MOTF Book I: BOTE Chapter 22

“I am sorry Master Jedi, but I cannot betray the confidentiality of any of my commissioners.” Nalaniel had heard this refrain from the renown painter Madora Sidale one to many times. They were at the artist’s personal estate on Naboo.

“You must understand the entire fate of the Galaxy depends on this,” Nalaniel responded, her voice betraying her irritation for a brief moment before she was able to regain her composure.

“That’s the way it always is with you Jedi,” Sidale replied calmly. “Everything is an apocalypse you need to prevent. Well I’m sorry. Truly I am. But my word and my honor are two things I cannot betray.”

Nalaniel expected this to be difficult, but this was far more resistance than she had been expecting. Let me try master, Nalaniel heard in her head. Kawa’ii, I have reminded you again and again that this power of yours must be used conservatively, so as to not dominate the free will of an innocent in a way that would be detrimental to them. By doing this, you would be forcing Sidale to break her word against her will, Nalaniel replied telepathically. But master, If she does not tell us of her own free will, then she is not breaking her promise, and if the fate of the Galaxy really depends on this as much as Master Mongooku believes it does, then this is necessary to accomplish that goal. In the end, nobody will be harmed, Sidale will not have broken her word, and we will be a step closer to saving the Galaxy and ending all war.

Nalaniel had to admit, her apprentice’s reasoning made sense, but such an action still made her a bit uncomfortable. Such a direct violation of another being’s will does not sit well with me Kawa’ii, Nalaniel responded. Madora Sidale is notorious for not betraying customer confidentiality for anything. Why do you think the Grand Master sent me with you in the first place? Kawa’ii responded. Nalaniel pondered that for a second. It would be just like the wise but cryptic Grand Master to send Kawa’ii along for exactly this reason without explaining it to either of them. Nalaniel gave a small nod of affirmation in her former apprentice’s direction.

“Lady Sidale,” Kawa’ii began, her face suddenly becoming much more cute. Her eyes squinted upwards, and her lips were drawn together in a tight little smile. “It’s very important that we find whoever commissioned this painting from you. Please tell us.”

Nalaniel could feel the power of the Light Side being exuded from Kawa’ii’s words, washing over the room, permeating the minds of all those they washed over. Nalaniel stared into the painter’s eyes, and saw a familiar look on her face. Madera Sidale was mesmerized by how cute Kawa’ii was. Her resistance instantly washed away.

“I am sorry,” Sidale began. “But I do not actually know the name of my client. All I can tell you is that he was a fair skinned human with blue eyes and white, almost silvery, hair. You probably won’t meet a single person on this planet who knows his true name, but around here, he’s known as ‘the Legendary Explorer.” If you wish to find him, I suggest you try looking around the local wineries. He’s been known to frequently attend tastings in his short time here.”

“Thank you for your help, we leave in peace,” Nalaniel replied. Then the two Jedi bowed and began to walk away. If they were to track down this mysterious “Legendary Explorer,” they would have to be vigilant.

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Kawa’ii could see a large stone structure, shaped like a person’s head built into a cliffside in the distance. They drew nearer and nearer to it as they walked across the plains of Naboo. It looked old. Very old. This was where she and her former master were headed, it was where they were drawn by their search. They had visited the winery’s, and the Gungan cities in search of the man they sought after. At one point they heard his name was Jax Cordon. At another however, they had heard his name was Enab Hannaz. In their search for this man, they had heard about a dozen different names, and whether or not his true name was among them was unclear, however both Kawa’ii and Nalaniel believed that it was not.

Eventually, their search had taken them to the Gungan cities underwater. Kawa’ii considered the Gungans to be a peculiar race, however they were rather easy to get answers out of. Apparently they had arrived less than half an hour after their quarry had left. Apparently this man was searching for an old Gungan necklace dating back to the Clone Wars era, belonging to a Gungan priest named Rish Loo, and they had pointed him in the direction of the last known location Rish Loo was. This is why they were here, approaching these ancient ruins.

Kawa’ii could feel the man’s presence near the temple. They were drawing closer and closer to him. But something about this presence and this place felt off to her. She could feel-

“The Dark Side,” Nalaniel said as if reading her thoughts. “I have felt it too. Ever since we returned to the surface, I have been concealing our presence with the force.”

They walked in silence until they were fifty feet directly beneath the aged stone structure. “I’ll go in first master and see if I can subdue him with my powers. If not, you can catch him by surprise and dispatch him easily.”

“I’ll be right behind you Kawa’ii,” Nalaniel responded.

As soon as the words had left the Sage Master’s lips, Kawa’ii had leapt up into the air, her body propelled upwards by the power of the force. She was practically hovering by the time she reached the top. Swiftly, Kawa’ii stepped onto the outcropping, and walked into the mouth of the stone face that stood before her, entering the structure.

The sight she saw inside of the structure almost disgusted her. She saw a man with silvery hair kneeling beside the mummified remains of a Gungan, his hand extended towards it’s neck, reaching for something. It was a necklace, and the power of the Dark Side was rolling off of it. Kawa’ii could feel it beckoning to her, calling to her, seeking her.

“Stop!” Kawa’ii screamed, putting the full extent of her power behind that single word, and igniting her pink bladed lightsaber. Suddenly, the man’s head snapped up, and a pair of sharp blue eyes focused on her. He looked to be in his twenties, yet his presence had a much older feel to it. He was wearing a dark violet combat suit, and a pale yellow vest, both sleeveless with a fingerless glove on each hand. She could feel the power of the Dark Side coursing through him. A Sith!

In a brief moment, a red blade ignited in his hands as his body soared through the air towards Kawa’ii. She barely had her blade ignited in time to block the first of his strikes. Frantically backpedaling, Kawa’ii desperately parried and avoided the man’s strikes. In the first two seconds of their duel, she recognized the fast paced sequences of Ataru. Though Kawa’ii had mastered Niman, her opponent’s skill with Ataru was much much greater, and she was forced into a desperate retreat. There was only one trick she had that might save her.

Desperately, Kawa’ii unleashed a telekinetic blast at her opponent. Surprisingly, the man easily absorbed her attack with a defensive barrier, however that was not the trick she had up her sleeve. After about seven seconds of dueling, she swung her lightsaber at her opponent’s neck, but as he lifted his blade to meet hers, she deactivated it just before her blade met his. Then, she reactivated it with her emitter pointed straight at his head.

With lightning fast reflexes, her mysterious opponent threw his head back, dodging her reactivated blade by a few inches. Before Kawa’ii could react, he thrusted his legs into the air, catching her in the chest with both feet and sending her sprawling. Kawa’ii quickly scrambled back to her feet, only to see her opponent standing a few meters away from her, with an almost relaxed expression on his face.

“You are a very attractive girl,” the man said, his voice dripping with sexual innuendo as he casually twirled his lightsaber in his right hand. “But that’s not enough to stop me from killing you.”

Suddenly, her opponent’s right arm exploded in a shower of blood, and his deactivated lightsaber clattered to the ground.

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“Am I enough?” Nalaniel calmly asked as she stared at the man on his knees, clutching at the stump of his right arm.

“I have survived worse than you woman!” the man yelled, thrusting both of his arms out in front of him. A wave of fire cascaded towards Nalaniel from either side of the man’s body. The man’s body was now wreathed in flame, his eyes glowing orange and his skin smoldering and cracking, and he had grown perhaps a couple of feet taller.

Nalaniel stood her ground as the fiery inferno swirled around her, consuming her entire vision until she could see nothing beyond the tornado of flame, except for the man’s glowing orange eyes. Curiously as the fire swirled around her, not one flame leapt towards her.

“I am unfazed by your illusions sorcerer!” Nalaniel shouted. She then thrusted her arms out and dissipated the illusory inferno with a burst of light side energy, just in time to see a streak of red shooting towards her. Instinctively, she threw up one of her telekinetic arms and stopped the crimson streak. The hilt of the man’s lightsaber was held in her telekinetic grasp with the end of the crimson blade but a few inches away from her forehead.

In an instant, she thrust her other three telekinetic arms at him, taking hold of his ankles and his left wrist before slamming him into the wall. The illusions he had enveloped his body in had been dissipated along with his illusory inferno, leaving his appearance in its natural state, minus an arm.

“Give us the coordinates to the anomaly, Sith!” Nalaniel shouted as she held the man’s own blade at his throat with her telekinetic arm.

“The one in wild space?” the man asked with a tone of surprise in his voice, his stump of a right arm dangling uselessly at his side as he struggled to free himself.

“Yes,” Nalaniel responded, letting the man drop to his feet, and retracting her telekinetic arms, leaving the hilt of his lightsaber clipped to her belt. Kawa’ii stood beside her with her pink blade ignited.

“If that’s really all you wanted Jedi,” the man began. “Then I can just give you the coordinates and be on my way. I’ll even forgive you blowing up my arm- provided you return my lightsaber.”

“You aren’t going anywhere but Coruscant, Sith,” Nalaniel replied.

“I am no Sith,” the man responded with a chuckle.

“Do not take me for a fool,” Nalaniel replied. “I recognize Sith Sorcery when I see it.”

“I may have had the fortune of briefly encountering a Sith Sorceress in my time, and stumbled across a Sith holocron, but I am no Sith,” the man replied. “I have no allegiance to the Sith, and I don’t really care how this war ends.”

“How can you say that?!” Nalaniel asked flabbergasted.

“I have seen several wars in my lifetime girl, but all of their outcomes were as important to me as my missing arm; a minor detail in my life,” he said as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a piece of flimsi with the coordinates on it. “But if giving you these coordinates ensures my freedom, then by all means take it.”

Nalaniel quickly snatched the coordinates out of his hand with a telekinetic arm and stuck it in her pocket. “Your… generosity… is much appreciated oh legendary explorer,” Nalaniel replied. “But you are still coming with us to Coruscant. You are guilty of attacking a Jedi without provocation, and if these coordinates are false, then we will need to question you further.”

“I have no desire to be pursued, so the coordinates are correct,” the man replied with a sly grin. “Not to mention the fact that you tore off my arm. Why don’t we call it even and part ways?”

“Not a chance,” Kawa’ii replied.

The man closed his eyes in concentration and started to laugh. “I may not be a Sith…” he said, opening his eyes with a smirk. “But they are.”

Suddenly, a wave of dark power swept across the room as the veil that had contained it was dropped. Five figures stepped out of the shadows, hooded and cloaked. A concealment spell! Nalaniel cursed herself. Based on the surprise she had felt emanating from the Dark Jedi, it was apparent that he didn’t even know they were here until two seconds ago.

The figure in the middle of the five threw back their hood, revealing a red skinned face. “We’ve been expecting you Jedi,” Darth Malvot, the greatest inquisitor of the Sith announced.

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Kawa’ii had seen pictures and holograms of Darth Malvot, but standing but a few feet away from her was a different experience entirely. She radiated dark power, as did her staff. Her staff felt as if it was a container, holding a volatile storm of energy behind its ebony shell. Beneath the large cloak wrapped around her body, beyond the flesh and bones of her figure, Kawa’ii sensed a hurricane of rage just waiting to be unleashed.

“How did you find us?!” Nalaniel demanded, her telekinetic arms outstretched before her to confront this new threat.

“The Sith have eyes and ears everywhere,” Malvot explained. “Darth Holos was generous enough to inform me of your mission to Naboo. I don’t know why you are here Nalaniel, but I know why I am here. I am here to kill you.”

“Over my dead body,” Kawa’ii cried out as she pointed her lightsaber at the Sorceress.

“The strength of your will is great indeed, but that will not save you or your friend. There is only one thing that can save you,” Malvot began. “The Dark Side!”

“Never!” Kawa’ii shouted in defiance.

“You’re power over the minds of others is great Kawa’ii,” Malvot continued. “Think of the power you could wield with no rules, no restraints, no limits, and no chains. Think of the power you could wield with the Dark Side at your command. Become my apprentice, and I can show you that power. I can teach you Sith Sorcery. I can teach you to use your gifts to reshape the world around you. The power to make the Galaxy as you see fit. The power to fix any problem you come across, by uttering a few passion filled words.”

Suddenly, the four figures behind Malvot began to step forward, two of them closing in on Malvot, one of them standing near the Dark Jedi, and one of them walking towards Kawa’ii. Kawa’ii could sense their power. They were all masters.

“Me and my sorcerers here are about to kill you and your friend, and you two lack the strength to repel all five of us.” Darth Malvot held her staff with her left hand as she gestured towards the necklace on the Gungan’s mummified remains with her right. “That talisman is of the dark side, and it has great power over the minds of others. Just like you Kawa’ii. I know you can feel it calling to you. It’s more than a talisman, it is your destiny. Pick it up and use it. Combine its power with your power, its darkness with your passion, its spark with your will. Take it and command us all to stop and you can save your master. Use the power of the Dark Side and you can save both of you and reach unfathomable power at my side.”

Kawa’ii wanted to refuse Malvot’s offer with another defiant cry. But at the same time, part of her wanted to pick up the talisman, and save Nalaniel. Part of her wanted to see what she could do with it’s power. What problems she could solve with only her voice. But to do that would be to give herself over to the dark side. She couldn’t do that. Or could she? Was it possible that she could control this talisman and keep it from controlling her or perhaps use it only sparingly for the greater good? Or would it corrupt her beyond measure? Suddenly, the decision was made for her.

Kawa’ii felt the power of the Light side surge through Nalaniel as the sage master stepped forwards, and thrust both of her hands out. Suddenly a pair of telekinetic arms shot out towards each of two sorcerers closest to her. They desperately raised powerful telekinetic barriers to defend themselves, but Nalaniel’s power tore right through them, flinging both sorcerers backwards with enough force to crack the walls behind them as the impact of their bodies showered the area with shards of stone.

The room erupted into action. Nalaniel and Malvot faced each other head on. The Sith Sorceress unleashed several crackling bolts of lightning and blasts of destruction from her staff, and the Jedi Sage countered with her telekinetic projections and blasts of searing light. Kawa’ii had her own problems to deal with however. The sorcerer who stood closest to her raised both of his hands and unleashed the storm of power he had been building up for the past few seconds. Kawa’ii raised her pink bladed lightsaber, and thrust it in front of her held in both hands to ward away the lightning, supplementing the blade with her own defensive barrier. With the power of the Light Side, not the Dark Side, she was holding this furious storm at bay.

Kawa’ii glanced over just in time to see the Dark Jedi spring into action. With Nalaniel distracted by her fight with Malvot, the Dark Jedi extended his left hand, and snatched his lightsaber right off Nalaniel’s belt with the force. As soon as he caught it in his left hand, he turned towards the sorcerer standing next to him and threw his lightsaber at the sorcerer’s head, severing it from his or her body. While his lightsaber was still in midair, the Dark Jedi leapt up, flipped through the air, and snatched the necklace from the mummified Gungan, placed it around his neck, and called his lightsaber back into his one remaining hand, and he did all of this before he landed back on his feet near the archway they had entered the structure from. He turned to Kawa’ii, gave her a quick wink, and backflipped over the edge.

Realizing that time was against her, Kawa’ii turned back to the sorcerer she was fighting. Doing the only thing she could do, as much as she hated it, Kawa’ii closed her eyes and let out a sexual moan, putting the power of the force behind it. The moan had its desired effect, instantly, she felt the power behind the storm recede a little bit as the sorcerer’s focus became disrupted. Before the sorcerer could recover, Kawa’ii took her left hand off of her lightsaber, and thrust it forward, slamming him into the wall with a wave of telekinetic energy. As the last barrage of bolts flew towards her, Kawa’ii extended her left hand, and drew the energy of the lightning into her hand, where she contained it and amplified it with her own energy. As the Sith rose back up to his feet, Kawa’ii thrusted her hand back out, and cut the Sith in half with his own force lightning, disintegrating his midsection with the redirected lightning.

“Stop the Dark Jedi!” Nalaniel cried out. Desperate to put as much distance between herself and Malvot as possible, Kawa’ii happily complied and raced towards the exit, leaping off of the cliff once she made it outside. Kawa’ii was desperate to escape Malvot, not because she was afraid of the sorceress’s spells and storms, but because she was afraid of herself. She was afraid of what Malvot could turn her into. She had been tempted by the Dark Side. For a brief moment, she had even considered joining Malvot to reshape the Galaxy for the greater good of all. But she now recognized it as a lie. The Dark Side only had the power to destroy, and she wanted nothing to do with it. Now she had to capture the Dark Jedi. Not for the talisman, but for his knowledge. If the coordinates he had given them were false, then capturing him was the only way to find this mysterious planet Mongooku had spoken of. If the venerable Grand Master was right, then the power to remake the Galaxy into the epitome of perfection did not lie in the power of her words, but in the power of this child born of the Light. This child could save them all, but to do that, the Jedi would have to find him first. When her feet hit the ground, she began to run into the direction of the dark presence she felt, but when she looked up, it was not the Dark Jedi she saw, it was an Sith in a black combat suit brandishing a saberstaff. He was smiling. He was waiting for her.

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Darth Malvot fought furiously against the Sage Master. Telekinetic constructs in the form of four vibrating arms flew at Malvot at great speed, whipping and stabbing at her body. At first, Malvot was limited to immersing her staff in dark energy and swinging it into each arm before it struck her, temporarily dissipating it as she swung her staff to intercept the next one. Realizing this could go on indefinitely, Malvot channeled the the Dark Side through every inch of her figure, and was instantly rewarded by a surge of adrenaline, fury, and magnified power. Her power now intensified, Malvot slammed the bottom of her staff into the ground. She channeled her power through the staff, projecting a field of dark energy outwards. At first it only extended a couple of feet outwards from her, but then quickly expanded to two meters. Every strike from one of Nalaniel’s arms was weakened before it reached Malvot to the point at which Malvot only felt a slight push instead of a massive and forceful shove. At four meters, the field encompassed the two sorcerers who had been thrown against the wall by Nalaniel. They were once masters, but now the two of them lay crumpled on the ground unconscious, their bodies too damaged for them to engage a being such as Nalaniel. Once they were masters, but now they were useless. The air inside of the field darkened, and suddenly the bodies of both of them withered into decayed husks, their power absorbed into Malvot as she expanded the field a meter further. The next time Nalaniel’s telekinetic constructs pierced the perimeter of the field, they instantly dissipated.

Taking advantage of her opponent’s temporary weakness, Malvot retracted the field, bathing her figure in its Dark Side energies, and feeling her fury deepen further, multiplied fourfold into a state of blinding rage. Setting her staff to the side, Malvot splayed out both of her arms before her, and channeled her rage into a violet storm of pure destruction and wrath. Nalaniel raised a powerful barrier to weaken the lightning before extending her arms to catch Malvot’s power with her own. Malvot watched as her opponent struggled to contain her storm. Though the Sage was absorbing much of the lightning with great difficulty, several weakened, but still potent bolts of Malvot’s power struck Nalaniel’s body, bringing her to her knees and causing her to scream in pain. The sound was almost a source of arousal for Malvot. She felt her heart flutter, her muscles quiver. The pleasure of watching one of her greatest enemies scream in agony on her knees was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh.

Before the storm could overwhelm Nalaniel however, the Sage Master used the absorbed energy from the lightning to regenerate her telekinetic constructs, and thrust them in front of her, absorbing much of the lightning with them as she continued to draw some of its power into her hands, which Malvot saw were now blistering and smoldering under her power. The Jedi’s entire body was smoking, but she continued to press on despite Malvot’s efforts. Nalaniel’s telekinetic arms actually began to crackle with bolts of lightning as she absorbed more and more of Malvot’s power. Suddenly and without warning, Nalaniel thrusted all four of her telekinetic arms before Malvot, redirecting the Sith lightning through them. Though Malvot drastically reduced the telekinetic power in the arms, she was not as successful with the lightning. Her entire body was illuminated by her own violet power. Every nerve in her body cried out in pain as she flew across the room and landed on the ground in a smoking twitching heap. Her anger now spurred on by pain, Malvot then channeled the darkside of the force throughout her figure, again magnifying her fury. With a loud shriek, Malvot clapped her hands together, and quickly performed the six cosmic gestures before unleashing that power at Nalaniel in one concentrated blast.

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Vicrant stood there, staring into the eyes of his opponent. She had most likely been following the one armed man who Vicrant had just seen racing across the plains. That didn’t matter to him however. All that mattered was that this girl stood before him now. One last kill to cement himself as a true Sith master. To prove himself to his mother and become one of her hands. “Kawa’ii, former apprentice of Nalaniel. I am Vicrant. I am your death!”

His opponent said nothing, instead drawing a single bladed pink lightsaber. Vicrant sneered. Already she was making the same sound she’d be making at the end of this duel; silence. Vicrant activated the saberstaff he was holding in front of him, this one strikingly different from the one he had used to spar with his mother in the way that, rather than a blue blade and a green blade, this saberstaff’s blades were red and purple. Unlike his fight with Slazer, he would win this duel. He charged at Kawa’ii, using the power of his muscles and hatred, and the leverage his long handle provided him with to generate power behind his first strike, a Djem So power blow sweeping in from the left. He could see his opponent knocked off balance by the sheer force of his strike, so he followed up with a furious offensive flurry, switching rapidly between the fast paced and aggressive sequences of Ataru and Juyo. Kawa’ii desperately tried to counter with Niman, but Vicrant could tell he was facing a far inferior duelist. His opponent should’ve been carved to ribbons in seconds, but when he was in the middle of his aggressive flurry, she thrust out her hand and unleashed a telekinetic blast. Though he had thrown up a barrier to absorb the attack, the force of the blast still staggered him and threw him off balance, allowing Kawa’ii to pick off or narrowly dodge each of his strikes. The strikes that should’ve pierced her pink flesh instead met the pink of her blade or the disappointment of thin air. Furious, Vicrant flew into an aggressive Ataru sequence which ended with him leaping into the air, and transitioning into a Djem So attack. As Vicrant’s body practically flew towards his opponent, his strike should’ve batted her weapon away and cut her in half, but yet again, she telekinetically rebuked his efforts. A blast of force energy struck him in the chest midair, throwing him backwards. He managed to land on his feet, though he was still unbalanced.

This time his opponent seized the offensive, swinging her pink blade towards the left side of his head he raised his blade to block the seemingly basic maneuver, but when his blade should’ve met hers, it met only thin air. A fraction of a second later, her pink blade reignited. Realizing what she was doing, Vicrant thrusted his head to the side at the last second possible, escaping Kawa’ii’s strike with only a smoldering slash across his left cheek. Her blade stung, but not as much as the humiliation of the fact that he had almost been killed by this girl. She had almost gotten the better of him with a sudden display of Trákata. Charging at her with redoubled fury, he swung his blade at her, locking her in a bladelock. Before either of them could break the bladelock however, Vicrant gave the hilt of his saberstaff a quick twist, transforming it into two single bladed lightsaber. With his purple blade still pressed against Kawa’ii’s pink blade, he swung his red blade at her side in an attempt to cut her in half at the waist, but before he could do that, she unleashed a blast of telekinetic energy at the right side of his body, twisting his body to the right, and causing his strike to meet nothing but air. He twirled around and swung both blades towards her own in a devastating slash, but they met nothing but air as she deactivated her lightsaber to catch him off balance. Unlike last time, this Trákata maneuver did not catch him off guard. He recognized this one as the unbalancing block, meant to unbalance him with his own momentum. Rather than pull back however, he threw his momentum even further forwards, slamming his body into hers before she could reignite her pink blade, and sending her sprawling onto the ground behind her, her lightsaber tumbling out of her fingers.

As he moved in for the coup de grâce however, Kawa’ii unleashed several telekinetic strikes at him. The first one was a wave of power that Vicrant blocked easily with his force barrier, the broad shield protecting his body from the shove. The next several strikes of hers however were far more focused and concentrated on one area. One hit him in the left leg, and the next in the right shoulder. Before he could recover the next one struck him in the left side of his ribcage. Another blast struck him in the left calf. It was at this point that he could feel his flesh blistering and swelling up, and his bones cracking slightly under the force of Kawa’ii’s telekinetic assault. An even more forceful strike then hit him in the abdomen, causing him to double over in pain. Swiftly, Kawa’ii followed up with a telekinetic blast into his jaw, snapping his head back, knocking him off of his feet, and sending him soaring backwards through the air. Vicrant’s body struck the ground hard, sending bolts of pain shooting through his body.

He rolled over onto his knees and spit a large glop of blood onto the ground. He then realized that if Kawa’ii hadn’t spent so much power on the strike that hit him in the abdomen, or if he hadn’t rolled back with the force of the jaw strike, he would be dead, his neck snapped by the Sage’s power. Infuriated by this revelation, Vicrant leapt back up to his feet, charged at Kawa’ii, and swung both of his blades horizontally from opposite directions with all of his might. With no other option, she caught both of his blades in a blade lock, though the force of his strikes sent her staggering back. Not letting up, Vicrant savagely thrust his leg out and kicked her as hard as he could in the abdomen, driving his foot further even after hearing her cry out in anguish. She fell back on the ground, desperately holding onto her lightsaber. “Please!” She screamed with all of her might. Vicrant could feel the power of the force in her words. She had put every last ounce of strength she had into them. Had they met under different circumstances, her plea might have persuaded him. But with the bloodlust of battle, and the gravity of this moment that would determine his destiny, Vicrant’s will was made of durasteel, and though his will buckled under the force of her word, it was never stopped nor subverted. Vicrant swung the violet blade in his left hand to the left, knocking Nalaniel’s pink blade to the side. Before she could recover, he leaned forward and stabbed his crimson blade straight through her heart. Her eyes went wide with pain and began to tear up as he stared into them. Vicrant snarled victoriously as a pained expression took over Kawa’ii’s face. Then for good measure, he stabbed his violet blade through her right lung, making her squeal in anguish. Then, as he sensed her life wink out, he turned, walking off into the distance towards his ship. He was Darth Vicrant, he was the hand of Darth Slazer. He was a Sith Master. His destiny now lied before him.

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Nalaniel saw the red streak of what Malvot called cosmic energy shooting through the air towards her, it’s very heat permeating her body even from this distance. She thrust out all four of her telekinetic arms, the palms of each one converging upon each other and merging. Her entire focus was narrowed down and condensed into this singular time and place, every fiber of her being was directed towards blocking this attack. The blast of searing red light struck the palms of her telekinetic projections. Nalaniel knew she could never fully stop or absorb the strike of that attack, but what she could do was slow it down and weaken it enough for her to leap clear of its destructive range. After a split second, she threw her body to the side as her telekinetic constructs exploded for lack of a better word. Releasing the cosmic energy to tear through the space she had been standing in a fraction of a second ago. the ground shook under the blast, a searing hole shot straight through the seam where the wall and ground met, and the entire cliffside trembled.

It was then that Nalaniel felt a sharp pain in her heart. Through the force, Nalaniel felt a brief instant of pure terror, suffering, and agony, and then she felt a cold nothingness. An absence. She could no longer sense Kawa’ii. Her eyes went wide with horror. But amidst the emotional agony she was going through there was a brief moment of clarity, and she knew right then what she had to do. Malvot was further into the structure than her, and the very foundations of the structure were already trembling under the force of Malvot’s cosmic blast. Nalaniel ran towards the archway she had come through to enter the structure, pulled her body to the air, and called the force to her. She felt an influx of energy as she felt the power of the force surge through her, and then, in one instant, she unleashed all of that power in a massive telekinetic repulse. The expanding omnidirectional wave of energy tore through everything in its path, the very stone which it struck shattered into millions of pieces under its impact. Nalaniel could hear Malvot scream as the entire stone structure exploded into rubble around her. Closing her eyes, and holding her grief at bay, Nalaniel leapt backwards wrapping her telekinetic constructs into a cocoon around her body as she fell through the air, the entire cliffside collapsing into a shower of stone and earth in front of her. The cocoon around her body however protected her as she struck the ground, and though she was bruised and battered, she had, for the most part, avoided any serious injury. When she stood up and turned around, her heart skipped a beat. There, laying on the ground with two holes burned through her abdomen, was Kawa’ii, her face in an expression of pain and death, yet somehow the look on her face was somehow cute, and so was the way her body laid on the ground. But this did nothing to quell the grief in Nalaniel’s heart. She glanced up with tears in her eyes to see a Zabrak in a black combat suit running off into the distance. Before she could follow him however, there was a large blast emanating from the pile of rubble and earth that had once been the massive cliffside. Darth Malvot was standing atop the mountain of stone and earth, her face and robes drenched with blood.

“I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER!” Malvot screamed as she slammed the end of her staff into the ground. Suddenly several fiery demons materialized out of thin air and flew towards Nalaniel. Each one of them had one sulfuric yellow eye, and one blazing red eye, just like Darth Odious. Nalaniel hesitated, her body quivering with fear and shame. “Kill for me Nalaniel,” all six demons said at once. “Their lives are meaningless.” Desperate to free herself of these demons, Nalaniel flailed her telekinetic arms around wildly as they began to shoot bolts of violet lightning out of their fingertips. Nalaniel quickly regained her mental composure however, and brought her telekinetic arms around her body defensively, absorbing most of the lightning as the demons continued to circle her. Their cries of “Their lives are meaningless” quickly changed to “Your life is meaningless, and you are nothing!” Nalaniel drew her constructs tighter around herself and closed her eyes as the demons continued to belittle her. “YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY SLAVE!” they all cried out at once.

“Not any more!” Nalaniel cried out, her fears and doubts suddenly melting away. With great effort, Nalaniel cleared her mind, and let the light side of the force flow through her, her spirit temporarily and perfectly calm amidst the chaos around her. She channeled that energy through her telekinetic constructs, causing each of these arms to triple in length and glow with light. Whipping them around her body, she evaporated each of these demons as her arms struck them. “If you wish to break me Malvot, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that!”

“Oh I agree,” Darth Malvot replied with an evil smirk on her face. Suddenly and without warning, Malvot pointed her staff at Kawa’ii’s corpse, and much to Nalaniel’s surprise, it rose and began to walk towards her. Then when she was but a few feet away from her, her eyelids fluttered open, but instead of her pretty pink irises, Nalaniel was met with the vengeful stare of sulfuric yellow eyes.

“YOU FAILED ME!” Kawa’ii cried as a red and black mist began to swirl around her.

“I- I was trying to protect you!” Nalaniel cried out as her

“PROTECT ME?!!” Kawa’ii responded as the skin on her face began to rot, the flesh on her arms starting to fall off in clumps of dead skin. “YOU SENT ME TO MY DEATH!!!”

Nalaniel began to sob and look down at the holes in Kawa’ii’s torso, each one was a bottomless pit of darkness, with insects and small creatures of darkness crawling and oozing out of the wounds the Sith warrior had dealt her.

“LOOK AT ME!” Kawa’ii cried. Nalaniel once again stared into those blazing yellow eyes. “Odious was right,” Kawa’ii said in a quieter voice before going back to her louder one. The next words she spoke had the full power of her speech behind them, the same mental power that allowed her to control others. “YOU’RE LIFE IS MEANINGLESS!!! YOU ARE NOTHING!!!”

Nalaniel wiped the tears from her eyes with one hand as she called Kawa’ii’s lightsaber to her hand with the other. Suddenly and inexplicably, Nalaniel’s four telekinetic arms shot out, each one grabbing a limb of her former apprentice’s body and pulling it towards her. Nalaniel stared into its hateful yellow eyes and said, “You aren’t Kawa’ii, Kawa’ii is at peace with the force.” Clasping her former apprentice’s lightsaber in her hands, Nalaniel activated the pink blade straight through the heart of the demon, and swept the blade upwards, cleaving its head in two. Nalaniel watched as the body of Kawa’ii, her former apprentice, her friend disintegrated into nothing but ash, the power that had reanimated it suddenly deserting it.

Nalaniel turned to face Malvot. She couldn’t face her now, not like this, not when she was at her most vulnerable emotionally. With one final push of her will, Nalaniel pointed the pink blade of Kawa’ii’s lightsaber at the Sith lady, then sent all of her telekinetic constructs flying at Darth Malvot with all of her might, sending the Sith flying several meters backwards. Not waiting for her to get up, Nalaniel turned around, and ran back in the direction of her ship as fast as her legs could carry her.

She leapt into the cockpit when she finally reached it, and took off into the sky and into space, not glancing once behind her. As Nalaniel sat in the pilot’s chair grieving over the death of Kawa’ii, she took solace in the knowledge that the piece of flimsi the Dark Jedi had given her with the coordinates was still intact in her pocket.