Corruption of a Jedi

Thing, Aragorn and Ptolemy stepped from the lift. ‘Thing,’ Ptolemy said ‘Into the Chikita, we will be able to protect you there.’

Thing nodded and he headed up the ramp and into the ship. Ptolemy’s hand disappeared into the folds of his robe and brought out a small device. He popped a chip out of it and tossed it to the middle of the adjoining landing pad and pressed a few buttons on the device. The chip on the pad popped open and came to rest on a small tripod formed from the casing material and a red light began to blink. Ptolemy then looked back at the device and pressed a series of buttons an indicator light flashed yellow then a steady green. He nodded to himself and the device disappeared back into the folds of his robes.

‘I have summoned the Dawn Treader He told Aragorn Nice ship with some suprises we should be able to use in the defense of this bay’

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Thing quickly walked down a passage toward the crew compartment. He stepped in looked for a moment and pulled a mattress from a bunk. Dragging the thin, he proceeded back to the engine room and threw the mattress to the floor. He then turned and secured the door from the inside.

‘If they get to this point it will not matter much I don’t think’ Thing said to himself grimly ‘but why make it any easier than it has to be?

Thing straightened the matress and sat cross legged on it, placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes and began to meditate.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Aragorn looked at his father. ‘They will be drawn to Thing like a moth to a flame’ he said ‘I am starting to feel the effects of the meditation now; it will not be long… There are 2 entrances,’ Aragorn gestured to the north side

‘True’ Ptolemy agreed and looked into Aragorn’s eyes ‘we cannot be drawn into duels. Dispatch as many as possible as quickly as possible, none can get by.’ Aragorn nodded ‘You must kill and disable with out remorse, with out hesitation.’

Ptolemy stretched his hand toward the north entrance as they heard shouts coming from the corridor. He projected the force into the cracks and imperfections of the wall there up to and into the ceiling. Feeling out the cracks in the ceiling Ptolemy began to tighten his grip and the wall and ceiling began to crack. The shouts became louder and were intermingled with the hum of light sabers as the first of the Crusaders burst through the doors. Aragorn leapt toward the south doors and Ptolemy yanked his arms down bringing the wall and ceiling on the crusaders trying to get into the hangar. Many of the crusaders were crushed beneath the debris that completely sealed the north entrance to the hanger areas. Ptolemy winced as those that were injured screamed. He held his staff flat in front of him and stepped toward the crusaders that made it in before the walls came down. Slowly he began to spin his staff as the crusaders rushed toward him. With the force, Ptolemy picked up several boxes and containers and slammed them into the group rushing toward him crushing several beneath them and leaving the rest with broken limbs and generally in effective. He then looked to the south doors and ran that way to assist his son

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Aragorn heard the sounds of quickly approaching crusaders and saw his father stretch out a hand toward the north entrance. He turned to the south and, using the force, leapt to the door and assumed a classic Djem-So stance and immediately began attacking trying to hit multiple enemies with a single stroke with out unbalancing him self. He switched from Djem-So to Shii-Cho and back as the situation demanded. Aragorn relaxed, feeling the ebb and flow of the battle and those around him standing in the door and letting no one get past him. Ptolemy watched with more than a bit of concern. It looked as though Aragorn was taking some chances in the method of his defense.

One of the crusaders side stepped Aragorn’s blade and swung his saber at the head of his son. With out thinking Ptolemy reached out with the force and yanked him away from Aragorn and pinned him to the ground. Ptolemy walked over the crusader and stepped on the man’s throat, crushing his larynx and, ultimately, suffocating the man. Aragorn, focused on the fight at hand, didn’t notice the demise of the man. Ptolemy came to stand behind Aragorn ready to helping as needed launching a push there and griping a crusader that was getting to close. Soon the pair had to back out of the door and into the hanger. Fighting the pair back pedaled toward the chikita giving up every inch begrudgingly, the crusaders pushing for every inch they gained.

Aragorn’s light blade seemed to be everywhere, licking out to caress the crusaders almost gently but leaving the dead and dying in his wake. Ptolemy was spinning his staff in a web of defense and death, crushing skulls and breaking bones with extreme prejudice and a deceptive grace. Ptolemy threw up his arm in time to catch the blade of a lightsaber on the arm of his armor the chain mail stopped the lightsaber’s blade but the shock of the impact shook Ptolemy and almost broke his arm. The force of the blow knocked him back a couple of feet where he rolled and came back onto his feet.

Ptolemy jabbed his staff at the crusader and, using a technique called force fighting, hit him with concentrated force, breaking his jaw and throwing him back into the crowd where he was cut down by the group in a frenzy of destruction. Ptolemy struck again and again with his staff. Throwing the force attacks to all sides in an attempt to keep the crusaders from reaching the Chikita.

Suddenly a ship, The Dawn Treader, came in for a landing the thrusters sent many of the crusaders flying and the Antipersonel weapons on the ship began firing as it settled on it’s skids. The blaster fire caught the Crusaders by surprised and between the Treader, Aragorn and Ptolemy the remaining crusaders fell. Aragorn looked at his father the look on his face reflected the pain and suffering he had created around him.

‘Aragorn’ Ptolemy said trying to comfort the knight ‘these sentients were just as sane and lucid as you and I, some were Jedi most seem to have been Sith. The pain you feel from these was not created by you but it was ended by you.’

Aragorn nodded in understanding ‘There are just so many… I do not know how long I can do this.’

Ptolemy nodded as he walked over and picked up a light saber staff from one of the bodies. At one time it was an elegant and deadly weapon. Now Ptolemy had to wipe the blood and grime from its surface. He ignited first one side then the other.

‘We stand together in defense of this enclave,’ Ptolemy said as he tested the weight and reach of the weapon he had recovered. ‘We will do our duty and then we will do what is needed.’

Back in the front side of the temple, Champ, Lay and Dray were holding off another wave, this time a bit smaller then the previous ones, as they had cut down thru 2 already.

As Dray flurried his lightsaber leaping forward, spinning it vertically left and right, he entoned, and aided by the two leaders.

"Patty cake, Patty cake, ..." started Dray

"Baker 's MAN!" said Champ, force pushing three enemies away.

"Bake me a cake..." Dray chopped off an arm.

"AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" finished Lay, swapping off three heads at one swing.

And after a few more 'patty cakes', the wave was over, and more bodies laid on the floor. The garden was no more green, no more fresh, instead it was cadaverized, immersed in red.

"Well, time out..."

"I wonder how Peppa is doing up there." spoke Lay , as he gazed to the sky, watching the distant flashes of explosions and turbolasers being fired in the heated battle above.

He opened the door and glimpsed at his new room. It was nothing special, a dull gray room with a single bed, with a nightstand next to it and a medium sized desk on the far side of the room. On the desk was a small computer terminal that had access to the Crusaders’ databank

A door led into a small living room complete with HoloNet reception, small couch, mini-fridge and a plant.

“Jax, start downloading files off of the databa-” Dusk started to say before he remembered what happened “Right...”
 He opened the fridge to see what it contained inside only to find a few beverages and cold nerf steak.

“Well..I guess I'm heading to bed” Dusk said as he climbed in the surprisingly comfy bed and began to doze off

-------------------

“What do you think you are doing?” a voice said in Dusk's dream “Remember that I am in this body as well!”

“..What?” Dusk said as he found himself on a circular area with the Twilight's family crest embedded in the ground emitting a soft rays of light as it glowed throughout the darkness
(I'm going for a Kingdom Hearts dive into heart moment)

“What do you think you are doing?” the voice said as Dusk turned around to see Dawn standing there in white robes with two sabers hanging from his belt.

“Becoming stronger” Dusk replied

“Why do you think you can do as you please? This is my body!” Dawn said as he launched a force wave at Dusk catching him off guard with the ferocity of the attack, knocking Dusk off of the platform falling into darkness. Dusk slammed into the ground of what appeared to be a similar column in the darkness but this time with images of Dawn and him embedded in it, again emitting a soft glow.


“Are you trying to get us killed?!” Dawn said appearing in front of Dusk once more

“As long as I am here, this is MY body and I make the decisions, not YOU” Dusk said as he ignited his saber

He charged at his alter ego slashing diagonally to do as much damage as possible. At the last moment Dawn ignited one of his two lightsabers emitting a emerald green glow and blocked Dusk's attack, then switched into a Soresu stance waiting for his opponents next move.

Dusk switched to his normal Djem-So style and began slashing away at Dawn only to have each attack blocked. A barrage of lightning was sent at Dawn, who caught it on his lightsaber. While He was busy with the lighting Dusk charged him going in for a fatal slash maintaining the barrage. Dawn ignited his second sapphire blue blade and deflected the attack, while also pushing Dusk back. He unleashed three force waves at Dusk then charged at him. Dusk deflected each of the waves and then slashed at Dawn in order to catch him in the middle of his charge. Dawn flipped over Dusk twirling around and slashed at his back. Dusk spinned as well and kicked Dawn midair in the neck sending him off of the pillar falling into the darkness.

Dusk charged off the edge after Dawn sending a barrage of force blasts after him.

He caught himself on his hands flipping backwards hoping to dodge the blasts and regain his stance.

Dusk landed feet first on the new Pillar which displayed all Dawn's friends and allies. He charged at Dawn only to be knocked back by a kick to the chest.

Dawn settled into a Jar'Kai stance awaiting Dusk's next move. Dusk unleashed a barrage of diagonal and vertical slashes at Dawn only to be blocked and deflected by his Jar'Kai. Dawn then unleashed a wave of alternating Horizontal and Diagonal fans at Dusk forcing him to retreat into a Soresu style defense. As Dusk struggled with blocking the blows he waited for a opening then kicked his opponent back and used a shun maneuver to gather up some power to knock Dawn back some more. The attack worked and Dawn was knocked back, and was wide open.

Dusk attacked him with a more concentrated burst of lightning and then sent a force wave knocking the now fried Dawn off of the pillar.

Dawn was helpless as he plummeted to the ground and landed on another pillar, unable to move, his lightsabers landed next to him, shorted out from the barrage. The image of this one was of a Master, emitting a brighter glow then the rest of the pillars thus far.

Dusk landed on the pillar feet away from Dawn

“Well, it seems like your attempt to regain control has failed” Dusk said “Sadly, this was your last chance” he said as he summoned up another barrage of lightning.

“Die.” he said unleashing the wave of blue energy only to have it blocked by a blade

The blade belonged to a man in a cloak which hid his identity from the combatants, although Dusk knew this presence.

“You!” Dusk said

“This body does not belong to you, Monster.” said the Man

“The dead have no say in this fight” Dusk said “Leave.”

Dusk charged at the man with a powerful downward slash only to have it be deflected and him knocked back. Dusk dodged the man's next attack by flipping backwards and then slid into Soresu again as the man unleashed a more powerful and mastered Jar'Kai upon him. Dusk was taken back and losing the fight having all of his force and physical attacks deflected or blocked.

The duel ended with the stranger's blades cutting across Dusk's Torso.

------

Dusk woke up in a cold sweat from this dream realizing that it was only a dream.

Dusk walked over into the restroom attached to the quarters and began washing his face in cold water. He looked up into the mirror and saw the X pattern cut in his robes from the duel in his dream.

“After my training is complete, you won't be able to protect him” Dusk said knowing he was watching.

--------

Two Plasma bolts flew at the guards outside of the complex killing them instantly.

“Stupid Meatbags.”

A metallic hand grabbed their key cards and let himself in to the Crusader's complex.

Moving through as a regular protocol droid looking for a data terminal.

Data is required in order to rescue his master.

The terminal was hacked and security codes, blueprints and everything else important uploaded to main memory core. Metallic feet walk down the hall in search of his target, no where to start but the cell blocks.

Reports of Crusaders being found dead throughtout the complex and seemingly no one to have done it. Prisoners killed in their cells. Crusaders killed. Security footage erased.

No sight of his master. This might take a while thought the droid.

“You, protocol droid, we need you to translate what this prisoner is saying for our interrogation” Said a Crusader

“Reply: Of course sir” Responded Jax

The Prisoner was a enemy Dark Jedi, but not like his master at all. Weak, helpless and afraid for his life.

“This one is nothing compared to the Dark One's new apprentice” one of the interrogators said outside of the cell

“I still cannot believe he would take someone who has killed countless Crusaders for fun” Lehel said

“The Dark One must see something else other then a monster in him” The Interrogator said

This must be my Master they are discussing about Jax calculated as he walked away from the Crusaders who were in no more use of him.

They shall pay for separating him from his Master.


----------
He dreamed about his life since he joined JvS, The friends he made, the battles he had fought in, how he lost his arm and a dear friend. How this monster took control of his body and his losing fight to regain control.

Dawn awoke on the pillar unable to move most of his body

“I...I'm alive?” He said “Did he spare me just to torture me?”

Dawn then noticed a familiar object on the ground a few meters away. He had not seen this object for a few years, when he was a Padawan.

“I see...” He said “Thank you.”
------------------------

The Next Morning....

A knock was at the door waking Dusk up from his nightmares

“What do you want!” he yelled throwing a small force wave at the door.

“My lord, The Dark one requests your presence in his Private Training Chambers” Said the Crusader

“Now?” Dusk asked

“Yes My Lord, he wants you to wear the training garments in the dresser” The Crusader responded

Dusk looked down at his damaged robes. Blaster singes, light marks, dirt and grime from being dragged into the crusaders complex and blood from all of the fun he had being “interrogated”

He went over to the dresser and took out a simple training outfit, a Black with red trimming tunic and pants, along with taking the shoes off of the dresser top. He put on the outfit and met the Crusader outside the door

“Ready” Dusk said

“This way My lord” The Crusader said

– Outside of The Dark One's Chambers -

“In here please” The Crusader said stopping and moving over to the wall ask Dusk passes him

Dusk beginning to open the door as the Crusader ignited his saber and attacked Dusk. Dusk dodged the saber and then immediately caught him in a force grasp and crushed his body in.

“Hello apprentice” The Dark One said

“What was with that assassin!” Dusk yelled
“That was just a simple...Quiz for you” The Dark One replied “Have to keep you on your toes after all.”

Dusk glared at him not letting his guard down.

“Well, shall we get started?” The Dark One said leading Dusk into a room with a weird looking device.

“This is called the Embrace of Pain, it was used by the Yuuzhan Vong as a sort of...Meditation” The Dark One said.

“It can turn the Nobelist of Jedi into Sith.” He explained “And that is why we are using it. To get rid of the Light in you.”

“Right...” Dusk said

“well, it seems that you will be gone before my training is over...” Dusk said to Dawn

“Step in it please.” The Dark One said hooking Dusk up “You might feel a slight...Pinch”

Dusk screamed in Agony as the device was turned on

“Use the pain to destroy the Light in you and then get out of the device.” The Dark One said “This is your first test.”

-----

Bones cracked as a Metallic being snapped the neck of a guard in the Security Camera Room

Robotic hands searching through countless camera feeds looking to find his Master.

A scream of Agony coming from a familiar voice

“Aggressive Statement: You shall not harm my Master any more!” Jax said as he ran to the coordanites in the complex his Master was being tortured in.

----

More Screams of Agony are being emitted from The Dark One's chambers frightening all of the Crusaders who happen to pass by in the corridors. Scared of what could ever emit those horrible sounds and the agony spreading throughout the Force.

“Use your Pain, Suffering and destroy your Light!” The Dark One yelled “Crush your weak side and become a true Sith!”

--One Hour Later--

“You don't seem to be making any progress...” The Dark One said “Allow me to help” as he tried to enter Dusk's mind he was instead given a vision of a Man in Jedi robes with two lightsabers on his belt. Along with a distinct mark in the Force.

“You shall not have this one” The man said

“You...You are the one that our Destroyer took care of..” The Dark One stated “Hiding from death are you Jedi?”

“I am one with the Force. You cannot harm me” The Man said

“I cannot harm you, but I can harm this boy” The Dark One said “There is nothing you can do”

“You may be right, but there is something someone else can do” The Man said as the vision started to fade away and The Dark One was back in the Chambers with a screaming Dusk

“Someone Else?” The Dark one said as a Plasma bolt melted the entrance followed by a barrage of blaster fire disabling the embrace and causing Dusk to drop to the floor.

“Statement: I have come to save you Master!” Jax said as he fired a Plasma bolt at The Dark One only to have it be knocked aside into the wall by a force push

“Whats this? A Toy of yours?” The Dark One said destroying Jax with a concentrated bolt of Lightning

“Jax!” Dusk yelled igniting his saber and attacking the Dark One with a force amplified swing

Dusk was knocked back against the wall in a powerful force grasp

“I'm sorry, but my Apprentices aren't allowed to have 'Toys' to play with” The Dark One said sending Jax's inoperative body into the wall “I'm the only one who gets 'Toys' and he broke mine”


---Hours Later---

“SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETE” Sounded Jax's internal systems

Jax awoke among a pile of scrap metal from destroyed droids, buildings, ships, vehicles, anything and everything. Making the area look like a small version of Raxus Prime

“Pledge: I will save you Master” Jax said

---End---

Duece is a nickname for the second class of Imperial Star Destroyer.
________________________

"Shields are down General!" The tactical officer screamed over the din of claxons and explosions that had once been far off, but were now getting closer with each passing minute. The ship was lurching back and forth from the impacts it was sustaining and the enertial dampeners had begun failing long ago.

"I noticed," Peppa replied. The Marauder had been thrown to the ground as she approached the helm to take over navigation for the now dead officer who was lying on the ground beside his post, neck wrenched at an unnatural angle. She gripped the railing and hauled herself up, using the rail to steady her as she made her way to the seat.

The tactical officer continued, "Hull integrity down to twenty-four percent, we've lost decks eleven through twenty, and five through eight." The ship shook again as if to emphasize the man's point, "We're down to three weapons emplacements and the sublight drives are completely offline."

Peppa pulled herslef into the seat and strapped herself in, she couldn't afford to concentrate on both the Force and navigating the ship. She needed all the help she could get at this point. The Marauder studied the console for a moment to get acquianted with the contorls then fired the maneuvering thrusters to rotate the hull away from the incoming fire, hopefully it would give them a few more minutes of life, "What about them?" She asked as her hands flew over the console to execute the turn.

"One interdictor is dead in space, coutesy of a lucky shot on our side," the officer replied with a grim smile, "it's no threat to us now."

"And the other?"

The man shook his head, "Still at full power."

The Marauder bit her lip. With so little fire power and the hull on the brink of collapse, they were no match for the Interdictor, even dated as it was. If they continued, all they would succeed in accomplishing was their own destruction, the logical course of action would be to retreat, regroup, and plan a new strategy. Yes that would be the logical thing to do, but logical wasn't always right, at the moment, if she left, the Academy would have no chance of winning. Even if she did stay there was little chance the Temple would survive the assault, but they could improve the odds slightly in thier favor.

"Sound the evacuation alarm," Peppa brought up the engineering panel and started typing in comands, "we're abandoning ship."

Her tactical officer, the only one aside from herself still alive on the bridge, just stared at her as if she had grown a second head, "Abandon ship ma'am?"

The Sith General didn't turn to look at the man and just continued her work, "I'm going to overload our core, detonate it. We can't win, but we can take more of them with us. Make them pay for their victory."

"There has to be another way ma'am," the man was shaking his head in disbelief, "the starfighters could-"

She slammed her fist down on the console so hard she drew blood, silencing the man. Slowly she uncurled her hand, and spun in her chair to face the officer finally, to look the man in the eye, convey the severity of their situation in a way words could never do. "We have no starfighters, we have no defense, we'll be lucky if we hold together long enough to detonate this ship and blow that interdictor away," she heaved, still angry and trying to clam down. "Now do as I say, or get off my bridge," The Marauder turned back to her console and continued the sequence that would send the ship's reactor into a meltdown cycle, eventually resulting in an overload. It was the only way she could produce a self-destruct on a ship that had none.

Behind she could hear the officer shuffling his feet, thinking about what had been said to him and deciding what to do. She couldn't necessarily blame him for questioning her, self-destruct was always a last resort and something no one wanted to accept, much less face, but there was no other option. She'd be damned if she let those bastards destroy her ship and get off scot free. She heard the officer go to his console and bring up communications, sounding the evacuation order as instructed, a tone of both exasperation and resignation. The man obviously didn't want to give the order, but he felt duty bound to do so.

"What can I do for you now ma'am?" He asked after he finished issuing the orders. A new claxon now joined the myriad others going off in the ship, but this one made specifically to draw the most attention, even with all that had gone wrong on the hsip and all the warnings that had gone off, this one drew her attention at an instinctual level.

"Get to an escape pod," she ordered putting the final touches on the self-destruct and entering it into the system. Aborting would be impossible now, even if she had changed her mind.

"Are you coming with me?" He asked, tone hopeful.

She shook her head, "My place is here, if something goes wrong I'll have to deal with it. Now go."

The man made no attempt to move from his post, "With all due respect ma'am, I'm your first officer now, and my job is to look after you're well-being. Let me do this for you," he pleaded, as subborn as he was loyal.

She turned her head slightly able to see the man out of the corner of her eye, "I'm not leaving, boy," she turned back to avoid meeting the man's eyes. "Save yourself."

"Then neither am I," he replied resolutely.

Peppa could only smile at that. She had gotten most of the crew killed in an effort that, in the end, would accomplish little, but the men and women on this ship were still loyal to her, to the very end, "Very well mister..."

"Drist," the man supplied.

"Mister Drist," she was relieved in a way, she may have been a Sith, but she didn't wish to die alone. She wondered when that had happened, "continue strafing fire across their bow. Can't well let them know we intend to blow ourselves to Xendor and take them with us now can we?"

"No we-" the officer suddenly stopped and looked at his console closely, slack-jawed, as if he must be reading what he saw wrong. "We may not have to ma'am." He looked up and out the viewports in front of him, awed to the point of silence. Peppa turned to see what had captured the man's attention and in turn was left speechless.

Ahead, just outside the viewport, a fleet of ships had emerged from hyperspace just a few dozen kilometers away. The three cruisers and three frigates opened up on the interdictor they had been so close to taking out themselves. It took only seconds for the interdictor's shields to be overwhelmed, leaving it's hull vulnerable to fire that raked across the surface turning durasteel to slag and weapons to molten craters a mere shadow of their former selves. Then with a tremendous backlash, the entire ship collapsed, exploding outwards, ballistic shratnel bouncing off the attacker's ships and tearing into the first interdictor, ripping the derelict to pieces. Whether by design, or by the grace of the Force, very little of shrapnel hit the Power and what little did didn't appear to effect the ship's working systems.

The entire display had taken less then half a minute to start and finish, all the while both bridge crew members watched in shocked disbelief, only looking away when the explosion became to bright to bear, and only reluctantly at that. "I hope they're on our side," Peppa commented into the silence that ensued, and it took her a few moment to even get her mouth to work that well.

Drist, however, was reading his console, one hand cupped to his ear as if to hear a particularly garbled message, "Getting a holo comm ma'am." He fiddled with the controls, "Cleaning it up." The man jerked back as if he had been hit, then looked at the Sith General, a smile, a true smile, playing across his face "You're not going to believe this."

The viewport in front of her shimmered for a moment and buzzed with static that slowly faded to show a man in long Jedi robes standing with his hands on his hips, a man the Marauder knew all to well, "Hello Miss Peppa," the Jedi said bowing deeply, "I heard you could use a hand."

"Ba... Bazariel?" She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing, "I thought you were dead."

The Sentinel smiled sadly, "Yes, I know. Sorry for taking so long, but I had to ran into some friends on the way that wanted to help." Bazariel waved to a man outside the shot and the view screen suddenly resolved into a six pieces, each with a different man framed there, "Top level, beside my own image from left to right are two DAJ Masters, Mazik Darza and Kell Osiac. Bottom level are Warriors Anshin, Red, and Seto from a small Academy on Tatooine."

Peppa nodded at each name in turn to show them a level of respect, but not bowing as would normally be considered proper. These men were her equal, so it was unnecessary, and all were Jedi, she felt she had to represent the Sith to them, show them they pulled their own weight and more, "Glad you guys decided to show up," she said careful to moderate her voice between gratful and firm, "We didn't have enough time to repair the Power so we'll need whatever you can muster."

The man named Red spoke up, "Our Temple is in possession of three Ardent-class frigates, they are not powerful ships, they are meant for quick strikes, but we'll do what we can in terms of fire-power."

The Dark Angel Master Mazik spoke next, "Since our last incident we've revamped our own space forces," the man crossed his arms, "we possess two MC-90 Mon Calamari cruisers. We can hold our own against their forces, but these are primarily defensive ships."

"And we haven't finished repairs either," Bazariel reported, "we've managed to repair shields, and most of our turbolasers are opperational, but we're still down two engines and our hull integrity is much lower then I would like."

The Marauder sighed and draped her hand across her face. They were help, she couldn't deny that and she was grateful for any assitance they could get, but it didn't stop her from wishing for more, "So in other words this will still be a tough fight."

The Sentinel nodded solemnly, "I'm afraid so, and our sensors show your reactor is beyond repair as well. You'll need to jettison yourselves and let us take you aboard."

"And I lose my ship on top of it all," she slumped back in defeat momentarily, she knew when she entered the command that it was too late to stip it, but she still cursed the inoportune timing. Nothing to be done by complaining, gotta make the best of it, her head snapped forward and she started entering commands on her console. "Well they won't get me without a fight. Our sublight engines are down, but the hyperdirve still has enough power to make on final jump."

"You're not seriously going to make a suicide run?" Bazariel asked, brow lifted in surprise at the sudden decision. The man may have been a High General, but he didn't think in terms of taking out enemies at all costs, he thought like a Jedi first and foremost. He would rather save resources then use them to destroy an enemy, it made him good at gathering allies and coordinating forces, but horrible at seeing the hard decisions that had to be done. Even when they stared him in the face.

"Don't be an idiot," the Sith General replied as she finished typing and stood, gathering together what little dignity she had left as a General, "my ship is going to make a suicide run."

-------------------------------

Thing centered himself in the Force, letting his mind calm, letting his senses expend. The world seemed to fall away from him, stripped of all meaning with nothing to distract or hinder his progress. Slowly he added materials to his senses, life at first, feeling the flow of it through the myriad of organisms around him, then he began sensing the objects, those things not imbued with the Force but could still be defined by it, then, finally, he added flows in the Force.

The people around him showed up as sillouettes, blank slates that he could determine the strength and intention of, the better the intention the bluer they became, and the worse the intention the redder they became, the brightness of those colors was determined by the strength of the person so the weak would barely register, while the strong would be a beacon. He focused on the minds of those near, their intentions showing up immediately to his all-encompassing gaze, unable to hide their true desires from the technique.

It would take time to reach everyone in the Academy, and already he could feel a mass of faint red masses coming towards two blue, one a vary vivid blue, and the other a much darker shade, but against all logic the dark one shone much brighter in the Force. It took a moment for the Knight's mind to catch up to the fact that these were his protectors, people that needed his help very much, and as soon as he thought it, he felt his prescence, something he saw as a white haze, settle over the two, connecting them on a much deeper level then possible under normal conditions. They wouldn't notice the effect so much on a conscious level, but on a subconscious level they would be much more in tune with each other's moves and intentions.

Satisfied his two guardians had been properly backed-up he reached out again, expanding his senses once more, but still keeping a connection between the two Jedi. The objects around were like a grid, a pattern of lines inside outlines that told him how thick or dense a material was, as well as overall size, but wouldn't obscure his senses. This was the simplest of his tasks, something in which he could just throw his senses out and they would report back at a subconscious level.

Suddenly the view in his mind's eye became sharp and clear, an outline of everything near and the positions of the organisms around him found perch on the mental map he was forming. The sudden definition in the map gave his sense much more direct paths to follow, way to extend that would speed up his ability to sense the enemy numbers, as well as the JvS forces arrayed against them. Even the Sith JvS would appear as a blue gleam in his perception, their drive to defend themselves and their allies a good intention whether they realized it or not.

Finally came the hardest part of his mental image, mapping the flow of the Force. The Force, by nature, or by design, acted haphazardly, so much so that few ever truly sensed the depth of it. So much of the power went to waste, even when used by a Master, because the power could never be fully contained, only directed and channeled like water coming through a hose. It was this wild flow that made sensing so difficult, discerning a normal, natural Force energy and a projected energy was a subtle affair and required carful attention to both the overall flow and the flow in specifics areas.

Slowly though, even this became clear. A yellow wave appeared for those using darker powers, and a green for those centered in the light, while ambient flow showed up as a purple mist. And as he felt the people, felt the energy, discerned the good and ill intentions of those around him, he dispersed his own influence into it, a white haze on a canvas of chaotic power. He reached inside the minds of the Academy, identifying JvS and Crusaders, inspiring his allies, and discouraging or maddening those arrayed against his friends.

Then he went deeper, immersing himself inside the minds of those he had contact with. At first he was flooded with images, and voices, so many, so loud, so random and chaotic that it nearly overwhelmed him, but his better instinct kicked in and he began sorting them into groups. First good and bad, then inside and outside, then front and back, then areas, then groups, then finally individuals. He reached out to his allies, connecting all of them into a subconscious meld, those near gaining a stronger connection and knowledge then those far off who would gain only a vague sense of their comrades.

"Now for the hard part," he knew he was only thinking but his voice came across as one spoken, albeit one inside his own mind. The final part of Battle Meditation, and the one thing that made it so effective wasn't so much the connection of allied minds, but rather the disruption of enemy minds. With the proper control, a user of the power could scare an army into retreat, confuse minds, blind senses, and in extreme cases, even drive an invading army to kill themselves.

Thing sharpened his senses, penetrating the barriers of and immersing himself in the minds of the Crusaders. Some were easy, a simple veil to be pierced by anyone who truly wanted to enter their minds. Others were much more resistent to the intrusion, erecting barriers so strong that it took constant pressure to break through, and still others were impossible to penetrate, having brought a very powerful defense to bear. The Knight wasn't even sure that, focusing solely on those few, he could successfully intrude into their minds.

He concentrated on the Crusaders he had broken, and this time, when the flood of images came, he was prepared, sorting through them with little effort. As before he organized them into areas, then plunged his own attack down on them. He focused on their concentration, imagined his own attack as a spear and their concetration as a sheet of glass, then he plunged it in causing it to shatter. Through his mind's eye he could see many of the enemy slow and falter, no longer sure of their place or purpose, and just as quickly cut down by opportunistic Jedi and Sith.

The Knight reached out farther, plunging himself into the minds of those reinforcing the Crusaders, but this time planting thoughts, notions, emotions, things to rattle their minds and cause discord where none would normally exist. He could feel their anxiety grow as he spread his perception out farther and farther, taking in more and more and driving those same nagging doubts into their minds.

Their panic rose, growing more and more frantic with each passing second, then, at the right second, he planted a single word into the minds of everyone he had effected. Run. He felt the red dots of men and women, saw them flee in a panicked rush for any transport they could find. The panic would spread on it's own now, much faster then he could influence it, and he had little doubt that eventually all of the Crusaders would evacuate for reasons they themselves could not pin down.

At least that's how it should have gone, but the panic did not spread. And those retreating were instead cut down by troops farther back in line, troops whose minds were well guarded. Much more so then any other he had encountered on the battle field so far. "These are the troops I first expected when I heard of this army," Thing thought to himself. "People trained and fully competant in the ways of the Force, but still insane from the person who corrupted their minds."

Then a terrifying thought struck him, something so discouraging that for a few minutes the Knight couldn't bear to accept it, but ultimately something he had to accept. This was their main force, everything leading up to this had just been canon fodder. The true fight had yet to begin.

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Spanish sat on the edge of the desk in the antechamber of the Dark Council, one leg hanging down, one layed out, and bored out of his mind. He wasn't hiding, he wasn't running, he wasn't catching his breath, he was just waiting. Waiting to be told he was needed by the one person he should have opposed the most. What have I turned into? I'm the Dark Lord of the Sith, quite possibly the strongest warrior in this Temple, and I have to wait for the Grand Master's permission. It galled him in a way, but the logical part of him understood the need, they had to wait until they were needed most. Only then would they be truly effective.

The Sith toyed with his lightsaber idly flipping it up and down, around his hand, between his fingers. Anything to keep his mind off waiting, and he wasn't the only one. There were three other Sith in the room, all Overlords, arguably the single most potent force in the Academy. Leaning against the wall to his left was Behalok, a young man all rage and power, the Sith perferred lightsaber combat over Force techniques, a rare type of Overlord who's true strength actually was in his skill with a blade. In the center of the room, floating a meter above the ground, was the oldest of the Overlords, Servilous, a man in his late thirties, as opposite from Behalok as possible. This Sith relied heavily of his Force powers and was powerful in the sense that he had the wisdom and knowledge to accomplish what most never could, even with raw skill. And finally there was Neliel, a young woman and so far the only woman Overlord the Academy had ever trained. She was less a person of dedicated use and more a person of overall skill, able to use the Force and her lightsaber interchangably, but seldom reverted to Force. As she put it, it was the easy way out. Right now she was reassembling her lightsaber with a new set of crystals using the Force and nothing else.

The comlink at the Dark Lord's belt beeped, indicating he had in incoming call from someone. He caught his saber on the next throw and reattached it to his belt, drawing his comlink into his hand as he brought it back up. "Our Force Warriors are done, it's your turn," said a calm old voice issuing from the comlink.

Spanish pushed himself off the desk and began walking out of the antechamber, the cadre of Overlords following in his wake, and he thumbed the mic on, "It's about kriffing time," he answered annoyed and impatient from the time he had spent idle, "remind me again why you let them go first? You know Sarus is unreliable when it comes to extended conflicts." The group was now in the hall and walking towards the hangars at the back of the Academy.

"Would you rather I had them covering your retreat?" the voice of the Grand Master asked amused.

Spanish sighed, he really shouldn't have missed something that obvious, "OK point taken, but why send him in at all?"

"They were more valuable then you give them credit for," Iron responded patiently, "they managed to take out well over a hundred Crusaders with no outside aid."

"Impressive," Spanish replied, "but if you'd let us go first there wouldn't be any need for them."

The voice laughed, "You may have a point. I take it I can tell your back-up they're not needed?"

"Let me answer your question with one of my own," Spanish replied with his own smile. "When was the last time you heard of an Overlord falling in battle?"

The voice was silent and Spanish wondered if the signal had been jammed somehow, but after a few moments it came back with a very simple statement, "Point taken."

The Dark Lord flipped off the comlink and stowed it at his belt again. He often wondered if he ever truly won a verbal sparring match with the man or if the Master just humored him with the senseless bantar. He suspected the latter, he had never been good with words, most arguments he could win through violence alone so he'd never had need to develop the skill. But when he did it with the Grand Master it was different, neither truly meant any jibe they made and neither ever took offense at the other, they disagreed, but they always did so civilly.

He could see Gal3rm now, the newly Knighted man was carrying Sarus on his back. He looked tired, more so then the person he carried, but given the hasty retreat they were making it wasn't a surprise. The two passed with a gust of wind, one one could only produce when running with the aide of the Force. For a brief second he caught sight of Gal and saw the man nod a fraction, a silent gesture that said he was intrusting the safety of the Academy to Spanish personally, then the man was gone.

The passing signified more then just a change of resources, the four Overlords were now the only standing between the oncoming Crusaders and the rest of the Temple. The Dark Lord drew his weapon and activated it, the blood red blade casting a twisted glow on both himself and his environment, his Sith followed suite, drawing their own lightsabers, all casting the same glow, as if the Overlords were a single force with four bodies. Each alone was deadly, but when coordinating efforts they were truly a force to be reckoned with.

The group came across a hallway, one that led across the Academy to the Jedi side of the Temple and overlooked the second courtyard. It was as good a place as any to make a stand, "Servilous, Behalok, take the Jedi side of the Academy," Spanish ordered over his shoulder, "Neliel, you're with me." The two men silently nodded and turned abruptly to the left, disappearing out of sight as Spanish and Neliel kept walking to the center of the long hallway.

The two came to a halt, the sound of their footsteps fadding off and leaving the Overlords in virtual silence. A silence that didn't last long as soon a low rumble could be heard in the distance as the enemy forces approached all too eager to shed any blood possible even their own.

It seemed meaningless, throwing themselves forward like this when it was obvious they had little chance of succeeding in penetrating their defenses. It was wasteful how they would even cut each other down to get at an enemy. It made no sense, no tactician in his right mind would order such a tactic at a sustained pace, but then again, almost by definition, these Crusaders were mindless or insane. It was a classic definition of madness, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Still it nagged at him, as if he was missing something obvious. He was a Sith so he knew plenty about sacrificing others for victory, he wasn't above ordering people to their deaths if it would keep more Sith alive, but this went a step farther. It wasn't just a casual disregard for life, it was more almost like a hate for life of any kind, even their own. There has to be more to their strategy then this, some twist we're not seeing. They've defeated many of us, but there are far more left over, and many of their own dead.

The Crusaders rounded the corner, as rabid as they had always appeared in recordings Spanish saw, and as rash as their reputations suggested. The first wave leapt at them, leaving themselves open to all manner of attack, but before the Dark Lord could strike, the men were cut down, and others emerged sabers drawn and lunging in a much more logical manner. He was surprised, by the sudden change, but not enough to leave himself open. The two Sith danced away from the attacks to buy time to make sense of the shift, but were not given the time to do so and got a sense of danger from above just in time to stop a few overhead strikes from others jumping over the two.

Spanish blocked his blows and let loose with Force Lightning, spreading the tendrils out as far as he could to catch as many in the attack as possible and was rewarded with a pair of kills from the descending men, but to his dismay the destruction ended there as the men already on the ground simply caught the lightning on their lightsabers, saving themselves from harm. Confused, the Dark Lord spun in, lashing out with a swing that would normally have cut beneath the defenses of his foes and disemboweled them in the process, but instead was blocked by the very first in line of his would-be victims and barely had time to jump out of the way of two others smart enough to attack from opposing angles, but not angles directly across from one another.

The Dark Lord landed and swept his blade diagonally, scoring a hit on one man's forearm and cauing him to drop his weapon, then he flicked his blade out, searing through the man's heart and shoulder. He spun in time to block a flurry of strikes from another pair of Crusaders that pressed their advantage heavily, on the off-balance Sith, quickly tiring themselves, but not before they forced him back. The Overlord barely had enough time to recognize the trap and react before it was too late. He continued his defensive shield with one hand and thrust the other out behind him, hurling the unprepared man into and through a pillar.

Spanish leapt back, letting go of his lightsaber for a moment and focusing on the Crusaders in front of him. He imagined his hand reaching out and grasping them, pulling through the Force in an attempt to dislodge them, but got a surprise when his attack failed. The Crusader's defenses held and instead he was pulled back to the engagement by his own power, "Fine be that way." He summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, thumbed the switch that would keep the blade on. He landed and immediately hurled his lightsaber forward. The attack caught the first two by surprise, cutting through their bodies like a knife through butter and just quickly ending their lives before it was finally blocked blocked and forced into the air.

While this was happening the Overlord was gathering the Force around him like a cloak, but not meant to hide. The energy rippled and distorted the air around him like an invisible force field, building more and more until the field itself became to distorted to see throught. Then he released it, letting it dome out in a large Force Push that encompassed anything near him. It was a move known as Force Repulse, and if powered properly could kill those it hit, but the one the Dark Lord had emitted was a simple clearing tactic, though, in this case, it had a more important role. He reached out with his senses, feeling for those still alive but with their defenses down and released a powerful Force Storm, that lashed out over the bodies od his foes, the electricity arcing and frying the bodies of the defenseless men and women around him.

Spanish recalled his lightsaber and ran forward, albeit slowly, to help Nel finish off the remaining five Crusaders pressing in on her from all sides, but before he could reach her he got a flash of danger sense that brought him up short just in time to avoid a painful experience. The female Overlord let out a net of Force Lightning that emanated from her body and expand out. The attack enveloped the Crusaders, surrounding them with the attack and leaving them no defense or escape, as they were slowly cooked from the all encompassing attack. The men fell dead at her feet, bodies seared and smoking from the power technique.

"Been a while since I've seen you use Lightning Shield," the Dark Lord commented as he stepped over the bodies of the fallen Crusaders. Lightning Shield was a high-level Dark Side technique that required a lot of raw power, and in-depth knowledge of how Force energy flowed, but was well worth it if you could learn to master the move.

"I underestimated them," Neliel said by way of reply. She was embaressed that she had had to resort to a Force attack to make up for her inability with a lightsaber, that much was obvious, but she also seemed genuinely angry that she had not anticipated the level of power the men would present.

"We all did. They've changed tactics. They've gone from berserk attacks to coordinated efforts," Spanish turned forward to wait for the next wave. He reached out with his senses, trying to get a feel for this next group, he would have to re-evaluate each one as they neared if his theory was correct, "My guess is that we're encountering they're real plan. Once they tired us out with pointless attacks and cannon fodder they released their real troops, the ones trained to fight like Jedi and Sith."

"At least there's fewer to fight now," Neliel replied.

"Yes but I fear our own forces will be ill-prepared for this change in tactics. Unlike others these were using their numbers wisely, and also unlike others I could feel them using the Force in small ways to influence the fight. The next waves will probably get progressively more powerful and intelligent."

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"Do you know what determines how strong a Jedi is in the Force Sarus?" Kami had asked as the two sat down for lunch in the Garden.

"Midichlorian count," Sarus had answered smartly.

Kami had smiled, "That's part of it yes, but even a powerful Force-Sensitive can be weak in the Force."

"How?"

Kami sighed and looked off, but not at anything, as if he was remembering a vivid memory from his past, "Let me ask you a question to answer your question: How do you get to be a crack shot with a Blaster?"

"A steady hand and a lot of practice," Sarus had answered understanding even before the Jedi could explain. "The Force is the same way, you have to practice with it to be good with it."

"Correct, but there's more to it then that," Kami had answered. The man had patiently waited for the Chiss to come up with the answer on his own.

Sarus had hesitated a moment, unsure of what else there could be. To be good you had to have natural talent and practice, missing either one of those would result in failure, but there was more to it then that. Two people of equal practice and natural skill had to have their fates determined by more then chance, something had to make soldiers with the same regime better or worse then their peers. Then it hit him, "Familiarity," he murmured, "the person who is more familiar can prepare a shot faster, and the faster man will win," he continued with his voice at a normal level.

"You've got it. Talent and practice are worth little if you can't use it when you need it, and when you need it, you seldom have time to think about it," Kami had answered. The Sentinel had finished his lunch now and set the tray aside, "Some discourage Force use because you can begin to rely on it instead of yourself. Never do that Padawan, you are a Force Warrior, you will seldom have a weapon to fall back on when attacked so you need to be able to call on the Force at a moment's notice, and call on it quickly. Use it as often as you can, use it idly, purposefully, unncessarily, any time you can think of a technique to aide your progress do it."

"Won't that weaken me?" Sarus had asked, curious.

"At first, but over time it will strengthen you. The Force in itself doesn't exhaust you, it's the concentration you must exert that exausts you, if you can learn to make that concentration trivial, then the Force will truly be your ally."

Sarus's eyes snapped open and he pushed down, sending his carrier to the ground, and sending himself into the air. It had been a pure instinct, a reaction to danger sense, but as his eyes cleared he could see that the reaction had likely saved both men's lives. Below him looking up stood a Crusader, orange blade glowing in the dim light of dusk. Sarus drew up a protective barrier in the Force at another flash from his danger sense, and he understood why when he felt a powerful Push hit his barrier and break through, slamming him into the ceiling. Without the barrier it would have probably broken several bone.

The Force Warrior turned as he came down, landing on his feet and crouching low just in time to avoid the Crusader's swing. He kicked out, using his hands as a pivot, and landed a kick in the man's gut. The impact causing the man to slide back a few feet, but remain otherwise unharmed. Sarus continued his pivot, spinning himself up and into a defensive stance. The Crusader ahead of the Chiss just sneered and stood up straight, shrugging off the blow.

The casual disregard surprised the Warrior. The kick he had hit the man with was Force-aided and contained much more power then any normal attack, enough power that the man should have been doubled over from the pain. The only explanation he could think of was that he had actually used the Force to cussion the blow, but that was a phenomena he had never seen before in his five years of spying on the group. It was counter to everything he had observed, the times he had seen the men and women of the group fight they had given no thought to their own safety or well-being.

Something must have changed in the last few days. That or they've never had to commit fighters of this level to a fight before, the thought disturbed him. He had never seen the group lose a confrontation so he had no idea what their commanders had planned as a back-up to the flood of bodies. So this could very well have been their plan all along, to send cannon fodder in first and keep the true warriors in reserve and that in all the battles he had seen they had never needed to resort to anything more throwing their pawns at an enemy. It was a frightening thought, but seemed the only logical conclusion to a change in both tactics and fighters so quickly.

The man in front of him lifted his hand with a twisted smile and let loose with stream of Force Lightning. Sarus smiled himself, this was what he had been waiting for. He put out his own hand to meet the Lightning and concentrated on the path the energy would flow through so that when the attack reached him the energy coursed harmlessly over his hand and towards his body. He could feel the power course over and around him like thread around a spool, like energy contained but not stopped. Then he gestured with his other hand and opened a cooridor along it for the energy to flow out of, causing the Lightning to fly back towards the caster. It was an advanced form of Absorbtion capable of capturing energy and redirecting it back out without any loss of energy. The traditional name for the move was Force Conduit, and it was a move few Mastered because it's use was limited to specific circumstances. The only reason he had learned it was as a counter to Dark Side energy since he hardly ever carried a lightsaber.

Normally his attackers were too surprised by the sudden role reversal and ended up killed or injured by their own attack, Sarus had been counting on this man being no different. So he was shocked when the Crusader did the sensible thing and brought his saber up to block the energy. Didn't expect that, Sarus thought to himself. He was already tired from the Lightning attack he had used earlier and his own lightsaber was depleted of energy until they could get it recharged. He had very few combat moves he could use left, most of them telekinetic.

The Crusader ran at him with the aid of the Force, closing the distance between them in the span of a second and bringing his blade down on the Chiss. Sarus slide to the inside of the man's attack and punched out letting loose a powerful Push on top of the hit. This time his attacker's denfenses crumbled under the double hit and he was thrown back into a pillar lining the courtyard along the level. The column crached slightly under the impact, but not enough to actually break, the attack had gotten through his defenses, but a lot of the energy had been dispursed by it before it fell.

The man slide down the pillar and landed on his feet, apparently shaking it off casually, but his gait told another story. The man was now taking a much more cautious appraoch to the Chiss, circling the Warrior rather then just attacking immediately. Sarus was fine with the slow appraoch, he need a minute to compose himself and think of another attack that might catch the Crusader off-balance and finally let him end the fight before more showed up. The pillar was probably loose enough that he could tear it free and hit the man before he could stop it, but it wouldn't be enough to kill the man.

The Force Warrior felt a Push hit his defensive barrier, not a powerful one, but enough that he could throw it back at the Crusader if he chose to do so. But it would do little in the way of damage so he let it dissipate, and waited for a better opportunity to arise. Both men now knew how this fight would be won, not with blaster or lightsabers, but with the Force and time, the Force was on his side, but time most certainly was not. He couldn't wait for the Crusader to make a mistake, he needed to end it before more enemy reenforcements could arrive.

He kept looking for something he could use against the foe, and that's when he finally took notice of Gal3rm, or rather Gal's unconscious form, lying a few feet away. The force of the Push he had generated to save the man's life must have been too much for the Knight's battered body and he fell into unconsciousness. Shame, I could really use a distraction now... Wait, a distraction... It was a long shot but it could work if he acted fast enough.

The Chiss splayed his left hand and called energy to it, building it up slowly so as not to alert his enemy, until a spark of Lightning arced across his palm. Unlike the Lightning attack he had generated earlier to take down the wave of Crusaders, this attack was much more benign, not meant for attacking at all. The energy continued arcing, growing brighter and more dense by the second until the light became all but ignorable and finally drew his opponent's attention.

The Force Warrior acted, lifting his hand and snapping it shut. The light seemed to shrink then spear out between the cracks, then finally just explode in a white flash of light that temporarily blinded anyone not prepared for it. The move had the desired effect and the Crusader clutched at his eyes, trying to block out a light that had already sent his optic nerve into shock. The Chiss ran forward and planted a hard punch in the man's gut that made his foe gasp then opened his palm and generated a Force Push that blew the man three meter through the air.

Not letting his opponent catch his breath, Sarus reached out with the Force, wraping his senses around the Crusader and tightening them to form a Force Grip around the man. The Chiss Gestured sharply to the left, hurtling his enemy into, and this time, thorugh a pillar, keeping the pressure on him to slam his body and the pillar on the ground, and held them there. Dividing his attention he reach out with his right hand to grab the cracked piller, letting the tendrils slip into the crack and tearing it free of it's mounting, and lifting it high in the air.

The Crusader was starting to regain his senses now and Sarus could feel the man struggling to get free of the Force Warrior's grip, something the man would have succeed with given a few more seconds. The Chiss slammed his right hand down, slapping it into his left with a dull thud, in the courtyard the pillar mimicked his action, falling out of the sky with unnatural speed and coming crashing down on the pillar already lying on the ground with the Crusader held on top. The two pieces of duracrete met, the man lying between giving little resistance to the two pieces of duracrete as they hit and crumbled against the impact, collapsing into a pile of debris as a pool of blood started graduating out from the base.

Sarus released his grip and let his shoulders sag from the exhaustion. It was a reletively short fight compared to most, but a very long one for anyone relying solely on the Force. The effort of performing so many high profile and highly complex moves was the equivilant to an hour of vigorous exercise for him, and he could have loved to just sit back and relax for a few minute, but he knew he didn't have the time for that. He could feel Spanish and three other large Force presences off in the distance fighting a large group of Crusader, but even with the strength of the four JvS combatants, the couldn't stop all the troops from getting through, just limit the number.

The Warrior walked back over to Gal's unconscious body and grabbed one of the man's arms, heaving him up and throwing the arm over the Chiss' shoulders, "Time to go buddy," the Knight's head lulled forward, oblivious to everything around him. "We need to get this change in tactic to Iron and Camus before they find out the hard way."

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Peppa marched up the long walkway spanning the length of the bridge with Drist in tow a meter behind. The command hub of the cruiser was in disarray, many seats bent and dented, several consoles unlit and sometimes scortched. The crew itself looked tired and beaten, but still capable and alert. Odds were the men and women here would never be the same, that they would relive the events they had experienced here for many years, but they also looked stronger for it.

Even Jedi can learn from pain, even though they avoid it, she thought to herself. There really was little that made the two sides different, just a set of preferences that they would discard if they needed to do so. They were, at heart, similar, and neither could exist without the other to balance them.

The Marauder closed in on the front where two Jedi stood at ease, one the familiar Sentinel Bazariel, always so calm under pressure, the other Master Rsg, a man she knew little about and sought to avoid at most times. The man was, unsettling. She nodded to the two Jedi first, then to the split screen showing the other Captains, "I would say hello again gentlemen, but my ship's about to explode and I want us to be able to take full advantage of that fact," she leaned forward on a holo-projector showing the six firendly ships, JvS, and a vague red blob that represented the Crusader forces.

"We know nothing of their numbers," Kell replied, his face a blank slate, "we cannot formulate a plan if we have nothing to base our plans on."

The Sith General was busy typing information into the projector's console, "I can help with that," she pressed a button and the image flickered, resolving anew with specific ship classes and numbers. "This is a basic representation of the force we face," she waved to Drist behind her, "my tactical officer can input the specific status, but while he's doing so I'll give you general scenario." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Drist coming forward to the projector and so moved away to join the two Jedi.

"There are eight ships," the image zoomed in to show the ships in question, "Four Imperial-class Two Star Destroyers in orbit around the planet supplying troops and orbital support if necessary. Two MC-80 Mon Calamari star cruisers holding up position between our force and the Dueces. And two Lancer-class frigates holding up position behind and to the outer edge of the Mon Cals. Only one Mon Cal cruiser is damaged, but it is severely damaged."

"So we're out-numbered and ill-suited to attacking," Mazik spoke in irritation.

Peppa nodded, "Normally yes, but I have my cruiser," the view of the holoprojector snapped to show the damaged cruiser, "set on a collision course with the undamaged Mon Cal cruiser. A hyperspace jump should surprise them enough to ensure a collision, and the core overload should take out the other Mon Cal as well," as she spoke a simulation of events took place ultimately resulting in a debris field occupying the spot where the MC-80s were.

Red had his hand holding his chin, "That evens the odds, but we'll still lose a couple ships in a direct assault."

Bazariel stepped forward so that the camera would pick him up more, "I've thought of that, and I think I may have a solution," the Sentinel waved to one of his officers and the projector zoomed back in on the enemy battle group, "You're right, a direct assault would get half of our ships destroyed, but that's because of how they will target us." The view rotated again to show the two Lancers in full detail, "These are anti-starfighter ships, they're equiped with many turbolasers, but few shields. They can't last long in a direct fight with other captial class ships, but with directed fire they could easily overwhelm the shields of lesser ships, like our own frigates."

"Very true," Kell answered, "but knowing that doesn't give us a way out."

"Actually it does," the Sentinel hit a button and the zoom fell back and a Pellaeon-class Star Destroyer appeared, "we simply have only the Balance jump in, in the first wave."

A barrage of complaints came from the Captains' mouths as they expressed their doubts about the plan. Peppa had to admit that she was curious about it as well, but she was an unorthodox tactician, more suited to desperate tactics, the Sentinel was the true General of the two, and he knew how to manage resources better then anyone she had ever seen. Calm, the Jedi held up a hand to silence the complaints, "Just wait for me to finish," he hit another button and simulated turbolaser fire flew between the three ships. "The Balance is a power-house, the one ship here best fitted for direct confrontation. It has powerful shields and a much larger weapons array, it's ideal for taking on anti-starfighter frigates."

"Those Dueces won't just wait for you to take out their back-up," Seto interjected, "they'll begin firing on you immediately."

The Marauder was already weary from her own battle with the Crusaders, and annoyed with the interruptions of the men, and so couldn't hold back her temper any longer. "I don't think you realize exactly how resilient our ships are," the Sith General came forward again nearer the camera to make herself seem more imposing, it was the only way they would shut up and listen to her, "the Power managed to survive a fighting exit from Dantooine, taking out three Star Destroyers, and then came back to JvS and with almost no repair time managed to take out two Mon Cals and an Interdictor, and she will still take out two more Mon Cals before she dies."

The Captains leaned away from the screen, a subconscious reaction to deal with a strong-willed person, and she saw her opportunity to press the point home. She leaned forward farther into the lens, "These ships can hold together much longer then any you have seen. Even without shields they can give as good as they get. The Balance will take a hammering, but as long as you don't turn and run it'll be fine."

Bazariel put his hand on her shoulder, a physical gesture saying he wanted her to let up and let him take over for now. To anyone else it would have looked like a silent, but gentle repremand for losing her temper, but in the Force she could also sense a bit of gratitude from the Sentinel for speaking up. She had played her part, being the bad Sith to threaten the Jedi so that Bazariel could remain the calm collected one. She didn't mine it, if it was the only way to save the Academy she had no problem resorting to any role.

"My colleague is passionate, but not wrong," the Sentinel spoke in a level voice. "My ship will be able to take out both Lancers without much trouble," He hit another button on the console and the two enemy frigates dissappeared, replaced by a pair of Ardents. "Once the two frigates are removed we'll be able to bring in Seto's and Anshin's ships," the simulation continued and the two ships swooped to either side, giving a powerful broad side to the Dueces and dividing their attention, "the move should confuse the Crusaders momentarily, they won't fire on the Ardents at first and that'll give them a few vital seconds of firepower before they start taking hits."

The two frigates began blinking on the projector and a second latter two MC-90s entered the simulation, directly between the two Ardents and the Dueces, "The DAJ cruisers will enter the scene next, their shields will be able to provide a respite for the two frigates until their shields can be repaired, meanwhile the cruisers will continue firing." The projector continued demonstrating for a long while, until the Mon Cals began blinking red, then suddenly they disappeared along with two of the Destroyers, "Continued fire, if concentrated, will bring down two of the Dueces alone, but in order to achieve this the two ships will have to exit the battle and not re-enter. They'll have taken to many hits by then, and more would result in serious damage to their systems."

A cloud of tiny dots spilled from the JvS cruiser and the two Ardents opened fire again, "Our starfighters will deploy and drive at one of the holes made by the destruction of the enemy ship, and clear a path," a third frigate entered into the picture, this one much closer to the planet, "Red's ship will drop out of hyperspace and move through this hole to land on the ground and dispatch a couple dozen Special Forces reinforcements to aid the Academy and provide a measure of air-support to our troops."

The Balance was now rapidly flashing red, a sign that the ship's shields had failed and it was now taking direct hull damage, but yet another enemy Duece disappeared from the equation at the same time, "By this time the Balance will be almost useless as a fighting force and will withdraw to a safe distance to effect repairs, as will the two Ardents." The display shifted showing only one Star Destroyer and a cloud of starfighters, then a second later two more cloud of fighters appeared from the right and left sides, "The DAJ fighter complement will then jump in and combine with the JvS fighters to deal a fatal blow to the final Duece."

The final ship disappeared from the display and a second later the entire projector shut down. Peppa had to admit that she was impressed. The Sentinel had managed to devise a plan with little loss of forces, but still retain a timely entrance of the forces so that the ground battle would have resources availble without much longer of a wait. It was something that managed to surprise her, and yet not shock her. The man was truly a brilliant General, a man that could anticipate both plans and counter plans and somehow still come out on top. She knew she was good at her job, but the man beside her was a legend in the making, and she couldn't help but smile at that.

The two Generals stood silently awaiting a suggestion, revision, or even out-right rejection of the plan, by their allies. The men had complained enough before this, and surely they would continue to do so, but to the Marauder's surpise no one did. No one even spoke for the longest time, and Peppa feared the plan might not work because the Captain's were to stunned or ashamed to comment before the Power went along it's preset course.

But after a few moments of silence someone finally spoke, the Captain Ashin, "We better get to it then."

‘I wonder how Peppa is doing up there.’ said Lay, as he gazed to the sky, watching the distant flashes of explosions and turbolasers being fired in the heated battle above.

‘if the reports we were getting from over Dantooine is any indication,’ Champ hesitated and looked at Layfon ‘I would rather be here where I can influence my own fate’

‘I am with you,’ Lay said grimly ‘for now any way’

Champ laughed, a course guttural sound that made the surrounding death and destruction even more surreal. ‘I think when this is done,’ Champ said wiping the tears from his eyes. ‘I will have to buy you a Taurisian Ale and we will talk about getting your head straight’

‘Get my head straight?’ Layfon said surprised, ‘you are the one that fights like a Sith. You are in the wrong faction my friend.’

‘WOAH WOAH…’ Dray said gesturing with his deactivated saber ‘we have some business to attend to…’

The men looked toward the breach in the wall as three crusaders stepped through the breach.

‘Oh come on,’ Layfon said and launched a force push at the men with such force it distorted view as though you were looking through a mirage, one of the men raised a hand and the wave impacted the force shield he put up and the wave broke and washed around them.

Champ took a step back and looked at Fonfon ‘are you tired or something?’ Champ asked and launched a force wave at the men. Once again, one of them deflected the wave and all three started walking forward.

‘Welllll, you are both a bit tired I think.’ Dray said.

‘No,’ Champ said, ‘these are not the same. The canon fodder has past. These are a step higher. We may have passed a couple of skill levels and not noticed but these are a bit better. I think we have cut our way to a challenge’

The three men ignited their sabers and attacked Champ in a coordinated manner and all three JvS attacked and surrounded the three pressing them until they were back to back the crusaders sabers bounced off of each other and created an opening I which all three were cut down.

‘Well,’ Said Dray

‘Yeah’ Said Champ.

‘there’s more’ Layfon pointed out. Dray and Champ turned to see five more crusaders file in through the breach.

Champ, Layfon and Dray held their sabers like automatons and held their ground as several more crusaders stepped through the breach. Resting in the force to rejuvenate their tired muscles in preparation for what was sure to be a much harder fight.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

On the Chikita, Thing surveyed the battle field in his mind’s eye, the map of the JvS enclave stretching out in front of him like a holo projection. Friendly forces displayed in blue and enemy forces in varying shades of red and yellow. There was currently a lul in the fighting as the enemy forces regrouped. Thing was taking advantage of the lul to pour support and help refresh the jedi and sith that were fighting. At the fringe of his perception he saw a force approaching. They showed up darker red than any forces before. Thing stretched out his mind and touched one of them and was instantly assaulted by the being trying to penetrate his mind to drive him crazy. Thing pulled back and tried to break contact with the being but the pursuit was relentless. Barriers put up by thing were torn down or by passed. Then suddenly the being was gone.

Shaken, Thing took a shaky breath and centered himself once again and went back to the task at hand. Once again he stretched his consciousness and went about the business of supporting the jedi and sith protecting the JvS Enclave.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The Paladin looked over his scope in the direction of the crusader he had just shot. He squinted through his scope again and watched as the body twitched in death as a wisp of smoke rose from the hold the blaster left in the side of his head. He had just stopped there in mid-stride and put a hand to his head. The paladin had watched for a moment then shot him through his hand and… head. The Paladin checked the range again and made note in his log. 1500 meters was nothing to sneeze at. He chuckled a bit and enjoyed the shot again before looking for more targets. There were quite a few but he had to be careful on the shots he took. These new crusaders were different than the ones before. He had exhausted three power packs in the initial wave. Now these guys were much more in tune with the force and shots like the one he just took were going to be rare.

Ptolemy and Aragorn worked to clear an area so they could fight more effectively. The sabers were stacked to the side in case there was a need for them. Aragorn checked the charge on the power cell in the base of his light saber.

‘I have another hour on this cell’ Aragorn said as he replaced the clip that held the cell in the saber, ‘I have a spare but I think my arms will give out before the power cell does’

‘I believe that this will be decided before either of those happens’ Ptolemy said as he moved another corpse out of the way. ‘I think we have run out of time son’

Ptolemy and Aragorn turned toward the Jedi entrance as four Crusaders stepped through. Ptolemy clapped his hands and crates on either side of the door slammed together as the crusaders jumped. The crates caught one of the crusaders crushing him from the waist down. The other three landed from their jump and continued toward the pair of Jedi.

‘These are of a higher caliber than the ones we encountered before.’ Ptolemy said ‘be mindful and do not get over confident.’

Aragorn nodded and ignited his light saber. The Jedi began to advance cautiously as one of the crusaders hung back and let the other three crusaders advance. Ptolemy put up a force shield around him self and stepped in front of Aragorn as a force wave hit his shield. The wave impacted the shield and broke around the two Jedi. Ptolemy launched his own wave concentrating on shaping the leading edge of the wave into an edge so the force wave resembled the edge of a weapon. The wave impacted one of the crusaders and threw him back into the crusader that lagged behind. The crusader brought his saber up to bisect the man but the impact of the body still knocked the crusader off balance. Ptolemy sidestepped to the left and Aragorn stepped to the right and brought his saber up catching a crusader by surprise, cutting up through the man’s chest. The crusader fell backwards his saber dropping from his lifeless hand. Aragorn stretched out his left hand and the saber flew to his hand before hit the ground. Aragorn stood facing the two remaining Crusaders his saber in his right hand glowing white the one in his left hand glowing crimson. Aragorn assumed a Jar’kai stance and flourished the two blades, taunting the crusader.

The crusader took the bait and attacked Aragorn in a classic Vaapad style. Aragorn maintained the Jar’kai form and was able to block everything the crusader launched and, in fairly short order there were small cuts al over the crusader. Ptolemy launched a push at the crusader that stayed back from the fight, trying to keep him from interfering. The man curled his arms around his midsection like he was carrying a ball and, after a second stretched his arms out as if he were throwing a ball at Aragorn. Ptolemy’s staff snapped out and the attack was deflected into the far wall of the hangar. Aragorn found an opening in the defensive pattern and was able to drag the tip of his saber across the man’s chest, cutting flesh and bone, stilling the man’s heart for ever.

Ptolemy moved between Aragorn and the force user and launched his own attack at the crusader trying to jerk his feet out from under him. The crusader jumped to avoid the attack and launched a force push at Aragorn. The push hit Aragorn as he turned to face the crusader. With no defense up the full force of the push hit, knocking Aragorn backwards toward the Chikita unconscious. The crusader’s leap took him closer to the Dawn Treader and the defenses that had helped in the first part of the battle opened up. The crusader ignited his light saber and deflected the bolts at Ptolemy who caught them on his staff. The Crusader backed away from the ship and faced Ptolemy, throwing force lightning. Ptolemy held his staff across his body and caught the lightning on it. The staff became incandescent and began to glow with the power of the force contained in it the force crackled around the two men as they struggled for dominance, each waiting for the other to flinch. Finally Ptolemy spun his staff, lightning flying out the ends and came to rest with it pointing at the crusader, he released the pent up energy in a blast of pure force energy. The crusader crossed his arms in front of him as the blast hit him full on, the impact sent the crusader flying across the hangar where he flipped around and landed on his feet and one hand sliding backward across the duracrete. The man stood, a bit winded and looked at Ptolemy.

Ptolemy leaned heavily on his staff and watched as the man stood and advanced toward him. Ptolemy closed his eyes and reached out toward where they had put the weapons of those that had already fallen. A dozen of the lightsabers rose from the pile and ignited as they were launched at the crusader. The man ignited his own blade and deflected the missiles as they came in. Ptolemy grabbed more of the blades and launched them again and again. Through the force, Ptolemy picked up the debris from the shattered light sabers behind the crusader and pelted him with them from behind. The crusader had to use all of his focus to deflect and destroy the blades as they flew toward him. Ptolemy struck and launched a force wave that knocked the man against the wall. The man hit the wall with a thud and whoosh of the air being knocked from his lungs and his lightsaber flew from his hand. Using the force Ptolemy tried to hold him there. Through a great force of will the crusader caught his breath and started to break free gathering force for an attack. Ptolemy launched a saber at him and the blade struck him in the side. The crusader screamed with fury and launched a force wave at Ptolemy.

Feeling stronger Ptolemy was able to bat aside the wave and he hurled a chunk of duracrete about the size of a shipping crate at the crusader and crushed his legs. Ptolemy then released the man and took some delight in hearing the sound of his ruined legs hitting the floor. The crusader reached toward his lightsaber as Ptolemy snapped his neck with the force. With the fight over Ptolemy’s strength left him, he sensed Thing still meditating so he knew the battle was not over and he drew strength from that knowledge and turned and hobbled back to his son.

Aragorn lay stretched out next to the Chiquita boarding ramp his left leg lying at an unnatural angle. Ptolemy Grabbed the knight’s foot and straightened the leg and, using the force, set the leg, he then grabbed his staff and twisted it in the middle and separated the two ends and lashed one to Aragorn’s leg as a splint. Either way Aragorn was out of the fight.

//sorry it took me forever to get this up…

“Are you ready!” Red shouted. The party of 5, Reds Prime flock, his elite squad. Were ganged up a few kilometers away from the JvS academy, well out of the way of the crusaders. On a rooftop they were gearing up for war.

“HELL YEA!” Talac, Jester, Pyro, and drake yelled back. Out of hearing from everybody. All in straight ninja uniform. Black from the head to toe. Ready for war.

“THEN LETS DO THIS!” Red commanded back. They all pulled out there grappling hooks and found a prime tree. Just to the side of the academy. They mapped out what there path of travel was and made sure that nobody would be able to see them move.

Then at once 5 grapples shot out at the middle of a tree. All scored direct hits in the trunk of the tree.
They easily slipped down and retracted there grapples then observed the situation. All pressed against the tree and noticed, Crusaders were swarming in threw the main entrance, which looked like it was blasted to pieces, they cleared out a space threw the top of the rubble and were jumping into the academy.

“That looks like its certainly hopeless and no end in sight…” Pyro was hoping this wouldn’t be a suicide mission.

“Don’t worry, once Anshin and Seto work there magic with the other ships in the sky they will stop pouring in. Our mission is to keep as many people in the academy alive, and not to be noticed. Were there reinforcements but from what Peppa and Baz told me, there might not be that many more alive.” Red assured.

“Ok, so were not getting into the front, what if w-” Talac was cut off by jester who came up with a idea.

“What if we scale the roofs and go in by jumping into the courtyard.” Jester explained.

“I’m loving it. Lets do it.” Red ordered. “And no more talking once were on the roof, we do it all by signal.”

They all pulled out there grapples once again and shot at the edge of the roof, all linked perfectly.

“Here we go.” Red whispered as they all shot up. It was mere seconds until they all were on the roof. They crawled quietly and perfectly on there feet. No sound was made, as they crept there way to the center.

“Hmm, courtyard number covered in blood, or courtyard covered in more blood?” Jester asked. “More blood, I see fighting.” He answered his own question. They all took off after the inner courtyard which once was beautiful with green wildlife. Now was dying and turned crimson , blood dripping off the once beautiful gardens.

“Approach is scale down let wall, in heat of battle, slit throats off every straggler you see. If they cross your path there dead. Understand.” Red issued. “Yes sir.” the party responded. They all quickly scaled down the wall on the right. Landing without a noise. Two Jedi were back to back with 7 crusaders surrounding them. Both Jedi were in a soreso form blocking all there strikes parrying whenever possible.

Red flashed a three at drake and jester and a two at Pyro and Talac. Then did a countdown.

Three, Drake and Jester started to crawl to the right staying in the bloody undergrowth out of sight.

Two, Pyro and Talac swung around left moving to the side, Talac unsheathed his knife, with the emerald in the hilt.

One, He sprinted forward in the undergrowth and everybody made there move.

They all jumped on the back of the person in front of them, slitting there throat before they knew what hit them. The last two were killed by red, who unsheathed his sword and spun in a circle, first decapitating the crusader on the right then hitting the crusader on his left down the skull hitting his brain dropping him before he could react.

The two Jedi were clueless as to what just happened. There saviors came in randomly and then disappeared, clearly they were friendly, but clearly they didn’t want to be seen yet.

Another hand motion from red this time a arrow to the right and a fist, the squad moved into a hallway on the right and pressed against the wall, they observed very quickly that crusaders where everywhere and they weren’t peeling themselves off the walls anytime soon. They were in a long narrow hallway and crusaders where as far as they could see coming from the right, and battling way down on the left. Red quickly saw a side room and motioned for the squad to group there, They all silently flipped over the crusaders without making a sound and were invisible due to the lack of light and dark clothing.

Once in the side room Red split up the group and quickly motioned the layout and ordered them to split into to squads, red and Pyro would take the right path, Talac, Jester and Drake would take the left. They all had memorized the layout of the academy while on there ship, and they new the plan, Right when they were about to slip out the door Talac saw a opportunity and unsheathed his knife and motioned for the rest to stay in the room, and he slipped out across the left wall and down a turn where he saw three crusaders go down to clear of any life. He trailed them perfectly until they were out of sight and in a small side room, clearly a dorm or something. First he made sure that nobody had followed the three and they were alone, then instantly he lashed out at the first crusaders neck slitting his throat, and the first died without a noise the other two crusaders swung out at him with lightning speed, right before they were about to impale his chest and split him into a perfect half he ducked under the crusader to his left swing and pulled onto his arm while swinging around his body forcing him to follow threw with his swing into the other crusaders head. Then he quickly dispatched the third without a sound, in less than 4 seconds three crusaders were dead and nobody noticed.

Talac quickly slipped back into the room and they separated into there respective groups, Red and Pyro used to force to aid there silent sprint along the wall and made it to the council chamber in no time, seeing it was already deserted expect for one meditating knight they slipped out threw the other side and made for the hanger, sensing a great need there.

Talac, Jester and drake didn’t have it so easy, they had to slip back threw the bloody courtyard that overlooked the council chamber, Talac flashed Red a signal motioning to go ahead. The trio quickly sprinted threw the clear courtyard and made for the hanger, following Reds motion. Once in the parallel corridor to what they were at just seconds ago they made there decent along the wall, there was little action on this side, seeing that it was sealed off, there was still some fighting but nothing that required them. They used the force to aid them in a front flip over a small skirmish and cleared it easily and silently. Then sprinted down to the hanger. Talac looked over his shoulder and saw the two Jedi do a kata at the same time and vanquish the lone crusader that dared to challenge them, the two turned to face the next pair. Talac was glad that they were holding and that they could fulfill there mission without having to blow cover. They made it to the hanger and saw Red and Pyro perched on a lip of the right wall. They motioned to intercept as they saw a lone force warrior fending off wave after wave of crusaders, he looked exhausted and as a squad of twenty crusaders jumped in and it looked like both the Jedi were doomed to die. They all flipped out and landed in the middle and pulled out there weapon.

Talac pulled out his knife with his right hand and his sword with his left, he took the first kill by slitting the completely unsuspecting crusader with his knife and then blocked another two swings with his sword and was forced onto the defense, he was blocking every strike he could and ducking the ones he couldn’t, he knew offense was hopeless at the second, these were way better fighters than what the reports said and what they had fought previously.
Pyro jumped square in the middle of four crusaders and used a force blast in all directions slamming them into the walls of the hanger. Killing one and knocking another cold, the other two managed to grab the wall and jump off it back at him, who pulled out his sword and cleaved them both into two as they went in for the kill with there sabers.

Jester, being the wise guy he is, slid under two crusaders and popped up as he slit a thirds throat then went back to sliding around on the floor with the aid of the force, he finally after repeating this process for 3 kills jumped and roundhoused a crusader dead in the chest as he pulled out his sword and blocked a strike to the back that would’ve killed him. Then he spun and put the sword flat against the neck, he could feel the crusader pull trying to get it close enough to him to kill, Jester just smiled as he spun and knocked the crusaders saber aside and decapitated him. He charged the next and clashed with the crusader.

Red jumped square into five of them as he pulled out his two long swords and did a spin, slicing two of them, the others were fast enough to step out of range, one of them leapt back in and did a twirl in the air as he swung wide at Red, who just locked the sword with his left hand and did a back flip while kicking him in the chest and following threw with his right sword which sliced the body into two as it flew up into the air. He charged the other two holding his swords loosely at his side, the first swung quickly with his saber as red just jumped and did a spin over the attack and sliced the crusaders chest. Then went to cross his sword across the final crusaders body, but the crusader simply blocked and knocked the sword out of Reds hand and sent it flying across the room. Red gripped his sword with both hands and waited for his opponent to slash out at him.

Drake landed in the middle of the final five, and used his knife to quickly slit the throat of the first, then he sheathed his knife and pulled out his long sword, and parried the first strike crossing across the crusaders chest, then he turned to face the other three as a boulder killed them instantly. Clearly thrown by the force warrior.

Aragorn Groaned and winced as he sat up. ‘What happened?’ he looked around

‘I got the last one’ Ptolemy said wearily ‘we are safe for the moment, you, how ever, need to stay still. Your leg is broken and will need a trip to the med bay.’

‘What about Thing?’ Aragorn asked

‘Here’ thing answered through the force

‘He has not moved’ Ptolemy Chuckled ‘and is safe for the moment.’

‘more on the way’ Thing said through the force again ‘and something else, just a shadow, Like if you or Saurus were trying to cloak, not quite as well as you but good enough to get by the crusaders,’

Ptolemy grabbed Aragorn’s arm and helped him up and took him back into the Chikita.

‘NO!’ Aragorn said struggling to stand on his own. ‘I need to be out there to back you up. I can still use the force’

‘Son, you are the last line’ Ptolemy said, looking Aragorn in the eyes ‘in this choke point you have a chance to hold till we get help, do not let them by you. Thing is counting on it’

‘What of you?’ Aragorn asked, tears blinding him, not wanting to hear the answer, ‘there is so much time to make up for.’

Ptolemy looked at Aragorn and gave him a mischievous grin. ‘You be careful where you swing that thing’ he said indicating Aragorn’s lightsaber ‘I may be running next time you see me ’ Ptolemy patted Aragorn on the side of his neck with his hand, ‘and hang on to the rest of my staff. I will need it after this!’

Ptolemy turned and limped down the ramp and looked toward the doors ‘Thing, how many are coming?’

A map sprang to life in Ptolemy’s mind and there were a several dozen strong yellow and red blotches advancing toward the hangar. Further away there were several darker blotches that seemed to fade in and out of existence. Ptolemy turned his attention to the group rushing down the corridor as the group approached a set of columns He reached out and grabbed one of them with the force and pulled as hard as he could. The column crumbled and fell across the corridor crushing 4 – 5 of the crusaders just before they reached the entrance to the hangar. Ptolemy stood and popped the handle on the half of his staff he had left so it was in the form of a Shoto and gripped it in his left hand. In his right hand he held a light saber that he had made and adjustment to he ignited it exposing a shorter thinner lightsaber blade less than a meter long. Ptolemy spun the staff in his left hand on the handle as the crusaders rushed through the entrance.

Ptolemy jabbed the staff in his left hand at the crusaders and formed a force wav into a large flat surface and shoved it at the crusaders. The first few crusaders ran headlong in to the force wall and were stopped in their tracks and those behind cut through them and burst through the weakening wall. Ptolemy punched at a crusader still 30 feet from him using a technique called force fighting and connected with the mans jaw, shattering it and forcing bone from his ruined face in to his brain like shrapnel killing him instantly. Another jab with his right hand threw another crusader staggering back to be cut down by his comrades’ intent on killing the Jedi. One more strike and they were on him.

A crusader came down over hand with his saber which Ptolemy caught on his shoto and gutted the man with his shortened saber. With a force push Ptolemy shoved the corpse in to another trying to get to a place to strike. Ptolemy ducked under a slash and jabed out in different directions saber through a chest and his staff breaking ribs. Ptolemy leapt up and back aided by the force and pushed the crusaders back. He came down heavily and his bad leg failed him, and once again, he was fighting for his life spinning the Shofa blocking striking with the shortened saber Ptolemy backed toward the Chikita. Suddenly there was a man in black metal blades flashing in the light. The face of crusader in front of Ptolemy froze in a snarl and his body fell one way and his head fell the other. Ptolemy blocked a saber cut aimed at his head and lunged with his saber and cut across the crusader’s chest. After that, Ptolemy was reduced to a spectator as the men in black seemed to be every where. The leader of the group flipped into the middle of a group of about five crusaders and killed two of them. Ptolemy picked up a piece of duracrete with the force and used it to crush the last three crusaders against the Just my Luck.

Sounds of battle in the Chikita made Ptolemy turn and run toward the ship and up the ramp in the middle of the corridor Aragorn was painfully giving up space to a crusader that had slipped past the main fight out side. Aragorn was using a soresou style but was unable to move the way he was used to. The crusader was pushing hard but was still unable to get past Aragorn’s defenses. Ptolemy came up behind the crusader and brought his shoto down on the crusader’s head and Aragorn knocked the saber from his hand the brought his own down and across the crusaders chest. Aragorn and Ptolemy looked at each other.

‘I think that’s it for now.’ Ptolemy said ‘and we have reinforcements’

‘That’s good,’ Aragorn sighed ‘we need the help, who did they send?’

‘I have no idea,’ Ptolemy answered ‘but they were fighting the crusaders. Come on, lets see.’

Ptolemy grabbed Aragorn’s arm and placed it around his shoulders and the two walked to the bottom of the ramp.

‘Hello’ said the leader of the group.

‘I am afraid introductions will have to wait’ Ptolemy said and gestured toward the entrance to the Hanger.

The men turned and saw a Twi’lek walk into the hangar. He was over two meters tall and glistening red skinned, his Lekku twined around his neck.

‘You have fought well Jedi,’ the leader told Ptolemy ‘We will take care of this.’ The five men dressed in black from head to toe drew a myriad of weapons and slowly advanced toward the crusader.

Sarus could feel the battle drawing closer now, or rather he could feel himself drawing closer to where the battle was. The Force Warrior had been carrying Gal for ten minutes and hadn't run into any other Crusaders in that time, but the progress was still slow given the poor state of his own body and the added weight of an unconscious ally. Guess I can't complain too much, he thought to himself, Spanish is keeping Crusaders off my back and I can still walk. All things considered, I'm coming out ahead.

A groan issued from his cargo and he glanced over to see the Knight opening his eyes slowly. The Chiss slowed to s stop and held his fellow Warrior up as the man got his bearings and got his feet under him, "Uh, what happened?"

Sarus saw no reason to mention the little skirmish he had had with a stray Crusader, it would only make the man paranoid about it happening again, and there was plenty to worry about in front of them without having to look over your back too. "I got startled and accidentally knocked you out," the Chiss replied, able to run with a false story smoothly after years of undercover work, "knee-jerk reaction. Sorry."

Gal3rm was either too tired or naive to question him further, and just nodded acceptance, "Just remind me to never to carry you anywhere again."

The Shadow chuckled, "You got it. Can you walk?"

Before the Knight could even answer he was interrupted as the ceiling directly behind them suddenly caved in, piling debris in the middle of the hall and sending up clouds of dust all around. It shocked the two Warriors, there had been no warning that the duracrete would crumble, and no sign of any damage to this area of the Temple at all. It was as if a weight had suddenly been heaved upon the structure it had never been meant to bear. But for all the fright of the sudden event, it didn't compare at all to the sudden feeling Sarus was experiencing.

As a Jedi he knew what the feeling meant, it was a feeling he had had many times before, one of danger, but unlike any he had ever experienced before. No, not quite, I have had this feeling before, just once, not so long ago, he knew what it was, his instincts and experience were all telling him the same thing, but his mind refused to believe it.

From the dust rose a figure. An imposing figure, larger then most physically, and terrifyingly large in the Force. A being of immense dark power, a black vacuum sucking in all the energy around himself, and corrupting it at a deep, fundamental level. The being had a large head, with many long tendrils running from the skull down the back to its pelvis. Pale, sickly green skill covered the parts of its body no already covered in a matte black suit. Large black eyes finished the aesthetics and gave an uncomfortable comparison to the black void it came across as in the Force. It was, or once had been a Nautolan, but now it was twisted by a power few could attain, and none could survive.

No, the being standing before him was no longer a Nautolan, he was a Destroyer, in every sense of the word.

Gal3rm was frozen in place beside him, starring at the sentient as if looking at the end of the Universe as he knew it, and for all Sarus knew, he could have been. "That's a Sith Destroyer I take it?" The Force Warrior asked, eyes still riveted.

The Chiss nodded, "I'm afraid so."

"Right," the man gulped, "has anyone ever beaten one of these before?"

The Shadow shrugged, "Two."

"And you were one of those?"

"Nope."

"I was really hoping you would answer that differently," Gal responded, dropping into a defensive stance. "Well how hard can it be?"

The Nautolan stood and turned to the two Jedi, then let loose with a Force Bellow so load it seemed to shake the very ground the two were standing on. The only thing keeping the two grounded, a hastily erected Force Barrier that had held by less the the Warriors would have liked. The Destroyer stood back tall and unhitched a pair of hilts from his belt. A pair of crimson blades sprung to life to either side of the Crusader, twirling a complex pattern through the air before finally settling into a classic Jar'kai stance, one blade low, the other high, both horizontal.

"Hard," Sarus answered after a moment.

------------------------------------

Spanish spun low and struck, slicing his last foe through the pelvis, and watching as the two half fell away from each other. He stood and shut down his saber, surveying the battlefield before him. It wasn't pretty, many Crusaders lay dead in various degrees of violence ranging from neat cuts and snapped necks, to seared flesh and ground flesh. It would be a startling site for any younglings to observe, even dark siders, but it was a battle, and you seldom got to choose how you would kill in the heat of conflict. The only thing that truly decided how an opponent would die was opportunity, and opportunity presented in many ways for a Sith.

The Dark Lord glanced over at Neliel, the Overlord was extracting her saber from a Crusader's torso with more force then was necessary. She had been forced to use more Force power then she normally would in a fight, and that always left her in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

Spanish shut his own lightsaber off and clipped it to his belt as Behalok and Servilous approached. Beh was missing a sleeve and had a few scorch marks along the front of his tunic, the Sith was winded from his efforts, but was smiling nonetheless. Serv was exactly how he had been when the battle had begun, not a scratch in sight, and no hair out of place. Then again, the man never seemed to be phased by anything these days.

"I think we got them all," Behalok said after a moment of silence.

Neliel scoffed, and rested the hilt of her still active blade on her shoulder, "Or we might have just scared them off."

"No, it's over," Servilous put his hands in the folds of his robes, "I can sense only a few remaining fighters in the Force, most of them our own members or allies."

Spanish's brow furrowed, "Something's not right. It makes no sense for them to end so quietly. All previous precedents ended with a massive surge of numbers of forces by the Crusaders."

"True," Serv replied, "but then again we have no precedents for a battle in which the Crusaders didn't win. This may be how they do things, but no one has lasted long enough to find out."

Spanish shook his head, "No. I would believe it if they had continued with that fodder technique the entire time, but they changed tactics, threw good fighters at us to throw us off."

"Doesn't really matter if it doesn't sits well with you, Frenchie," Nel retorted, annoyed, "it won't change what happens."

The Dark Lord scowled at the inappropriate nick name, but said nothing to avoid the taunts that would follow from Behalok and Servilous who were already trying to hide their grins. Had it been a few years ago he would have attacked anyone for disrespecting him and challenging his authority, but now he knew better. Ignoring the name would do far more then asserting his authority yet again, I've been hanging around Iron too long.

"Nel, Beh," Spanish said nodding to each Overlord, "head back to the Sith portion of the Temple and make sure we don't have any stragglers."

Neliel lifted a brow, "And what will you and Servy be doing?"

As if on cue a Crusader burst through the far wall and roared. Dark energy swirled around the sentient, a Weequay, invading every crack in the beings skin, and emanating a sour feeling in the Force. Spanish glanced over his back at the Destroyer, then back at the two Overlords, "We'll be kicking that thing's ass while I lecture Servy about doubting me."

"You mean saying 'I told you so!' " Behalok commented.

The Dark Lord smiled and nodded, "Exactly."

----------------------------------

A being landed. A powerful being, strong both physically an in the Force. A being unnaturally powerful and warped by the dark side of the Force. What had once been a Rattakai was now nothing more then a house for destructive power, given direction by a leader beyond sanity, and driven by an instinct beyond all reason. He landed as if out of no where, a sudden entrance with all the inexplicitness as his power, the impact in the physical world as strong as his impact in the Force. Truly the being would inspire fear in anyone near.... well almost anyone.

"Oh give me a break already," Dray said, deflated.

"Give you a break?" Lay asked with a grin.

"Sure," Champ replied, "break him off a piece of that kit-kat bar."

The Destroyer in front of the three combatants roared and swung down heavily with his blade in a sweep that would have easily cut lesser men in two pieces. Luckily these were not lesser men, and the Crusader's blade was caught and held by a single purple lightsaber, held in a two-handed grip by Champion.

"I don't think he likes our humor boys," the Battle Master commented a moment before thrusting up to push his attacker back.

"It's just your delivery, Champ," Layfon said as he rushed forward and somersaulted over the Crusader. He performed a leg sweep to get the man off his feet, then Force Pushed, tossing the disoriented Destroyer into and through a pillar, "You really do need to work on it."

Champ shrugged, "What can I say? I'm tired from having to chop so many people in half."

Dray came up behind the two men and gave them both a smack on the back of the head, "I like humor as much as the next man, but you guys need to get serious now." The two men looked at the Knight confused for a moment, then looked back at where Lay had thrown the Crusader to see the man standing up from the attack, "Did you really think it would be that easy?"

Layfon shrugged and reignited his lightsaber, "Worth a try." Without another word the Sith ran forward and engaged the Destroyer, swinging in a seemingly random pattern that was in fact, designed to throw the opponent off-balance and tire him.

Dray began running forward to join the Sith'Ari, but was stopped by a hand across his chest. Champion stepped forward to block the Knight's path, "Hang back this time, Dray. If this Destroyer is indeed like the one on DAJ, then Lay and I will need to go all out against it. The two of us, despite being rivals, have practiced together many times, we each know how the other fights and can complement each other." The Battle Master was looking at the fight, but his mind was elsewhere, in a time and place of his past for a few brief moments, "I don't enjoy saying this, but you'd only get in the way."

Dray pushed the hand aside and stood tall, "You can't win without me. You know that, Lay knows that. So why are you side-lining me now?"

Champion's features softened for a moment, "You're right. I do know that we need you to win, but I also now that if you fight with us now, you will die." The Battle Master put his hand on the Knight's shoulder, "Trust me, there is a time and place in which you will be needed, but now is not that time."

"And when is that time?"

Champ let go of Dray's shoulder and took a few steps back, "You will know when the time is right." The Jedi turned and Force Leapt into the fray, leaving his former pupil behind, but knowing that it was the right call.

The Jedi ignited his lightsaber as he fell into the battle and immediately attacked, sweeping diagonally right and left at the Destroyer, missing the man, but also pushing him back with each near miss, then suddenly stopped and shot a Force Push at the Crusader. The attack didn't penetrate, but it distracted his foe long enough that the man didn't sense Layfon coming in behind until it was too late.

The Sith'Ari dashed forward with the aid of the Force, and lunged at the Crusader, missing his target, but still scoring a shallow cut on the man's torso as the Destroyer ducked right. Layfon spun and planted a kick in the man's side as he was fleeing, the pain making the Crusader loose control and bump into another of the many pillars filling the Garden's outer edge.

Champion continued the attack, igniting his second lightsaber and bringing both in horizontally as he closed on the Crusader, the man barely having enough time ducked the attack before it hit. The Destroyer brought his own lightsaber around and stabbed up at his attacker, but met nothing but air as the Battle Master flipped around the pillar he had just cut, and kicked a slab of the duracrete out with the aid of the Force, the fragment slamming into the Destroyer's back and flipping him forward a few meters where he landed face up.

The man had only a moment before he was dodging yet another attack, this time a staff thrown at the Crusader to bisect his torso. The Destroyer rolled back and up to standing, bringing his lightsaber around as he did so to block Layfon's follow up attack, an overhead strike that would have ended the fight. Thinking on his feet the Sith backed off, and drew his other single hilt and stabbed again, this time getting rewarded with a long gash across the man's thigh as he tried to roll out of the way a moment too late. The Sith'Ari pressed the attack, swinging back and forth across, trying to catch the Crusader in a fatal mistake with the man's leg wounded, but the injury seemed to be impairing little if at all. Layfon eased off the attack, letting the Crusader get in a counter, then jumped back a moment before the attack would have landed.

The Destroyer ducked right then left as two lightsabers came whizzing by, then turned and met Champ's blade with his own, sparks colliding as the two sources of energy impacted with bone-jarring force. A force the Battle Master redirected, allowing the momentum to continue under the Crusader's saber, and bringing the second half of the staff up under the man's guard. The Destroyer brought his blade down to block the second attack and was partially successful, managing to stop the lightsaber from cutting through hi leg, but still getting a nasty cut on the inside of his thigh. Champ stepped, then jumped back and hurled his staff at the off-balance man.

The Destroyer tried to duck the attack, tried to dive out of the way before the lightsaber could contact him, but with the injuries to his legs, and the coordinated effort of the attack, was finally caught off-guard. The man let out an inarticulate roared as the whirling blade cut through his left arm halfway up the bicep, and embedded itself in the wall behind him.

Not wanting to lose the advantage Champ and Lay both Leapt forward, calling a single lightsaber back to their respective hands. The two landed and spun in, flipping the blade around in a back hand grip, and stabbed at the man's torso, Layfon going low, Champion going high. The sabers burning a hole through both the man's stomach, and one of his lungs, then the two spun out, leaving their lightsaber where they lay. Champ reached out in the Force, working a grip around the Destroyer and lifting him high in the air as Lay splayed his hands, lightning arcing across his palm, then let out with a Force Storm so powerful it blew the Crusader into the Temple Cafeteria a hundred feet away.

For a while no one said anything. Champion and Layfon seemed content just to catch their breath, and Dray seemed both annoyed at the exclusion, and shocked at the display of power. The quiet was both refreshing and disturbing, a nice break from the action of the day, but a stark silence when confronted with the sheer number of bodies around them, Crusader and JvS alike. Maybe silence is the best thing, I'm not sure anything else would do. A moment of silence for those that have given their lives in the defense of this Academy.

Dray was the first to break the silence, "You know you could have just told me to get out of the way. You didn't have to lie and say I would 'know'," the Knight put air quotes around the last word.

Champion stood, finally having gotten enough of a breath to speak, "I didn't lie, I honestly got the feeling that we would need you to win. I still do."

Dray waved around, "Well I don't see anyone. Do you?"

Suddenly the wall on the other side of the Garden blew out, the bodies of many JvS, several councilors, flying through the air to land a few feet away from the three, some unconscious, most dead. From the hole in the wall stalked another Sith Destroyer, this one battered, but still in one piece, which was more then could be said for the JvS at Dray's feet.

Layfon looked at the Knight with raised brow, "You were saying?"

------------------------------

Spanish watched Neliel and Behalok fade into the distance as he drew his lightsaber once again. The weapon was getting a workout today, and he was regretting not taking better care of it in months past. The Dark Lord held his breath for a moment as he hit the ignition switch, and was rewarded with a flickering, but still working lightsaber. It was in bad condition, but it worked, now all he could do was hope that it lasted through the fight.

"Do you have a plan?" Servilous asked beside him. The Overlord was looking at the enemy, starring at the Weequay as if he could hypnotize it with just his eyes. Then again, Spanish had never been sure just how far the man had taken his Sith Sorcery, he could very well be capable of just that.

"As much as I would like to take him out myself," the Dark Lord turned around just in time to see the Destroyer start making his way toward them, "I don't think I've got quite enough strength to do it alone. That and," he flipped the lit hilt in the air and caught it again, "I doubt this thing will hold out much longer."

"Can't help you there, mine's already been destroyed," Serv replied.

"How-" Spanish begun then thought the better of it, "Nevermind, I don't really wanna know."

"So, plan?"

"You remember that Force technique I told you to practice a few months ago?"

The Overlord looked at him in mild surprise, "It is a strong power, but it will take time to set up, and a place of great Dark power."

"Will the Torture Chambers do?"

"Yes, but as I said it will take time to set up," the Sorceror looked to Spanish questioningly, "Are you sure you can delay him that long?"

The Dark Lord looked at Servilous, "I am the Dark Lord you know. The only reason I need your help at all is because I'm tired." Spanish looked forward again, "Now get moving." He heard the man's footsteps tapper off as the Overlord made his way through the myriad hall of the Sith Academy, leaving the Dark Lord alone with the Destroyer.

The Crusader didn't take kindly to the dismissal of his power, and picked up speed as he approached the lone Sith standing before him. The Weequay activate his lightsaber as he drew within a few meters and brought it down in a powerful, two-handed strike. Spanish caught the being's blade on his own, stopping it cold with a minimal effort, "Woah there big guy. You have to fight me first."

The Crusader looked at the man standing before him and let loose with a Force Scream that resonated with the duracrete around them, causing it to crack, but not effecting the Dark Lord at all. "Not bad, but not really my thing," Spanish said after a moment of silence. He cocked his hand back and gathered power to it while holding the Destroyer's blade with his other hand, then at the right moment threw it forward, buffeting the man with a powerful Push, "Do ya feel me?"

The Crusader grunted and attacked again, this time with a series of vicious swings in every conceivable direction while the Dark Lord kept just outside the Weequay's range of attack, further frustrating the Crusader. Spanish launched a Force Push at the rash Destroyer, catching the man with his defenses at a minimum and threw him back a few feet. Pressing the advantage the Dark Lord jumped in swinging right and left, closing in but keeping his lightsaber near his center mass to be ready for a block. The Crusader took it all in stride, mimicking the attack but defensively in a classic Soresu stance.

Spanish switched tact, bringing his saber in much harder in a two handed swing at the man's side, and was easily blocked by the Destroyer's lightsaber. The Dark Lord brought his knee up while the Weequay was distracted by the attack and caught him in the ribs, causing the Crusader to miss a step and lose his rhythm. Spanish took full advantage, pressing in with powerful, hard overheads and uppercuts, further throwing his foe off-balance, pushing harder and harder, battering the defenses of his enemy until they finally fell entirely, then he brought his final trick to bear.

During the flurry the Dark Lord had been gathering Force Power to himself, drawing it from his own rage and desperation, and the frustration and fear emanating from the Destroyer he was attacking. He had been slowly manipulating the energy the entire time, adjusting it inside his body, then when the moment was right he acted. He battered the Crusader's blade aside with one hand, and brought the Force power to bear with his left, a powerful ball of Force Lightning that arced out all around and pushed the ball into his enemy's chest, backing out at the last second.

The Lightning hit and expanded, encompassing the Crusader's whole body and even a few feet beyond, arcing over the skin, and muscle. It seared flesh, scorched bone, and destroyed nerves all over the Weequay's body, causing him to spasm almost uncontrollably even as the Lightning faded and shorted out. The sentient teetered back and forth, as if about to fall, but at the last moment put his foot forward and arrested his descent. Then, beyond all sense and logic, stood back up and twirled his lightsaber in an intricate pattern, smoke still rising from his body.

"Hey there hot stuff," Spanish said working back slowly, no longer so sure of himself, "no hard feelings eh?"

The Crusader just sneered and let loose with Lightning of his own, forcing the Dark Lord to jump away as the energy hit the ground and left a scorch mark. The Destroyer continued his attack sending bolt after bolt at the Sith, and the Sith continuing to dodge the attacks just enough to keep from taking heavy damage. The Weequay fired another, but this time the Dark Lord had no time to dodge and was forced to use his lightsaber to catch the attack. Suddenly switching tact, Spanish shut his lightsaber down and threw a Force Storm of his own at the Destroyer. The Crusader retaliated with another Storm of Lightning, meeting the Dark Lord's own attack with one of equal power.

The energy collided and sparked, one arcing off the other, fizzing out and coming back, stream after stream impacting, redirecting, and hitting back again. A continual dance of devastating energy between two equal powers with no one side gaining an advantage on the other, the only limit the length to which they could endure. A struggle the Dark Lord knew he would lose eventually, I really hope you're ready Serv, because I can't delay him much longer. Spanish pushed in the Force, surging far more energy in then previously, and overwhelming the Destroyer's defense before he could realize what was happening. The Lightning surged out, pushing the Crusader's attack back in a fraction of a second, and coursing over his body for a few moments before dying out.

The Dark Lord knew he didn't have much time, that the Destroyer would recover quickly from the assault, so he did the only thing he could, he ran. He darted right with the aid of the Force, sprinting as fast as his legs would carry him and following Serv's beacon in the Force, the Weequay's plodding run, keeping pace bare meters behind him. He turned a corner and lunged forward just in time to avoid a blow from the Crusader that would have taken a few inches off the top of his head.

Spanish rolled up and reactivated his lightsaber to meet the man's next attack head on. Their blades clashed with tremendous force, and for a moment the Overlord thought his legs would buckle under the strain of the attack, No, you will not be the one who ends me! The Dark Lord dug inside himself, finding energy where none should have been, digging into resources he knew were never meant to be used, and pushed back against the Crusader.

The sudden surge of power surprised the Weequay, and the being was thrown back by the force of the retaliation, then hurled a few meters away by a follow-up Push from the tired Overlord. Spanish felt powerful again, the power of the Force flowing through him like it always had before, and for a brief time he considered pressing the attack and finishing the fight himself. But he knew he couldn't, the power he was using, while strong, had a heavy price, and it was not something he could afford to keep paying, so he turned and continued running.

He was drawing close now, only a few meters separated him from the trap Serv had laid, and not at all too soon, as the Crusader was closing on him yet again, the Destroyer able to tap into a power only those willing to die could gain. The Dark Lord pushed through a final door and jumped up just as the Weequay behind him burst through, sending the door itself flying across the room.

Spanish landed on a balcony over-looking the room and turned to look down on the Crusader who was in turn looking for him. What the Destroyer eventually did find, however, was not the Dark Lord of the Sith, the leader of the Sith, but a Sith Sorcerer, the leader of the Assassin, Servilous, levitation a foot off the ground in meditation. The Weequay roared a Force Bellow in an attempt to dislodge the levitating Overlord, but to no avail as the attack dissipated around a powerful Force Barrier.

Servilous opened his eyes as if just now realizing his target had entered the room, his expression showing no emotion what so ever, and his Force impression nearly as blank. There was no emotion in his impression, but to interpret that as a small impression was folly, the sheer magnitude of the power the man was exerting was astonishing, and with good reason.

"There are some powers within the Force for which there is no defense," Spanish began, catching the Destroyer's attention. He knew there was little purpose in what he was about to say, but he felt obligated to let the Crusader know what he was up against. The man crouched as if about to jump, but suddenly lost balance and toppled over, his leg landing beside him, and no longer a part of his body. It was only now that the Destroyer took note of the multiple dark tendrils around him, and only when one fell on, and then through his hand, did he realize what had happened.

Spanish continued his explanation, "These powers are so heinous, so unimaginably devastating that they have no name, and instead are relegated to the realm of Sorcery." As he spoke the tendrils of dark side energy lashed out, snapping at the man, taking off chunks of flesh, removing appendages and limbs, the Weequay itself screaming in pain the entire time as his body was taken apart, burned apart one by one.

"It is the true measure of the dark side from which there is no escape," Spanish finished as the sentient's screams finally died out along with his body and Force presence, leaving only a pile of parts that had once resembled a living being.

Servilous slowly drifted to the ground. Depleted of power the man shakily stood, "Well that was a bit tougher then I thought."

Spanish jumped off the balcony and landed beside the Sorcerer, "Well done. Now there's just one thing left to do."

Serv looked at the Dark Lord confused, "There's more? After killing a Sith Destroyer, what could possibly be left to do?"

Spanish smiled, " Oh just say 'I TOLD YOU SO!'"

-------------------------

Red walked towards the Crusader, intrigued by the overwhelming power the Twi'lek was giving off in the Force. The sentient was standing in the middle of the hanger with a smile on it's face. It seemed unworried at having to face multiple opponents, but then again Red would feel as much confidence with that much Force power too.

He motioned Talac, Pyro, and Drake to fall back into the shadows. There was no sense in being rash here, their presence was known, but a hidden enemy was often an enemy forgotten, and if he and Jester couldn't deal with the Crusader alone, the others would be in prime position to strike. He waited until the three were out of sight then waved Jester forward while he waited a meter behind the man.

Jester sauntered forward like he had just seen an old friend, "Hey buddy, how's it hangin?" He leaned on a fuel tank just a few inches out of striking distance and proceeded to strike up a conversation, "Me, I've been around, sharpening my tools, hitting on the ladies," he winked, "if you know what I mean?" The Crusader just tilted his head and watched, confused or fascinated, it didn't matter, it was buying time for Red's team to get into position, and he was more then happy to let this scenario play out as long as it could. "Ah you know," Jester waved off the lack of response like any normal person would with too long a silence, "so I'm talking to this blonde, nice body, and I'm like, 'Hey baby, how about I show you some moves, and then we can train,' she giggled, we were hitting it off great then this bit-"

Without warning the Twi'lek suddenly whipped out a long lightsaber hilt, ignited the double blade and leapt forward, closing the distance ina fraction of a second and giving Jester just barely enough time to back away. "He doesn't seem to wanna talk Red." Jester unsheathed his long sword as he spoke, "Shall we teach the man some manners?"

Red put his hand on his katana and rushed forward, his speed amplified by the Force, and reached the Crusader in a blur of motion, drawing his katana as he drew near and cutting up in the same instant, a Battojutsu designed to kill an enemy before they could evaluate skill, but hard his cortosis blade blocked by one end of the staff. Not thinking about how it was possible for this being to surpass his speed so easily, the man drew a kunai hidden in his sleeve and let loose with a throw at point blank. The Twi'lek pulled back, just in time to dodge the throw, leaving Red a chance to withdraw and let Jester try with his longsword.

Almost before he was fully out of the way, Jester came barreling in, sword tip almost dragging on the ground as he went. He drew near and stopped a few feet short, transferring the momentum from his body to his blade and bringing the meter long katana up in an arc that would bisect the man from head to groin. But before the sword could make contact, the man was sent hurtling back by a sudden Force Push that managed to batter his barrier in an instant.

Jester managed to flip over and halt his momentum before he was hurt, but the sheer power of the attack stunned both he and Red. "It's a Sith Destroyer," the old Force Warrior behind them shouted, "his powers are much greater then anything you've faced before. It would be best if you overwhelm him."

Red nodded, and motioned Jester to move around to the Twi'lek's left side. Red himself unsheathed his knife with his left hand, and tightened the grip on his katana with his right. This opponent would require a great deal more effort then the rest they had fought so far, and his best chance would be to dedicated to a physcial offensive and let Jester and Pyro take care of the Force aspects.

Red ran at the Destroyer, and threw his knife, putting more speed on it with the Force, only to have it battered away, but give him an opening. He closed the remaining distance and slashed across, aiming not for the Twi'lek, but his lightsaber, only to have the katana deflected aside and a lightsaber come at his head from the left. He jumped over the attack, grasping his air-born knife with the Force, and came down on the Crusader's shoulders, driving the blade for the being's skull, and at the last moment being thrown off by a Force Push. He flipped over, recovering his balance and landed in a crouch a few feet behind the Crusader.

The Twi'lek began turning with the intention of pursuing Red, but was surprised when a grapple came out of no where and twirled around his right arm, then another on his left. The Crusader pulled with all the strength he could muster, but found the force holding him down too strong to overpower. Red turned to see Jester holding onto one of the grapples, and Pyro the other, the two men most likely using the Force to hold the Destroyer down.

Talac and Drake jumped in out of the shadows, landing at the Crusader's feet and unsheathed their swords, cutting deep gashes in the being's arms and legs before the Twi'lek could respond, then jumping up and over, throwing their knives deep into the Crusader's torso, their grapples hastily tied to the hilt of the blades, and landed on opposing sides, ready for another sweep. But before they could attack again, a massive Force Repulse rippled out from the Destroyer, catching all four men unawares, and hurtling them all across the hanger.

Red, being the only one with enough time to erect a Force Barrier, ran at the Twi'lek. Sword and knife in hand, the man jumped up, bringing his knife down in the center of the Crusader's back as the being caught it's breath from the exertion of power. Using the embedded blade as a hand hold, he took aim and swung, cutting a deep gash in the Destroyer's arm, before the man finally recovered enough to lash out with one of his lekku and slap the ninja away.

Red hit the ground and rolled up, careful to keep his blade away from his body, his eventual stopping point by Jester and Talac. "How is that thing still standing?" Talac asked catching his breath, "He's got three knives stuck in his back and chest, and I know I hit at least one major artery when we jumped him."

"Two," Drake commented, he and Pyro joining the three.

"I think we'll have to take of it's head," Jester was rubbing his eyes as if tired or annoyed. "It doesn't seem to care about blood loss, or pain."

Red stood back up, "Drake, Talac, go grab the cords and try to hold that thing as still as you can." The two men nodded and made their way toward the Twi'lek cautiously, "Pyro, distract it with the Force, anything you can throw at it." Pyro nodded and leapt up, getting purchase on one of the many ships occupying th hanger, "Jester, give it all you got, quick strikes, heavy ones, doesn't matter, just keep his attention on you."

Jester raise an eyebrow, "And what will you be doing?"

"Ending this," Red commented simply and Force Leapt high into the frame work in the hanger. He only made it halfway up there before his momentum started slowing down, and cast his grapple up to find purch higher up. It was a frightening few moments as he hung there, nothing beneath him, until the grapple caught on something and arrested his descent in a sharp jerk. He tested the line and began climbing up, watching the battle unfold below.

Drake and Talac sped forward with the aid of the Force, and grabbed the grapple cords, one in each hand. The two landed and tugged away and down, surprising the Crusader and almost bringing the Twi'lek to its knees. Meanwhile Pyro had found a safe place on a luxury yacht and was grabbing loose rubble and debris in the Force, hurling them at the Destroyer. The first few found their mark, bashing harshly into the Twi'lek's form and eliciting a screech of pain from the being. The rest had a much harder time as the missiles would suddenly avert course, or stop outright, some even going so far as to be redirected at Pyro himself.

Red reached the top of the rope and climbed onto the scaffolding, running silently but surely along the length of the beam as the fight continued.

Jester dodged around a piece of errant debris and swung his long sword at the Crusader's back, cutting a long swath across the sentients unguarded flank. He ducked another piece of duracrete, this one deliberately aimed, and spun around, stopping at the Crusader's side and lashing out again, this time scoring only a shallow cut on the being's side, before he was forced to roll away from the Twi'lek's fist. This time however, the Crusader had been prepared for the avoidance and launched a Force Push at the prone ninja, sending the man's body skittering across the floor.

Red came to a stop over the Destroyer just as the Twi'lek finally broke free of Talac's and Drake's grips, sending the two flying through the air, forcing them to abandon the attack focus on landing unhurt. Now free of restriction the Crusader splayed his hand forward and let loose with a powerful stream of Force Lightning, catching Pyro in it's wake and quickly tearing through the man's Barrier, throwing him across the room.

Red had the instinct to jump down and help, to do something to draw attention away from his friends, but he didn't he knew if he did he would lose the only chance he had to kill the Destroyer. As painful as it was to watch, he had to do exactly that and hope one of his ally's could pin the Twi'lek for a few moments, Not long, just a second is all I need.

Luckily he didn't have long to wait. While Pyro had been under attack, Jester had been rushing the Destroyer again, and by the time the Crusader noticed him, it was too late to back away. Jester reversed the grip on his katana and lunged forward, plunging the long blade through the being's thigh, flesh and bone, and into the duracrete beneath. He jumped back to avoid the sweep from the man's lightsaber and threw his knife, landing it directly in the Crusaders other food, plunging through the Twi'lek's foot and into the duracrete beneath.

Red saw his moment and jumped off the scaffold, bringing his katana to bear in and overhead swing that would cut the being in half, but at the last second the Crusader ducked back and the katana hit nothing but open air. Fell for it, his actions a blur, the ninja unsheathed his knife and threw it in one smooth motion. The blade flew up, aimed directly at the Destroyer's head, and this time there was no chance of escape. The knife dug into the Crusader's jaw, plunging up into its brain and emerging partially on the other end. Without another sound the Twi'lek fell forward, dead, his body hitting the ground like so much wet meat.

Red stood and sheathed his katana, looking at his fallen opponent with a mixture of awe, repulsion, and respect. The being, corrupt as it had been, had been a worthy opponent in the end, and had forced the five to work in tandem to the best of their abilities. In the end, that's all Red could ask of any of his victims.

-------------------------

The Nautolan swung across, one blade coming left, one right. Sarus flipped up and over the Crusader and felt Gal3rm take the opposite action, ducking and rolling back out of range of the attack. Both men were linked in the Force now, Thing's Battle Meditation having finally taken full effect, the two could now reinforce the bond and act as one.

Gal let loose with a strong Force Push only buffeting the Destroyer but still causing the man to stumble for a moment. Sarus ducked low and swept his leg under the Crusader, taking the man's legs out from under him, and added his own Force Push to the mix, sending him back a few meters before the Crusader got his feet under himself again. The Nautolan ran forward, swinging at both man and succeeding in neither venture.

The Shadow flipped backward, grabbing a pair of lightsabers from a fallen as he flipped, then came to a stand, activated the blades, and threw them at their attacker, which the man easily deflected with his own lightsabers. The attack provided cover, however, as Gal3rm came up behind the Crusader and delivered a kick, with the aid of the Force, to the side of the man's head. The attack knocked the Destroyer off balance, but otherwise had little effect as the man's Force Barrier took the brunt of the hit. The Crusader turned his head around and lashed out with the back of his arm to catch the Knight even as he fell back to the ground. The blow throwing the Jedi into the wall with enough force to crack the durcrete it was made of. The Nautolan turned around and stalked towards the now injured Warrior, to finish the job.

Sarus rushed forward, gathering the Force to both his arm and his palm and punched out, hitting his enemy with a double blow of strength and a Push, an attack he had used many times with great success, but the Crusader took the blow in stride, not even stumbling from the impact. The Force Warrior could scarcely believe it, and had even less time to accept it as he felt the man's foot impact his gut with bone-crushing force. Sending his body into the wall opposite Gal, breaking through the wall and into the Infirmary.

The Chiss just laid there for a moment trying to compartmentalize the pain with a Force technique he had learned in his travels. It was a technique that would allow him to bury the pain inside himself, push past it in a way, but the more damage the user took, the harder it was to bury. And the Warrior didn't need a healer to tell him the blow had done a lot of damage, he suspected the blow had shattered a couple ribs, and bruised at least one internal organ. The damage wouldn't kill him, wouldn't even put him in danger, but it was painful, and did mean he shouldn't keep moving, But I can't do that. If we don't beat this guy we'll both die.

Sarus pushed himself up, pushing the pain deeper as he did so until he felt himself go numb. He still knew the pain was there, but he could now bypass it, and concentrate on the Force again. He saw the Crusader quickly closing the distance to his ally, who looked dazed, but otherwise intact. The Knight needed a few more moments before he would have his senses back, and Sarus needed to give the Warrior that time.

The Chiss reached into the ceiling, feeling the cracks in it from the damage the Temple was taking, and widening them. Creating cracks slowly but surely, and removing what little anchor the duracrete still had until it could no longer take the stress and broke free of roof. The slab came tumbling down, right over top the Crusader, growing closer and closer to the man, and at the moment before it would have hit, ceased it's descent and hovered in mid-air.

The Destroyer turned around once again to face the Shadow, and motioned forward with one of his lightsabers, as if directing his troops to attack, and the chunk of rock Sarus had just finished tearing loose from the ceiling came hurtling back at him. He had just enough time to erect a barrier in the Force before the chuck hit and broke through it, continuing a ballistic trajectory, and hurtling the Chiss through yet another wall, this time landing in the second Courtyard a story below. The duracrete landed a few feet behind him, and left a scar in the landscape.

Sarus rolled over on his stomach after a moment, and pushed himself to his knees, the pain now coursing through every inch of his body, rather then just in his gut. Well I'm getting plenty of practice today, he thought, grim humor the only thing he could concentrate on anymore. He knew the damage was no longer something he could just ignore, he could feel the damage his organs had taken in the Force, and he knew he could do nothing to stop it. All I can do is push past it, the Chiss stood up, pushing past the pain once again, and extended his senses again.

He could still feel both the Crusader and Gal3rm in the Force. Gal was now mobile, and fending off attacks from the Destroyer who was completely unphased. The Force Warrior was tiring quickly however, making small mistakes he was covering just barely for, something he could not hope to do forever.

On a hunch, the Chiss called a lightsaber to him from one of the fallen Jedi in the Garden, and ignited the blade, a yellow shaft appearing in front of him. "Sorry friend," he said, not sure if the man's soul would even understand his words, "but I need this to keep another Jedi alive." Sarus Force Leapt back through the hole and hit the ground running, ducking back out into the main hall a bare second after he had jumped. The Shadow looked forward and saw the Crusader pressing in on Gal, swinging and missing, but still catching parts of the man's robes, even coming so close as to leave a burn mark on the Knight's arm.

Sarus hastily wrapped a Force Cloak around himself and ran forward with all the speed he could muster just as the Crusader began pulsing Lightning at Gal3rm, quickly burning through the Warrior's Barrier until it finally snapped. Time seemed to slow, the Lightning hit his friend, coursing over the Knight's body, sending it into spasm after spasm, each bringing his ally closer and closer to death. Then Sarus reached them, and brought his borrowed blade down on the Destroyer.

The man must have sensed him a moment before, because he cut off his attack and jumped aside a split second before Sarus' attack, saving his own body from any injury, but sacrificing a lightsaber he had been too slow withdrawing. The Chiss reached out with his free hand, time still dilating around him, and grabbed the Nautolan by the arm, hauling the off-balance man forward, and bringing his lightsaber down on the Destroyer's other hand, cutting it off at the wrist. Sarus continued, twisting, trying to bring the man in range to deliver a fatal blow, but before he could do so, he felt teeth dig into his arm, renewing the pain he had felt earlier, and causing him to drop the yellow lightsaber.

The Warrior knew that without the lightsaber he had no chance to finish the fight. As it was he could already feel the injured Destroyer gathering Force energy to shock him with, and without a free hand he knew he couldn't absorb all the energy before it overwhelmed him. He was done for, no one was near enough to help him, and Gal was just barely remaining conscious with all the damage he'd taken. If Sarus couldn't end it, then this man would get to more, potentially many more, before he came across another strong enough to stop him.

There's only one way. He knew one thing that would work, one thing to stop this man from killing any others, but it was a fate he would rather not make anyone face, not even his enemies. He could feel the Nautolan's power building now, and he knew he had little time to prepare himself, he would need to both channel the energy for later use, but still have enough to use the power properly. Sarus felt the Destroyer's power begin to surge through his own body, and he began absorbing the energy, channeling it into himself, storing as much as he could stand. The darkness in the force energy was something no Jedi would enjoy, and even fewer could handle. Normally the power would have to be absorbed and cleansed before a Jedi could use it, but Sarus didn't have the time to cleanse it, he just had to store as much as he could stand. Then, when the power got too much to handled he channeled the power, putting it to use, not to retaliate with his own Force Lightning, but with another power entirely. A power that had never been intended for the way he was about to use it.

The Force Warrior channeled the energy, opening himself to the Force, opening himself to all eventuality, all past, present, and future, all possibilities. He saw into the future, so many possible futures, then dove past it, and saw back, before the current time, before the Jedi, before the Republic itself, to a here and now before space travel, before habitation, and locked onto it. His eyes glowed white, and the scene snapped away, distant but no farther then it always had been, within reach, but beyond grasp. The scenes began to move, spinning faster and faster, becoming a blur, then completely indistinguishable as the two men, passed tens of thousands of years into the past. The Destroyer's attack feeding the massive draw of Force energy until the scene slowed and snapped back.

The Crusader's grip loosened as the scene came to rest, at a time and place when nothing was, where the planet itself was still volcanic, in the very early stages of its life. They were in a rock field, a barren wasteland of granite and onyx, off in the distance a few volcanoes could be seen spewing hot lava into the air that would eventually settle and become like the very land they were standing on. Sarus shook free of the Nautolan's grasp and spun away, only to collapse back to his knees a moment later from a mixture of exhaustion and the overwhelming darkness he was still holding inside himself.

Of course they were not truly there, but in another space time, a non-linear one that allowed them to observe time, but not interact. It was the single safest place to go to contain someone, to a place where they could harm no one, in a time they could never be noticed in by an observer. The Crusader was trapped now, he could hurt no one but Sarus himself, something the Force Warrior had no doubt the man would attempt as soon as his shock wore off, and from which the Destroyer could never escape. The Nautolan could never return to the Academy, and never join the Force, he was trapped for as long as he would live in a dimension very few could enter.

The Crusader's attention eventually came back to rest on Sarus, a sneer of contempt trying to hide the fear the man was truly feeling. "No there's no way out," Sarus said, answering the unspoken question, "you're trapped here for all eternity. However long that may be." The Destroyer took a step forward as if to run, but halted before he could even begin as, to the man's horror, the leg he had just put forward began fading from sight. "You're in a dimension you cannot navigate," Sarus explained, "Each step you take will bring you farther out of sync with this place and time, until you are all but lost here." The Nautolan raised a splayed hand at the Shadow, his muscles tense from concentration, but nothing came out, "Your powers won't work here," the Chiss continued, "you are truly trapped here, you cannot harm me or anyone else anymore, and when you die, your soul will wander this dimension alone."

The Warrior tapped the reserve he had built by siphoning power from the Destroyer. The power swirled out, dark, tainted energy, but energy nonetheless, and he put it to good use, reversing the very process he had used to get here. His eyes glowed again, the light still white, but much less pure and bright, "And for that," he looked the Crusader right in the eye as the scene began to grow distant, "I am truly sorry."

-----------------------------

Gal3rm was confused. One moment he had been fighting for his life, and Sarus had come in to save a killing blow, getting himself caught in the process, and the next there was this flash of light and he was alone in the hall. He had no idea where the two men had gone, and he couldn't feel them in the Force anymore. There was absolutely no trace of their presences except for the damage they had done to the Temple.

He stood and looked around again, extending his senses hoping he had just missed them somehow, but there was nothing. This shouldn't be possible. If they're dead why didn't I sense their deaths in the Force, and if they're alive, where are they? The Knight closed his eyes and shook his head trying to puzzle it out, and not succeeding. He opened them again, ready to just give up for now and have the Master Council search instead, but as he as about to leave there was another flash of light in front of him. It was dimmer then the first but still bright enough that he felt the need to shield his eyes until it was gone.

When he brought his hand down he saw Sarus standing in front of him, in the exact same spot he had disappeared from. "Hey Gal," the Chiss began with a smile, "could you get me a Healer?" With that the Shadow collapsed into Gal's arms unconscious.

-----------------------------

The battle was winding down now. The number of red forms had dropped significantly and now only a few were left, only one of which powerful enough to still prove a problem. The remaining JvS forces were also scattered, and most could no longer benefit from Thing's Battle Meditation, but the Knight was determined to pull his weight in this fight. So he kept his Battle Meditation up, feeding encouragement to those few troops still fighting, certain that if he kept contact, no one else would have to die.

The scene in his mind's eye suddenly shifted, the display fuzzing in and out like static interrupting a signal. He could feel his connection getting interrupted as well, he was losing track of the number of people on the battle field, in some cases losing his connection to them entirely. He struggled to maintain the connection, reinforced his senses by feeding more Force power to them, but for each surge he gave, the interference surged back stronger until he completely lost connection with the forces.

The scene shifted, he was still inside his own mind, but the image of the Temple faded to be replaced by a blank zone that represented as an empty white room with Thing at it's center. He looked around, feeling out his own mind by imagining himself standing up and looking around the room with eyes that were not real, but viewed the room as such. Once he had that image in his head he plunged his consciousness into the role.

He opened his eyes, and stood. The room was how he'd imagined, completely white, and completely empty, but unlike his imagined image it seemed to stretch on forever. He turned a full circle and saw no one and no thing, not even an edge to the vast expanse, "Where am I?"

"In the mind of one of my minions," a voice said from behind him. He turned around, startled, and saw a being standing where the previously had been nothing. To call it a man would be generous, as what he saw represented as no more then a black, amorphous fog two meters tall. It was standing a few feet away.

"Who are you? How did you disrupt my Battle Meditation?"

"My name is unimportant," it replied, "and you are not as powerful as you believe."

Thing's brow furrowed, but he didn't argue. There would be no point, the man obvious had overpowered him for now, "Why haven't I sensed you before?"

The blank form was quiet for a moment, "Strange, I cannot penetrate your mind," it commented, ignoring the Knight's question, "your powers are weak, but you have a strong mentality. One I have only encountered twice before."

"I don't care!" Thing shouted, "What do you want with me?"

The black mass had no eyes, no face, nothing to distinguish one part from another, but the Knight got the impression that he had finally gotten the thing's attention, "You? Nothing. But I have a message I want you to deliver to another...."

On Tatooine, the brothers and Daygall were just approaching the gates to the entrance.

“God, your vantage point far enough away…” Xzavier didn’t like his friends idea of a quote safe distance.

“Better safe than dead.” Daygall said with a smile. He didn’t care, he was about to finally complete what he had wanted to for the longest time… figure out what the hell the crusaders were doing on Tatooine.

“So were sticking to the plan, nothing crazy. Alight lets do this thing!” Kelrock started sprinting forward, they had all thrown there black robes over them, they only had the tools needed for this task, packed light. He was quickly followed by Xzavier and Daygall, three silent trail of footsteps in the sand, light enough that they disappeared seconds after being created due to the wind. As the rock came close and closer into sight they all broke off in different directions, all silently going to sides of the door, Kelrock simply walking write at the door.

He gently tapped it, then got as low to the ground as he could. A crusader, knowing or at thinking he knew that only crusaders knew of the base, he was clearly fairly low on the totem pole of leaders, he was fairly new to there ranks, a new corrupted poor human that walked a bit to close to a giant cave in the middle of nowhere that happens to have a GIANT metal door and decided to investigate, that investigation cost him his freedom sadly. Now all he could do is sit by and watch some strange demon control his body. He opened the door, just cracked it slightly and was instantly dragged out, then had his throat slit by Kelrock’s knife, without being able to make a sound, then he was gone in the sand.

The sand was picking up at a perfect time as the three infiltrators were sneaking into the mysterious door and cavern that apparently is owned and operated by the crusaders. The thee instantly pressed against the right wall and started slipping down it, Daygall drew his blade and caught up. Kelrock held up his hand telling them to hold, so they could observe the surroundings. They were a few meters away from a corner of a very large room with a lot of crusaders seemingly milling about and a lot of crusaders torturing others, all in black and red garments one had a dark rusty gold cloak on, Daygall motioned to keep moving and not try to take him out, very busy room, it was a good feeling knowing everybody was on ground floor so getting out would be a lot easier.

They all split Daygall using the force to aid his natural skill of moving without sound with the speed and stealth of the force. Almost smashing into a crusader who felt the wind rush by his leg as he slid there them without a sound, he twitched and shrugged it off as just a natural occasional twitch, just like a blink, thinking to himself no way anybody could even get into the place. Daygall kept going, knowing it would be useless to watch his steps and slow down, Xzavier had just finished crossing the open room and sliding against the floor to the left wall and was at his corridor Kelrock’s had been long by his elevator shaft waiting for his brothers motion. Xzavier had the easiest time, it seemed like his corridor was scarce so he could move faster than normal. He motioned for his brother to descend down the shaft, they both seemingly made a leap of faith using the force to aid there landing to avoid death and crush of bones, and sound. Then they slipping threw a small crack between the poorly made elevator and door. Then pressed against the wall again.

Daygall was already working his way towards the center spiral staircase that descends downwards, but had run into some problems back in his corridor, the slight blotch of sweat on his brow gave that away, along with a small amount of blood on the hilt of his black sword. He kept moving threw the crowd silently and unnoticed, the brothers had to rush to catch up. Then Daygall motioned for them to start to take out as many as possible as fast as possible. The brothers looked at each other, Daygall, then the mob of about a hundred or so crusaders.

Kelrock smiled as he flung his knife into a crusaders neck on the far side of the room, Xzavier did the same, two crusaders on the other side of the room dropped. It was dead silent for a second, then it was nothing but light sabers igniting for at least a full 5 seconds. They all started to go towards there two fallen comrades, The brothers ignited there sabers in the mass sound of the crusaders and jumped to it instantly, going berserk fighting to get back to back with each other, knowing that would be there only shot and making out of this alive, get back to back, worry from there.

“I HOPE TO HELL HE KNOWS WHAT HES DOING!” Xzavier yelled to his brother over his commotion. It worked, all the crusaders looked at him and Kelrock threw his saber threw the heads of about 20 crusaders, a lightning fast twirl that killed 5 before they realize that Kelrock was even in the room. Finally a crusader flipped his saber into the air and charged him, Kelrock quickly recalled his saber and started to charge back, laughing like a madman, Daygall had been long in the bottom floor, going threw files, looking over shoulders doing everything he could as fast as he could as all the crusaders were flying up there staircase to fight the brothers, The crusader and Kelrock finally met as the crusaders swung his saber as hard as he could spinning at the brother, who met the saber full on as hard as he could, it made a loud clash as they locked sabers instantly.

Kelrock just twisted his body and spun around the lock and brushed the saber aside as he jumped and kicked him in the chest, knocking the crusader back a few feet. Then quickly ran after him, the crusader recovered surprisingly fast and tried to lunge out at Kelrock who quickly stepped to the side and with a solid swing parted head from shoulder. Kelrock continued his mad frenzy to his younger brother.

Xzavier had 4 on him as he charged the first to ahead of him, swinging out at the one on the middle left forcing to him to block as he spun and threw a second knife into the crusader on his right’s neck. Dropping him fractions of a second before his saber would’ve hit him. The he pushed forward and parried the first crusader by ducking under his swing and bringing his fist to the crusaders jaw, shattering it completely with the help of the force, then he leapt over several crusaders to land in the middle, as he landed he sent a force blast to the four adjacent crusaders, sending two of them flying into the mass of crusaders the other two crossed there arms and forced to blast around there bodies. A second later Kelrock came flying between them cleaving them both into two with a spin.

The brothers quickly pressed there backs against each other as they had to hold against unimaginable odds. Praying that Daygall wouldn’t take his sweet time and let them run out and as far as possible from the cavern. The crusaders quickly circled the brothers, none getting within ten feet of them. Then two braver crusaders stepped forward and almost like a gauntlet charged them, The brothers held there ground, Kelrock blocked the low strike from the first crusader and carried his saber up into the crusader effectively killing him, as Xzavier stepped to the side as he tripping the crusader and plunged his saber threw the crusaders back.

“God I hope Daygall finishes soon, I don’t want to know how many of them that are here, and we both know sure as hell we wont last all day, but you can be pretty damn sure that there numbers will be at least a few hundred less after were threw with em!” Kelrock told his younger brother.

Dusk opened his eyes and saw nothing but black around him. He sighed, knowing what was happening, all too familiar with it anymore. "What could you have learned in a week that makes you think you can beat me now?" He turned around and saw his own mirror image standing in the dark across from him, white robes billowing despite the lack of wind, each gust giving light to a pair of lightsabers at the teen's belt.

Dawn looked up and pulled his hood back, "I have all I need to beat you as I am," he replied, a cocky grin spread across his face. The Jedi held out his hands and called the two sabers at his belt, igniting the moment they hit his palm. The brilliant green and yellow blades cast a pale light on the black chamber.

Dusk just shook his head and detached his own lightsaber from his belt, and ignited it in one smooth motion. The red from his own blade seemed to generate a more powerful light then both of his opponents, likely a subconscious expression of power. I never did like these mind games, he thought, disgusted at having to repeat this ridiculous charade.

Dawn began the fight, twirling his blades in each hand as he ran forward, building speed until he reached the Sith he faced. He swung with his right blade, and was instantly met by his foe's single saber in a one handed grip to show the Jedi he was not taking the bout seriously. Dawn let off and brought his left lightsaber in an uppercut to cut his enemy in two, but again was met by the man's red blade.

"Let me show you how it's done," Dusk said with a smile. He plunged in with a flurry of blows, using only on hand, but striking with enough force to rattle the Jedi each and every time, and force him into a fully defensive position. He kept pressing in, pushing Dawn back quickly, but never resorting to his other hand.

Dawn struck back, countering on a slow swing to try and turn the fight back in his direction, but had his dual attack met with the Sith's single blade. Dusk scoffed, "Pathetic," he pushed up, throwing Dawn off balance, and with his free hand threw a Force Push that knocked the dazed Jedi away and surprisingly, down.

He runs, Dusk thought, blowing air out to flip his hair in annoyance, what a surprise. He walked to edge of what he now realized was a platform and looked down. He could see nothing below, not even his weak other half, but that never meant anything in these battles. If he jumped down now, he would land where Dawn had landed, he had no doubt in his mind about that, but he questioned whether the battle was worth pursuing. The boy wouldn't be challenging him again, not with such an overwhelming loss, But I might actually be able to end it this time, he's weaker now then any other time I've fought him. He mulled it over for another minute, then just shrugged and jumped off the platform.

Dusk didn't fall for long, in fact it was as if he had never fallen at all, he was just on another platform a second after he stepped off the last, but instead of being blank, this one was a duracrete platform with slightly raised edges, and a chunk missing to his left, as if the platform had seen combat before. It was just a construct inside his mind of course, but it still bothered him that a piece of it was missing. Was it just a random scene from their past, or was a it a sign that the little twerp had been training in here. The Sith shrugged, it made no difference in the end.

He looked ahead of him and saw Dawn picking himself up off the ground, something Dusk had done for the Jedi many times in the past. It was good for the boy to finally understand no one was there to help him. He smiled, but made no attempt to move. Dawn was the one trying to assert control again, the Jedi could attack for himself for once.

Sure enough Dawn did attack, but in a way Dusk was not prepared for. The Jedi flicked his blade to on again and flipped it forward, throwing it at the Sith. Dusk was surprised, but not fatally so, it took him only a moment to raise his own lightsaber and block the throw, casting the lightsaber aside as it impacted an object an impenetrable as itself. Dawn was on him a moment later, swinging wildly and with little coordinated effort, an inefficient attempt at Vaapad brought on by desperation.

Dusk pushed the blade aside on a particularly foolish swing, batting it away from the rash Jedi. Dawn flipped back and called his lightsabers back to hand, finally realizing the idiocy of the attack, and settled into his normal Jar'kai stance. Dusk was in no mood for another offensive by the boy and threw a powerful bolt of Force Lightning at Dawn. The attack completely crushed the Jedi's defense, and catapult his body out of the durracrete arena, then into and through the blackness that surrounding them, as if it was a glass wall.

Dusk Leapt through the hole in the blackness and landed in a familiar place, the Hall of Jedi Legends back at the Temple, or at least a reasonable facsimile created from his memories. Dawn was on the ground in front of him, smoke rising from where the lightning had hit. The teen was slow to move, and collapsed a few times before finally getting his feet under him. "You're still as weak as always," Dusk said, slowly marching towards the Jedi, "that's why you created me in the first place isn't it?"

Dawn attacked in frustration, bring his left blade down in a diagonal cut, but being intercepted by a Dusk's own swing, this one cutting through the hilt, rendering the saber useless. The Jedi attacked with his other lightsaber, a moment later, the Sith switching hands and blocking the attack, then twirling the blade in his hand, creating enough torque to rip Dawn's saber out of his hand. With a gaff he flicked his red lightsaber up and cut the boy's lightsaber in half, the two pieces falling to the ground in smoke.

Dusk grinned and kicked out with the Force, hitting his counter-part's gut and hurtling the teen into one of the holo-projectors in the room. He lowered his leg and stalked after the unarmed Jedi, "You can't handle fighting, that's why you made me, so you wouldn't dirty your pretty little Jedi hands." He came to a stop at the boy's feet, lightsaber still lit in his hand, ready to deal the final blow, but still wanting to watch his weak self squirm, "Nothing to say? No last words?" He asked with a broad smile.

"I made you," Dawn replied between heavy breaths, "I can destroy you too."

Dusk gathered the Jedi into a Force Grip, "That's where you're wrong. I'm powerful, and once I've learned everythin the Dark One knows, I'll be invincible." He threw the teen across the room and crashing into a pillar, Dawn's body leaving a crack in the duracrete as it hit. "You however," he continued, marching to the Jedi, "will only grow stagnant trapped in here," he waved to indicate the false environment.

Dawn coughed hard, but nothing serious, "In time, I will defeat you," he looked the Sith in the eye, "and time is all I've got in here."

Dusk brought his blade up, "And what makes you think I'll give you that time?" He brought the blade down on the teen's head, or would have, if a blue lightsaber had not interrupted the swing.

Dusk back flipped away to avoid the bronze lightsaber that cut in a second later. A man was now standing between he and his prey, a man dressed in a black cloak with white robes underneath, a figure he had encountered almost as many times as he had Dawn. The man's face was always obscured, but the attitude and voice were always the same, "I thought I told you to stay away Sith?"

Dusk twirled his lightsaber in one hand, "You won't be able to protect him forever. I'm getting stronger by the day, and you remain the same, a dead man pathetically trying to protect someone he failed in life." Dusk ran forward and swung in, two-handed this time, with a powerful Djem-So strike that took his enemy's full strength to block with a single hand, but unfortunately that still left one of the man's blades unaccounted for. The Sith could feel the Jedi's other lightsaber cut a shallow gash in his leg before he could disengage and spin away. The damage was not real, but the pain was, and Dusk could no longer place his full weight on his left leg. He sneered and gathered a Force Push, releasing it in a blast of telekinetic energy that tossed the man away.

Dusk smiled, he had finally made the man back down, and now he could press the advantage a end the fighting once and for all. He charged forward and Force Jumped to pursue the Jedi, and impale him when he hit the wall, "You're weak old man," he taunted as he flew, "why don't you just let me put you out of your misery." Suddenly the Jedi regained control of his flight, and instead of landing hard, hit with his feet and bounced off, propeling himself back at the Sith. That suited him just fine, better to end it with a fight then by stabbing his foe in the back.

The two rapidly closed the distance, and Dusk pushed his lightsaber forward in a lunge, narrowing his profile to avoid blocking. He put on a burst of speed with a Force Push, aiming for his enemy's torso, but at the last moment his lightsaber was deflected not once, but twice, the first knocking the blade off balance, and the second pushing it away entirely. The Jedi rolled over him in mid-air and kicked down, propelling himself up, and Dusk into the ground hard.

Dusk had just enough time to roll over, before the man reversed his grip and came down hard, plunging both lightsabers in, one in each arm, pinning him to the ground and sending excruciating pain through him. The Jedi stood and called Dusk's lightsaber to his hand, to leave the Sith defenseless and trapped. "I've ended men far more powerful then you," he said, raising the red lightsaber up.

"Then it must annoy you no end to know that you cannot kill me," Dusk spat at the man standing over him. "The only one who can kill me is him," he nodded at the prone Dawn, "and he will never be strong enough to do so. As I said before, you cannot protect him forever old man, I will become stronger."

The Jedi nodded slowly, "Maybe so, but I have still wish to see how this plays out." Without another word he plunged his lightsaber into Dusk's chest.

----------------------------------

Dusk woke with a start, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. He threw off his sheets and sat on the side of the bed, just breathing, it felt as if he had been running for miles with no break.

A splash of light poured through the window into his eyes, and it took him a moment to realize what it was, the dawn. The irony was never lost on him each time it happened, he always woke to a new dawn, just as every time he slept he came against the same old one. The dreams had been interrupting his sleep for quite some time now, each one leaving him more exhausted then the last. So I'll just have to draw on the dark side that much more, he grabbed his robes off the bed post and got dressed. There was no point in trying to sleep more, the dreams would just return, it was best to learn more, become more powerful so that one day he could stop the dreams himself.

-----------------------------------

Dusk finished the cut and pushed the limp body away, then spun to see another Crusader a few meters away, but closing in. With a grin he reached out in the Force and gripped the man, lifting him up off the ground, then crushing his body with a Force Crush. He discarded the body when the pain he was feeding off of ended, then turned to look at his Master who had been over seeing the training exercise.

The Dark One shook his head and reached out with his hand in a loose fist. Dusk felt a grip close around his throat, one he couldn't guard against or push away with the Force. He clutched at the grip instinctively trying to pull it away, but of course there was nothing for him to pull at. It was a frightening experience and he could see why people in the days of the original Empire feared Vader's ability to perform it. "You're trying my patience boy," the Dark One said through gritted teeth, the anger was rolling off him in waves, "I teach but you don't listen."

Dusk could feel himself beginning to pass out, and fought it, but to no avail. The Force cannot make up for everything, and certainly not for lack of oxygen to the brain, but just as his periphery closed in on him he felt the grip loosen and fad altogether. He collapsed to his knees and just inhaled for a few moments, his Master pacing back and forth in front of him, rubbing the bridge of his nose like he had a head ache. "I can't make this any easier to understand, Dusk. Overwhelm them, don't overpower them."

Dusk stood, rubbing his throat, "If they're no threat to me then why bother?"

"You have it backwards. When they can't hurt you is exactly when you should bother. You need to become proficient at a technique to use it in battle against a tough opponent."

Dusk scoffed, "This is pointless. I'm leaving." He turned and began walking to the door, and was only a few steps away when he felt his body being pulled back with violent force.

His back slammed into the opposite wall, sending a jolt of pain up his spine. "You don't choose when we finish," the Dark One stated, "you make no decisions until you're powerful enough to make them happen."

Dusk winced as he stood back up. He was annoyed, this man was one of the few who could challenge his power outright and win. He did not like the feeling of being powerless, so it was hard to obey his Master, but at the same time it was the only reason he was here. The moment the Sith could overpower this Dark One, he would have nothing to learn, and few who would be able to oppose him again.

"Yes," the Dark One said with a smile, as if he had read Dusk's mind, "hate me. Let your rage drive you, your rage for me, and your indignation at being powerless. Lust to kill me, learn from me, take from me, then use the power you take to kill me. Let that be your drive." The Dark One released his Force Grip, "Now kill them, and this time, use skill, not power."

-------------------------------------

Dusk walked out of the training room, a towel around his neck, and a smile on his face. His training had been going much smoother of late, and he could feel his strength growing. After finally listening to the Dark One, and developing his powers in more detail a week ago, the ease with which he could use the Force had grown. He could now lift manipulate his powers with barely a thought, and his skill at manipulating people had grown from non-existent to convincing others to fight for him.

It's so easy. Why didn't I see it before? What better way to show your enemy your power then to convince him to fight for you? His grin broadened as he rounded a corner and picked up the pace. The number of abilities he had was not the only thing to grow though, as he learned more in new fields, he became stronger in old ones. His Master could still overpower him, bypass his defenses, but Dusk could tell it was getting harder and harder for the man to do so. Each time the Dark One punished him, he learned a new way to block his Master's powers, stop the man from exploiting the same weaknesses.

The Dark One didn't want to admit it, but Dusk could see it on his face, the man was running out of ways to keep the Sith loyal, his secrets were being unraveled and his tricks were running short. And when he can no longer hurt me, no longer challenge me, he will be of no use, there wasn't much time until that happened either. Dusk had been absorbing everything the Dark One taught like a sponge, even the things the man thought he was keeping secret from the Sith.

Dusk came to a stop at a security door, one he was barred access to thanks to his Master. One he would no longer be denied access to, You taught me this old man. I take what I want because I'm too strong for you to stop me anymore. He reached out, inserted an invisible grip between the door and the frame that housed it, and pulled. The groan of machinery could be heard as the door's magnetic lock tried to keep it in place, but it was no match for the power of the Force. The machinery built up a high pitched whine, then shorted out and the resistance dropped off entirely. The door slammed back into its housing, rending the metal with the force of the impact.

Dusk stepped through the doorway and glanced about. There was a control center laid out in front of him, consoles lining the wall directly ahead and to each side and a viewport overlooking some kind of storage facility. At the consoles were about half a dozen men and women of different species, all with their heads turned around to see what commotion was going on behind them. Off to his right and left were open air walkways that lined the entirety of the room beyond the viewport, and from those walkways came two guards, one to either side.

The Sith motioned with his hands, sending a wave of Force energy out that hit the guards and sent them careening over the railing and far into the room beyond. He walked forward to the center console with a singular objective in mind, the sentients in the room parting before him as if afraid to incur his wrath. He leaned over the console and brought up an inventory list, no descriptions were listed, only lot number and dates they were added, Let's see, I think it was eighteen days ago. He scrolled down the list, searching for a recent entry for the date he had in mind and found only one, Must be it, he pushed away and marched out of the room and onto the walkway, the eyes of the technicians still upon him, but their bodies still. If they were getting orders to stop him from his Master then their own fear was stopping them from acting.

This wasn't the heat of battle, in fact the people here had probably seen very little action in the last year, and as he had learned, the mind manipulation the Dark One used was only effective if the mind was already in that fighting instinct. If they were scared, fearing for their lives, then they would shut out the voice projected into their minds and follow their baser instincts.

The Sith jumped the twenty meters to the ground and landed in a crouch on the facility's floor. There were no security measures in this area, and no guards on duty other then those he had already dispatched. There was nothing in between him and his prize. He grinned again, What will you do now my Master? Let me have my prize, or challenge me once and for all? He began the hike to what he sought, a mental image of the map burned into his head for the moment, Your move old man.

------------------------------

Dusk turned and saw a pair of Crusaders standing between him and his goal. "You are ordered to return to your quarters,[/i] the one on the right spoke, lifting his hand and pointing back the way the Sith had come.

Dusk scoffed, "I don't take orders from you."

"Don't make this harder then it needs to be," the one on the left commented.

Dusk stalked towards the two, "Then get out of my way before I use your blood as a fresh coat of paint." He activated his lightsaber and continued his forward march, trying to look as menacing as possible. If he triggered their fear reaction then he wouldn't have to waste his time on such weak fools. But apparently both men had had their emotions trained out of them, the two just ignited their own double-bladed lightsabers and came to meet him.

One charged in, coming low, sweeping his staff back and forth to take the Sith's legs out from under him. Dusk jumped up and kicked, catching the man in the head and snapping his head back painfully. The Crusader stumbled back and fell, not dead but dazed, and his ally took the opportunity to come in high on the Sith's unguarded left side. Dusk fired a stream of Lightning at the man, forcing him to come up short and deflect the attack on his blade, then sent a Force Push at him to send the Crusader flying into a stack of crates.

The first man got back to his feet and launched into another attack, throwing Lightning and blows in random patterns and forcing Dusk back into a defensive position. The Sith waited a few moments, allowing his attacker to keep fighting futilely until the man's strength gave out and his defense dropped for a moment. Dusk closed a Grip around the Crusader and thrust him back into his ally, knocking the recovering man back into the very crates he had just emerged from.

The Sith smiled. His opponents were immobilized and had their guard down, now he could have some fun with them. He reached into their minds, searching their fears and anxieties, digging through the walls and bringing them up from where they were buried, then he tied those fears in thier paranoia and memories, manipulating the thoughts and emotions to his desires. Visually he could see them grab at their heads, tearing at their hair in an attempt to rip the intruder from their minds, and failing miserably.

He twisted one last thought and pulled out. Both Crusaders suddenly let go and looked at each other in horror, activating their lightsabers and attacking each other. In the Force they emanated fear, desperation, hate, and a deep primal blood lust as they tore into each other in a fruitless attack.

Dusk watched for a few seconds, but when it seemed the conflict would draw out for a while lost interest and pressed on to retrieve his prize. He approached the pod, a blank metal cylinder, and reached out in the Force, feeling for that familiar presence to ensure this was indeed what he was looking for. He felt the familiar metal and violence, as fresh and unchanged as the day he had assembled it.

The Sith reached around for the control panel and gave it a quick jolt. The casing hissed and popped, then gradually opened in front of him, revealing a very familiar droid frame suspended in the cylinder by cables that kept it's processor from rebooting. As he watched the cables detached and the droid's photoreceptors began glowering. It stepped out of the casing and dropped down in front of Dusk, "Relieved Greeting: Ah Master, I am glad you are not dead."

"You don't look too bad yourself Jax," Dusk replied, patting his droid on the shoulder.

Jax tilted his head to the side, "Query: Did the meatbag not say you are not allowed to have me?"

"He doesn't have the power to stop me any more," Dusk responded, "and if he's as wise as he claims he'll not argue the point with me any longer. Not if he wants to live."

"Confident Statement: So we will kill him now!"

Dusk thought for a moment, "No I think not Jax. He may still be of use to me."

"Confused Query: Have you gone soft Master?"

Dusk laughed loudly, "No my minion. I just want my victums to work for me before they die." He turned and waved for Jax to follow him, "Now come, we have much to do."

As the two walked back Dusk glanced over at the two Crusaders he had fought. One was now on the ground, dead, and in several dozen pieces, some of which were still bleeding. The other was frantically brushing at his shirt and pants, trying to brush off something only he could see. He watched as the batting motion the Crusader made worked it's way up his body until the man screamed into the air and finally fell silent, his body alive, but with no consciousness in it.

"Absent Query: What is wrong with that meatbag Master?"

Dusk looked back at Jax, then at the Crusader, "He was weak, and he tried to stand in my way."

Dray looked as Camus, Ares, Sinestra and Dante were all layed upon his feet. Thrown by the creature, now seething with anger, looking at them from across the room, almost as a predator studying its prey. Dray stood silent, and checked who was still alive. It seemed all the councilors were alive, thou Ares and Camus were badly beaten, and in quick need of medical assistance. The creature had suffered at their hands no doubt, given the prowess these two fighters had.

"You two cover the wounded." said Dray, not moving as he spoke the words

"Now now, dont go showing off too much. You'll make me look bad."

"Ill try...master."

Dray took a few step in front, his eyes fixated on the Crusader. He stopped, and picked up the long package he had been carrying thru out the fight. It looked heavy a bit, so it must of had some importance for him to let it weigh him down in the fights. He placed it on the ground, and crouched in front of it, keeping an eye for the Destroyer ahead. The package, with a close inspection, had an old look to it, an artifact of craftsman. There was a lock on it, but no trigger mechanism to open it. Dray closed his eyes, and waved his hand swiftly over the box. A click was heard, denoting that it could only be open by a Force Sensitive. And even then, the person would have to know how to open it with the Force. The container slightly opened. A feeling struck on the hearts of every one around, as if from inside the box, a breeze came that touched everyone inside.

The crusader looked at the Knight, as he was picking up something from inside the box. What came out, surprisingly, was an old object, tool, weapon. Something not used by modern times. A sword.

"What the hell is that?" asked Layfon, unaware of what the Knight was carrying. "It feels...powerful."

"Its a lil present that he arranged in his travels. They found the layouts of how to make one, and Dray decided to request one from the Jedi holders of the knowledge. It is very honorable to receive one. And very dangerous..."

"Oh, so i guess we weren't the only ones keeping some secret weapon material uh?"

"Yes well, the Jedi still have a trick or two under their sleeve. Althou, not many of us could ever weild that sword. And the few who could, would not weild it to its maximum potential. It was made in sync with Dray. Like a lightsaber crystal in tune with the user. Plus it feeds off of its user. It cant last long before the person gets tired and strengthless. That's why Dray is perfect choice for using it. He can sustain the most of all of us, so it lasts longer."

"Nice speech. Lets see your words be put in action."

"Wait and see."

It was no ordinary sword. It was still inside the holster, and like the package, it too, was heavily crafted with ornaments. The hilt was texturized with diamond shapes. And at the very beggining of the holster, a blue crystal, on each side of the blade, was imbedded, surrounded by metalic ornaments. from the bottom of those ornaments, a chain could be seen, that connected farther up the holster, to a similar disposition of this one, with the exception that it carried red crystals instead.

Dray took the hilt, and pulled the blade out. Wich sent quite a shockwave thru the Force. The area, was once drenched and weak in the Force, death surrounded the place, and any Force sensitive that was present knew that. But with the blade, it seemed as if the force energy had been regenerated, reinvigored. Dray stood up, holding the sword in his hand. His presence was now much stronger in the Force, rivalring the leader's strong presence.

The Crusader looked at him, eyes reflecting nothing but the vilest of feelings and thoughts. He turned on his single hilt. He wasnt small either. Like in the Crusader base event, the Dark Side had deformed him, to increase his size and strength. He stood with the height of a Wampa, and strength of a Rancor.

They stood for a while silent, and then, the Crusader charged on Dray, sprinting at unsurmountable speeds, closing in on him, jumping and bringing down his blade on the Knight. The shock of his attack lifted dust from the ground, thru wich only the light from his saber could be seen thru. When it dissipated, it was noted that his attack was proven useless, as Dray was holding the sword with one hand up, blocking the lightsaber from coming down on him. The Knight had not moved from his place, causing admiration on the Destroyers face. He then moved his blade quickly, and pushed back the Crusader.

"Hmmph." Now it was the knights turn to attack, and he flashed out towards the enemy, with one hand, fighting him off, clash after clash their blades collided. Dray was using intense aggressive attacks to take down the already wounded enemy, using his weaknesses against him. As the parries collided in a even faster succession, Dray suddenly flew above the Crusader, who swong his saber vertically, hoping to catch the Knights head off. Missed, as Dray had accelerated his jump with the Force and was already in the ground. Not in range of hitting the Crusader, he swung his blade. At the same time, the Destroyer started to charge on him, but was incapacitated, as a pwoerful Force wave went against him, pushing him against the wall. He quickly got up and charged again, and again, was battered by another Force Wave he couldnt stop. Dray was using the sword to send these waves. it served as a conductor of Force. It was a Force Sword, an object not seen for centuries now. It heightened the user's force abilities to a point where they could surpass any restrictions they had normally, and could channel Force attacks through it, intensifying them. It was a powerful weapon indeed.

The Crusader, in the third charge, was now prepared, and when the Wave came, countered with one of his own, cancelling each other out, followed by a quick attack on Dray. They were now flurrying blades, the giant strength of the Crusader was not enough, as Dray pushed aside his swings with only one hand on the hilt. The Crusader charged up the Force in him, to deliver a extra powerful hit, trying to break thru Dray's defenses. He Struck down diagonally on Dray's blade, and when he bounced off of it, he swirled and delivered the powerful blow he was charging horizontally, futile since the Knight dodged it. Dray then accelerated in speed, spun around the Crusader, who was now vulnerable from the attack, held on to his back and pushed himself upwards, in a movement so fast that even the Dark Sider with all the might of the Force flowing thru him, could not see. As Dray hovered above him, still clinging on to his robes, pulled down his blade in front of the Crusader, and impaled his chest in a downwards movement. The Crusader urged in pain as the blade came in and out. Dray completed his twirl above the enemy and landed in front of him, his blade now dripping blood. He shrug it off charging Force thru the blade that sprayed the blood off it. The Crusader was now holding his chest in agony, but Dray knew he wasnt dead yet. He still had more in him to give. Taking the unfathomed pain, the Destroyer attacked with all his might at Dray, stricking down his saber, and just like the first hit of their duel, it was blocked by the sword, held by one hand, as Dray looked into the Crusader's eyes. The being was raging in anger, breathing like a wild bull, trying to go thru the immovable Jedi. It was the end for him.

"I'm sorry." said Dray, as he held up his other hand, now holding the sword with both of them, and in what seemed a microsecond, pushed upwards, causing the Crusader's hand to go loose and push his lightsaber back. Once Dray's sword reached the highest point of the swing, he flipped it and pulled it downwards diagonally, passing thru the foe's neck, ending the swing on the floor, taking off his adversary's head in the process, the sword dripped in blood again. The body collapsed on the ground, rolling off the head of his enemy. Dray stood up and looked upon the now vanishing Force presence of what was once a formidable opponent. And in the end, it wasnt really his presence he had fought....

The knight exhaled finally, regretting once again the lives he took, as he always did after a fatal battle.

"Quite impressive..." The Sith'Ari was amazed and fearful a bit, of how the Jedi had this immense power kept secret all the time. A feeling passed on to the Jedi when they knew of the Sith capabilities as well.

"Most impressive. Goodjob Dray. I think we're done here..." Champ had picked up Ares and Sinestra onto his shoulders, and Lay was levitating Camus and Dante with the Force.

Dray holstered the sword back in, and placed it back on the box, closing it. The lock clicked again, and the area became calm again, as if the turmoil had stopped. They had wished for more survivors amongst the Jedi, but few of those were left in this Garden.

"There's a couple more of em alive. I'll take em." Dray said picking up the two other Knights who were wounded, unconscious.

The three departed the area towards the infirmary.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Iron sat guarding the people they were sheltering downstairs, he was surprised the Crusaders had not bursted in already. But in his mind he could only think about those who were losing their lives to save these lives.

Across the Front Garden, two leaders and a Knight carried their wounded fellows to receive aid.

In the other opposite side of the Temple, the leader of the Sith and one of his pupils rested after an astonishing battle, keeping their eyes peeled for any 'left overs'.

And all looked up to the sky when gigantic flashes lit up their view. The spaceships were burning, exploding.

The space battle was at an end. It seemed the last two Star Destroyers the invaders brought were at the verge of defeat.

Finally, Dray and the warriors arrived at the Infirmary, empty, with the exception of two figures, one putting the other in a bacta tank.

"Galarm?" said Champ, as the Force Warrior, quickly turned, a reflex of battle, but stood down when he saw the wounded being brought in.

"Hey guys...im glad to see someone else alive."

"Yeah, well we need to get these people into a bacta tank. Help us out will you?"

Dray was looking into the tank withelding his blue friend.

"How is Sarus?"

"He is...depleted of energy, but he'll live...he put up quite a fight, one like ive never seen."

"Yeah well, i wouldnt expect anything different from a Chiss..." commented Lay, looking for some patches to fix his superficial wounds.

Dray put his hand on the glass, hoping for his friend to recover, then went away to put the Knights he brought into their needed healing. Champion proceeded to place each Council member in a bacta tank too, for the exception of Sinestra who was just knocked unconscious. He laid her on a bed and connected her to bacta fluid to heal any inner damage.

After putting the wounded to rest, the 4 sat down and recovered. None of them was badly injured, but they could use some rest.

"Well...thats that. How are you Galarm? Do you need anything?"

"Nah im fine, just exhausted and some cuts and stuff like that. Nothing serious..."

"Thats good to hear...still, given your likelihood to be like my lil blue friend, im still gonna do some checking on you. You two have the annoyance to understate things. Sit still." Dray stood up and reached into the Force, using Force Heal on the Warrior who slowly recovered from the blows received in the battle with the Destroyer.

Into the Infirmary came bursting in the group that was covering the Hangar, along with a group of devious looking swordsmans. The 4 survivors looked at the entourage that had just arrived.

"Okay...and what is this?" asked Champion, surprised at first, but glad to see friendly folks for once, instead of mindless killers.

"Hey guys, you all feeling well?" said Thing, coming in front of the group, untouched, being probably the only one in the room who didnt go into battle.

"Yeah, we're fine. You?"

"Yeah, we had some wicked battle in the hangar." Thing said smiling.

"And who are these new friends of yours Thing?" Lay said, observing the swordsmans with a suspicious look.

"Oh they helped us out. This is Red and the gang. They say they know Xzav."

"We appreciate any help with this today. Thank you." said Champ standing up.

"We are glad to provide any help needed. This threat can no longer prevail in the Galaxy" spoke Red for his group, clearly the leader by the looks.

"I suppose everyone came out fine by your good mood?" said Champ in a whitty voice.

"Yeah, Ara got knocked out, but he'll be fine. Ptolemy has some scratches but nothing a cup of tea wont fix." Thing pointed back to him, where Ptolemy was carrying Aragorn, holding him by the shoulder.

"Im getting too old for this...get him to some healing please." said Ptolemy, who had carried his son from the Hangar.

"Thats good to hear. Let me take care of Aragorn then." Dray said, getting up having pratically finished with the Warrior, heading towards his old padawan "Nothing new to me eh."

Thing then held Dray's arm, eager to tell him something.

"What?" Dray looked down on the Knight.

"There is something important i have to tell you. In my Meditation, while i was aiding you guys...someone came in my mind. A Crusader. But this one was different. Completely different. I couldnt push him out, but i was able to resist him from taking over me. But he gave me a message...a message for you..."

"For me? What is it? Say it!" said Dray, intrigued and confused at what was going on.

"Well...he said 'Dont forget the past. It comes back to haunt you when you least expect.' Does it ring a bell?"

As Thing spoke the words, they had caused more shock and horror in Dray's face then any of the events of today. As if he was dead himself. His eyes were distant, looking for something that would never be there. Never again.

"Dray! What is it?"

"A ghost." The Knight sat down, thinking, his eyes distant again. The room was silent, afraid to break the silence.

And so the Sith'Ari spoke

"Well? Spill it out already! Whats this about boy?"

"This whole thing...its my fault..."

"How is this your fault Dray?"

"Kael...he's alive." Dray looked up in a snap, stood up and headed towards the door. "
Champ, Lay, come with me, we need to find Iron and Spanish. Now."

"Are you going to tell us what this is all about or not?"

"No, not now. First we gather, we regroup, we pull ourselves together and wait for the end of the battle. Then we plan...plan how to end it all. How to end this Crusade."

Dray stormed thru the door, holding back a bit to the door just to say "Take care of them the rest of you. Enough have died today because of me..." Dray looked into the bacta containing Sarus, then proceeded to the Alliance Council, where everyone was bunkered, a few floors down.

Champ and Lay hasted after the Knight, picking up on him, as the 3 disapeared from the Infirmary, leaving the rest of them in surprise.

"Well...im getting tired of these suspenses every 5 minutes. I guess we just wait. Wanna play pazaak Gal?" said Thing sitting back on a chair, taking out his deck off his pocket.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Do not be so afraid Iron."

"It is not fear. It is sorrow. I can only hope this all ends soon." Iron knew he had to keep his morale up, he was the example others would follow if battle emerged. Yet it was so hard to see people of your life be cut off in front of you.

A noise came thru the center commlink of the room, where a Sith picked up the call.

After babbling, he turned to the Grand Master

"Its the battleships sir, they are sending a message for you."

Iron rushed to the comm, where in the screen came a familiar face, one that put a smile in the old man.

"Baz...how relieving to see you."

"Sir, i would just like to say...the Crusader's last ship has been defeated."

IronRat could finally breath, the tide of the battle was now unturnable.

"Ill check on the ground troops here. Goodjob Baz, all of you. goodjob."

"Always a pleasure, Master."

Iron stepped away, and turned to the elevator.

"Im going upstairs. I do not sense much commotion up there, the battle is at an end. Almost all Crusaders are defeated. Stay here and guard the civilians gentleman."
Iron said to the Knights and Lords that were downstairs accompanying him. He called the lift, and took it up to the surface.


On the topside, Spanish and Servillus were now scavenging, looking for any possible enemy and friendly survivors. Both tired, but still capable to overwhelm any enemy that might have escaped thru their blades in the first waves.

"Looks like these Crusaders got majorly owned."

"Indeed. They put up quite a fight thou. Well. These last ones did." commented Serv.

A Crusader jumped off a tree trying to ambush the two, but was kinetically held by his throat, and crushed , collapsing his lifeless corpse on the floor.

"Pityful..." said Spanish.

They proceeded thru the scattered corpses here and there, a depressing view that of after-battle, one that could affect any warrior.


Iron came out the Alliance Council Chambers, and looked upon the area. Some bodies were scattered, but the worst damage came from both ends of the Temple he felt, where the battle was really fought. Some jedi and sith sat around, resting, or taking care of the wounded, more dead then alive some...It was something that affected Iron deeply, but he could not let it hit him. He needed to be focused. He directed himself to the Hangar side of the Temple, where Spanish had been directed to protect the entrances.

"Lets see how well did my counterpart perform..." thought the Master as he dashed towards them. But stopped by hearing his own being called.

"Iron!" from the opposite side, three figures came, calling for him.

"Iron, wait up its us." said Champ.

The three enclosed on the Grand Master, who was relieved to see them alive.

"Ah, its good to see you all intact."

"Likewise old friend, but Dray here needs to say something important and urgent. Where's Spanish?"

"He is on the other side like planned, he must have finished up by now. Seems we have something more urgent is it Dray?"

"Yes Grand Master, it would be best to assemble the leaders at the Council Chambers here."

"Ok. i will prepare it and send someone to call Spanish instead."


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The four leaders sat in their respective place, but it was sad to see half the Council missing, laying in the Infirmary healing wounds. Bazariel was there too, having landed from a shuttle, the fleet still in space on guard for any more surprises.
There they awaited Dray's message, who was standing in front of the Council.

"Before i came here, before i arrived in this temple, i was a padawan in Coruscant. That is why i have traveled to the planet and close to it many times, because i am from there. But you already know this. What you dont know is why i came here. We, me my master and my fellow padawan, went to investigate some New Sith Remnant reportings in Dathomir. We investigated, and found a temple. A Sith temple. The temple surrounded a tomb, wich was the center and possibly reason for that temple to exist."

"So you encountered Sith there?" asked Spanish.

"No, we didnt. The truth is, the Temple itself was Sith. Its walls were corrupted, its air was corrupted. We entered the tomb, where a statue with a medallion was standing at the center. Me and my master were investigating the surroundings, checking for any dangers, we had not noticed that my fellow padawan had been drawn by the medallion, and was now inches from taking it. My master saw it and tried to stop him, but he had already...taken it.
Then the medallion sparkled, activated by the touch of a Force Sensitive, and sent a shockwave every direction. It began to...corrupt the padawan. It turned him into the darkside, just...like...that. This medallion was the true meaning of the Sith teachings. it wanted only destruction, true darkness. He was...mad."

"This medallion must of been very powerful to be able to do this." noted Iron.

"It was. It clearly had destroyed all Sith that were there, and the Dathomir Witches had not come close to it, fearing its consuming power.
My fellow padawan, attacked my master. Slayed him. Easily. I turned on my lightsaber and rushed at him while he was focused on my master. I tackled him, and his Force Lightning hit the ceiling. The temple was old, and decaying. It would soon be ruble. My friend pushed me thru across the room, near the entrance, where a falling rock almost killed me, but i dodged to the exit, he rushed at me, but i Force Pulled him back as the ceiling collapsed between us. There was no way he could have survived. And when i returned to Dathomir, during the trip i took off, as you all know, i wanted to go prepared. That is why i came here, why i traveled in search of wisdom and training to temples. i wanted to be ready to overwhelm him and help him. But The Temple was gone. there nothing left. i could feel nothing...I thought him dead. And i was wrong. Kael is still alive."

"Somehow, i feel these Crusaders have something to do with that." retorted Layfon.

"He is their leader. The Dark One. Their master. He has learned how to syphon lives thru the medallion, and is brainwashing the galaxy to serve or die. And i must stop him."

"Very well...that is all?"

"No. I want to say...im sorry. This whole Crusade...it is me he wants. Kael wants revenge on me. And because of me, people have died."

Champ leaned forward in his chair, and spoke to Dray. "My pupil...do not blame yourself for this. This is the doing of the dark side. You are a victim of it. I saw you fight today amongst us. And i am proud to have called you my padawan. But you are right. We must end this, and i have a feeling you know where to go. And so we have no choice but to let you end it. Do what is necessary, take who you need, and end this madness."

The rest of the Council did not blink or show any doubt. As if the Force had told them all how things would proceed, and all accepted this fate for the Knight with no doubts.

"Thank you Masters. I wont fail you. Goodbye."

"May the Force be with you." said Iron.

"May the Force be with you." retorted Dray, who went out thru the door.

Dozens of dead bodies lay around the brothers, who were beating with sweat and muscles worn almost to the edge. Around them there were still as many crusaders as they could see, but out of all of them one stood out, easily two feet taller than the rest, in a gold cloak, was the crusader Daygall warned about.

“STOP!” Yelled the golden cloaked figure. Who had a rusty shine to his cloak and the robes underneath it had a dark aura, pitch black and inevitably dark presence around them, but never surpassing the golden cloak, like it was a shield that held in the darkness and focused it. He pulled out a saber with a jet black hilt and ignited it, a black blade pierced the air. “Now, we shall see who the better is.” He spoke as he walked towards the brothers. Stepping over dead bodies he spoke. “For I am Baelzar, Darkness incarnate.”

“No. Impossible. You aren’t him, I killed you, 5 years ago I killed you. Red, Me, Shana, Kongel, Albert. The council killed you! We killed you!!” Kelrock spoke, fear and pain in his voice, matched with determination is his eyes. He remembered that day, that day forced the academy to the ground and him into hiding,

“But I am, this is where you were wrong, I eluded you, you thought you and your precious piteous brother was safe. Ill tell you this, I didn’t die that day, you did!” Baelzar yelled back at the older brother.

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5 years ago.


“Kongel, you ready for this muscles!” Red said pumping him up. To the massive human, who was incredibly strong, almost superhuman in his appearance, clearly had been focusing his mind and body for a fight as such, he stood as tall as any other human, just stood stronger and faster, his muscles being reinforced by working out. He dressed and had the look of a barbarian. Two belts diagonally across his chest and loose pants.

“Hell yea, how bout you Shadow ninja!” Kongel said as they exchanged pet names. Looking over at red, in his prime, he had been tone and defined and quicker than any other human the council had seen. In his dark ninja outfit.

“Oh, you two are on the opposite ends of the spectrum yet get along so well.” Shana said in her white radiating robes with a bow of light stretched across her back and two white swords strapped across her back. She was the youngest on the council, only 16. Yet fought harder and better than most twice her age.

“muscles and movement. What more is needed?” Kongel said, a easy joke. And was quickly answered by Albert.

“Try me. And Miss range over there.” Albert said as he took down a spear and slung it across his back. And threw his green light saber into his belt, he had the look of a classic Jedi master. Brown robes with a lighter brown undergarment. The spear was his favorite weapon, it was a spear of old style, with a handle about two feet long and a blade two feet long. It looked like a spear of old and what the spear came from, but it suited his style perfectly.

“And who are we leaving out? Oh yea, me.” Kelrock said, the newest champion of the academy. He would be champion for one day. They all were preparing for a deadly opponent who they knew wasn’t even half a hour away. And coming for them.

“Yea yea. Cut the small talk. We are about to be in the fight of our lives. This could be the end or the beginning , its up to us to decide.” Red said. They all were ready, and stood in the council chamber. The academy was busy as normal. Young knights running everywhere, older knights and masters meditating, none of them knew the imminent death that awaited them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Coruscant a small ship landed, and 7 figures left the ship in large brown robes. Nobody thought anything of them as they all hopped on speeders and sped off into the night.

As they approached the academy, they threw off there brown robes, and instead there were 2 black robes swelling with darkness, corrupting the air around them, these were the destroyers. All scarred from previous battles, the third was the most frightening, a figure stood out, not as tall, but a feeling around him didn’t corrupt the air around him, it annihilated it. He wore a golden cloak which prevented the spread of destruction by some mysterious force and on the inside was pure darkness with a black undergarment. He had no markings of war, only death. The other four were merely the elite sorcerers that were handpicked by baelzar.

The seven stopped at the gates of the academy, all ignited there sabers, 6 blood red and a jet black hilt with a red blade protruding from the end. The academy was rapidly going on lockdown, the outsiders were about to become the survivors of such a encounter. The council looked down from the council chambers as chills ran threw there spine. They had been dreaming it was all a nightmare but preparing for it nonetheless. Then like some mysterious presence, more and more crusaders appeared out of nowhere at the gates, to the point where there was at least a hundred of them. They all ignited there red sabers and stood at the gates.

The academy, scared to death not knowing anything about this and not knowing how it went undetected, prepared itself for war, 250 Jedi strong. The durocrate gates were blasted open by Baelzar with a single push of his hand. The force channeled threw him and focused couldn’t be stopped by anything. Then they blew down the doors into the academy to meet the first hundred fighters waiting for them. It was a hopeless battle,the crusaders started pouring in. The first 25 had no chance and were cleaved threw like they didn’t exist. The young knights but up there best started strong, killing a few, then there arms became heavy and the best they could do was block a foe to be cleaved into peaces by another. They had no chance, as they were thrown up into the academy the shocking amounts of instant annihilation was eating away at Shana. Her emotions felt every kill. Then they started, it almost seemed like, they were pushing the fodder back. The elite troops seemed like they were being fought back, then... then the sorcerers appeared and worked some dark magic, revitalizing the troops and joining the fray themselves. The numbers were beginning to even out, but the Destroyers and Bael walked into the fray, and at that moment, all hope was lost.

Baelzar was at the tip of the spear, every Knight who dared stand in his path was killed, then 3 masters stepped in. They all fought in sync with each other, and there only goal was to slow his path of destruction, they were the only people on the second floor, four of them. One long hallway, they had trained as a three, and the best they could do was just bock a swing and hope somebody else could swing around and catch him in the back. The first try was hopeless and the guy who went to flip over Bael was blasted threw the ceiling. Meanwhile a second when to lunge at him and found a black saber stopped him in his tracks and forced him off. The third tried to strike from the right as the second cut from the left, Bael blocked the swing to his right and forced it into the third saber to his left. Brushing both there sabers aside, then sent out a wave of lightning shocking them both and sending them across the hallway slamming them into the wall, both of them falling limp, the third master jumped from the hole that was created by him and he swung his saber over his head straight at Bael’s back. Bael spun at the last second and stepped to the right and held his saber straight up as the master fell on it.

Bael continued his journey up the academy with a destroyer on either side of him, the other four where vanquishing the Jedi on the ground floor, One had fallen by a guardian. Who had used everything he had and was instantly killed right after his fight by two others. The 4 sorcerers at the bottom had met the second wave of 100 Jedi along with 50 of there own crusaders, This time they were trained knights, masters and a few guardians. They held up a far better fight, even scoring some hits on the a sorcerer and even killed on. But none-the less were still falling, after about 50 of them had fallen in battle they had scored enough hits and glances on a Sorcerer that he began to slow and instantly 3 masters jumped at him, he only moved fast enough to kill 2 of them, the third swung and took off the sorcerers head. Now there a handful of elite crusaders left on the ground floor, sadly there was only about 35 Jedi there too. It was a massacre still in progress. The last thirty five became thirty, then twenty, then 15, then The second sorcerer fell along with 20 of his own crusaders, by the last 15 elite warriors. They had seen only death, and are staring death in there eyes. 15 on about twenty crusaders and a sorcerer. The fifteen were all masters save 3 guardians. None of them had faced a Sorcerer before today. They didn’t know how good there opponent was until three of them were dead, then the guardians ran in, Swinging and slashing in a Djem-So form, Wildly and as strong as possible, The first was cut down the other two had there sabers cross there its chest, there names were Anshin and Seto. The Rest of the Jedi were battling the last twenty, three of them fell in the process, they saw a fake image of victory in sight. The other 10 survivors now inhabitated the academy, Jester, Daygall, iceman, drake, Talac, Pyro, were some noteworthy ones.

Meanwhile Bael and his two destroyers walked into the council chamber. There was a dead silence broken by Kongel saying. “We meet again, my friend, or should I say, my old rival.”

“Say your death!” Bael spat back at him, and charged. He started the encounter with a few flurries of Makashi Which were blocked by Kongel, they were locked in combat to the death, those two, while Red and Shana took on one of the destroyers and Albert and Kelrock took on the other.

Bael’s flurry carried Kongel across the floor, the chamber’s edges where the scene of the two battles on either side, the center being the stage of a awesome fight between the two leaders. Bael switched to Djem-So to hopefully catch Bael unprepared for the more powerful blow, but fortunately he caught on and switched to Soresu and parried the blow and then switched to a Shii-Cho maneuver with devastating moves to push Bael back across the chamber. Then hopped back and started slowly spinning his saber in a full circle behind his back continuously, then he started to speed it up as Bael rushed him, Bael came at him using a vapaad tactic, swinging his first attack far before be met his opponent and spinning carrying the momentum into what would’ve been Kongel’s chest but he brought the rapidly spinning circle behind his back in front of him in a fraction of a second as a slice to Bael, catching him lightly in the chest and blocking his strike. Bael turned, unfazed by the glancing strike, and reached out again with his saber this time faster with less force behind it, and as it was blocked he twisted his body and struck out at Kongel’s unprotected back, Kongel ducked as the saber went over his head.

He then brought up his fist to Bael’s jaw. With a force that would kill any other man, Bael just stepped back, then with a smile of pain and agony on his face rushed Kongel once again. This time he flipped over him and swung out at his legs, which quickly hopped out of the way and the green saber matched the black in a lock at the center of the chamber. Chaos ensuing around the two weary battlers. On the right side Albert and his Spear along with Kelrock and his silver saber against a destroyer, a twisted rodian with incredible strength that pierced even the strongest of warriors, Albert ran towards him flipping his spear like an ax as he brought it down into the crusaders saber, as Kelrock slide beside the two and took off one of the crusaders arm. The crusader then turned and blasted Kelrock back against the wall. Albert blocked a few strikes with his spear then backed up and pole-vaulted with the aid of the force and his spear, kicked the destroyer in the chest, knocking the destroyer back a few meters, Kelrock recovered and jumped onto the destroyer plunging his saber into the destroyers heart, but was blasted off before the saber made contact, The destroyer quickly jumped to his feet and knocked away Albert’s spear before it made contact then twisted and hit it again knocking it free from his hands. Albert quickly drew his saber and made a soresu style which was quickly broken threw and overpowered by the destroyer as he brushed aside the saber with a single swing and sent lightning into Albert’s torso launching him threw the chambers window and to his death by falling. However before he got a chance to lower his arm Kelrock cut it off and with a second swing parted his head from his chest. Killing the first destroyer.

He ran across the room to the second destroyer who had just blasted red out a window, but just as fast as he fell threw the window a grapple latched onto the bottom of the windowsill and propelled him back into the fray. Shana withdrew her bow and pulled an arrow from her quiver or white lacy arrows with the force imbued into each tip, a master Fletcher she was. As Kelrock met the crusader in saber dueling, occasionally he would step back and there would instantly be arrows protruding threw the destroyers chest. Eventually after the third arrow the destroyer turned and used the force and his rage to speed his actions and lunged at Shana which flipped her out of the broken window, she landed on the roof of the third floor. Presumably dead. Indefinitely incapacitated, nobody had the time to check on her, Right as this took place Red threw three knives at the destroyer, first to his hamstring to get it to look at him, the second to his forehead, the third in threw this throat. The destroyer dropped to its knees, then to the ground as Red’s sword spun threw him thrice, first for vengeance, second for fury, third for his lust over Shana. The destroyers end came instantly.

The Lock between Bael and Kongel had just ended as all this had happened, and after going back and forth several times, Bael won the lock and pulled Kongel to him as he lashed out with his saber. Before it scored a his on Kongel’s torso it reached a green saber first, The green and black met again, sending a bright light throughout the chamber. Kongel kicked off Bael to propel himself back, it sent Bael to one end of the chamber and himself next to the shattered window. Kongel anticipated the next move, so he bit, and walked to right in front of the window and stood there.

“Are you that stupid? Or is it your pride that will lead to your death?” Bael asked, not caring for the answer. He sent a blast threw the force at Kongel, who knowing he had no chance at killing his old rival, one from a rivaling academy of Sith, a academy he destroyed in hatred. He was the Dark lord of his own academy of the approximately same size. He clearly came back with a vengeance, and a purpose to end him, so he decided his last vow would kill both of them, putting the madness to a end. He waited, didn’t even raise his hands to block a blast, he waited for it to cleave him, send him flying.

“DO IT, KILL ME!!! But it will end you too.” Kongel said, As the wave came flying at him, hopelessly launching him threw the shattered council chamber window, right before he was ejected from the room he used the force to send Albert’s spear threw Baelzar’s chest, which speared him and spent him flying threw the other side of the chamber, two great warriors fell. Both presumably died.

“Well, that was hard fought, and, oh my god--” Red was cut off by the sound of the academy closing in on itself, on the way down Baelzar had used the force to break everything he could instead of crushing his fall giving him the slightest sliver of a chance at life. “The academy, is… falling to rubble, all that’s left is for you to hold onto me and to grapple out of here.” And that was exactly what the two did.

-----------------------------------

That was the past, this is now.

“At the expense of his life, Kongel died to save ours, he didn’t believe we could fight and kill him then, I don‘t think we will have much more of a chance now, except now I have something else.” Kelrock said.

“Yes, he did, in vain. Sadly, neither of us died from that fall, and I killed him after it, oh and Shana, she didn’t die either, in fact I couldn’t find her anywhere, even in the force. Me and Kongel had a very harsh duel but he was already weary and could barely life his hand to stop my lightning let alone my saber.”

Kelrock pointed over to his blood brother. “This time, I have him!!”

Sarus pushed his wet hair aside and looked out over the rock to the field beyond. It was dark and raining, visibility was low, but the object was still easily seen in the distance, a small compound, consisting of six buildings and a large main gate lit by flood lights. The only guards that could be seen were a dozen at the main gate escorting a variety of species all shackled together, shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Disgusting isn't it?" Kami asked from beside the Chiss. The Sentinel's medium hair was plastered down his cheeks and neck giving his face a weary look, like a man down on his luck and tired of seeing the atrocities of the Galaxy. "Slavery has been outlawed for centuries, but see if that stops anyone," he spun around and ploped to the ground with a sigh.

"In the Ascendency this would never happen," Sarus replied, turning his attention back to the prisoner escort, "but then again we have less trouble passing security measures. In a culture where everyone notices every little thing there is no such thing as personal privacy."

"Even with all the rule-breaking, I wouldn't change a thing," Kami answered with a grin. "People need freedom to make their owns decisions, even if they're the wrong ones."

Sarus looked back at his Master, "You sound like you've had experience with that."

Kami's brow furrowed, "Dwell in the dark side long enough, and you'll experience every evil that can be committed. Most are done with good intentions," the man stared at the ground, silent for a few moments, concentrating on something that even as a Chiss Sarus could not work out. The Sentinel face loosened and he looked back up, "But that's a conversation for another time. Right now we need to concentrate on the task at hand," he looked up over the rock again and surveyed the field. "Tell you what Sarus, you'll need to make many decisions like this if you truly want to become a Jedi Shadow, so you make the call."

The Chiss looked back at the compound a couple hundred meters away and surveyed the lay of the land. The compound was situated at the base of a small basin with rocky slopes surrounding it on all but one side that smoothed out and let out onto a larger plain. The basin itself would be virtually invisible until you were right on top of it, and if, by chance, you did manage to stumble upon the one viable entrance, you would find yourself face to face with the barrel of a blaster rifle before you could even let out a gasp of surprise.

"The main entrance obviously isn't an option, too much security there," Sarus answered pointing out the hastily hidden defenses, "which means we'll have to come in over the rocks. There's always a posibility that they've mined the slopes though." The Chiss paused and put a hand on his chin, thinking about the possible points of entry, all the while his Master remaining silent to let the Padawan think it out for himself. "The only predictable path is that gradual slope over there, but it's only predictable in that we know it's defended. A distraction would allow one of us to get past, but the minute they figured out there is a Jedi on the premises they'll run."

"So stop thinking like a Jedi," the Sentinel responded.

Sarus bit his lip, thinking hard. A Jedi relied on their reputation and abilities to level the odds against them. When you had a reputation of being a one-man army, a lot of foes would just surrender or run. The problem was that slavers were always fight or flight responses, they either believed themselves superior or they saved their own asses. You had to trap them all at once, make it so they had absolutely no escape, before you dared engage them for fear of not catching everyone. So how would a pair of Jedi do this? "Don't be Jedi...."

The Padawan turned to his Master, "We play to their superiority. Let them capture one of us at the entrance, and have the other follow behind with a Force Cloak. The Cloaked figure can sabotage systems while the captive distracts the guards by making a break for it.

Kami nodded, "Correct. Slavers are paranoid, but they're not smart. They only expect a threat from outside, once they identify one, they stop looking for another." The Sentinel ruffled his Padawan's hair, "Never forget that Sarus. Never forget life outside the Jedi. That is one of the great weaknesses of our Order, we think too internally. We may have an advantage in our skills, but even that can be overcome if our thinking becomes predictable, and that is when lives are lost."

---------------------------------------

Sarus opened his eyes. He could see the medical chamber around him, distorted and shifting as it hadn't yet decided what shape it wanted to be. It took him a moment to realize he was floating in a bacta tank and the distortion was just the bacta itself. He heard a soft chime and felt his body being lowered as the fluid drained from the tank, he knew it would take a few moments before the tank would open and let him out so he took off the breathing mask and took a closer look at the room.

It was dark in the room, the lights were out which most likely meant it was night outside. To his left he could see an assortment of Jedi and Sith, most faces he had seen, but didn't know personally. To his right were more bacta tanks holding a good portion of both the Masters and Dark Councils. Across from him he saw a very familiar form lying on a bed with an older man sleeping beside the man. As his focus drifted back to the front he finally took notice of the only conscious man in the infirmary, Thing.

The bacta in the tank empied entirely and the lock on the tank opened, allowing Sarus to step out. His body felt much better now, but he still wished that someone would have had the common sense to put a shower option in the tanks to wash off the excess bacta. A miracle drug it may have been, but a comfortable one it was not. He shookhis hands to shake it off and noticed that Thing was offering him a towel and apparently trying to talk to him. Must have some lodged in the ears, he thought tapping his head to get the fluid to pop out, which it finally did with a pop. The sudden influx of sounds, even in the comparitive quiet of night, was still a little startling, "Sorry Thing, I didn't catch all of that."

The Knight sighed, "I was trying to tell you what's happened since you went unconscious, let you know the Academy is battered but still here."

The Chiss smiled, "Yes, I can see that." He nodded to indicate Aragorn and Ptolemy as he dried the residual bacta off himself, "What happened there?"

"Aragorn got knocked out, but he seems alright. That's more then can be said for the Councilors."

"Yeah what exactly did all that?" Sarus asked reaching for his robes, "I mean they're not exactly weak people."

"Multiple Destroyers," Thing answered looking over at the tanks and zoning out, "Five of them, at once, granted in different areas." He looked at the Force Warrior, "In fact, I remember sensing one in your area, then not sensing either of you. I would ask you what happened, if I thought I would get a straight answer." He let the subject drop, "Anyway, the Councilors were caught off-guard by one of the Destroyers, many of them were taken down before they even realized anything was amiss, and the others were too preoccupied to do much more then injure it."

"At least they're all still alive," Sarus pulled his robe across his chest and fastened it, "so what happened?"

"Well Dray managed to finish off the injured one, Lay and Champ took out another, and one was unlucky enough to land right in front of Spanish and Servilous."

"The Force was on our side then," the Chiss replied walking towards the exit and waving Thing to come along, "although that does still leave one unaccounted for."

"Yeah, that one is interesting..." Thing trailled off. "Better if you just see for yourself."

Sarus was intrigued by the statement, with all that had gone on recently he wasn't sure anything could really live up to 'interesting' anymore, but he let it go. "Where are our leaders by the way?"

"Being briefed by Dray on something," Thing shrugged, "he didn't tell us anything, he just rounded up the Alliance Council and called or a meeting. They've been in there ever since. Speaking of which, where exactly are we going?"

"To the Luck I feel something is pulling me there."

--------------------------------------------

Sarus stepped up the ramp of his Blastboat, already with a good guess as to what had been drawing him here.

"Ah Sarus, I was just about to come see you," Dray said sitting in the Navigator's chair.

Sarus walked up the ramp and sat down in the tactical station, directly across from Dray, "We both know that isn't true my friend. The Force brought you here just as it did me, obviously there is something you wish to discuss."

Dray smiled and looked down at the lightsaber hilt in his hands, "Maybe I was just trying to talk myself out of it..." he trailed off and looked at the Knight still at the entrance to the ship, "Could you go and get Aragorn and Ptolemy, Thing? There's something we all need to discuss."

Thing, for all the childish comments and attitude he could take, was, at heart, a Knight very talented at reading a situation, and so made no argument when asked for this favor by Dray. He simply nodded and slapped the control that sealed the hatch from outside.

Sarus turned to his friend, "You're troubled, that much is obvious, but this issue runs deeper. You're more bothered then I've ever seen you before."

"Have you ever failed to bring someone back from the darkside?" Dray fiddled with his lightsaber absently as he spoke, "I mean truly failed to the point where there is absoutely no hope they will ever come back?" When the Chiss didn't respond he continued, "I have, once, when I was still but a Padawan. I tried to bring him back to the light, but by the time I realized it, he was already corrupted to the core."

"You blame yourself. Why?"

Dray tightened his grip on his lightsaber, "I fought him, won even. I thought I had killed him, but I didn't. I left the job undone. Not only did I fail to bring him back, I failed to finish him, and stop all this madness."

Sarus tilted his head, confused, "What does your friend have to do with the current crisis?"

"Didn't you ever think it odd? How a man as powerful as this 'Dark One' could exist when the Council cannot sense him?" Dray asked, "For all intents and purposes he just appeared with all this power and influence. Throughout history only two others have had so much influence as to control any army, and both were significant figures in history."

Sarus leaned back in his chair, chewing it over. Honestly he never had thought that far along, he had just assumed one of the various Dark Lords had taken up the mantle, but now that the thought had been brought in front of him, it was odd. Palpatine and Hett had been able to keep their identities and intentions a secret for quite a while, but their covers, the identities they wanted others to see, had still been very public. Sarus had heard of and even seen the Dark One on more then one occasion, but he had never been able to decipher the man's identity.

Then the realization hit him, "Wait, this Dark One, is your old friend?"

Dray smiled, "I thought Chiss were supposed to be perceptive? Yes the Dark One is my old fellow Padawan, Kael, on a mission he came across an amulet, a powerful artifact of Sith Sorcery. When he touched the amulet he... changed," the Knight stared off into the distance, "he was twisted, warped before my very eyes. It was still him, still his mind, body, and prescence, but he had changed. I can't explain it entirely, he might have been influenced by the power, or driven mad by the lingering prescence of the Sith that made the amulet, I'm not sure. What I do know was that he didn't hesitate to attack my Master and I, and it was only by the will of the Force that I managed to win out."

"And now we're going back to finish things," Sarus finished. "It won't be easy my friend, it may take years to track this Dark One down and finish him. He has an army to hide behind, and all we have are a couple hundred allies to aid us."

"We will succeed, the Force is with us." A knock came from outside the Luck, Thing had arrived with Ptolemy and Aragorn. "Could you keep this between us for now?"

The Chiss nodded, "I will tell them nothing, but you won't be able to keep this from them for long. Now that you know, you'll let little things slip. unconscious things, and our allies are not stupid."

"I know, and as soon as this is done, I will, but they may not fully understand the need to kill Kael if I tell them now. You're a Shadow though, you know better then most that some people are beyond redemption."

Sarus nodded and watched Dray walk to the hatch and open it, "Hey guys, conference time!" The voices fadded as the group walked to the Chikita. The Force Warrior remained behind for a moment and grabbed the charger for his lightsaber. He had almost forgotten it was still on his belt, he wasn't proficient in it's use at all, but in the upcoming battle he couldn't afford to be picky. Is this what you meant when you said not to limit myself, Master? I don't want to cross that path, but I will if it's necessary to save my friends. You came back, I can too. The Warrior attached the portable charger to his lightsaber and rushed off to join the others.

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Dray paced in front of them in the Planning room aboard the Chikita. The group was sitting waiting silently for the Knight to inform them of the mission they had been assigned, even Bazariel was waiting via holo-comm transmission, his ghostly figure standing at ease. "Ok basically we're heading back to the Crusader planet to continue the attack as originally planned," Dray finally just blurted out. There was no other way to put it.

Ptolemy raised a brow in question, "We just got done fighting for our lives, and two thirds of the Academy is dead. What exactly are we going to be attacking with?"

Bazariel coughed to get their attention, "The Dark Angels have graciously offered services for both orbital and ground attacks, as well as a small group of the... ninjas."

"Ninjas?" Sarus asked, surprised.

"Long story," Thing answered. "Well actually not long, just confusing."

"That's not much of a Strike Force," Aragorn replied getting back to the topic at hand. "We barely survived their attack on us, how can we think of retaliating with less troops then we defended with?"

"Thanks to the intelligence Ptolemy and Sarus gathered we have a much better idea of their overall troop strength," Bazariel responded, his image fading to be replaced with a blue print of the main base the team had infiltrated on their last mission. "From what we can tell, they over-dedicated resources to the two attacks on Dantooine and JvS, their overall troops for this outpost is a tenth of what it was."

"And unlike the attack before, we know exactly what we're facing, and what strategy they'll use," Dray waved at the projector and a scematic of the Ion weapon appeared, "The only Wild Card is this weapon that we encountered on our first journey. It has the potential ot leave any space forces defenseless."

"I take it that's where we and these ninjas come in?" Sarus suggested.

Bazariel's hologram re-appeared for a moment, "Yes, because the Chikita is equiped with a modified stealth and shield drive it will be able to enter the system undetected." A hologram of the planet appeared and a small speck fell in a second later, "The Chikita will enter the system with a small group of fighters and attempt to disable the Ion weapon." The holo went back to the weapon schematic and a station mid way along the rim and a few levels down was highlighted in red, "The room shown holds the charge capacitors that, if disabled, will render the weapon useless for at least a day."

"Destroying equipment that large is no easy task," Ptolemy commented. "I doubt we could sneak in with enough explosives to put it out of commission."

"That's why we're breaking the teams down to group of three and four, each with a Force Warrior or Sith Assassin skilled in Force Storm," the projector zoomed out and four entrances became highlighted in yellow. "Each team will enter through a different point and work towards the center. If you are found, you must engage the enemy in an attempt to draw attention from the other teams."

"Will Force Storm be enough?" Aragorn asked, "It's a powerful technique, but these capacitors can store enough energy to completely disable all electronics on a planetary scale."

"Assassins and Warriors are trained so heavily in the Force that they do not require a weapon," Sarus answered turning to look at the Knight, "if Storm isn't enough, they'll find another way."

"So I assume, after we've disabled this weapon the cavalry will arrive," Thing commented, but we'll still be outnumbered and out-gunned, fighting an enemy on his own territory. Not the most ideal circumstance."

"The battle itself is a diverstion," Dray replied.

"That's a lot of resources to dedicate to a diversion," Pto interjected, "if attacking isn't the point of this, then what is?"

"The Dark One," Dray answered. "If we can take out the Crusaders' leader, they will fall into disarray, and may even snap out of it entirely."

"So I assume we're taking Champion or Layfon then," Aragorn responded. "No one else could hope to win."

"No," Dray answered, "I will be the one fighting the Dark One, alone." The Knight lifted his hand to forestall argument, "I'm the only one that can fight him, I can't tell you why, but I'm the only one that can resist his influence in combat."

"Does the Council know of this?" Thing asked.

"They're the ones that suggested it," Dray sighed. "Listen, I know I'm asking a lot of you, I'm asking you to trust in me and my abilities and I won't give you a reason. I wouldn't blame anyone of you if you left now." He waved his hand to the hatch and waited, but no one made a move.

"We all have our secrets Dray, some deep, som shallow, and we've all, everyone one of us, respected the privacy of our allies and still fought beside them." Sarus said, "We won't abandon you now." Dray looked around at the faces of the others in the room, each mirroring the Chiss' sentiments in the way they looked at him, "All we need to know is when we leave."

Dray smiled, "Now."

------------------------------------------

Dray flipped the switches on his control board, warming up the engines, and powering up the repulsors. He looked over to see Sarus at the tactical station and Thing manning the comms. He flipped a switch to open the intercom, "Everybody strapped in back there?"

The comm was silent for a moment then a tired, irritated voice came back, "Would it matter if we weren't?"

Dray lifted the Chikita off the landing pad and eased her out of the hanger, pretending to think while he did so. "Hmm, nope," he pushed the throttle to the stops and felt the ship rocket out of the atmosphere. Once in orbit he commed Bazariel, "Once we get in, give us six hours to sabotage the weapon. If we haven't succeeded by that point, we never will."

Baz's voice came back over the comm, all calm certainty, "Understood. May the Force be with you."

"And with you," Dray answered, then the ship disappeared into hyperspace.

Ptolemy opened his eyes and flipped his legs up and over his head propelling his body backward off the cot he was laying on, landing in a crouch with his right foot in front and most of his weight on his left his back against a wall. ‘Where am I?’ he thought as he looked around the room. He was the sole occupant of the small and dimly lit room. The wall his back was against was cold and felt metallic. He struggled to remember the series of events that led him to this spot and it seems that the last couple of days were a blur. Last thing he remembered was ducking in to a dive of a bar on Coruscant. He sat down at the bar; he felt a pinch on his neck…

‘Sith spit’ Ptolemy said out loud he was drugged and brought here, where ever here is… Ptolemy slowly felt along the wall until he found the door and there were no controls. He closed his eyes and expanded his consciousness to detect any living thing that may be out side if the hall. He turned his attention to the locking mechanism on the door. The mechanism was very delicate but the bolt was strong. Ptolemy took a step back from the door, all the while probing the mechanism for the tripping point. He snapped a pin and the bolts shot back into the door with a bang. Ptolemy raised his hand and used the force to push the door to the side. He walked forward and stepped through the door into the hall way. He found that he was on a freighter from the state of the passage this was not a military ship. There was paint chipped and peeling on the walls and ceiling while the deck was worn down to bare metal. There were small puddles of oil and hydraulic fluid on the floor and grease smeared in spots on the wall and, from the rattle of the deck plates, they were in route to somewhere.

Ptolemy looked up and down the passage again and headed toward where he thought the engine room would be. Not really having a plan just making it up as he went. Slowly he approached a corner and flattened himself against the wall as he heard approaching voices.

‘Friggin brains of a Gundark’ Ptolemy heard Guard 1 say ‘You know this stuff lasts 5 hours before they start to wake up!’

‘Hey I had to finish the diagnostic on the hyperdrive and weapons systems.’ Guard 2 retorted ‘Dreck for brains doesn’t care about the slaves he wants things to work…’

He was cut off as Ptolemy grabbed him with the force and slammed him against the bulkhead knocking him out cold as the guards rounded the corner. The other guard drew his blaster and felt it ripped from his hand as he was pushed into the bulk head. Ptolemy gripped the blaster and continued down the corridor he reached out with the force again and snapped the necks of the two guards.



Ptolemy’s eyes snapped open and he looked around and tried to get up. He found he was strapped down and strained against the straps with the aid of the force. The straps snapped with a loud pop and Ptolemy rolled out of the chair and looked around then with a touch of surprise at the ignited light saber in his right hand. The shortened crimson blade cast a garish light illuminating the dimly lit room. ‘The Symbol of a Jedi and tool of the Sith.’ Ptolemy thought wryly still not sure why he held on to the weapon.

**BEEP, BEEP**

The console beside the chair was beeping at him. Ptolemy switched off the lightsaber and reached out a shaking hand and levered himself up from the crouch he had landed in. he then pushed the blinking button.

‘Hey! You awake? I think you could sleep through Armageddon.’ Aragorn said ‘And you know you snore right?’

Ptolemy chuckled and looked at the shredded safety straps ‘Yes I am awake’ He put a shaky hand to his brow. ‘I will be right with you’ He stepped to the fresher and splashed water on his face and cleaned up a little then headed for the common room.

The room was crowded there was Thing, Sarus, Aragorn and Dray. There were several men in dark tight fitting clothes and hoods pushed back from their heads. Crossed on their back were, what looked like, a pair of swords. Ptolemy recognized them as the men that had saved his bacon in the hangar. Another Jedi he didn’t know and a couple of Sith leaned against the wall trying to appear nonchalant. There were 13 people in all.

‘OK’ Dray said over the dull roar of conversation. ‘Now that the old man has graced us with his presence, OW!’

Ptolemy had reached across the room with the force and grabbed a hold of Dray’s ear. ‘Respect your elders’ young man’ Ptolemy said as he applied just enough pressure to cause a bit of pain. The Sith in the compartment snickered as Dray’s head was pulled to the side. Ptolemy let go of his ear and leaned against his staff.

‘ow, OW… OK!’ Dray said rubbing his ear. ‘That hurt!’

Ptolemy looked at dray with amusement ‘Respect’ he said and the room erupted in chuckles.

Dray chuckled and touched a control on the Holo Table. A map of the facility housing the Ion Canon sprang into being. ‘OK here is what we need to do…’

“You really think you bro can kill me? You really did lose it didn’t you?” Bael breaks up laughing. “Well, either way, hes about to die, and your about to die.” He unhitches his red light saber and ignites it.

“Just keep talking why don’t you, atleast these are finally coming out!” Kelrock unhitches his green light saber and ignites it, “ITS GOING DOWN!” Kelrock charges Bael with a strong Djem-So style, slicing wherever possible yet always being blocked, then he decided to change it up a bit and fight Bael’s Soreso with niman. Making Him jump the parry, then Kelrock capitalized and went in for the kill, what would’ve been one of his fastest duels ever, had it not been for a massive force blast that smashed him against the wall.

“KELROCK! Didn’t Daygall tell you to stay away from him? Why are we fighting him?” Xzavier asked his brother, “Don’t fight him Xzav, just run, and run like hell!” Kelrock yelled back, picking himself off the wall. “No.” Xzavier said with cold eyes, fire running threw his veins, and sweat already beading down his face, “I will not run, I will stand my ground, like you said, its going down!” Kelrock watched in disbelief, “NO! DON’T Xzav, little bro, your gonna die if you fight!.” Xzavier was to busy, he already recalled his brothers saber and held them both, into his Jar’Kai form, then started slowly walking towards Baelzar, “Stupid little fool, silver and green will never kill red.” Xzavier smiled and said “But red will.” Bael, shrugged it off, not understanding what it meant.

Xzavier picked up the pace from a slow walk to a jog, then to a sprint, rushing towards death, war, and to battle, but most of all, rushing towards vengeance, Bael just waited for him, and took a even stance, a simple Shii-Cho. And waited as Xzavier closed in, 15 meters to 10, then 5 meters, then Xzavier jumped, and brought down his green saber from the right as it was blocked then switched the silver saber to a backhand as he hit Baels saber with that too, then as he came back around from the spin Bael capitalized still gripping his saber he shot lightning back out at him, Xzavier waited until the last possible moment to shoot lightning back at it, pushing it back at the sudden surprise of his enemy, almost all the way before Bael reacted and pressed it harder, pushing back and forth until finally Xzavier flipped and disengaged the green saber and held the silver one in a Juyo stance. Readying himself for the next charge. Xzavier looked over to see his brother slipping threw the labyrinth to talk to Daygall. Then looked back over at Bael who was preparing himself for his apparently dark side enemy.

Xzavier with fire in his eyes and tears rolling down his face got up and charged again, this time he flung out the saber, the sliver blade being deflected off to the side as it was followed by lightning into Bael’s chest. Bael got up unphased with sparks coming off his cloak and burn marks everywhere, he gently walked forward and decided to make his move, as Xzavier charged again, with the silver saber in backhand, he rolled underneath Xzavier’s swing and bounced up behind him, swinging down threw flesh had it not been for a fast spin from Xzavier who held it off with all his might, sweating like a pig and dying under the heat. They he ignited his green saber and went to cut his open enemy. Bael turned and swept away the green saber with a single swing, carried the swing with a spin to block the silver blade. Xzavier jumped back as Bael took on a frenzy rushing him and swinging madly all with precise accuracy. Xzavier’s only hope was to keep backing up and block the strikes that came near him. Then he realized how close to the wall he was getting and started thinking threw a plan.

There’s now way I can beat him using brute force. There must be another way.

Wait… If he keeps up this frenzy to the wall, Xzavier glances over to his brother, who was now on his feet and slowly quietly walking over to his green saber. That just might work, He blocked another swing that came a bit to close for his liking. I’m not going to have much time if he keeps it up at this pace, but ill try my lucky anyway. Then as Bael struck out again with lightning speed and precision, Xzavier blocked the swing and twisted his body as close to Bael as he could and he round housed him in the chest. Knocking him back several meters. Score, but moves like that will only make him stronger, they wont end him.

Bael, picked himself off the ground, and flipped his saber to a backhand position as he sprinted towards Xzavier, Shooting lightning as he ran. All Xzavier could do was hold up the silver light saber and hope it would hold it long enough. Then Xzavier jumped back onto the wall and used it to propel him at Bael’s charged. Bael turned to dodge the swing and cut at Xzavier’s open back and scored a glancing blow across his lower back.

“Weak fool, you cant hope to destroy me, this was a suicide mission. You were to nearsighted to even notice it” Bael was mocking Xzavier.

“I will not give up, I will not run, you will die, by my hand, my brothers hand, or the forces hand, someday someone will end you.” Xzavier was in sudden realization this would be his best fight and his last fight, but proud to fight it alongside his brother, who just ran over and helped him to his feet. The brothers looked pathetic, defeated, and desperate. Sweat pouring down there faces, Bruised, and Xzavier had a scorched lower back. “Xzavier, we can do this, even if we die, it will be for a purpose, just trust in the force, or your anger, whatever that will let you keep fighting use it.”

Kelrock stood up and turned to face Bael. “You think this is already over, your wrong. This will not be our end, but yours.” Kelrock turned his head to the commander. “Either way, this ends here.” Kelrock ignited the family heirloom and the green blade shot out. “You are nearsighted, and never were the man to think outside the box.”

“Oh, but I always have, even when you lead that charge against MY chambers, even when you destroyed MY academy, even when you were brave enough to challenge ME, you lost. I found the strength to make sure I NEVER lose, even though you come back stronger. I thought outside the box alright, I’m beyond reckoning now.” Bael spoke up, smiling underneath his battle worn face. He started the dance of death with Kelrock, as they walked in circles around each other, studying, waiting, watching for the precise time to make there move.

Xzavier had backed himself against a wall where he could observe the battle and start his slow recovery, eyes glued on the spar going on in front of his eyes. Kelrock made his move first, coming in with a strong djem-so style swing, but not quite. He forced Bael to step to the side as Kelrock instead of traditionally following through with the swing, changed style in mid-stroke. From Djem-So to a more elegant Ataru as he put a burst of speed on the stroke and changed directions, forcing Bael to jump back. Kelrock quickly capitalized on the poor judgment by lunging out and Bael on the arm. Not enough to take it fully off, but enough to render it useless and create excruciating pain. Bael recovered with but a wince or pain as he pushed the green saber aside and kicked Kelrock back to the wall. It made a devastating thud as he fell.

Out of the corner of his eye Bael saw something, something he didn’t like. He turned his head to see a silver saber and raised his own to block it before it cut out flesh. Xzavier had rose and mustered all the strength he had left, and then some he didn’t know even existed, renewed by his newfound power he won the clash against Bael and began a relentless offensive. Bael wasn’t worried, he just kept thinking to himself to let his foe grow weary, let him tire, strike when the time is right. Bael backed up blocking the strikes with ease but nonetheless gave away ground. He saw another he didn’t like, the wall, it was coming faster than he anticipated, so he had to settle for a front flip over Xzavier. Not the kill blow he wanted, but it would let him reverse the roles. Xzavier, knowing what his plan was the second Bael jumped, dropped into a Soreso form and turned to block the strike meant to kill.

Xzavier went to parry but dropped back when he felt the pain shoot threw his back. “Kelrock, get Daygall and run, and run like hell, cause hell will chase.” His older brother took heed, instead of rejoining the fight he raced down the spiral staircase leading down in the middle of the room. “He wont make it out alive, not after I’m finished with you.” Bael flourished his saber and laughed. He could taste his slaughter nearing.

“I’m convinced you wont finish him.” Said a man who appeared from nowhere, “Not in hell, not now.”

The air rippled and warped, and wind whipped the forest of the planet into a frenzy of activity. The Chikita appeared suddenly, as if a veil hiding the ship had suddenly fell and the ship drop onto it's landing struts softly. The hum of the ship faded as the repulsors shut down, and a hiss of hydrolic vapor let loose around the edges of the landing struts.

For a moment the only sounds to be heard were the ticks of the metal as it cooled, and the rustle of leaves as the breeze blew through. Then the ramp lowered and a pair of voices could be heard repeatedly screaming "OW" as an older man walked down the ramp dragging two Jedi Knights by the ears ranting, "What the kriff is wrong with you two?!"

Sarus rubbed his ear, "What? We didn't hurt him or anything."

"We were just helping him with his grooming," Dray added.

"By shaving his head with a LIGHTSABER?" Ptolemy screamed rubbing the bridge of his nose as if trying to soothe a head ache.

The two looked around the old man and up the ramp into the ship where Thing stood running his hand over a scalp as smooth as polished durasteeel slowly mouthing, "My hair....."

Dray smiled, "Well he won't have to worry about getting it cut for a while." The two accomplices started laughing again.

Ptolemy rolled his eyes and grabbed their lobes through the Force, soliciting another round of pained yelps and appologies. The Initiate sighed and released his grip, "Honestly, how you two ever managed to become Knights is beyond me." He threw his hands up in surrender and stalked back into the ship to get his stuff, sliding by a still shocked Thing.

Aragorn walked by looking confused, but not surprised, "Is there any particular reason you guys did that?"

Sarus stretched and checked his equipment, "After spending three days cooped up on a ship where no one has a sense of humor you're lucky we didn't do more."

Aragorn's eyebrows shot up, "Like what?"

Dray and Sarus looked at each other. Sarus shrugged and went back to checking his belt. Dray sighed, grabbed the former Marauder's lightsaber and turned it upside down. A gelatinous fluid seeped out slowly around the emitter, the sight causing Aragorn's mouth to hang open. A mouth that was still open when Ptolemy came back down the ramp and saw the fluid dripping down. Ptolemy just shook his head and sat down to check his own equipment wondering all the while why he even bothered scolding the two.

--------------------------------------

After an hour of checking equipment and a dozen "pranks" found, the group was finally ready to go. They stood in a loose circle a dozen meters from the Chikita, with Dray standing in the middle. The circle was already split into four parts, with the members of each team already split and standing together. "OK so a quick review," Dray started, "Team One, Aragorn, Ptolemy, and Sarus will take the North route with the heaviest defenses. Team Two, Thing, Galerm, and Drake will take the South route with the longest range, but least defenses. Team Three, Tiw, Darkenar, and Swift, and Team Four, Seto, Anshin, and Pyro will take the East and West Routes respectively, these have the most obscure routes, but the ones with the best hiding spots. I'll be going in alone, and for security reasons I won't disclose my path to any of you."

"Yes, we know," Thing spoke up, irritated, "we've gone over this almost a dozen times. Can we get going already?"

"Why are you in such a rush?" Aragorn asked.

"I bet Sarus a thousand creds that my team would get there before his," Thing replied off-handedly.

Aragorn looked back at Sarus questioninly. "What? Just because this is a vital life-threatening mission means we can't have fun with it?"

"Yes, that's exactly what it means!"

Ptolemy patted Aragorn on the shoulder, "Let it go son," he lowered his voice. "He's doing this to lighten the mood, get Thing's mind off the severity of the mission. The boy may be a Knight but he's still just a teenager."

"I was just a teenager when my sister and best friend were taken from me."

"And do you want Thing to experience what you had to?"

Ara was about to reply, but realized what his father was saying. "Let him keep his youth as long as he can," Aragorn said in a barely audible voice.

Pto nodded, "The Force knows he will not be able to keep it much longer anyway, let him have his time before he has to learn the harsh reality of the Galaxy we live in."

"You two done?" Dray asked.

Aragorn looked down and Ptolemy turned to Dray, "Yes. I believe our team is ready to depart if we're done here."

Dray nodded, "Your destination is a couple kilometers off still, but it's by far the closest of the four entrances. May the Force be with you."

--------------------------------------------

The three stomped through the woods. It was night already and had they not had the Force to aid their sight they would have been lost long ago. The forest was alive with the sounds of animals that had scattered from the group's landing hours ago, the sounds a strange mix of both the familiar and unfamiliar. "This place gets bloody creepy at night," Thing commented as he picked his way through the dense foliage.

"Really? I can't imagine why. We're only on the home planet of a group of Sith who believe in the total destruction of the Galaxy," Gal replied sarcastically. The Force Warrior was a meter ahead of Thing, picking his way over large obstacles and pushing small ones away with the Force.

"It's not so bad, you just have to stop thinking of darkness as bad," Drake responded half a dozen meters ahead of the two Jedi. The Ninja was squating on a low branch and scanning the area to get his bearings and check for surprises, "Darkness is an inevitability, all light will go out at one time or another and darkness is always waiting to take it's place."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better," Thing said hoping over a fallen tree.

"No kidding," Gal commented, "sounds like an omen, and not a good one."

Drake swung down from the tree and landed in a crouch on the ground, now simply a black mass against a dark green background. If they hadn't known he was there, they would never have been able to tell the difference, "Don't be such cowards. Stop thinking of light and dark and just think of what is and what isn't. There isn't Light to help us, so we need to use the thing that is here to our advantage, the cover of night. You can fear it all you like but it won't change that it's there."

Thing nodded absently, "Remind me again why we can't just Force Jump our way there."

Galerm shook his head, "You feel the base off in the distance right?" Thing nodded, "Well if you can sesne them, then that means if we use the Force too much they'll be able to sense us."

"Yeah well we won't be of much use it it takes us too long to get there either now will it? Odds are Teams One, Three, and Four are already inside the base and on their way to the objective. If we don't get inside that base soon we won't be able to help them."

"You mean you'll lose your bet," Gal replied. Thing just stared at the Force Warrior.

"Don't worry, we're only a couple meters from the edge of the forest," Drake spoke suddenly turning left and disappearing from view behind a bush. The two Jedi followed and found themselves at the fence circling the weapon and a dead guard at their feet, slashed across the neck. The two looked up at their Ninja guide, and the man just shrugged, "He saw me come out, had to take care of him. Besides, the attack will occur long before dawn, they shouldn't find the body."

The Jedi walked around the body, careful to avoid the blood slowly pooling around the dead Crusader, "Any ideas on how to get in?" Gal asked accessing the fence to make sure he could jump it.

"Through the doors," Drake replied jumping the fence in a single smooth motion and landing in a low crouch on the other side.

"Brilliant!" Thing exclaimed saracastically, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're sane," Gal answered joining their guide over the fence.

"Best way to neitralize a threat is to make sure they cannot, under any circumstances attack you again," Drake explain running low to the ground with Galerm and Thing following closely behind.

"Kill them, ingenious, no wonder we needed your help," Galerm said rolling his eyes.

"Actually it is a good way to do things," Thing responded. "Kill your enemy, as you move, and eliminate everyone you come across. Keeps your enemy from attacking and keeps them from finding the bodies of their comrades."

"Providing you can keep up with the number of opponents you'll face," Galerm replied. "It's not easy to kill people without anyone noticing."

"Believe me I wouldn't be doing it this way except for the fact that our route has a low traffic rate and this way is the fastest way to get to our objective," Drake answered.

The group reached the rim of the weapon and crept along the wall until they saw the faint outline of a pair of guards at the door they were to use. Drake didn't even consult the two Jedi, didn't give any indication of what he was about to do, he was just suddenly air bourne and coming on the two, a sword in one hadn, knife in the other. He came down and threw his knife, impaling the guard on his left in the head, then spun and swing his blade, decapitating the other.

Galerm and Thing joined the Ninja without a word, and pushed open the door into the facility. Galerm looked around and reached out, but sensed no one nearby, "Coast is clear, for now. Let's move before anyone gets curious."

“Not in hell, not now!” The voice rang threw Bael’s brain like a pendulum. He felt like he knew the speaker, but he turned his head to see a man clothed in black. “So you seriously think that you can kill me alone, all by yourself, with nothing but your pathetic little sword.” Bael mocked him, not showing any emotions of bafflement.

“Sure, just because you asked.” The man winked at the brothers than vanished into thin air. He just disappeared, Bael closed his eyes and tried to sense the man with the force. He saw nothing, panic set in.
“You cannot kill what you cannot see, and for now you see nothing.” There was a mighty flash of white and that was the last heard before his world went black. The man, suddenly reappeared next to the tattered brothers. Like he materialized out of thin air. He started tending to Xzavier when suddenly he winced, and dropped to his knees and grabbed his head.

Bael was fighting his own battle inside his head, He tried to clear his mind of pain and regain conciseness but it was to no avail, he found himself in a world of white. This was something that he had never experienced or heard of, he looked to his belt and saw his saber clipped to it. He walked down a long bridge with nothing but air on either side of it, a small flat concrete bridge that looked like it lead to a large platform down the path. Nothing better to do while he was out of his state of mind, Bael traveled the path, he looked left and right off the edge of the path and saw all of the Jedi he slaughtered in his life, he almost felt proud, like a memorial to himself. But it became clear the farther he walked the path, the angrier these faces became, and then he looked forward, and froze.

“YOU’RE DEAD!!” Bael screamed. He stared Kongel straight in the eyes, who had already ignited his saber. “You may be right about that, but it doesn’t mean I cant kill you while your in this state of consciousness, I you die here, you become disconnected from reality.” Kongel smiled, and flourished his blade, mocking Bael and goading him to charge. Bael, full of fury and might, withdrew his saber and sprinted. “I WILL END YOU FOR THE LAST TIME!” Followed but a blood-chilling scream, not by his opponent, but by himself as before the swing made contact, Kongel disappeared. “Not yet.” a voice inside his head screamed.

Bael peered down the path and made out the outline of Kongel on the large platform in the distance. Bael started to run, as hard as he could, not caring about the faces of his rivals staring him down, then he stopped and looked ahead, this time he saw the man dressed in black again, clearly identifiable against the white world. “YOU DID THIS!” Kongel screamed and charged. “Oh come on, your not even gonna ask why? This Is terrible.” The man spoke in a mocking tone. “It makes no difference, a dead man is a dead man. And that’s what your about to be.” Kongel said, finally cooling off. While he was settling himself down, the man spoke. “You clearly never were a thinker, well, I guess once upon a time you were, but know anger is driving you, to proove it watch.” The white world slowly at first, turned to a light pink, everything turning darker, almost to a red, then finally it became a blood stained crimson color. “This is what you have done to yourself, and its not going to end the way you think.”

Bael, couldn’t do anything, he just walked and pushed aside the man, determined to make it to the platform in the recently crimson world. No, he was not scared, possibly deranged, but no, nothing close to scared. He had nothing that would stop him, nothing to hold him back, he ran threw the man and all the visions, the man disappeared as he touched him and was at the platform. Bael was quickly closing in on the platform, using his mind to aid his speed, he decided he had no time for games in his mind, but only for ending this, and he sought out killing the fools in his head to end it.

As he got to the platform the first thing he did was ignite his saber, then he unleashed a massive force wave, hoping to knock the two Jedi, Kongel and the man, off the edge of the platform. This was about precicly the same time the man winced in the real world. Clearly he absorbed the blow in the world, not in his dream, after all he had sent him there.

“This is your final destiny, its what you’ve always wanted, to fight all your foes in the same room at the same time. Well, were floating in the sky of your imagination. And your getting that fight!”

Ptolemy made a mental check to insure he checked all of his equipment. It was a bit late since they had left the Chikita. He looker to his left at Sarus and beyond him at Aragorn then back to the front at the fence. They had decided it would be best to wait till night fall to attempt to get in to the facility unnoticed.

‘Right there’ Ptolemy said pointing at a spot on the fence that was darker than the rest. ‘The guy turned and tripped right into the fence, I could not have had a better distraction if I had planned it.’

‘Beefed things up since then’ Sarus noted watching the bee hive of activity.

The area had changed. It was much better lit and the number of roving guards had increased. There was construction that had been started and never finished that looked like an attempt to fortify as well as several automated turrets that were now in place.

‘Is your friend still around?’ Sarus asked looking at Ptolemy.

Ptolemy closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment and grinned. The cry of a large animal could be heard in the distance. ‘Ahh yes’ He said ‘He is close and hungry…’

Aragorn looked from Sarus to his Father ‘That sounded big,’ He said ‘What is it?”

‘A distraction’ Said Sarus ‘hopefully it can keep these folks busy long enough for us to get inside’

At that moment a creature crept up and lay down behind Ptolemy. Standing 3 meters tall at the shoulder when on all four feet, it had a deep green pelt that looked to consist of small feathers interlocked and lying flat across its body. The feathers seemed out of place as there were no wings on the creature though it had an angular face clawed feet and a wickedly curved beak. Ptolemy patted the beasts neck and looked at the rest of the team.

‘He will offer a strong distraction’ Ptolemy said but when I set him loose it would be well that you not get in his way, he will not distinguish between our enemy and ourselves’

‘What needs to happen then is to send him down the fence and let him loose’ Sarus nodded ‘There is a place about 50 meters north that several patrols converge, he has a few minutes to get there.’

Ptolemy nodded and turned away from the beast which nudged him in the back and turned and trotted north along the fence. At a certain point the animal turned and silently leaped easily over the fence. The first attacks were a complete surprise as the beast uttered no growl or warning. 3 of the guards were dead and the beast settled down to feed. The alarmed cries of the guards echoed across the compound as most of the guards ran in that direction firing blasters. The beast roared in pain and sprang at his tormentors and began to fight for its life. Sending several flying and ending the lives of some in one swipe of its massive claws. The spot lights in the area swung to cover the scene as more crusaders were drawn from their posts to try to handle the beast

Unseen three shapes flew over the fence as quietly and effortlessly as the beast had done before. One of them stopped and watched the melee as the beast reared on its hind legs and crashed down, scattering a dozen crusaders and crushing another. The figure then turned and followed the others in to the building as the auto turrets opened up eliciting renewed howls of pain from the creature.

Sarus closed the door gently as Ptolemy stepped through the door. The three traded glances and quickly found a side passage that seemed to be less traveled. Ptolemy found a data terminal to access and got refresher on the layout. Then he placed a data card in a slot and waited for a moment there was a beep and the card popped out of the slot. Ptolemy grinned at Sarus who rolled his eyes. Aragorn mouthed ‘FOCUS’ and the trio made their way deeper into the citadel. Several times the trio had to duck into alcoves or hallways to avoid groups of crusaders and several times Ptolemy repeated the process of placing the data card into slots in data terminal.

The trio passed the stairs that Ptolemy used to penetrate to the control room before. Their target was deeper in the bowels of the citadel. Sarus led them through passages and past doors that were laid out identically to those they passed before. The group came to a stop before a lift and Ptolemy reached out and hit the call button. Sarus looked around for several long seconds as they waited for the lift. Then the lift doors snapped open and they were face to face to a group of crusaders.

Dusk was deep in meditation, floating inches above the floor in a simple black robe that draped down off his body and pooled on the ground beneath him. It had been a month since he had been captured by the Crusaders and joined them as the Dark One's new pupil. In that time he had learned many new ways to inflict pain and suffering on his enemies, and insubordinate minions, he had learned well the art of manipulation and the value of misguided followers. His powers had grown far beyond the level he had thought possible, and with that power had come a measure of maturity and understanding.

The Sith could feel the dark power inside him, a corrupting power that could easily over take him if he did not keep a close watch on it. The power he could now wield was greater then the Dark One's, greater then the whole of the Crusader army. He could crush them with his ability, or trick them into fighting themselves, but now that he knew what he held, he also knew what he did not.

Dusk knew his strength was great, but he also knew there were those stronger then he. Sith and Jedi with far more knowledge and experience then he had power. If he was to ever take his rightful place as the most powerful Sith in the Galaxy, then he needed time to consolidate his power, time to learn new techniques, archives to plunder, knowledge to glean. There was only one way he could get this power, and that was to overthrow the Dark One, take the man's forces for his own, and send them on a rampage throughout the Galaxy to distract the many Academies and Enclaves.

But before he could do any of this, Dusk first had to confront the weakness within himself. The one speck of light left inside of him, that threatened to overtake him daily. He would never be able to fully exterminate the light, it was a part of him, the original part, that was vital to his own existance, but that didn't mean he couldn't break it down, and force his will upon it.

Dusk closed his eyes....

-------------------------------------

He opened them again and he was once again back in the JvS Great Hall. The hall was immaculate once again, and completely vacant save two figures standing at the head of the long wide corridor. The Sith immediately recognized his alternate personality Dawn leaning on the desk, holding his sides in pain as if he had not yet had time to heal since their last fight. But standing in front of Dawn was his true opponent, a man in white robes and a black cloak holding a pair lightsabers, one in each hand.

As he watched the man in white lift his hand and Force Pushed Dawn away into what would have been the Temple's Guest Rooms had this not been a farse constructed by his own mind. Once the Jedi was safely in the hall beyond, the door slammed shut and locked in place.

"I must thank you for that old man," Dusk began as he walked towards the man in white, "you've done half my work for me, locking up that puny Jedi."

"You will not break him Sith," the man answered walking forward to meet Dusk halfway, "even if I fall he will not."

"You really think your barrier can stand against me?" Dusk came to a stop and smiled broadly, "You may have been his Master, but I am his Keeper."

"You will fail Sith, as you always have."

"Not this time old man," Dusk ignited his lightsaber, "not against a dead man, not again."

The man ignited his lightsabers, "You can't kill me boy, I am already one with the Force, but then you know that, as you have always known who I am."

"I know who you're supposed to look like, but you are not Kami, you are merely the Jedi's feeble defense trying to make a figure imposing enough to stave me off, and it almost worked. But my mind is prepared now, and this time, you will fail."

Dusk attacked bringing lightsaber down in a powerful overhead, and being blocked, then redirecting his aim to attack the side of his opponent, and attack again blocked, but just barely, "What's wrong Kami, tired?"

"Just patient," the Sentinel kicked out, catching Dusk in the gut and sent him reeling back a few feet. The Jedi spun his blades in his hands and rushed the Sith, attacking right and left in a blur of deadly light, pushing his opponent back farther and farther until the boy ran out of room.

With his back to a pillar and a furious Sentinel in front of him Dusk had no choice but to jump to avoid getting limbs and possibly worse cut by the rapidly spinning lightsabers. The Sith landed behind the Sentinel and threw Force Push into his defenseless foe, sending the man into and through the pillar, causing the material to crumble. Dusk backflipped out of the way as a slab of durcrete came careening out of the debris at his waste and quickly erected a Force Barrier to deflect the other miscellaneous pieces, "Is that the limit of your strength 'Master'? How pathetic."

The Sentinel stood, pushing aside debris still atop him and stared at his opponent, "That was just the warmup my old Padawan," he let go of his lightsabers, letting them float in the air inches beyond the reach of his hand, "now we go to the main event." The blades began spinning freely, building up speed, but still maintaining the same distance from his hands, even when moved.

Suddenly the Jedi attacked, jumping and pushing his hand and subsequent lightsaber, at the Sith. The blade launched without warrning, cutting easily through the floor where Dusk had been standing a moment before, and looping around to attack again. Dusk side-stepped the attack and spun, lashing out with his lightsaber as he did, and watching it rebound of the Sentinel's other spinning blade. The Sith backed away and launched a stream of Lightning at the Jedi only to have his attack caught on the Sentinel's spinning lightsabers.

Kami smiled and pressed the attack, bringing his blades in, down, around, and up, attacking in every conceivable way, and even throwing the sabers a few times to catch the Sith off-guard. It was all Dusk could do to block the vicious attacks, and found himself dropping into an intensive Soresu stance, never even considering attack, concentrating only on blocking the next blow so he could continue breathing. He eventually fell into a trance, for how long he didn't know, an eternity, a few minutes, it was impossible to tell. All he did know was that in the end he found himself tired and holding himself up only by sheer force of will, with Kami doing no better.

Soresu was an endurance Form, it could extend a Jedi's energies immensely, and to be so exhausted from such a conservative Form meant that they had to have been going at it for well over a half hour. It was astounding that anyone could keep up such an intensive offense for so long. If this was a figment brought forth by Dawn, then the puny Jedi had more power then Dusk had ever given him credit for. It seemed impossible, but the only other scenario was equally impossible, that this might actually be the Force Apparition of Master Aardvark, hidden inside the mind of a teenager for years. Whatever the answer, it mattered not, he was an enemy, and a powerful one at that. He must be dealt with.

Dusk lifted his lightsaber and swung at the exhausted Sentinel, having his attack blocked, but just barely. Renewed by this promising sign he pressed his attacks, each time the Jedi got slower and weaker, blocking more often and dodging only when no other option presented itself. It turned into a tedious wearing away, a great battle reduced to game of lightsaber tag.

Then it ended. Dawn's next attack hit both the Sentinel's lightsabers with such force that they were knocked away. The Jedi stood slumped over, heaving with each breath. Dusk brought his lightsaber up under Kami's chin, not quite touching the skin, but leaving the blade close enough to be uncomfortably hot. The Jedi looked up, "Any last words?" Dusk asked.

"You have beaten me, but it's already too late," the Sentinel answered, "he is out of your reach, you can no longer threaten him."

"You were his protector 'Master' without you, he is nothing."

Kami smiled, "So you think, but he is far more powerful then any of us, especially you."

Dusk sneered and cut, slicing through the Sentinel's neck. He watched, satisfied as his foe's body toppled headless to the ground.

--------------------------------

Dusk opened his eyes and was once again in his room on the Crusader planet. It was getting dark outside now, with the sun just barely skimming the horizon. He was soaked in perspiration and breathing hard from an imagined exertion, but his meditation had remained intact through the process, for he was still levitating above the floor. Amazing how much easier things are with those fools out of my head, he thought looking down at his hands.

He stood, and felt the strain it put on his muscles. The fight may have been in his head, but his body was the thing that was exhausted. He shook it off and headed into the 'fresher to wash up. He could sense that his time to act was drawing near, it wouldn't do to be in such a condition for his grand ascention.

---------------------------------

Dusk was stepping out of the refresher, drying his hair with a towel and walking towards his dresser when the door chime rang. Annoyed the Sith quickly grabbed a pair of trousers and hobbled over to the door. It opened with a whoosh, and a group of three Crusaders stood outside.

The Sith leaned against the door frame, gripping it to avoid lashing out in annoyance at the disturbance. These men could still be useful, he would not kill them until he was sure they couldn't be used, but he didn't need to let them know that. "You have a good reason I assume?" He asked slowly, tightening a loose grip around the neck of the one in front, "Or are you just looking for a quick death?"

He had to give the man credit, he didn't flinch at the grip closing around his neck, "I have a proposition for you Lord Twilight. Could I come inside?"

Dusk tightened his grip, cutting into the man's air supply, "How about you just tell me where you are?" When the Crusader didn't make any pleading gestures or attempt at answer he relented and waved the three inside. As they passed Dusk noted that all three were heavily armed with lightsabers, hand blasters, and even a few thermal detonators. It was a lot for anyone to carry, but they must have known he would see the weapons, and now that he had, that the weapons wouldn't aid them in the slightest. They were either incredibly stupid, or planning something they needed his help for. He suspected he already knew the answer but he played along anyway, "Congratulations on having enough balls to gain access to my room," he slapped the panel and the door slamed down and locked in place, "now you better have the intelligence to leave alive." He leaned against the wall across from them, his lightsaber resting on the night stand just a foot away, "I don't take kindly to people wasting my time."

The front man stepped away from his friends, "I assume this room is bug free?" Dawn just stared at him as if he had suddenly grown daft until he continued, "Yes well, I think we have a common goal. The desire for new leadership. We both know the Dark One is growing weak, he is not as ruthless as he once was, and he is becoming cowardly, but you." The man drew closer, "You're just what we need. Powerful, ruthless, driven by power. You can do what the Dark One can do with half the effort and twice the power."

Dusk smiled to himself internally. He had guessed right, not that it was so hard to guess why three heavily armed and highly skilled Crusaders would be coming to talk to him. If he agreed to join them, they wouldn't be able to go back to the armory without their cover being blown. They believed they would need everything they could get their hands on to overthrow their leader, and they may very well have been correct, but they didn't know what Dusk knew. And he was just fine leaving it that way, "You want me to be the new Dark One?" He asked playing the part of an idiot cohort.

"Yes, you would be the figure head, the man with all the power, and no one would ever question you! Meanwhile I can run all the minor tasks for you, stay in the shadows and run things for you!"

By the Force he's a complete idiot, and what's worse he thinks he's briliant, Dusk thought, using every bit on concentration to keep himself from laughing at the pitiful conspirator. "And what would be the name of my co-conspirators?"

The man smiled, "You should already know me Lord Twilight. As for my allies, think of them as your elite body guards."

Dusk smiled with the man, nodding along like a pair of little boy who've just placed a tack on their teachers chair. Then his patience with the man broke and he planted the man against the wall with a Force Push and held him there. The two Crusaders attempt to jump to the aid of their idiot leader but stopped short as both felt a blaster at the back of their heads, "Advisment: I would not do that meatbags."

Dusk turned to the group's leader and finally recognized the man as the one that had tortured him for so long when he first came to the planet. What had been his name? Left? Leg? Lehel, "Do you take me for a kriffing moron Mister Requis? Do you really think I am so stupid as to be your puppet while you manipulate events behind my back?"

"I..." the man struggled for breath, "meant no... offense... Lord Twi..light..."

"Oh don't insult my intelligence," Dusk sneered, "or what little of yours there is. We both know you wanted me to take over for the Dark One to draw the fire while you held all the power in the background. You didn't count on me anticipating your plot, which is what makes you such a pathetic manipulator, but I do still have a use for you and your minions."

The Sith released his grip and let Lehel fall to the fall, gasping for air. "I apologize profusely for trying to trick you my Lord," the man spoke, rubbing his sore throat.

Like Xendor you do, Dusk thought thudding down on a chair beside the bed. He had a use for these three, so he wouldn't break them... yet, "I'm going to give you one option Mister Requis. You can become my right hand man when I overthrow the Dark One, you will do this one way or another, but you can keep your free will if you do not resist me."

"Of course Mi'Lord," he said with a deep bow, "what is your bidding?"

"Send troops to the base's outer perimeter, as many as you can without drawing suspicion, then disable the comm system and join me at the Lower South Junction."

Lehel tensed, "What about the Dark One, Lord? We will not be able to hide our intentions for long, should we not act now?"

"Oh I won't be killing the Dark One Mister Requis," Dusk replied, summoning his lightsaber hilt ot his hand, "there is another that will do that for me. Not that he knows that."

------------------------------

"Didn't we just come this way?" Thing asked.

"If we had would he be there?" Galerm asked back pointing at a Crusader that was at the moment having his neck snapped by Drake.

"Oh, good point," Thing replied absently as he looked around the hall they were in, "these halls all look alike." The corridor they were in was off-white, with gleaning durasteel floors and exposed piping in the ceiling. There were doors at regular intervals, but almost all lead to other halls in the massive complex that was the weapon they had been sent to destroy.

"That's the point," Drake answered as he pulled the body back to a hall out of sight, "they want to confuse intruders."

"Well apparently they're failing spectacularly," Thing responded, then after thinking a moment added, "or are we actually lost?"

"We're not lost," Drake answered simply, running past and sneaking around a corner, presumably to take care of another Crusader.

Galerm patted the Knight on the shoulder, "Most intruders don't leave bodies as landmarks."

Thing nodded, it was certainly a unique aspect of their mission, "I'm still waiting to be useful though, I mean all I've done is walk so far."

"I know what you mean," Gal walked to the corner and ducked out of the way as Drake dragged another body to his dumping grounds, "Warrior is in the name of my rank and I haven't so much as Force Pushed a weapon out of the way."

"Never complain about a mission being to easy," Drake berrated, "fate lives to prove people wrong."

Gal followed the Ninja as he walked back towards their objective, with Thing trailing, "You can't possibly believe that. It's just superstition..."

"Superstition is luck, luck is just the Force acting through and upon us," the Ninja crept up to the corner and began easing around, "and the Force likes to keep you on your tows, keep you good by throwing you challenges when you get too relaxed."

Suddenly Drake was assaulted by a series of strong Force Pushes as he rounded the corner. The Shinobi managed to bring up a barrier to block the first few attacks, but it quickly fell under the repeated assault and he was thrown back against the wall, dazed, but not unconscious.

Galerm faired better, managing to disperse the blows rather then take them directly, and as such was the first to actually see their attacker, "It can't be," he said in disbelief.

"What is it?" Thing asked rounding the corner and seeing a group of three Crusaders standing there, one he knew very well, "Dawn?"

The Crusader tilted his head and spoke, "I don't know who you are, or where you're hiding him, but none of you will get past this point." The Sith ignited his lightsaber and waved his two minions forward, "You would stop what I have set in motion, I cannot allow that."

The Crusaders and the trio from JvS looked at each other both surprised. Ptolemy and Sarus reacted first and launched force waves, one after the other. The first slammed the crusaders against the walls of the lift and the second crushed the life out of them. The lift itself shuddered from the impact of the force attacks and with a snap the car listed to the right jamming the car in place. Seconds later there was a crash as the lift next to it ran it to the lift car damaging it as well. There were several cries from inside giving testament that there were some crusaders in there and were now trapped.

‘Well’ Aragorn said, ‘that worked well’

‘Back to the stairs’ Ptolemy said, ‘there is another set of lifts on the other side of the compound.’

The three ran back the way they came and started down the stairs. 2 levels down they stopped and moved into a corridor that looked like all the others they had been in. Sarus took the lead and they moved deeper into the citadel.

‘We are moving faster than is prudent’ said Sarus as they turned another corner.

‘Well we are on a time schedule’ Aragorn reminded him as they dashed down the corridor. Sarus came to a stop and looked at the markings on a door to the right.

‘This is not right’ Sarus said looking around

‘Should have taken a right instead of a left’ Aragorn suggested.

‘We could not have gone right,’ Ptolemy said ‘we could have gone straight…’

Cries from the end of the passage cut short the discussion. The group looked and as several Crusaders rounded the corner. Several were who were obviously not warriors turned and ran back around the corner soon an alarm sounded through the corridor and the citidal. Several of the crusaders dropped to a knee and opened fire with blasters.

‘They know we are here now.’ Aragorn said igniting his saber and deflecting shots back toward the Crusaders that fired them. Sarus threw a Force push at them and bowled many over stunning them all and Aragorn and Ptolemy finished them with staff and lightsaber. The sound of several lightsabers igniting behind them made them turn as 5 or 6 more crusaders attacked from the other way. Aragorn and Sarus took the lead and engaged them and leaving Ptolemy supporting them with a few force powers that he knew would help. By the Force Ptolemy looked over his shoulder and saw another group running from the other end of the corridor. Ptolemy took a step toward them and Flattened a force wave sending it along the floor tripping the crusaders, the ones in the back slicing through their comrades as they fell on their lightsabers.

‘We are stuck now’ Ptolemy shouted over his shoulder seing more crusaders coming from both ends of the Hallway.
‘What ever is going to happen needs to happen now’ Sarus said grimly as he gripped a crusader and threw him into the on coming forces.

Dusk began running back down the hall he had presumably come from, extending his Force senses in all directions, like a net, trying to catch a glimpse of his true objective. While he did this, the two Crusaders that had been with him when their group first ran into Thing, Galerm, and Drake, ran forward to meet the JvS forces. Ideally, this would have resulted in a three against two fight, with the advantage to the JvS forces, but then again, when has an ideal situation ever really come about?

"Dawn!" Thing ran after his long time friend. Ran straight at the two Crusaders that had been coming to meet him and his allies, a Togorian with orange fur and brown patches in random areas, and a Falleen, green skinned and lizard-like with a short mane of black hair. Both were dressed in black and brown robes, both began their attack on the rash little Knight, and both missed spectacularly as Thing jumped the first swing, and twisted his body around the second, still managing to come down ready to run.

The Knight payed his attackers no heed either. He did not turn to engage them, did not even make a passing swipe at the two, he just kept running, trying to catch up to his friend. Something the two Crusaders seemed very intent on taking advantage of, turning around and lifting their hands to fire Lightning at the fleeing boy. It was only a flag of danger, and a quick reaction by the two that saved him too, as Galerm and Drake had both taken the opportunity to attack their enemies.

Both Crusaders dodged, which is what both Galerm and Drake had hoped they would do. The Falleen ducked forward and rolled to avoid the Force Warrior's Force-aided punch, while his partner simply side stepped the sword swung at him by the Ninja and moved around behind. Both JvS immediately spun to face their respective enemies, ending up back-to-back.

"Well this isn't according to plan," Galerm commented as he dropped into a defensive stance. The Falleen Crusader in front of him was settling into a Makashi stance, lightsaber held on-handed at his side, blade tip waving slightly back and forth in the air between them.

"Not much we can do about it now," Drake replied. Out of the corner of his eye, Gal could see that the Ninja was holding his blade out to the side to keep from showing his own style to the Togorian in from of him, who was wielding his lightsaber in a high two-handed grip, matching a standard Ataru grip. "Although the help would certainly be nice. I estimate these two to be equivalent to a Marauder or Master of JvS."

"Well at least we have on advantage."

"What's that?"

"I can say, with relative certainty, that they've never fought anyone like us before."

The two Crusaders took that as their cue to attack. The Falleen swept in with a quick jab, that Galerm just ducked by slipping sideways. The blow quickly changed direction and chased him, giving him barely enough warning to duck beneath it. Less then a second later the blade once again changed into a downward swing that the Force Warrior and to roll away from. He launched a Force Push at the Crusader that pushed the Falleen a couple meters back, and closed the distance, keeping just a few inches short of the sentient's range.

Galerm was at a disadvantage. Makashi was a dueler's Form, suited to the intricacies of rapid lightsaber movement, and geared towards maiming rather then mortal blows. It was not a good style for an unarmed person to fight against, as it had none of the over-balancing or dedicated strikes, other Forms had that a hand combatant could take advantage of. Well there was one blow that could be used to his advantage, but missing it would get him a lost limb or worse, and if he missed he would never have another opportunity.

The Force Warrior ducked and dodged as his opponent attacked in quick sudden swipes, sometimes missing only by bare centimeters. All the while remaining careful to keep the Falleen away from where Drake and the Togorian were fighting. He could hear the two going at it, or rather he could hear the Togorian's lightsaber sweeping through air, and occasionally the sizzle as it hit durasteel. He had to assume it was a good thing, that the attacking was still happening, because he heard none of the usual clashing such fight bring. But then again, they're expecting parries and thrusts, not dodging and flitting strikes.

Galerm kept dodging, each time making it out without crippling or fatal injuries, but sometimes getting minor cuts and burns as the lightsaber passed much too close. If the fight kept progressing like this for him then he would soon make a fatal mistake, but he knew his opponent would be reverting to sloppy moves soon in frustration. He let a smile cross his face, trying to expedite the rash move by annoying his opponent, and sure enough, the next blow was exactly what he was looking for.

The Falleen thrust forward just a step too far, so far that it would take a second to reorient, which was all he needed. Galerm side-stepped and spun inside the man's guard, ending with a spinning round house kick to the sentient's gut. The Crusader's air went out from him and he stumbled back a few feet to catch his breath, but the Force Warrior was already in motion. He grabbed the Falleen's lightsaber hand as he spun and yanked the sentient forward as he was stumbling back, further throwing the Crusader off-balance, then through a punch, using the Force to strengthen the hit.

The punch connected with enough force that the Falleen's face seemed to warp inward for a brief second. Then the sentient was flying through the air and into the wall, his lightsaber no longer in his own hand, but instead in the Force Warrior's. The Crusader hit the wall grasping his face, but did not fall, instead he ran forward in a fit of rage at having his weapon stripped from him.

Galerm had been waiting for this, with the man's rage taking over his Force defenses had dropped to a level the Force Warrior could bypass. He reached out, imagining a hand closing around the sentient's foot, and pulled it back just as he came in range. The Crusader pitched forward in surprise as his foot was taken out from under him, and had no time to recover as Galerm, even as the Falleen was falling, had spun around and brought his captured lightsaber down through his enemy's skull.

Now, with his enemy dispatched, the Force Warrior could look to see how his ally was progressing. The Ninja was fighting much like Gal had been, dodging in and out, but unlike the Knight, Drake had a sword at the ready each time, and on one particularly wide attack, finished his enemy. The Ninjs stepped back as the blade passed and stepped back in, his sword not in a two-handed grip at his waist. Angling it up and lunging forward, Drake speared the Togorian through the chest and heart, and cut away, ensuring a mortal wound.

The Ninja turned to see his ally sitting on the floor atop the Falleen's body, "Well that was unpleasant."

"Wasn't it?" Gal responded standing up and looking around, "Well now we have more unpleasantness."

"Finding Thing?"

Galerm nodded, "Can't leave the kid alone."

"Which way?"

"Don't you know?"

"I wasn't the one facing the way he ran off."

"Yeah and I was a little busy trying to remaining in one piece!"

"So you don't know where he went?"

The Warrior shook his head, "No idea."

---------------------------------

Thing ran as fast as his body would carry him, winding his way along the passages, following his friends Force presence. He lost track of how many turns he made, not really caring about anything other then simply catching up to the Sith. He didn't come across any other Crusaders as he ran, which, in and of itself, he should have found odd, nor did he trip any alarms or traps, which, had he been in his right mind, would have made him come to a screeching halt. But he was not in his right mind, his mind was not as open as it usually was, was not ready to accept anything, but what he was focused on. Getting his friend back.

He rounded a corner and saw Dawn midway down the hall ahead, "Dawn!" He yelled.

The Sith stopped and turned. At first his expression was one of confusion, but it quickly turned to irritation and annoyance, "My quarrel is not with you Jedi. Stay out of my way and I won't kill you, but impede my path and I won't regret running you down."

"I'm here to bring you back to us Dawn. I'm not leaving unless you come with me."

"Then I guess you're not leaving," the Sith turned around and continued along his path.

"I won't let you!" Thing launched a Force Push at his friend, trying to knock him over, and almost instantly regretted doing so.

The blow did little more then give Dusk a small shove in the back. It was no enough to hurt, or even impede the Sith, but it was enough to turn his full attention on Thing, "You're going to regret that, you little bitch!"

Dusk launched a series of Pushes at the Knight, powerful Pushes, most likely capable of tearing down walls. Thing erected a barrier and put his full concentration into it, imagining a point to the barrier that would split the power of the attacks and let them slide harmlessly around. The attacks hit and dissipated, but not before buffeting the Knight with strong winds, and almost knocking him off-balance. It was only through sheer force of will that he kept the defense from collapsing.

The Sith stopped a few feet away, brows raised in surprise, "Impressive Force defense," he ignited his red lightsaber, "now let's see how you fair against something a bit more physical."

Dusk came in on Thing's right, barely giving the Knight time to call his lightsaber to hand and block. The blades met with a clash of sound and light, with Dusk's red saber gradually pushing closer to Thing's green one. Thinking quickly, the Knight angled his lightsaber around and slid it along, aiming for the hilt. The attack was but a moment away from succeeding when the Sith let up and backed away, saving his own weapon from destruction.

He looked down at his lightsaber, then up at Thing, suspicion lighting his eyes. He said nothing and re-engaged, this time switching to a series of fast, strong blows, raining them down from right, left, and above. Thing flipped his lightsaber up in defense of the first few blows, but they picked up speed, quickly out-pacing how fast he could move his arms.

The Knight knew he couldn't keep up the pace and focused himself as quickly as possible, engaging a personal Battle Meditation he had developed for fighting. The power gave him a deeper, more certain insight, into how his opponent would move, an early warning system for the attacks he would encounter. In the hands of a talented saberist, this ability would make them invincible, but in a mere Knight it simply made them able to stand up to a level well above their normal skill level. Not anyone could perform the move though, the weakness was that it required a mind geared to tactical thinking, and an in-depth experience with Battle Meditation. Something few had, and even with these things, it took a special kind of perception to fully deal with all that was seen with it.

When fully active, the power not only gave feelings for where attack would come from, but also gave a visible shadow of where your opponent's body would move and what way. The more likely the action they would take, the more solid the shadow would be. It was a confusing technique, if one was not used to it, and it disoriented even those used to using it. The more manipulative your opponent was, the more shadows would appear, and the less filled in each would be, the more direct, the less shadows there would be, and one would usually stand out above the rest.

Which was why he was surprised when it came time to use this technique on his friend, a technique he had used before on Dawn, and this time was confronted with numerous shadows all barely filled in at all. He could not anticipate with any certainty where the blows would come from, and the technique was of almost no use. So he opened the technique to include himself, and took a chance with a blocking technique he had thought up long ago, but had never had occasion to try.

Thing blew out a calming breath and settled in. His awareness of movement spread to himself, and specifically his lightsaber, laying intricate shadows of how it would move. Without giving it thought, the Force knew he would never do it if he did think about it, he flipped the lightsaber to his other hand, intercepted a block, then flipped it back to intercept another. He continued this, his lightsaber flipping from hand to hand to catch the attacks before they could deal any damage, turning the battle against Dusk and this time forcing the Sith back a few meters.

To any other then these two fighters, the blocks put up by Thing would have seemed a supreme display of confidence in ability and an insult to his combatant. But both of these knew it was simply a last ditch attempt to defend Thing, that had worked out spectacularly well. To the Knight, it was something he had always known he would have to rely on, and was simply shocked it had worked so well.

To Dusk it was the last piece of the puzzle he needed, "Thing?"

The Knight was heaving, gulping in air, "Yes Dawn, it's me! Have they distorted you so much that you can't even recognize your friend?"

Dusk straightened his robes, "They haven't distorted me at all. I'm not so weak as to be controlled." The Sith sounded insulted, "Now, what the kriff happened to your hair?"

Thing almost had to laugh, and couldn't completely stop from doing so. He had forgotten about his hair in all the recent commotion. It was no wonder his old friend hadn't recognized him, he looked like a completely different person. "Yeah, that's what happens when Dray and Sarus get bored." A thought struck him, So wait, if you're not being controlled, then why haven't you escaped yet?"

Dusk chuckled deeply, "I'm disappointed Thing. I would have thought you of all people could figure it out."

"What do you mean?" Thing asked confused. Why would his friend want to stay here? Hadn't he been trying to escape? But that didn't make any sense either. If Dusk had been trying to escape then why had the Crusaders listened to him....

Then the realization dawned on him, and everything slotted into place. The attack, the minions, the shocking difference in attitude, "You've joined them. No, more then that. You've been trained by them. But who could teach you here?" The Leader, the guy that appeared in my in my Battle Meditation back at the Academy. But he didn't appear at a time that would have helped them at all, the battle was almost over by that point. If the Leader of the Crusaders had been monitoring the battle himself then he wouldn't have found Thing so late, when the Battle Meditation was ending, he would have found him at it's peak and interrupted it then. Then how had he found Thing, more importantly, why had he suddenly payed attention when defeat was all but inevitable?

The only solution was that he had been told at that point, or that whatever had been hiding Thing was taken down, but he hadn't felt anyone in the Academy using such a technique. Then the person hiding him must have been someone on the Crusader base. But who would gain here by them losing? If they lost, and we won, then we would of course counter their weakened forces, but it's more then that, why reveal himself at all to me if he couldn't win? What purpose would it serve? All it would do was rile Dray, perhaps get him to attack the Crusader leader, but that end would be just as easily served if Dray had died in the attack, so he couldn't have been lured out just to be killed. To destroy the space forces? No it wouldn't have mattered, they could only really turn the tide of the battle we had, not another one.

So someone had to be conspiring against the Crusader leader, but to what end? There were few, if any, more powerful then the Crusader's Leader, but killing through a proxy would ensure the loyalty of whatever forces remained unbrain washed. Wait, Dawn said he wasn't so weak to be controlled, he also wanted to know who we were hiding, probably me since he didn't recognize me, and he said he was disappointed that I hadn't figured 'it' out, whatever it is... He arrived at his conclusion a moment after he had last spoke, and the shock showed on his face.

"Yes," Dusk answered, reading the Knight's expression, "Dray is going to kill the Dark One for me, and effectively hand over the entire army to me, the Dark One's apprentice." He smiled, "You see, the Dark One is weaker then I am, and he made the mistake of teaching me his ways. Once he dies, loses the power he holds, I'll be able to take over both the Crusaders and his old power. I'll be unstoppable."

"You've fallen so far Dawn?" Thing asked, not wanting to believe it, "You would kill your friends just for power?" He shook his head and brought his lightsaber to the ready, "I don't know you anymore."

Dusk smile widened, "Then let us fight one last time, old friend. One last bout before I ascend to godhood."

----------------------------------

Jake was a Rodian. A Rodian just like any other of the Trillion Rodians out there. He was not particularly smart, not particularly fast, and not particularly strong. Jake was not tall, was not short, was not skinny, was not fat, was not out-spoken or shy. He wasn't one to take chances, and he had no phobias. Jake liked the crowd, he never dreamed of a greater being, wasn't good-looking or talented enough to attract more then the usual attention to himself. Jake was, for a Rodian, absolutely normal, he had no big memories, no important role to play. His biggest story was how he lost his virginity.

The only thing that made Jake different from the rest of the general population was that he happened to be gullible enough to walk into the wrong tent, in the wrong part of town, on the wrong planet, and got brain-washed into being a Dark Crusader. But, even as a Crusader, he was completely unremarkable. He was not strong enough to be in the Crusader army, smart enough to work in a command center, or even fast enough to be a messenger. No Jake was only good for one thing, raising an alarm, and was was barely any good at that.

So it was that Jake found himself in the least interesting job in the Dark Crusaders, guarding the capacitors of the Super Ion Cannon, buried so deep within the facility that the odds of someone getting so far was less then one percent of one percent. A job that, despite the ease of it, he would still fail at.

Jake was yawning when the attack came, and so, when the shadowy Sith figures were finally seen by his eyes, it was already too late. His body had had a spark of Lightning pass through it. The attack hadn't killed him yet, but it was a mortal injury that would paralyze him piece by piece until his lungs finally stopped and he suffocated. He had landed in a very undignified position, but his head was tilted so that he could see into the capacitor room. He watched the Sith Assassins as they poured Lightning into the capacitor, overloading it.

Had the Sith been smarter, they would have realized that the capacitor would take time to explode once overloaded, and that they didn't need to keep pouring energy into it. Had they thought it out, they would have realized that adding so much energy would make the explosion exponentially larger, enough to kill them if they didn't run before the explosion. But as with Jake, the Assassins were not that smart, and they kept shocking the capacitor, long past the critical level.

As the explosion ripped out, incinerating the Assassins and approaching Jake, he had two thoughts. One was that he would finally have something exciting to tell his friends. The other was that he had gotten a Hero's ending, going out in a blaze of glory. Just not the glory of his side. At least, he would have thought this, if Jake hadn't been brainwashed.....

Kael bursted thru the halls with two of his warriors following him.
"WHAT HAPPENED?"

"My Lord, we have been breached down south in the cannon compound as well thru the north of it. We are trying to locate the perpretrators, but they already left quite a mess on the way. It seems they are trained in stealth ways."

Kael felt frustrated and was about to kill anyone standing near him out of anger.

"Find them, kill them. Do not fail me. I wont allow anyone to destroy my plans."

They had finally arrived at Kael's throne room, where he could communicate with his troops and remain safe and vigilante towards the events happening in his facility. He opened the slide doors, and ordered away his two guards. The lights in the room were dimmed out, but after taking three steps into the quite spacy room, he halted and froze, his eyes looking in the distance. The room had a haze of cold around, and was dark black all around due to the shadows. It seemed harmless, but what happened in this room was a dormant thing...a predator, consuming, nihilistic aura laid around. Clearly Kael practiceed his dark powers, granted by the necklace he had carried around for 10 years.

The room became stained with his actions. This led to a force user being easily capable to hide in here, because the nihilistic aura consumed any excess force presence used. His throne room was not secluded. windowed panels all around the room could make visible an area around the building the room was in, but by prior inspections of the jedi forces, the position of this room should be situated is not visible from the outside, sugesting that the windows were a one way view, or cloaked. This way, the Dark One could foresee his plans unfold before him, from atop his throne.at the other side of the room opposite to the door, was the throne, and a desk, and in front of those, a big open area between teh door and the desk. the room also had a second level, a set of balconies surrounding the perimeter. The throne was hidden in shadows from the light coming from behind thru the windows. It was a full moon.

Althou Kael could not see, the man sitting on his chair, his legs laying on one of the armchairs, and his arm falling down the other side, with a lightsaber balancing from his fingers, was a semi-tall man, tanned from travels by. He carried dark black hair and beard, and his eyes were a tone of gold. He sported a brown vest, wearing a white garment long sleeved shirt under it. His left hand was covered under a black glove. He wore a utility belt, that went twice around his waist, the second time, the looseness made it fall down his left leg. Around the belt, pockets and clinging objects existed, useful for many purposes, strengthening again the idea of a traveler and his ship. He wore saggy dark blue pants, that rested in the edges of the black boots he wore.

At the side of the throne, a few feet away, lay a large brown cape, tossed down. Kael looked at his chair with fixation, not moving, even his breathing was hardly noticeable. He was completely focused on what laid ahead of him.

"Nice place you got here. Must of cost quite a lot..."

"Yes, a lot of lives." Kael smirked.

"I bet." The man took his legs down, and sat straight on the throne, still balancing his saber with his fingers. "You are hard to find. And at the same time, your not. I traveled so much time, and i could not find you nowhere i would go."

"Most likely who you were looking for is a dead man. Not me. You come alone? How bold and arrogant of the Jedi to do so..."

"I dont represent only Jedi."

"Those are not Sith that you tag along with. They are not worthy of such title. But tell me, why alone?"

"We both know why...that little necklace of yours can give you quite an edge in a fight, playing with people's minds...even strong minds. Anyone is vulnerable to it...except me."

"Yes, the anomaly that i want to exterminate."

"Is it so irresistable Kael? So overwhelming that going away from it isnt even possible?"

"You speak of my power? Why would i go astray from it? Why not embrace it?"

"You are corrupted. Consumed. You hold so much, but in the end, you dont have anything, brother."

"Brother? You are not my brother. You are but a mere bug in my way that i will crush. I confess i was curious too. I offered you this...I gave you a chance no one else could have. To share this power with me. You and i both held the same opposition to the extremisms and fallacies that were held in Coruscant and the Jedi Temple. But i found out why..." Kael started walking to the side as he spoke, now less tense, but still focused. He stopped after a few steps. "You were afraid Dray."

"After so long Kael, you have not learned a thing. I did not completely agree with everything said in the Jedi Temple, but the core of the Order, its Laws, were and are essential to this Galaxy. I may have been astray from the Jedi, but i never hated or opposed them. The Jedi bring a balance and peace to this Galaxy far greater then any evil you may bring upon it. That is why i am not like you. Because i see good. I follow the Jedi Code, because it follows the philosophy and value of life. You want only destruction. That medal has corrupted you and consumed your soul. I have lived Kael. I have felt life and love. What do you have?"

"I have power. And I shall have my vengeance. A step towards my success. And i am not Kael...i am the Dark Side, and it is me." Kael ignited his saber.

"Cant argue with that...unfortunately." Dray stood up and ignited his crimson blade.

Kael filled himself with power, and leaped, screaming in anger. As he leaped, Dray mimicked, and both the warriors clashed mid air. Dray's saber style held a great asset in his brute force, and a peculiar speed and reflexes that allowed him to practice a mix of Ataru and Djem-So. Unfortunately for him, the same unique style granted to him by his master, was applied in Kael as well. They both were now the only two people to have mastered this saber style. And by the end of the night, only one master would be left.

They fell on the ground, and without letting ground either way, continued clashing sabers, mixing a flashy array of quick lunges with wide strong impacts, their forces so equal that it turned the view of the duel into a dance of light. After a few shots, and a saber lock that went either way, both leaped back and out of range, and were now studying each other. Dray's normal advantage in physical capabilities was now equaled by Kael. It fell logically then, that, the fight would be decided by what happened in the last 10 years, what other techniques and what practice both had. The last 10 years that had gapped their styles apart, the last 10 years that turned once brothers in the Force into opposites.

They circled around in the big area, looking to each other, with their stances up, ready to charge. Surprisingly, Dray charged first, jumping extremely fast with the aid of the Force, granting him extra power in his blow, wich Kael blocked, not without taking a few steps back from the powerful blow. Dray did not stop there, and leaped again sideways around Kael, lashing his lightsaber at Kael simultaenously, using the momentum of the twirls and jumps to again, pull exra power in his attacks. Kael could not apply an agressive technique with the constant undermining, and relied in dodges more then blocking. Dray ended his array of attacks and again leaped back, and as he planned, he had tired Kael enough so that he would not leap into a counter attack, wich given the dodging and blocking, would have taken his concentration away. If Dray could apply this attack enough times, it might wear off his opponent, giving him more chances of an opening. However, if it took too long, the technique would backfire and tire him instead. Kael would need to pull himself together before attacking. Dray held his stance up, as Kael settled down and put his guard back up as well.

"Gettin old Kael? You cant be so tired, so early in the fight." Dray retorted.

"I havent started the fight yet..."

"You are worse than a Sith, monster. You took away my master, my friend, you took away so many lives, you consumed life and the Force...it ends now."

Dray leaped again towards the Dark One, this time stopping instantly on his block. Kael was now going to apply his own strengths into the battle. He pulled away Dray with his lightsaber and went after him, slashing at him in strong swings, as Dray dodged off and diverted Kael's saber away from him. Fully blocking every powerful blow he was throwing would quickly wear off Dray, so he used inertial energy to simply divert the motion of the swing away from him. This way he could tip off Kael's balance, as well as last longer in the fight. Dray as usual, was using only one hand to duel, keeping the other one close to his torso, ready to defend against any Force attacks, as well as pull out some surprises of his own.

The Dark One leaped in the air, landed in the floor and immediatly leaped horizontally to Dray, whom jumped to avoid the deadly blow his opponent struck to where he was. Dray then used a Force Push to throw himself quicker to the ground, and met Kael again in a voracious stand off, where both were blocking and attacking consecutively. Kael pulled their blades far away, and used a Force Pull in Dray's gut that sent him flying backwards across the room and against the wall. Dray fell on the floor, and took his time to get up, barely noticing Kael jumping down on him, as he rolled to the side just in time. He got up, panting from the attack of his old friend.

"I shall never end Dray."

Dray stopped panting, breathed deep, stood up and started a sprint towards Kael, who prepared to counter attack as Dray raised his lightsaber quickly, but instead attacked with a Force Push from his other hand, hittin Kael and pushing him back, stunning him momentarily. Dray then executed a uppercut with his lightsaber, blocked by Kael at last instance, leaving him again open for Dray's fist, wich punched in the gut.
What would normally seem as a bareable punch, was made stronger, as Dray's punch was actually charged with Force Power, causing it to actually throw Kael across the air against the wall. This was one of the techniques the Knight had learned during the last 10 years. Due to his natural strength and speed, he was able to use only one hand to handle his lightsaber, wich he had extensively trained to do, while using his other hand for agressive Force punches and blows, causing in a dangerous combination of Force and lightsaber. Kael stood up, panting as Dray was moments ago. Both looked at each other with their guards up, Drays lightsaber above his head and his free hand ready to deliver another blow below his gut.

"Nice trick. I have a few of my own too." Kael smilled devilishly, and threw both his arms stretched outwards, clenching his fists, as he chipped off debris off the pillars and walls around them, then clashed his hands together, throwing debris from both sides of the room to close around Dray. The Knight, surprised, had little time to react, and Force Jumped up to one of the balconies, as the debris exploded under him releasing quite a gush of dust.
Kael jumped to the balcony as well and both restarted the duel, now Dray pushing back and retreating as Kael dashed violently and in anger at him, lunging even a few times at the Knight's torso. Dray leaped to the ground again to escape the attacks, and Kael launched a barrage of Force Lightning at him. Dray blocked the Lightning with his blade bouncing it back on one of the pillars, exploding more debris off of it. Kael ceased the Lightning and jumped back to the floor. Dray threw himself immediatly at him, agrressively, as Kael, tired from the Force depletion, barely dodged and blocked Drays wide horizontal lunges. Dray took their sparring blades far from their body, and punched Kael in the stomach again, to wich he bent down, still holding his blade against Dray's in a block. As he thru his head down, he met against Dray's knees, who thrusted his leg up, kneeing Kael's chin, and throwing him bacwards and onto the ground. Kael however, prevented any loose ends, and swirled his blade before flying away, causing Dray and himself to lose grip as both sabers flung to the sidewall.
Both disarmed, Kael raised himself from the floor, as Dray had already head towards him before he had time to call upon his lightsaber, and proceeded to flung a punch at Kael's face, followed by an uppercut on his gut. Kael grabbed Dray, and threw him away from him, and threw a punch of his own, landing straight on Dray's nose, unbalancing the Knight backwards, and leaving him dizzy. Kael then flung in a jump forward with both his feet, and hit Dray in the torso, throwing him against his desk, shattering it in pieces.
Dray lay in the middle of the debree, devastated from the Force powered blow. He slowly got up, cleaning off the blood off his face with his sleeve. He looked at Kael intensively, as was Kael staring at him as well. Not moving either one, The Dark One called upon his blade quickly, as did Dray, both moved towards each other and started dueling again. This time, no acrobacies, simple dueling of lightsabers, with strong motivated blows flurried around them and in front of them, in random, left right, up, diagonal, below attacks, that were matched in each others blade. Dray caught on to Kael, who was becoming tired and wary of the fight. Dray pulled his blade up, clashing into Kael's who pulled back from the blow, as the Knight swung horizontally thru his torso, or would have, had not Kael moved off of the blade's trajectory. Dray did not stop, motivated, and proceeded with a series of repeated vertical strikes that managed to hit Kael on one of his legs, tumbling him to the ground. Dray ceased his attack seeing his enemy down, but was pushed away with the Force, as Kael screamed in anger.

"Enough. Its time i showed you my true power. I shall not play with you anymore. You will die, now!"

The Dark One rised, as his necklace amulet glowed in a dark gloom, a spiral breeze, cold and dark, went across the room that Dray could feel, holding his lightsaber guard up, witnessing the Dark Lord's culmination. A sudden Force Shockwave went across the room, throwing Dray away, hitting his arm against a pillar. The Dark One floated a few inches off the floor, and a red flare surrounded him and exploded, as he slowly came back down on the floor, his face paler, his eyes darker, his presence, the very essence of the Dark Side. The Knight was appalled, tired, worned out of the fight. The true face of the enemy they had been facing ever since the attack that took Kami away from them, the one they had been searching for all this time was right in front of him. And it was his duty to end it, just like the day it started.

"Time to spice things up" Dray turned off his lightsaber, breathign deep, dropped it on the floor, and hailed with the Force from behind a pillar his sword that he had hidden against it. The hilt arrived at his hand, and he pulled the blade out of its increasted and ornamented holster, as the powerful Force activity from it now clashed against the emanating Dark Side of his opponent. The room seemed as if it was about to burst in destruction from the massive Force powers.

"You have your trinket, and i have mine. Let's see who's toy is better."

The Dark One smilled in a twisted way, showing that any speck of what used to be Kael, the Jedi Padawan, was surely lost, and ignited his blade as he charged Dray, who copied it. Both blades, metal and laser, met with tremendows force, as the warriors now practiced the same battling, only this time far quicker and stronger. Dray moved around Kael, in an Ataru style, and both clashed swords, testing each other's weak spots and opportunity windows. Kael lunged out his blade, and Dray twirled out of its way, as he swept it aside with his sword, then pulling it down on Kael, who dodged it as well. Both clashed blades quickly and swiftly, so quick it would be dared to say they moved out of sight.

Dray jumped back, and waved his sword, sending a powerful Force push across the room.
Kael pulled up a barrier, but still strained in resisting the push, with his arms in front of him. As the push ended, Kael leaped forward, but did not notice Dray do the same, and as he leaped forward, he swung his sword again, this time catching Kael off guard, and hauling him backwards, smashing the wall, cracking and denting it. Dray's serenity was now tense, as he entered a state of excitement, a dangerous and narrow line. Had the Knight not build such a trusty and strong connection to life, peace and love, he would be in grave danger of falling to the darkside. Kael got back up, not showing the pain from his collapse against the wall, and thrusted against Dray. They both circled around, waving and testing each others defenses. Kael brought his blade down to cut off his feet, but Dray leaped over it, twirled, and added a horizontal swing, wich met Kael's blade, pushing him back, as they now fought close and dangerously.

Dray did not speak a word, but his eyes and expression spoke for him. He clashed powerfully against Kael, their auras and Force presences turmoiling the room, and everytime their blades met, the intensity behind each attack could be felt across the facility.

The knight was determined, as was his will to achieve justice for the past. As he looked into the corrupted being in front of him, he reached out in search of someone, far away for far too much time, someone that he longed for to come and rest his soul to peace. Kael dissapeared in that temple, 10 years ago, under the rubble and the anger, and it was him who motivated Dray to travel all this time, within the fringe of space. Now that he was close, he wanted, more than anything, to have found him. But that someone was long gone now. The body and the power had been consumed, by what was now only known as The Dark One. The cold, chilling, death-bringing entity that had brought a menace to the Galaxy, and the end of a friendship and brotherhood. There was no Kael.

Dray now knew, and now realized what he had to do, this very moment and place. He heated up the fight as it reached its end. Dray blew away The Dark One's attempts to lunge his head off his body, as the dark being was tiring and exhausting his body, barely even pulling his blade in the air, his arms tired from the constant pressure exercised on them from the Knight's sword. The Dark One took a step back, and thrusted himself forward immediatly, as Dray had swung his blade horizontally thru thin air. The Dark One brought his blade vertically down, at what seemed the end for Dray, had he not in a flash movement, block the sword horizontally. They looked into each others eyes, as their blades clashed above them. Dray let out an emotion of dissapointment and justice, his golden iris not glowing as it used to. His need to cleanse this evil, to finally bring it to an end, after a decade of making him suffer. As he held his blade with one hand in the air, he slowly reached out his other hand to hold the hilt. The Dark One tried harder and harder to pull down on the block with both his hands, as Dray held tight his own blade in the air. His other hand grabbed the hilt, now being held with two hands. Dray closed his eyes, as The Dark One stood in exclamation. Dray thrusted his sword out, casting the Dark One's lightsaber off his hand, then flipped in a milisecond, and brought the blade down. The wooshing sound, followed by the gory and glushy noise, as he cut thru his old friend's neck, caused him to almost collapse in sorrow.

The fight was over. But Dray could not achieve any happiness from ending it this way. His blade was now dripping with blood, and Kael's body was on the floor. The Knight did not move a muscle, did not breath, did not show anything. He could not turn things back to what they used to be, and now he could only wheap and honor what was once, his best friend.

Dray reached out slowly with his hands, and ripped out the necklace with the Force, hovering it above Kael's body. He then charged his sword with the Force, and lunged it forward, as it shattered the amulet into pieces, drops of blood flying out of it. The amulet sent a gush of wind across, and the dark, cold, nihilistic aura of the room, slowly but surely, faded away. Dray could not move in front of the body, and simply paid his respects to his fellow companion, as he could do nothing more for him now.

"Rest in peace now...Kael. May the Force be with you, brother..."


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Dusk focused his annoyance and frustration into the Force, giving him a boost in strength to push the Jedi's blade aside. The move redirected Thing's strength and sent him off-balance, something that would normally be considered a fatal mistake, but he was not one to take things like this simply because it was proper fighting etiquette. He tucked himself in and launched a Force Push at the ground, sending his body back to slam into Dusk in an unexpected counter. The impact caught Dusk unawares and undefended, letting the full force hit him. The two tumbled to the ground, a tangle of limbs and lightsabers skidding across the floor like a holo-toon skit. Dusk was the first to regain his senses and pushed off the Jedi, sending his body back up and to it's feet while Thing's was sent careening off in a different direction. Thing was a couple seconds behind but managed to find purchase on the floor and slid to a stop in a kneeling position.

The two remained still, starring at each other and panting for breath. Neither was going to be able to keep the fight up much longer, but Dusk's more conservative Form was giving him enough of an edge that he could still win. He hadn't expected Thing to be this strong, after all the fights they had had over the years he had proven himself a superior fighter with both the Force and a blade, but now he wasn't so sure of that fact. Perhaps he had never actually fought the Knight at his peek.

Thing stood and began running forward to engage Dusk again. The Sith stood his ground and waited, prepared to counter with Soresu to conserve his strength. He needn't have bothered though. A moment before Thing swung a raise shield popped into life between the two effectively ending the fight between the two in perhaps the most anti-climactic way possible.

Dusk looked over his shoulder and saw Lehel standing at a wall console, his finger just now coming away from the interface. For whatever reason, the man had seen fit to stop the fight before it could finish, and as Dusk expanded his senses, he figured out why. He could no longer feel the dark fog that normally hung over the base like a blanket, or the persistent mental probes that he had grown used to over his days of training. The Dark One was dead now, and his prescence had not disappeared in some great mind shattering explosion, but like a candle quickly silenced by the wind.

That explained even less though. Lehel wanted to lead the Crusaders himself, so why help in a fight that might have turned in his favor? Unless the control was now gone too. "The Dark One is dead," Lehel explained, "the Crusaders are in disarray without his influence." The man swallowed hard, "We need you."

Ah so that's it, he thought with an inner smile, Dray must have destroyed the amulet too, and now that it's gone he's not powerful enough to control this vast array of minds on his own. Sith Alchemy could make a nobody into a force to be reckoned with, and without it, there was only one person in the Crusader ranks with the natural power to perform mental manipulation on such a massive scale: Dusk. He contemplated rubbing this fact in, but decided against it, it would demean his victory to act in such a manner, especially in front of an enemy.

The Sith turned to Thing. The Jedi was still standing ready to attack should the raise shield lose power for any reason. "I suppose we'll call this fight a draw my old friend," Dusk clipped his lightsaber to his belt and turned to walk away.

"Dawn!" Thing shouted. The Lord stopped and looked over his shoulder at the Jedi, "This isn't over," he said still gulping down air. "I'll bring you back, somehow."

"You will try," Dusk replied not bothering to correct the incorrect name. He continued his walk away from the Knight, all the while hearing him yell for Dusk's weaker half. Yelling until his voice was hoarse, and his voice little more then a whisper to the Sith Lord.

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Sarus watched as the Crusaders, who had been attacking with fierce determination and little regard for safety up until this moment, suddenly began falling to their knees in screams of agony while their weapons dropped to the floor. Some held their heads, some banged them against the floor or wall while others simply curled up in balls, shivering.

"Well that was unexpected," Aragorn commented beside him.

"I suggest we make use of this to escape," Ptolemy said from behind. "That is, unless you want to stay and fight off more crazed darksiders?"

The group had been fighting for ten minutes straight, barely keeping ahead of the on coming waves of troops, so they hadn't even been able to think about escaping. They had not even had time to spread their senses to figure out what the sudden shaking they had felt a few moments ago was. So when the break sinally did come, no one even considered trying to stay behind and fight. They were all tired and would be ineffective at best in anything they tried to hepl the remaining JvS troops. The best thing they could do was run while they still had the chance.

So that's what they did. They ran up the stairs and along corridors following their senses and not slowing down for anything. As they ran they passed many Crusaders, all in similar states to the one's they had been fighting moments ago.

"What do you suppose happened to them?" Aragorn asked as the group bounded up another flight of stairs, taking three and four at a time.

"It feels a lot like what I did to them the last time we were here," Sarus replied, referring to when he and Pto had been under attack in the tavern on a scouting mission and he had been forced to invade the minds of their attackers to prevent a slaughter. "Except this one is much stronger, and their leader doesn't seem to have noticed."

"I think he may be the cause," Pto responded as the group came out at the top of the stair well and proceeded down the hall at top speed. "This place feels less... dark... now."

"Do you think Dray succeeded?" Ara asked.

"Yes I do," replied a new voice to the group. It was a voice they all knew, but they still felt the need to turn their heads and look anyway, and sure enough, it was who they thought it to be. "I was beginning to think everyone had left me behind," Dray said.

"Turns out we're not so lucky," Pto replied.

"Aww Lemykins, I'm hurt," Dray responded in mock sorrow, "I thought we had something special."

"You do but he's not supposed to tell you," Sarus answered with a grin. In a loud whisper he continued, "That's why he bought you the helmet."

"And here I thought that was in case I crashed my bike," Dray blushed, "silly me!"

"You were right," Pto commented to his son.

"About what?" Aragorn asked, confused.

"They never shut up." The old Jedi rolled his eyes and raised his voice so Dray and Sarus could hear, "Could you two stop the sitcom long enough to contact the DAJ ships?"

"I'll do it!" Sarus exclaimed, jumping on Dray's back.

"Hey!" the Knight protested.

"What? I can't run and telepathically contact our troops at the same time, so you need to give me a piggy-back ride," Sarus explained as if it were the only logical answer and after a moment of consideration from Dray they came to an agreement.

"Force help me," Pto spoke in exasperation, "that actually made a bit of sense..."

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Bazariel sat Meditating on his command chair on the bridge of ther Balance, listening in the Force for any signals from the group stationed on the planet below. His Commander, RsG, stood ready at his side to give any orders to the rest of the task force should Bazariel need to remain in meditation for any reason.

The task force they had brought was made up of the JvS cruiser Balance and the two DAJ cruisers Justice and Peace. Of the three ships, only two the two DAJ cruisers would be participating in the attack as the JvS cruiser was still a wreck from the last battle. The crews had been working around the clock on her, but the Pealleon-class Star Destroyer was still at only fifteen percent with all but 6 turbolaser batteries down and the shields only able to protect the back half of the ship. The engines were working well enough to make jumps, and the communications gear was still effective, but it would be completely useless in a fire fight.

Even so, Bazariel had insisted on bringing the ship along as a gesture of good faith, a way to show that they were still just as dedicated to the fight, even when they were battered and ragged. So the ship had been relegated just about every other non-combat duty there was from monitoring sensors and communications to plotting courses and directing tactical strikes. It was a lot for any one crew to handle, but everyone seemed fine with it, happy to just be able to do something to help.

Of course, that enthusiasm had died down as the minutes passed to an hour, and then that one hour became two, then three, then four. All the while Bazariel remained cemented in place, and his Commander did his best impersonation of a statue, awaiting any commands. It was a great display of discipline, as there was no way to be sure when the order to attack would come, if it ever did, and there would be no warning when it did, just a sudden command that would spur activity into an organized chaos.

And that was exactly how it happened. Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, a single word passed through Bazariel's mind, a word he articulated a minute later as, "Attack." Everything had already been prepared beforehand, the weapon's location was updated in the navicomputer every minute, the communication gear was primed, and the slave circuits on standby. And once that one word was uttered it was all set into motion.

The ships jumped in formation, entering the planet just outside the gravity well. The DAJ cruisers immediately formed a defensive shield in front of the JvS Cruiser and began raining fire down upon the Crusader weapon.

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Dusk walked quickly down the hall towards the base hanger, Lehel in tow a few steps behind and struggling to keep up without breaking into an undignified jog, He was stupid to do so, no one around them was even able to lift their heads to see them, much less make fun at him. The only person not currently in pain was Dusk, and he already knew the man was an idiot.

The two rounded a corner and spotted Jax ahead, a blaster rifle in his right hand and a silver case in his left, "Greeting: Hello Master. Query: Is the meatbag coming with us?"

Dusk walked past Jax, allowing the droid to walk beside him, "I've decided he may be of some use to us," he commented, coming to a halt and getting his bearing before turning left. "Did you get the items I requested out of storage?"

"Answer: They are right here, Master," the droid lifted the arm holding the silver case.

"Umm," Lehel began hesitantly as he struggled to keep up, "what exactly did he get out of storage?"

Dusk considered question, wondering whether or not he should actually tell the man. Lehel was more then willing to sell him out the moment he thought he could gain control of the Crusaders and the items in the case were, in fact, items that would allow someone to take control of the army. Then again, the man didn't know his way around a pyramid scheme, much less how to manipulate events on this scale, and watching him try to out smart him might be amusing.

It was a tough call, but in the end, he opted for the entertainment value, "They're objects of Sith Alchemy two parts of a three part set meant to be able to manipulate the minds of sentient beings at will. They were created by Darth Plagueis many hundreds of years ago as a way to overcome the enormous number of Jedi. Sadly he never got a chance to use them as by the time he had finished one he had to hide it away from his apprentice. Shortly after he completed them he died at the hands of his apprentice, and the secret was lost for many years." The Sith popped open the case as they walked, revealing a pair of gold bracelets inlaid with black jets and emanating a cold dark aura, "The set was made up of two bracelets and an amulet. The amulet allowed the wearer to break the will of any sentient being save those with extremely powerful mental defenses. The left bracelet allowed him to rearrange the broken will into a measure that suited him, by changing the thoughts and feelings of the subjects mind. the right bracelet then allowed him to reassemble the will of the user making him a perfect slave, not willing to disobey because he thinks he has always had these thoughts and feelings."

Dusk fitted the bracelets on his wrists as he continued speaking, "Essentially they allow you to make slaves who actually believe they want to follow you, not by brainwashing them, but by rearranging them at a fundamental level. The Dark One, Kael as I'll call him now since I'm the Dark One as of this moment, had a glimpse of this when he found the amulet that allowed him to break the walls of the mind of those around him. His first few attempts to make an army are what you see as these mindless warriors, but he eventually learned how to use it without such violent ends, by only breaking down the walls that made people follow others. I will acknowledge that he did spectacularly at that and managed to pull off all of this with only one piece of the puzzle, but he was also an idiot. He never took the time to study the texts and find out about these," he held up the bracelets, "if he had, he could have created a much more effective army. He didn't, so he could only use his own will power to force the Crusaders to follow him."

They passed the doorway leading into the hanger itself, sentient beings of all race and gender strewn about in agony in the big open space, "When Dray destroyed this amulet, the effects wore off, and the only thing keeping these being from the intense pain of having a broken psyche, left them. That's why they're ineffective right now, their minds are broken, and they can feel it now."

"But you can remedy that now right?" Lehel asked hopefully, "You have the powers don't you?"

"To do what the amulet did on such a massive scale?" He asked incredulously, "No. I'm going to do one better. I'm going to arrange their thoughts to fit me, and heal their broken minds." An evil smile played across the Sith Lord's face, "And I'll make it better then it was before."

"If you have the power, then why not do this now?" Lehel asked with an uncharacteristic sense of urgency. He must have been feeling low level side effects as well, that's why he wasn't his usual idiotic self.

"Because it is not yet time," Dusk answered as if it should be obvious, "I need them to fight back when they cannot possibly win otherwise the JvS troops might notice me. The loss of this base plays into my plans, and I have plans much larger then Kael did."

The Lord walked up the ramp of an old Lambda shuttle and took a seat on one of the luxury crash couches. He motioned for Lehel to go ahead to the cockpit, "Set a course for the nearest major Crusader Outpost." He nodded to Jax, indicating the droid should watch the Crusader carefully while Dusk settled into a deep meditation. Time to get down to business, he thought, rolling his neck to work out the kinks.

The Sith breathed in, then exhaled and submerged himself in the currents of the Force, reaching out for the minds of the Crusaders on the base. They appeared in his mind as shattered glass piled on top of one another, some more broken then others, but with threads connecting each in different ways. He reached into the pile, visualizing large hands delicately moving each piece, find where it would normally go, then severing and reattaching threads until it felt right. Then he pressed the hand together, his physical hands mimicking the gesture and producing a loud clang. Then all was as it should be.

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Galerm finally spotted Thing. After almost an hour of searching through the confusing corridors and empty rooms, some of which were only empty once they left, he had come across the Knight at the halfway point along one particularly long hall. The teen was standing hunched over, pounding on a raise shield and apparently not feeling the damage it was inflicting on his hands in burns.

He rushed to the man, Drake a couple meters behind, and grabbed his hands before the Knight could do more damage to himself. He was reciting the same word over and over again, a name, "Dawn" and still trying to swing at the raise shield. "Thing! THING!" Gal shouted, trying to snap the Knight out of his self-induced coma, 'Thing stop! There's nothing there!" The words had no effect, and the Knight kept struggling against the Warrior's grip.

The ground rumbled as the building took another hit. It had been shaking for the last couple minutes of their search and each one was getting gradually more powerful. "We don't have time for this," Drake spoke, worry tinging his voice.

"We can't just leave him here," Gal replied. He was shaking the Knight now, hoping the physical violence would get a response, but still got nothing.

"Then I suggest you find a way to bring him back soon," Drake responded, turning to watch the hall behind them for Crusaders. The Crusaders had become immobile almost fifteen minutes ago, but they weren't sure how long they would remain that way.

Galerm bite his lip. There was one way he could bring Thing out of it, but if he wasn't strong enough the technique could backfire and send both of them into a coma. Then again he didn't really have many options and they had little time to come up with more.

The Warrior put his hand on the back of the Knight's head and focused his thoughts, sorting them into the proper order, then pulsing them along his arm and into Thing's mind. If he was strong enough, the thoughts would stimulate the Knight's mind and snap him out of the loop he was stuck in, if they weren't then the technique would bounce back and send his own thoughts into a loop. Luckily that's not what happened.

Thing's eyes grew wide and he began blinking rapidly as if he was waking up from a nap. He looked down at his hands, then at the raise shield, then back at Galerm and beyond to Drake. "How long have I been standing here?"

"Well somewhere between-" Galerm started before being interrupted by another wave of shaking, this time with the added side-effect of dimming lights.

"Run now, talk later," Drake said a moment before taking off down the hall back the way they came. Galerm and Thing followed half a second later, sprinting to catch up to the Ninja before he got out of sight.

"I seriously cannot remember a thing," Thing commented as they ran. "How long ago did the base come under attack?"

"It's probably been about five minutes," Galerm replied hoping over a fetal Crusader.

The Knight tracked the man with his eyes until he was out of sight, obviously confused, "Fierfek!" He swore to himself, "How long was I out of it?!"

"We lost you almost an hour ago," Galerm responded, "so anywhere from five minutes to fifty."

"Where are the others?"

"Hopefully they're out of here by now," Drake answered. "We only stayed this long to find you."

The group turned down a corridor and saw the exit they had originally come through as well as a pair of Crusaders blocking their path. They appeared to have just recovered from whatever had overcome them and were still getting their bearing. Drake saw no need to leave them the luxury and immediately drew his sword and pounced on the closest man. To his surprise, the man ducked forward to avoid the first strike, despite not being able to see the Ninja, but Drake compensated and changed the swords direction to stab down and through the man's spine.

The Crusader's body fell limply to the ground, and then the next was upon the Ninja swinging up in a strong one-handed Makashi strike. The Ninja barely managed to bring his katana up to block the strike and was unable to shrug it off due to the strength of his attacker. Galerm took the opportunity to jump over the man and lash out with a Push, but was unable to bring him down as it glided over a Force Barrier the man had erected. The Crusader called his fallen comrade's lightsaber to hand with the Force and swung at the Warrior trying to take his head off, but had his hand blocked by the Jedi.

Thing, seeing his allies were having problems came in and finished the job with a quick saber throw that impaled the Crusader through the heart. The man slumped forward, the lightsabers in his hand shutting off as his hands slackened and his body fell over.

"That was... unexpected," Drake said between gasps.

"Tell me about it," Gal was practically keeled over suck in as much air as possible. "Was he an Overlord or something?"

Drake shook his head, "No more powerful then a Jedi Knight."

"Can't be, I've already fought a guy with the equivalent power of a Master today, he wasn't that strong!"

"He fought like a normal Knight," Thing commented suddenly. He looked up at his two allies, "Not like a Crusader, but like a real Jedi with a mind of his own."

"So it wasn't just us," came a strange voice a couple meters down the hall. Standing there were three black clad Ninjas who had entered from another hall.

"Anshin! Seto! Pyro!" Drake exclaimed. "I thought you would have gotten out of here by now."

"We've been trying to," one said, it was impossible for Gal to tell one from another, but he assumed it was Anshin since he was standing in front of the rest, "but we ran into half a dozen of these Crusaders that woke up, and it was not an easy fight. These Reawakened Crusaders seem much more disciplined then the ones we've fought previously."

Galerm stood, "It might just be that we've run into their elite fighters."

The man on the right, he took a guess that this one was Seto but he couldn't know for sure, shook his head, "They don't have the kind of control an Overlord or Guardian would have, but they seem better able to use their control now."

"Whatever the case we shouldn't stand around talking about it," Drake injected, "we need to get to the Chikita and get the kriff out of here!"

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"DAJ cruisers taking fire from the Crusader base!" A sensor officer reported.

"Now?" Bazariel asked rhetorically, one eyebrow raised in confusion, "Why start now? They might have had a chance before this, but they've been well beyond that point for a while now." The Sentinel stood from his chair and walked to the viewport, "What could they stand to gain by putting up resistance now?"

"Is it all that surprising? RsG asked. "They're mindless brutes led by an insane Sith Lord. By nature this makes their decision erratic."

Baz shook his head without even turning around to look, "Even in madness you can count on two things: anger and self-preservation. If they were unable to attack until now it would serve them better to surrender, and if they were able to attack before this then they should have done so and at least had a chance at winning."

The High General leaned on the panel and looked out of viewport. The cruisers were before him, forming a shield that protected them, but also blocked the base from view. Still, the report of light from the weapons firing and the flaring of shields could be seen, "This only makes sense if their leader told them to start now. But what would be the point? To make us stop in pity? He must know we don't care at this point. Is it just a stupid decision on his part?"

"You're the General sir," the Master replied, "you tell me."

Bazariel turned around and leaned his back against the console, looking at his Commander, "If you can't win then there's only two reasons to continue a fight. A protest against an oppressor is one, but in this case there is no oppressor and they started this conflict, so I have to dismiss that. The only other reasons is a distraction to sneak someone out, or to attack another undefended target."

"Or both," RsG suggested, "but I doubt they have the forces to attack any Academies near us where we'd make a difference."

"Right, so it has to be to stop us from seeing someone getting away." The Sentinel turned to the sensor officer, "Perform an in-depth scan of the entire planet, not just the battle zone."

"Yes sir!"

"They obviously can't be hiding a fleet," Bazariel continued, "it would be easier to just blast us apart if they were."

"So they're probably trying to sneak out an artifact, or piece of technology," RsG suggested.

"More likely their leader, the Dark One."

"You're kidding," RsG scoffed, "all his forces are here. He'd be leaving behind everything he'd built."

"It wouldn't be the first time a Sith saved his own arse at the expense of those under him," Baz answered. "We can't completely discount that they will have more then one base either."

"If they had that many troops then we would have detected them long before this," RsG replied.

"There are almost a thousand Jedi Enclaves alone. It wouldn't be impossible for them to have one, two, or even three other bases we haven't picked up because they simply haven't attacked high profile targets."

"Sir!" The sensor officer yelled, "I'm picking up a shuttle leaving the atmosphere!"

"Where?" Bazariel walked over to the station and leaned over the officer's shoulder.

"We didn't picked it up at first because it's practically on the other side of the planet," he replied pointing to the screen, "it seems to have been running along at top speed but remaining under cruising altitude."

"Origin point?" RsG asked now interested.

"The very weapon we're attacking," he replied unaware of the significance of what he had just said.

"Let me guess," Baz said with a sigh, "it will escape the planet's gravity well before we can get any ships in firing range because they would just barely miss?"

"Y-yes sir," the man answered shocked the General had known. "Our closest fighter would arrive a little under a second before it jumped."

"How'd you know?" RsG asked.

"Because you can't get clear scans of orbital environments, and the only other way he could know it was safe would be to use Force senses which aren't that specific." Bazariel slumped back into his command chair.

"That would take an incredibly powerful Force user," the Master commented.

"That it would."