke his arm, even through the armor.

Coren grunted but replied with a gauntleted fist that clipped her just above her temple. Stunned, Tiplee staggered backwards, but before Coren could draw his pistols again, she flew at him with a kick. The kick caught Coren square in the chest and drove him backwards, though he stayed on his feet. From there, the Jedi and the Mandalorian exchanged kicks and punches. Tiplee landed two blows for every one of Coren's but Coren was wearing armor, and his blows hurt.

Tiplee felt herself fading as she fought. She had expended nearly everything she had today, and it was all catching up to her. Another couple of punches and it would be done. So she threw herself into a final, vicious flurry. She started with a palm strike that caught Coren underneath his helmet and jolting it upward. Then she brought her knee into Coren's groin. Tiplee didn't care how much armor there was in that area (some) or that it could be considered 'fighting dirty.' Results were all that mattered.

Coren Vox didn't fall over, but he did whiff the punch that had been heading towards her head. And he was clearly stunned by the blow. So Tiplee took advantage, thrusting four fingers on her left hand underneath Coren's helmet and into his neck. Coren gurgled as he reacted to that precision blow. Then Tiplee grabbed Coren and threw him to the ground, hard. With Coren down, Tiplee punted Coren wherever his armor seemed to have weaknesses, and then she mounted the Mandalorian, popping his helmet off his head and firing lefts and rights into Coren's head. Punch after punch landed until Tiplee was satisfied that Coren Vox had been adequately battered into submission.

Tiplee stood, bone weary and near exhaustion. She reached out her left hand and tried to recall her lightsaber with the Force. It took her too tries to do so. But when she finally did, she pointed the blade at Coren's chest.

Coren, his face showing the aftereffects of her assault looked at the blade and then up at her and sneered. "Do it, Jedi. Execute your justice." Coren made the word sound like an expletive. "Judge, Jury, Executioner." He spat, "Jedi."

The part of her that was a feral hunter really wanted to do it. She wanted to sink her serrated teeth into Coren's neck and have him bleed his life away into the Ubroran soil. That was all a thug like him really deserved.

But that was not who she really was, for yes, she was a Rishati, but she was a Rishati Jedi. She straightened, "No. You are my prisoner Coren Vox. You will stand trial for your many crimes."

Coren rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. Tiplee followed him and kept her blade at his chest. Coren coughed and spit out some bloody phlegm, "No jail can hold me. I have friends that will come and find me and break me out, just as before. Face it, Jedi. I'll spend three years in jail at most and then you'll have to hunt me down again."

"You think you will be held in a Ubroran jail, Coren?" She laughed loudly, "You didn't get the memo, did you? This planet is joining the Republic. Part of joining the Republic is that high-risk criminals such as yourself can be handed over and held in high-security prisons. You won't be held on Ubrora. You'll be held in a prison so top secret, so remote that no one will even know where you are, let alone be able to rescue you. You want to talk about justice, Coren Vox, scourge of Ubrora? I will let you live, Coren. As a Jedi I know that each being is special in the Force. But that does not mean I grant you freedom. No, I take it from you, scum. You have squandered it. I call that justice."

For the first time Tiplee could remember, Coren Vox was stunned into silence. Perhaps he was contemplating living the rest of his life in a location so bleak they didn't get true sunlight. Whatever Coren's deepest nightmare was, he was probably living it right now.

Tiplee however, had a more pressing concern, she needed to get out of here and to a medic before she collapsed. She sorted through her robe, trying to find her comlink. When she found it, she tried to press the activation button, but the device wouldn't turn on. Annoyed, she shook the device and tried to inspect what was wrong with it.

That momentary distraction was all Coren had needed to draw his knife. A long, serrated dirk that had probably tasted the blood of many of Coren's enemies. Tiplee instantly recoiled away. But Coren took his knife...and drove it hard into his own stomach, through the mesh part of his armor. Mortally wounded, Coren Vox fell on his back, his dagger falling from his hand.

Tiplee stood there for a moment not sure what to do or why that had just happened. Coren had given himself a fatal wound, of that she was sure. But the dying would be long and painful. It didn't look like he had hit any of his vital organs with his stab, so he would just lay there, bleeding out, until he died. Unless she did something about it. It looked like Coren Vox really did not want to go back to jail.

"Do it, Jedi." Coren managed. His tongue and the interior of his mouth was red with blood.

Tiplee hesitated, at war with herself. A part of her felt that Coren didn't deserve mercy, didn't deserve to have his suffering ended. How many beings had Coren tortured and killed over the years? Surely the souls of those beings would love to watch Coren Vox's life slowly slink away.

But Tiplee was a Jedi Knight. And she respected life. Even Coren's. She made eye contact with Coren and nodded, "Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum," she said.

Coren heard the words and understood them. For she had spoken Mando'a, the language of the Mandalorians, a language she had learned when she had been assigned to arrest Coren Vox all those years ago. She had said 'I'm still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal.'

Tiplee swung her lightsaber in a swift stroke. Her aim was true.

She turned and walked away from the grisly scene. She had killed Coren Vox in single combat. But she hadn't kill him with hate in her heart. She had killed him with mercy and compassion in her heart.

The Jedi way.

Aurine knelt beside her Padawan who was trying to crawl over to Nara. She gently put her hand on his shoulder, "Sascha. It's okay, it's over."

The strength in Sascha's arms gave out and he collapsed to the ground. Gently, she rolled him over on to his back. Force, he looked terrible, she thought. His eyes were dull and unfocused, his right eye was swelling closed and he had a couple of open cuts on his face as well. "I'm okay," he managed, "help Nara."

Aurine glanced over at the comatose Togruta. Nara looked badly beaten up, and obviously needed medical attention, though she really didn't get the impression that Nara was close to dying or even in danger of doing so. The Togruta's breathing was slow but stable and while she was still unconscious, her skin colour hadn't degraded much from its usual hue. At least not yet. "I'll get the medics to come."

Aurine withdrew her comlink, and dialed Pravin. The victorious general answered, "Master Jedi?"

"Pravin. I need a medical team at the location of this comlink. Quickly."

"I have a team in the area. They'll be there shortly."

"Thank you, Pravin." She hung up.

Aurine cast a glance around, looking for Tiplee. The Rishati and Coren Vox had disappeared form the battle and she hadn't the faintest idea of where she actually was at this point. She debated trying to find and assist her, but decided that the best thing that she could do right now was to make sure both Sascha and Nara were delivered to the appropriate medical personnel. Maybe then she could assist Tiplee.

Sascha tugged weakly at her sleeve, "Go check on Nara. Please."

She used her other sleeve to dab away some of the blood on Sascha's face, "Okay."

Aurine went over and knelt at Nara's side and did much the same as she did with Sascha, brushing away some of the blood that was already starting to dry on her face. As she did, Nara's eyes started fluttering weakly. A good sign for Nara's recovery. Aurine put a calming hand lightly on Nara's forehead, "It's okay Nara, you're safe."

Nara whimpered softly in pain. Well, thought Aurine, it was usually not that bad a sign when someone that was hurt was audible about it. It was when someone went silent that you had to worry. Gently, and cognizant of Nara's broken arm, she rolled Nara onto her side and into a recovery position. Nara groaned audibly again, a low growl of pain and discomfort. Aurine gently patted Nara's cheek, "Nara, can you hear me?"

The Togruta's eyes fluttered slightly stronger this time, but then stayed closed. Damn, this girl was out colder than a freezing day on Hoth, thought Aurine. And that was not particularly good. But the good news was she was breathing fine, and that she didn't appear to be going into shock, which had been her main worry. Still, Nara needed a doctor, and sooner rather than later.

Aurine was trying to decide what to do next when she heard the sound of an approaching ship – music to her ears. The ship was an odd design, it looked almost like a gunship. Large and squat the gunships had two main guns at the front and not a lot else. The sides of the ship swung open and several soldiers in battle armor emerged, then some white coated medics followed the soldiers out.

Aurine waved down the doctors, "Over here!"

The soldiers formed a perimeter around the three Jedi, their attention focused outward while he medics swarmed the two young Jedi immediately. One even came over to check her out. She swatted the well intentioned but misguided medic out of the way, "Not me. The Padawans."

"Ma'am, you are clearly injured," the medic insisted calmly.

She stood and pushed him aside with a forearm. "I'll rest when my colleague returns. For now, work on them," she said, pointing at the two Padawans.

The medic looked uncertain and glanced towards an approaching figure. The man was on the older side, his hair a shock of grey-white, but the man was still in good shape. "Listen to the Jedi, Hari. She's a tough one, I know from experience." The man's voice was calm, melodious.

"Excuse me, do I know you?"

The man offered her a tight smile, "I doubt you would, but you were once a patient of mine. I treated you after you were wounded on Narvis Rock."

"Doctor Jarvis?"

The older man smiled and bowed slightly, "Indeed. Doctor Hyram Jarvis at your command, Master Jedi Aurine Brynar."

Aurine was speechless for a moment. Doctor Jarvis had been the doctor that had treated her after she had been disastrously ambushed on Narvis Rock. She probably owed him her life to some degree. But him appearing on Ubrora was...random at best.

One of the medics treating Nara called out, "Hyram, we need to move the Togruta. She's stable but she's beat up bad. She needs a bacta bath at least."

"How's Padawan Whitestar doing?" Jarvis asked one of the other medics.

"It's like he's been in a speeder wreck, Hyram. No serious injuries, but I'd like to scan for internal bleeding."

Hyram Jarvis turned to face her, "Do we have your permission to move the young Jedi to our triage center?"

She nodded, "Of course. I will stay here and search for the other Jedi Knight."

The Kuati doctor looked at her as if she had lost her mind, "Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately, Master Jedi? You maybe the least hurt, but you are hurt."

"I am still a Jedi Knight. If a battered one," she replied.

Hyram Jarvis rolled his eyes, "As you wish, Master Jedi. I will take the two young Padawans into my care."

Aurine nodded, "Thank you."

Jarvis signaled towards his medics and they started gently lifting Sascha and Nara onto stretchers. Aurine felt bad at leaving the Padawans behind, but she'd feel worse if she left Tiplee to battle Coren Vox on her own. Aurine sunk to her knees and tried to drop into the Force so that she could find where Tiplee was. But she found that she was so exhausted that she couldn't manage it. And if she couldn't manage that, she was as good as useless in a fight. She shook her head, got to her feet and started heading back to the gunship.

She took one last look back towards the forest, as the gunship warmed its engines up to take off again. The gunship started lifting off the ground, when Aurine saw something, "Wait! STOP!"

Emerging from the dark of the forest was a bloodied and battered Jedi Knight Tiplee. The Rishati's face was covered with cuts and the lower part of her robe had been torn off, leaving her bare below the knees. She managed a couple of staggering, unsteady steps before she fell softly to her knees.

Aurine and a couple of the Kuati troopers jumped off the gunship (that was only a few feet off the ground) and rushed towards the battered Rishati. Embarrassingly, the armored troops actually managed to out sprint her to her compatriot.

"Tiplee, are you okay?" You look like hell, she almost said.

"I've been better. But I'll live," said Tiplee weakly. She looked at the troopers that were with her, "Could a Jedi ask a favour and have you carry me to your ship?"

One of the soldiers, who was a bit bigger than the others, simply knelt and picked Tiplee up, carrying her as a mother carried her child.

Aurine almost laughed. It was a ridiculous picture. A Jedi Knight being handled as if she was an overgrown child. Something to laugh about later, she decided,

The group started heading back to their ship. "What happened to Coren Vox?" she asked.

Tiplee closed her eyes, "He will trouble us no more."

"So we won?"

"We have won, my friend. Tell me, how is Nara?"

"She's been beaten pretty badly, but she's with the medics. I believe she'll be fine, but the recovery will probably be pretty long."

"I think we'll all need a few weeks to recover," Tiplee said, as she started to doze off.

"But we won the day. Somehow. Some way."

"Sometimes, the Force is on your side. Today the Force was very much on our side."

Aurine smiled and looked at the sky. It was a beautiful day on Ubrora. The sun was shining and there were only a few small clouds that were visible. Tomorrow would also be a beautiful day on Ubrora. For it would be the first full day on a free Ubrora.