Chapter XXXIV

Vader makes a hard swipe down on Titus with his lightsaber, his attacks seem effortless. Titus counters the blow before stepping back, he's down to fighting with one lightsaber. Vader knocked his second blade out of hand in the beginning of the fight.

Titus takes a swing from the hip, but Vader simply takes a step back to move out of the blades way. Titus brings the blade overhead to down on Vader in an attempt at a killing blow.

Vader swings his blade upward to counter Titus and knock his blade out of its path. Vader viciously swings the lightsaber upward, level to Titus's head. Titus ducks to narrowly avoid decapitation, he springs up and flips backwards to put distance between him and Vader.

"Ineed you are stronger as a Sith than you were a Jedi." Titus states, "But you were never really a Jedi, were you? I could sense it back on Don Har, the conflict building within you. No, that wasn't the first time you summoned the your power through hatred, the power of the Dark Side."

Titus charges Vader, but the Sith Lord uses the Force to easily throw Titus into one of the Jedi pillars.

"Anakin Skywalker was weak." Vader says in his deep voice, "He was destroyed with the rest of the Jedi. That name is no more a part of me as Brejik Ular is to you."

Titus rises back onto his feet, his respirator continues to wheeze. "Brejik Ular was destroyed with my connection to the Light. The Jedi took everything I cared about, I saw what the Order became, Naman and Sadike died believing in the Order, the Order that lost their way."

Vader steps closer to Titus, his breathing echos through the corridor. "Your anger gives you strength, but your inability to let go of your siblings death is a weakness."

Titus bounds away from the pillar as Vader swings his lightsaber at him. His blade easily slices through the stone column, severing it in two. The floor shakes and dust falls from the ceiling with bits of debris, the pillar loses its structural integrity and comes crashing down. Vader holds out his hand to use the Force and push the falling stone Jedi towards his opponent.

Titus jumps out of the way as the column slams into the ground. Cracks in the floor form around the crumbling Jedi, and dust fills the air. Titus launches himself off the statue poised to impale Darth Vader from above.

Vader pivots to the side before Titus's blade is buried into the floor where he stood. Titus pulls his blade from out of the floor and swings it upwards, Vader bends back slightly and avoids the strike. Titus crosses blades with Vader, the immense glow of their red blades put together is nearly blinding.

Titus uses all his might to hold Vader's blade back, but the force behind the Sith's lightsaber is almost too much to bear. Titus makes a sharp slice downward to just graze Vader's shoulder.

Vader groans as he loses his hold on Titus's blade. Titus steps back before Vader unleashes a flurry of terrifying swings. Titus desperately tries to counter every blow, but he misses the one aimed for his legs.

The tip of Vader's blade cuts into Titus's legs, deep in the tissue and just over the kneecap of his left leg. It's a hit that brings Titus down to his knees. He wails in pain as he realizes he has been rendered immobile.

With one strong sweep, Vader amputates Titus's right arm at the elbow, disarming him completely.

Titus falls forward, using his cybernetic arm to hold his body up while cradling his severed arm close to his torso. He awaits for the finishing blow to come down on his neck, sealing his fate as proficised on Korriban.

But nothing happens. The searing heat of the lightsaber does not cut through the meat of his neck. The shadow of his executioner casts over him.

Titus lifts his head to look up on Darth Vader. The tip of Vader's red blade just inches from his nose.

"Why?" Titus croaks, his voice dilator nearly destroyed. "Why not kill me? I am beaten, defenseless. You came here to destroy me for your Emperor, and succede where Skywalker failed. Darth Hord showed me my fate, that I would die by your hand, Darth Vader."

"I assure you, the demise of you and this Rebellion will come swiftly by the Empire."

Vader holds his hand and uses the Force to lift the fallen Jedi statue midair. Titus turns over onto his back to watch Vader levitate the column over him. With the drop of his hand, and let go of the Force beneath the heavy stone, the column falls back to the ground - and on Titus's legs.

Titus screams in agony, the pain of the shattered femur in his left leg intolerable. His bionic left leg crushed under the weight. Titus is pinned under the stone, with no possible way of freeing himself.

The dust in the air is blown away from Vader's receptor with every breath.

"All too easy." Vader mockingly says as he sheaths his lightsaber.

The Sith Lord turns around and walks towards the Temple entrance to leave; his black cape flows gracefully behind him. He stops in the tracks of his prosthetic legs to the disturbing sound of Titus laughter behind him. Vader looks over his shoulder, but says nothing.

Titus laughs again. "It doesn't matter, just like the Republic, the Empire will fall as well as Palpatine and you with him."

Vader turns around fully, paying close attention to Titus's words.

Titus stares at ceiling as if peering off into space. "I've foreseen it. A forested moon, a weapon of immense power, and the ultimate test between good and evil." Titus takes a deep breath. "Blood and loyalty will be tested, and come forth from its wake, the Chosen One."

Vader is quiet, knowing in a past life as Anakin Skywalker, that he was considered the Chosen One.

"The Chosen One is but a myth." Vader protests. "The prophecies of the old religion died with the Jedi. Your fantasy of the Empires destruction and of the so called 'Chosen One' are just that; fantasy."

Vader turns to leave again.

Titus calls, "The Force is what binds all living things, as well as time itself. It is the

past, present, and future. There is always truth in prophecy, and you are unwise to disregard the inevitable future already set by the Force. I can sense the Chosen One, on a planet with two suns. He grows stronger in the Force every day, he just doesn't know it yet."

Vader, refuses to face Titus again. "If you continue to put your faith in the myths of forgotten Jedi lore, then you will die dewling in the same false hope your brother and sister did."

Lord Vader continues to leave the Temple, without looking back again at Darth Titus, and not a second thought to his words of the Chosen One.