Kay approached a heavily shadowed arch. She stepped through and wandered down a corridor from which narrower walkways branched to either side from there. She eventually veered toward a walkway that led to the top levels of some of the prison complex's flat-roofed structures which at one time had served as a launching pad.
Kay sensed something directly ahead and slowed cautiously. It had a most familiar feel to it. "Valeska," she whispered aloud. "I'm here and waiting for you." Then the figure stepped out in front of her, blocking her path. Kay's hand moved naturally to the hilt of her deactivated lightsaber.
"Your Jedi skills are no match for the power of the dark side," Valeska intoned solemnly. "And your cowardly neurotoxins will no longer help you either." Kay sensed satisfaction from under her breath. "Your fate will be no different to that of my weak minded brother."
Kay regarded the form standing before her and nodded slowly. "The dark side. I've been there and am back there again. Do your worst."
Valeska smirked at her niece. "Then your father will be really proud of you," she said, tilting her head at Kay. "There won't be any mercy for you. I'll see to that." The warrioress Sith's smirk broadened to a smile, and that erupted into a mocking laugh. "Your dark side powers will be no match for me."
Kay shook her head. "Once this is over, so too will be my dark side journey."
Valeska didn't bother answering. Instead she began to gather the dark side, the power slowly building. But before she could unleash it she was hit by an unexpected wall of thunderous force from her niece. Instinctively she threw up a defensive shield, absorbing the blow. Despite this, she was slammed against a nearby wall, knocking the breath from her lungs.
Valeska was back on her feet in an instant, turning to face Kay.
"I don't need any neurotoxins to kill you," Kay said, her voice filled with contempt. "I was merely wanting to torture you— inflict all the pain you inflicted on me when you wiped out my entire family, and then kill you."
Now she was standing with her lightsaber drawn, a double-bladed version of the weapon which she was also adapt at wielding, the hilt grasped firmly in her hand.
Her arm was extended, holding the weapon out in front of her, the twin blades horizontal to the floor. It was a defensive posture, one meant to guard against a sudden attack from an armed opponent.
"I didn't kill all your family," Valeska replied. "I'm your only blood relative left," she added with a grim smile.
Kay shook her head. "No," she said, her voice calm and cold. "You were dead to me from the day you betrayed my father along with all of Cermau."
"Do you really believe you can defeat me?" Valeska finally drew out her own weapon, the shimmering blade rising up from the hilt with a low hum.
"Your time is over, Valeska," Kay informed her, slowly twirling her weapon and taking a confident step forward.
The two combatants dropped into fighting stances and began to circle slowly.
Kay then took another step toward Valeska, casually tossing her lightsaber from one hand to the other. Valeska responded by taking several steps back.
But Kay continued to advance, taking another step forward, the double-bladed lightsaber began to pick up speed, slicing the air in quick, circular patterns.
Kay expected Valeska to continue her retreat, but instead she lunged toward her, and was suddenly caught off guard by the ferociousness of Valeska's attack.
The battle had begun.
Valeska opened with a series of two-handed overhead chops, using her height to bring her blade hacking down at Kay from above. Kay easily blocked each blow, but the momentum of the crushing impact caused her to stagger back, throwing her off balance.
She recovered quickly, however, spinning out of the way when Valeska followed up with a low, looping swipe meant to hew her off at the knees. She retaliated with a quick jab with the tip of one of her blades toward Valeska's face, but she ducked her head to the side and came back with a wide arcing, single handed slash at chest level.
Kay intercepted her blade with one of her own, angling her weapon so that the momentum of Valeska's attack was redirected downward, sending the tip of her lightsaber into the dirt. This should have exposed Valeska to a counterthrust, but she was already reacting to Kay's move, driving her entire body forward into her niece before she could bring her weapon up.
Valeska's weight slammed into her, knocking her back as the Sith snapped her neck forward. Kay threw her head back just in time, and the headbutt that would have smashed her face glanced off her chin instead.
Scrambling to stay on her feet, Kay raised her weapon back up, spinning the handle so that the twirling blades formed a defensive wall that repelled Valeska's next half a dozen blows.
Her aunt was only ten years older than her, but she was so much faster than Kay could ever have imagined, using sequences and unfamiliar moves she had never seen before as a Jedi. But somehow she had survived the initial flurry, and now she knew what to expect.
The next exchange had a more familiar feel. Valeska pressed the action with a devastating, complex combination of attacks, but Kay was able to intercept, parry, or deflect each one. Her defensive style was simple, but performed correctly. It was nearly impenetrable.
Recognising this, Valeska backed off and changed tactics. Instead of a savage, relentless pressure meant to overwhelm her niece, she settled into a pattern of feints and quick thrusts, probing and prodding Kay's defences in search of a weakness as the two of them settled in for a long battle of attrition.
Valeska was undeniably effective, her technique more advanced than anything the Jedi had ever seen before. Unable to simply bully her way heedlessly forward, Valeska had developed an unpredictable, seemingly random style. Each time Kay thought she could anticipate where the next attack was coming from, Valeska changed tactics, disrupting the rhythm of the battle and causing her to give ground.
She was being driven back in a slow retreat, and she realised Valeska was herding her toward a wall, hoping to pin her against it with no place to go. Kay was content to play along, taking quick, careful steps backward over the hard surface as she began to gather her power.
The key was subtlety. She couldn't let Valeska sense what she was doing or she would launch into another wild flurry of attacks, forcing her to focus all her energy on keeping her at bay. She had to give her the illusion Valeska was controlling the action, when in fact she was only a few seconds away from unleashing a burst of dark side sorcery that would rip her aunt's mind apart.
Valeska circled wide trying to come in on Kay's left flank. Kay simply altered the angle of her retreat, taking several more steps backward to keep Valeska at a safe distance as she swatted away a few token slashes and strikes.
With her attention split between the enemy in front of her and the dark side sorcery she was preparing to cast, Kay didn't notice how close she was to a section of ground that was uneven. Inevitably her heel caught on the uneven ground as she backed up, throwing her off balance as she fell awkwardly to the ground and landed on her back.
Valeska was on her in an instant, her lightsaber slashing viciously, her boots kicking and stomping at her niece's prone body. Kay thrashed and twisted on the ground, her lightsaber flailing desperately to parry Valeska's blade. She felt a sharp crack as the toe of her aunt's boot caught her in the ribs, but she rolled with the impact and managed to end up back on her feet.
Her vision was blurred with stars, pain shooting through her left side with each gasp as she tried to catch her breath. Valeska didn't let up, coming at her with a frenetic assault. The next few seconds were a blur as Kay relied purely on instincts honed over all her years as a Jedi and Dark Jedi to parry the wave of blows, miraculously keeping Valeska from landing a lethal strike.
Kay threw herself into a back handspring, flipping head over heels three times in quick succession just to put some space between her and Valeska. Before the fourth one she suddenly stopped and went into a crouch, thrusting forward with her lightsaber like a spear to impale her opponent as she charged after her in pursuit... only Valeska wasn't there.
Anticipating her move, she had stopped several metres away.
Gritting her teeth against the pain from her broken rib, Kay rose to her feet. Valeska hadn't killed her, but her survival had come with significant cost. She was tired now, the desperate scramble to escape after tripping on the uneven surface had pushed her one step closer to physical exhaustion. She felt the broken rib with each ragged breath, and she sensed that the injury would make it harder for her to pivot and turn, limiting the effectiveness of her defensive manoeuvres.
She couldn't wait any longer. She'd wanted to surprise Valeska, slowly gather her strength before unleashing it so she wouldn't be able to properly defend against it. But she knew she wouldn't survive another clash of lightsabers.
Opening herself up to the power of the dark side, Kay reached out and touched the mind of her opponent.
Valeska sensed the attack, bracing herself. She wasn't versed in any forms of Sith sorcery, and as far as she was aware, the Jedi nor their dark side of the Force counterparts were supposed to be either. That didn't mean she was unprepared, however, and it baffled her more than it was intriguing at how her younger opponent who was definitely no Sith had managed the learn any such sorcery. Dark side sorcery was complex; it attacked the psyche in ways that were difficult to explain and even more difficult to defend against. Valeska had no talent for it, yet she had done her best to study the techniques. What she learnt was that the only real counter was the victim's strength of will.
Kay's assault began as a sharp pain in her skull, like a hot knife stabbing directly into her brain before carving down to slice the two hemispheres in half. Then the knife exploded, sending a million burning shards in every direction. Each one burrowed into her subconscious, seeking out buried fears and nightmares only to rip them free and haul them to the surface.
Valeska let out a scream and dropped to her knees. When she stood up the sky was thick with a swarm of flying horrors. Their wings were torn and ragged, leather flaps of skin hanging from exposed bone. Their bodies were small and malformed, their twisted legs ending in long, sharp talons, and their flesh was a sickly yellow.
Their features were inhuman, but their burning eyes were unmistakable: each creature was staring at her with Kay's hate filled gaze. As one, they swooped down on her, their mouths screeching out a loud cry.
Swinging her lightsaber wildly at the demon flock, Valeska crouched low to the ground, her free hand coming up to cover her face and ward off the talons clawing at her eyes. As the swarm enveloped her, she caught a glimpse of Kay standing a few metres away, her face frozen in a mask of intense concentration.
Valeska knew it was a trick; the beasts weren't real. They were just figments of her imagination, her greatest fears manifested in physical form.
She knew how to defeat these demons, and she struck back. Unleashing a primal scream, she channeled her terror into pure rage and lashed out with the dark side. It tore through the swarm in a burst of searing violet light, utterly obliterating them.
Kay watched as Valeska huddled against the ground, her lightsaber flailing wildly at invisible ghosts, but she didn't let her concentration falter. Valeska's mind was strong; if Kay let up even for an instant she might break free of the spell.
For a second Kay thought she had won as Valeska let out a shriek, but the burst of energy that followed sent her reeling backward.
Regaining her balance she saw that Valeska was on her feet again, and she knew she had resisted the spell. But she still had one more surprise for her Sith aunt.
Again she opened herself up to the dark side. This time, however, she didn't attack Valeska directly.
Instead, she let it flow through her, drawing it from the ground, summoning up wispy tendrils of dark smoke which snaked up from the surface.
The thin tendrils crawled along the ground, reaching for one another, twining themselves together into writhing tentacles each several metres long.
Then, in response to her unspoken command, the tentacles rose up and lashed out at her foe.
Valeska saw the strange black mist crawling across the ground and knew this was no illusion.
Somehow Kay had given substance and corporeality to the dark side, transforming it into half a dozen shadowy, serpent like minions rising up from the ground.
Suddenly the tendrils flew at Valeska. She slashed out with her lightsaber to chop the closest one in half, but the blade simply passed through the black mist with no effect. Valeska threw herself to the side, but the tip of the tentacle still brushed against her left shoulder.
The material of her clothes melted away as if it had been splashed with acid. A chunk of flesh beneath simply dissolved, and Valeska screamed in agony.
During her interrogation, Kay had pumped her full of a drug that had felt like it was eating her alive from the inside. But the excruciating pain she felt from the mere touch of the dark side tendril was unlike anything Valeska had ever experienced before.
The damage was far from life threatening, but it nearly sent Valeska into shock. She fell hard to the ground, her jaw slack and her eyes rolling back into her head. Her mind was reeling from the brief contact. The pain radiated through every nerve in her body, but what she felt went far beyond any mere physical sensation. It was not the raw heat of the dark side but rather the empty chill of the void itself spreading through her. It touched every synapse in her mind, it clawed at the core of her spirit. In that instant she tasted utter annihilation, and felt the true horror of absolute nothingness.
Somehow she managed to stay conscious, and when the next tentacle coiled in she was able to scramble to her feet and roll out of the way.
Her wounded shoulder was still throbbing, but the hollow darkness that had threatened to overwhelm her had faded, allowing her to ignore the pain.
The tendrils were massing for another assault, moving faster as Kay fed them with a steady stream of power. Valeska unleashed violet lightning from her fingers, but when the bolts struck the sinewy black forms they were absorbed with no apparent effect. They were made of pure dark side energy, and there was no way she could harm them.
That left her with only one option— kill Kay before the tentacles killed her.
Valeska unleashed another lightning blast at her niece. Kay caught the incoming bolts with her lightsaber, rendering them harmless. But her reactions were a fraction slower than normal, and Valeska knew it was more than just her injured ribs. The effort to keep the tendrils animated was pushing Kay's ability to draw on the Force to its limits, leaving her vulnerable in other areas.
Lightsaber in hand, Valeska charged toward her. The tendrils flew to intercept her, but Valeska ducked, jumped, and dodged, weaving her way under, over, and around them as she bore down on Kay.
Kay brought her lightsaber up to defend against Valeska's attack, but without the full power of the Force behind them her movements were awkward and clumsy. She parried the blow, but didn't react fast enough as Valeska dropped down and took Kay's feet out from under her with a sweep of her leg.
As she fell, Valeska twisted the handle of her lightsaber so that her blade caught one of her niece's, wrenching the hilt from her grasp and sending her weapon flying across the ground.
With her foe unarmed and helpless at her feet, Valeska brought her arm down for the coup de grâce, only to have it intercepted mid swing by one of the dark side tendrils. It wrapped itself around the elbow. Skin, muscle, sinew and bone dissolved instantaneously, severing the limb.
Valeska's disembodied forearm and fist tumbled harmlessly to the ground, her lightsaber flicking off as the hilt slid from her suddenly nerveless fingers. The Sith warrioress didn't scream this time; the pain was so intense it left her mute as she collapsed to the ground.
Everything went black. Blind and alone, she felt the void closing in. In desperation she reached out with her left hand, clutching Kay's wrist as she lay on the ground beside her. With her last act, Valeska summoned all her remaining power. Working at the speed of thought, Valeska's mind tapped into the currents of the Force, seizing on the power of the dark side, spinning, shaping, and twisting it into intricate patterns.
The cold darkness swallowing her up vanished, replaced by a searing burst of crimson light. Valeska was aware of her flesh being utterly consumed by the unimaginable heat, reduced to ashes in a thousandth of a second. But she was no longer a part of her own body. Her spirit had discarded it like an old shell, and before it too permanently disappeared from this physical plane of existence, she was determined to take her brother's offspring with her.
Valeska was suddenly fully aware of her physical surroundings. She could see with Kay's eyes, she could hear with her ears. Valeska could feel the intense heat of the crimson glow through Kay's skin. But Kay sensed her aunt's final desperate assault; Valeska could feel her niece's terror and confusion as if they were her own. And when Kay screamed in horror she screamed with her.
The black tendrils vanished as Kay's concentration was shattered, disappearing like smoke on the wind. Instinctively, she fought to repel the invader. Valeska could feel her pushing her away, trying to drive her out even as Valeska relentlessly tried to force her way in and snuff out both their existences.
It became a battle of wills, their two identities locked together inside Kay's mind, Valeska grappling for possession of the younger girl's body in order to destroy it. They teetered on the precipice of the void, Valeska seeking to obliterate all trace of her niece's identity before she too would be obliterated, while Kay sought to survive the assault by casting her aunt down into the blackness.
For a moment Kay's will to live versus Valeska's determination to wipe both out from existence seemed to be evenly matched, neither gaining nor giving ground. And then suddenly it was over.