Rhen's saber barely ignited in time to slap the incoming blue plasma away from his face. He began twirling the blade as quickly as he could and transitioned the wall of viridian light to his left hand he held outstretched behind him. He was ready to deflect any attack that would come next from Vash's lightsaber. She took a step back and collected herself after that first deflection, however. The woman's eyes focused on Rhen and studied him for a moment before she launched into her next string of attacks.
The blue blade flew at Rhen again, and his spinning saber barely entered the blue light's trajectory in time to delay his death. Left, right, up, down, left, left, up, down, his blade spun around his body deflecting Vash's attacks. He was surprised as her saber attacks grew faster and faster still, forcing the twi'lek's skill further and further beyond what he had perceived as his limits. After a flurry of attacks that nearly found Rhen on their plasma end, Lonna Vash disengaged yet again, her eyes cold and calculating. "Tell me, did the Jedi elect Revan to Grand Master immediately, or did they attempt to hold out for a few years?"
"What the kark are you saying? A minute ago you said Revan was a Sith, now he's a Jedi Master?!" Rhen screamed. He positioned his twin blade in front of him and his knuckles cracked.
"I never believed the claims of his redemption. He could act more insidiously in a single act than Malak did the entire war– Revan was willing to lose a battle for the war," Vash replied. She flicked her wrist and her saber was resting, live, at level with her hip. "And now the Jedi allow those like Bindo to exist in numbers? Jedi outside the council's command caused the purge that we just survived."
Rhen stared into the woman's eyes, trying to catch a glint of the madness that had to be there. Yet, still, her soul and Force aura were perfectly calm. No madness, rage, or hate ran through her. Rhen's mind, however, was twirling. Nothing she said was making sense – yet she clearly believed every bit of it. "Look, the Jedi – even the ones that do care – know there are bigger bantha to roast. The Sith... look, Theron... the Imperial Knights... they're good. They don't like the Sith any more than the Jedi do – some even less."
Vash sighed and traced her eye socket with her left index finger. "I think," she said, exasperation dripping from her voice, "that you have been tricked. The Jedi way is the only right way."
"I agree!" Rhen cried out. "It's the right way. But they – Theron and Ana – aren't the wrong way."
The Jedi Master considered this for a moment. "No. They are students of Revan, and they will inevitably fall. They must be Jedi, or they must be nothing. And those same Jedi must return to what they are meant to be. For the good of the galaxy."
Rhen made a noise halfway between a scoff and growl. Vash's eyebrows furrowed into a single, annoyed V. The blue lightsaber rushed forward again, this time edging past Rhen's defenses. Luckily, the blade slashed through the air just moments before Rhen occupied that space, and he was spared a painful death at the hands of the Jedi Master. Rhen reversed his momentum as quickly as possible and flailed to merely stay on his feet.
"This is the best lightsaber training the Jedi have to offer?" Vash asked condescendingly. "I trained younglings with better technique."
Rhen glared at the woman for a moment, but again, she was not just mocking him. She was telling the truth. Rhen's grip on his saber faltered, and he glanced over his shoulder. He knew he couldn't win a straight up saber battle against the woman. A fair fight against someone as skilled as her would almost definitely mean death – for Rhen, Theron, and Ana all. But what could he do?
Suddenly, Vash shrieked in pain. Her grip on her lightsaber became nonexistent, and the blade-less hilt fell to the ground. "Do people keep forgetting I'm here?" Van asked. Rhen stared at the pilot in amazement. "What?"
"Y- you just... what?"
Van shook his head. "I doubt it'll keep her down for long," he said. He gestured at the woman, whose robes had even stitched themselves up. "I'm beginning to doubt I'll be very useful until we get into a real fight, you know – without this Force slag? I'll get Theron and Ana out of here, send them in to help as soon as I can. I'll try to find something to help you out, too."
"Good. I'll keep her busy," Rhen replied. He glanced down at the woman and he realized a Sith would just cut her apart right then – when she was defenseless. But Rhen was a Jedi, despite what Master Vash though, and he couldn't do that. Rhen waited until Van had escaped with the others, then ran off into the academy to fight dirty.
"...Sion!" Master Vash screamed just over an hour later. She woke up in a cold sweat; a dull pain echoed through her spine and the darkness of Korriban felt like an assassin smothering Vash in her sleep. Vash's mouth clicked dryly as she opened it to take a deep breath. Her fingertips dragged across the stone floor and she smiled slightly as she found her lightsaber. Relief filled her – until she remembered. She looked around wildly and found that the young non-Jedi were gone, as was their twi'lek defender. Vao – just like that little girl in Revan's squad. His... mother? "How long have I slept?"
Vash frowned. She had heard tell of age-preventing comas caused by the Force, but they were so rare. To have experienced one... "I must be needed in the Galaxy to bring the Jedi back to balance," Vash reasoned. She was powerful, and the purge had obviously taken the greatest techniques of Jedi and Sith to the grave. The Jedi could prevent the rise of the Sith once more with her teachings.
The Jedi out of time pushed herself to her feet and tested her saber. The blue blade thrummed into life, and she deactivated it. She walked through the corridors of the academy. "How ironic," she said to herself as memories of Sion lurking in the darkness, stalking her for sport, ran through her mind. Now the light was stalking the dark.
Suddenly, a sound echoed through the hall on Vash's left. She ignited her saber and ran as quickly as possible into the darkness. Her lightsaber cast blue, terrifying shadows into the emptiness. The noise – a whirring accompanied by footfalls – bounced again off the walls. "Who is there?" Vash shouted. Her voice's echo collided with the noise of the footsteps, and the noises seemed to come from every direction. Master Lonna Vash silently cursed her stupidity and jabbed her lightsaber in every direction to try and get a glimpse of the being in the shadow.
Vash turned fast to stare into the darkness as the whirring echoed behind her. She turned again as the noise echoed to her right. Her left. Into the darkness deeper into the academy. "Who is there!?" Vash screamed. Her mind, again, flashed back to Darth Sion stalking her. The silent, invisible Sith Assassins that would appear and disappear throughout the academy with the opening of every door. The insidious cold of fear snaked its way down and through Vash's spine. Her legs seized up and her locked. She was stuck as the whirring footsteps walked ever closer. Finally, she turned and brought her lightsaber down upon her stalker. She gasped and stopped the blade mere centimeters from the droid's head.
"I am NG-13, on-site security. I am sorry, but it is protocol for all weaponry to be taken from all organic visitors unless the Doctor orders protocol override. I am sorry, but there is protocol override in my memory for you. Please hand over your weaponry," the droid said with a nonthreatening, happy voice. It looked... cute. Not threatening in the least. The security droid was a huge box, a half-meter wide by a meter high. No weaponry, just legs.
Vash laughed softly. "I am a Jedi, I believe you can make an exception," she said. She laughed at her own irrational fears – Sion's Force signature was gone – dead.
The box droid shivered. "That is against my protocol," the droid said. The box hissed and extended outwards. The droid grew a meter taller and four long, powerful arms covered in assorted weaponry shot out of the nonthreatening shell. The droid's voice deepened to a metallic growl. "THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR BE FIRED UPON."
Vash sneered and jumped backwards as the first flurry of blaster fire flew towards her. She landed a few meters back and quickly changed to a soresu stance. The blaster fire ricocheted off of her blade, a few even returning to their sender. None of the plasma projectiles were capable of cutting through the droid's armor; Vash processed this information and studied the droid as it fired another volley of blaster fire.
Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Recharge. One. Two... Twelve. Recharge. Vash noted. The magazine was small – likely a tradeoff for the weapon's ability to store inside the rather droid's cramped shell. Each blaster shot came from the upper right arm of the droid.
As Vash deflected the blaster fire, the droid's combat programming gave way to its second level. The upper left arm fired off a smoke grenade and Vash's eyes burned for a moment until she created a Force wave that pushed the gas – and the droid – away. The metal being crashed and scraped across the stone floor. When it stopped, it dug its four spindly, spider-like arms into the ground to lift itself back to a standing position. The process took some time, which gave Vash a useful opening, if she was patient.
And she was a Jedi Master, so patience was not a problem. She waited through another four volleys of blaster fire, listened to the forty-eighth shot to fire. As the blaster clicked and recharged, Vash lashed out with the Force. The droid fell to the ground again and its arms flailed in the air. Vash charged forward and brought her saber through each arm in one intricate, almost artistic slash of her saber. The blue shine of the saber in the darkness formed a star-like shape around her, through which she leaped and brought her saber through the droid's processor head. She stared sadly down at the droid before leaping off its huge chest.
"Care to pick on somebody your own size?" Vao asked behind her.
"You reveal yourself at last," she said. She turned around and was greeted by the viridian glow of the twi'lek's saber. "I give you one last chance to surrender."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing," Rhen said, not even a hint of a joke in his voice.
"I applaud your bravery, but there is a point where it becomes stupidity. You are outmatched, Rhen Vao," Lonna Vash said. She walked calmly up to the Jedi and stopped a meter and a half away. "Do not tell me the Jedi have fallen in wisdom that much."
Rhen just glared at the woman. "Jedi don't give up, especially when they're fighting something wrong," the twi'lek pointed out.
"My point exactly," Vash said sadly. "But I cannot convince you – just as the council could not convince Revan or the Exile. I am sorry that you have to die for the Jedi to be saved."
Rhen did not let the woman get the first attack again. He launched forward and his blade was met by hers. He twirled his blade in the quickest and most tricky non-patterns he could conceive of. Every impossibly fast blow was blocked by an even faster parry on the part of the woman. The dance went on for almost a minute. Rhen refused to grant the woman the upper hand, and exhausted every saber move he had ever learned just to stay on the offensive for that long. However, his skill was not great enough to do anything more.
The woman deflected another of Rhen's blows and lashed out with her off hand. The twi'lek's saber deactivated and he flew backwards. As he approached the ground, Rhen flipped in the air and landed on his feet and hand. He skidded across the dusty stone and found himself at the entrance to the academy once more. "I won't let you hurt the people I care about," he said as Vash leaped through the air, her blade carving a beautiful blue dance around her. His saber locked with hers and their faces were centimeters apart.
"You have little choice in the matter," Vash said. She broke the saber lock and attacked again. Rhen was stuck on the defensive, but only for a few seconds. "And I have studied your technique enough to know an opening when I see it." Vash's blade came down just outside of Rhen's defenses. He could not stop in time to move out of the blade's path, and he instinctively raised his left forearm defensively. Uselessly...
If he had not been planning for just such an occasion. Hoping for it, really. Vash's saber fizzled against the metal plate tied around Rhen's forearm; the blue flickered in and out of existence for a moment before finally dying. "I – what?" Vash asked, genuinely confused.
Rhen lashed out with his foot and the ancient Master fell onto her back. Her lightsaber clattered on the ground next to her. She looked up at the twi'lek, studying him. Her eyes fell on the metal covering his arm. "Cortosis..."
"This is an old Sith academy – you honestly didn't think they had none holed up in here?" Rhen asked. He twirled his saber and held it at the woman's neck. He raised his left hand to his ear. "She's down, guys. You can come in."
The doors to the academy scraped open and orange light shot in, blinding both Rhen and Vash momentarily. As their vision adjusted to the harsh, desert light they saw Van and Pethra helping Theron and Ana, respectively, into the academy. "What are we going to do with her?" Van asked. Theron grunted a similar feeling from the pilot's shoulder.
"I don't know," Rhen said. "Maybe we could -"
Vash leaped upward, her hands crossed and palms towards the viridian blade at her neck. The air sizzled with the sound of the plasma burning into the solid wall of Force energy in the woman's hands. She gripped the blade of Rhen's saber and threw it to the side. The twi'lek stumbled away, and the woman's hand reached into the darkness. A saber hilt flew to her hand and ignited into its brilliant blue blade. She thrust the saber at Rhen.
"NO!" Theron shouted. He shoved off of Van and held his hands out. A wave of energy flew through the room, knocking everyone backwards. A deep purple glow jumped from Theron's outstetched palms to Vash's body flying through the air. Her momentum ceased and she screamed in anguish. She convulsed, feet above the stone floor. Her hair and skin grew gray and her cheeks began to become gaunt. Her eyes hollowed into her skull. Theron looked like he was just as trapped as her, but the purple energy connecting him to Vash was growing brighter and brighter – bringing Theron energy in pules. Theron's wounds seemed to disappear with every blast of energy that found its way to his side of the connection.
The woman in the air screamed painfully and her body crumbled into ash. The entire group stared at the site of her falling remains as they struggled to stand up from the ground. The purple light disappeared, but Theron's hands did not fall. He just stared at the spot where Lonna Vash had hovered moments earlier. He had killed her. And, what scared him most, it felt good. He felt full. "Theron?" Ana asked.
Theron turned his head to the red head that limped over to him. He moved his hands towards her. Both he and Ana flinched as he did, and Theron let his hands drop to his sides. Horror filled Theron's eyes as he asked, "What's happening to me?"