A New Jedi in an Old Republic

The challenge echoed across the room, and Ventress knew she was caught. Even if she ran, she had no doubt that this Jedi – or Sith as the voice in the Force told her – would be able to find her and deal with her appropriately.

She looked around, and saw a path that would take her to this Jedi. The Force did not tell her that she was in any immediate danger from this Jedi, so she pushed out with the Force to shatter the window in front of her. As the transparent material fell out of the frame, she stepped back and ran into the newly opened gap – wrapping herself in the Force to perform physical feats impossible for anyone else.

Flying through the air, she let herself drift through the Force, aiming for a distant point she could use to jump again.

She hit it without concern, and her prowess made it easy to change direction off the inactive device.

The other Jedi had deactivated his weapon, and stepped back from her projected landing area, allowing her to land without concern. Ventress rose to her feet, sabers in hand but unignited. Now that she was closer, she could get a better feel for this human male who had just slain two of her fellows.

"A lesser Sith would be looking for revenge about now," she hissed, seeking the verbal higher ground.

"A lesser Sith would have fled," he responded. "I'm Kyle. Kyle Katarn. You are?" The smile he gave had the appearance of total honestly, but Ventress knew better. There was a dangerous and manipulative man under the kind appearance. She had to be on her guard.

"Ventress," she said. "Assaj Ventress."

'Kyle' looked at the two bodies near them. "I take it they're with you."

"Fools. I saw you fight. They should have withdrawn."

"And you're not here to avenge them?"

"No," she replied. "They were weak and foolish. Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Once again, he tried to grin to set her at ease, but she refused to bow to his attempts.

"This whole place is a trap," Ventress admitted to herself. "Dooku sent us into a trap."

"Pretty much." The admission was casual. Almost chillingly so.

"And what do you intend to do with me then?" Ventress was not sure she could win this fight. Survive, yes. But not win.

"Well, I've already got my fight for the day in," Kyle continued to put on a flippant front despite the evidence that Ventress didn't believe him. "So I'm willing to let you go. If you leave now."

"Why?" She hissed.

"Someone has to report back to Dooku." And there, she saw what he was planning. He was letting her go because he wanted Dooku to know first hand how this had all failed. She was being reduced to messenger for this person.

She could attack, she thought. And die. Or she could take his offer and leave, at the cost of her pride. She couldn't make up her mind, so instead she asked a question. "You're not really a Jedi, are you?"

"I am," Kyle admitted. "But not affiliated with the Coruscantii Temple. And you claim Sith-hood."

"Yes," she admitted. "I am Sith."

He looked her up and down. Like he was judging her in the Force, much as she was judging him. "I have to disagree. I know the Dark Side. I've been there." A haunted look crossed his face for just a moment. "You're something alright, but not a Sith. Not yet."

She bristled at the accusation, but refused to fall for the trap. "The Dark Side is strong in me."

"No arguments," Kyle admitted. "But still not Sith."

"And what," she snapped, "would be a Sith?"

Kyle opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. "You know, that's a very good point. I'll have to think on that." He looked around, almost bored. "Especially with Sidious and Dooku thinking they're Sith as well."

The sound of a distant explosion, a ripple in the Force attracted both of their attentions. Ventress could feel the sharp retort from Saato, while Kyle called out a name in worry. "JAN!" Ignoring Ventress, Kyle accelerated with the Force, rushing to the exit. "JAN!"

Chilled by the sudden change in the way the Force colluded with him, Ventress stood still as the Jedi turned his back to her. She could not find it in herself to strike.

Command Room

Jan was ready for the explosion, hand on the detonator in case the automatic systems failed, or were bypassed through the Force. But they weren't needed as the explosion ripped outwards, hitting the blast shield and bouncing back toward the entrance.

She was up and running for the escape hatch to the side before the explosion finished. "Control Room compromised," she yelled over the sounds on her end so she could be heard. "Falling back!"

It was a contingency that was cooked up when they realized that Master Windu – whose job was going to be to guard her – could be called away, and between her and Kyle, they had rigged up a defensive line to buy her time to get away.

Years of experience paid off as the silent alarms warned her of the approach of the Dark Jedi, giving her time to prepare. So she made sure the traps were ready, then made ready to run. She knew better than to think that would put down any proper Force user, and that her best bet was to simply distract and then escape.

So she ran. She didn't bother to shut the door behind her, as it would just slow her down when speed was of the essence.

Besides, she had more explosives in place. "Delta! Give me a rendezvous point!"

En Route to Mess hall

Boss was not sure if his trainers had this sort of situation in mind when they were giving him the advanced decision making courses. On one hand, he and his squad were going to reinforce a position that was outnumbered and holding a defensive position which they would be able to assist in, and possibly turn back. On the other, their command and control center had been compromised, and the least combat capable person here was withdrawing to the safety of Delta.

"Sev," he made his choice, "rendezvous with Agent Ors, keep her safe and bring her back to us." It was the best decision he could make at this time. Split up the squad, hold a more conservative line where General Windu was fighting, and wait for Sev and the Agent to return safely.

"On it," Sev said, not doubting his commander in the least. "Will make the connection at Rho-4."

"Understood," Boss replied. He switched to the Agent's channel. "Ors, one of my men is headed your way and will escort you the rest of the way at Rho-4."

"Copy that, Rho-4." Ors replied, leaving the channel open. "No signs of immediate pursuit."

Command Room

The Force was with her.

The Force was with her.

It was most certainly not with the tasteless, tactless, coward that set mines in her path. It had to be the same person, the one she had felt before the explosion.

Saato focused on the memory of the past few moments. There was the bomb, she remembered it clearly, then she threw up a bubble of the Force to protect her even as her body moved to get out of the blast zone. It was only partly successful as she remembered with far too much clarity the curve of orange flame bulb out past the door frame, expanding like a fluid at the speeds at which she was watching.

It had filled the hallway even as she curled up to make herself smaller, reducing the amount of surface area she had to protect. Then the blast hit her, and she was sent tumbling down the hall where she now lay.

Picking herself up off the ground, she felt an ache in her head, and plenty of other places. A check of her body showed numerous bruises and abrasions from the long toss, and when she pressed her hand to the side of her head, a sharp jolt of pain met it. There was no blood when she pulled it away, so she had to presume that her injuries were temporary.

The Force told her no one was in the immediate area, so she slumped against the wall, ignoring the sign of weakness as there was no one to take vantage of it. Injuries were unavoidable, and as such both as a Night Sister and as a Sith, she had been taught some skill in self-recuperation. And it was to those skills she turned now. First, as her Mother taught her, was to heal her head. That was where even minor injuries could turn extremely serious. She channeled a mix of the Force and her Magic into it, letting it slowly seep into her skin to find the harm and heal it.

Once she could see straight, she pulled out her communicator. "Report," she demanded in the strongest tone of voice she could.

Ventress' voice came first. She was running, Saato could tell. "The Jedi who slew the Twins escaped me," she said. "I have confirmed their deaths. Proceeding with mission."

"Sola? Quinlan?" Saato demanded a response from the other two.

"This is Vos," the near-human replied. "Bulq is currently dueling Jedi Master Mace Windu; their fight is beyond me."

Mace Windu? She didn't want to believe it, yet there was truth in his words.

"This place is a trap," Ventress let her annoyance with this fact seep into the channel. "And we blundered into it like fools."

"I agree," Vos said. Now that she was focusing on him, she could hear the tell-tale signs of a saber duel in the background. "Sola is lost in the fight, I do not know if I can get him out."

"Then leave him," Ventress said, overstepping her bounds. "Save yourself if he cannot do the same."

"How close are you to him?" Saato asked.

"About five minutes," Ventress replied.

"When you get to him, all three of you are to kill Mace Windu," Saato ordered. "I will finish the mission."

There was hesitation from the two subordinates, which she would deal with later.

"Understood," Ventress growled, then cut off the comlink.

"I will be ready for her arrival," Vos said, then he too turned off his com, leaving Saato by herself.

Mess Hall

Vos didn't think that would be possible. Watching the back-and-forth between Windu and Bulq was nearly impossible now given the speeds at which they were moving.

On one hand, he could stab Sora in the back, killing his fellow Dark Acolyte, blaming it on Windu. Then he would have a couple minutes to talk to Master Windu before Ventress arrived. The thought of harming Master Windu was something he refused to address, and that left either waiting or acting.

He wanted to wait. That was the Jedi way. He wanted to stab that traitor in the back, that was the way of the Sith. He needed to choose, but did not know which way to go...

His decision was made for him, a third option when the door that Windu came in through opened again. This time, a trio of white-armor clad soldiers slid into the room, then pointed all their guns at him.

Well-honed reflexes had his blade in the air, whirling about to block or deflect the blaster bolts they fired at him. At first he thought their aim was off, bolts aiming all about his body before the truth of the matter hit him.

These Clone Troopers (they had to be by the armor and training) were deliberately aiming to maximize the distance he had to move to protect himself from their weapons. They were using anti-Jedi tactics, he realized with a start as he took a slim second's reprieve from their attack to push a table between him and them as limited cover.

Another part of him wondered why he was so calm when he was being attacked, before shaking his head free of such distractions. It wasn't the first time people had tried to shoot him, but it was the first time while he was watching a saber-duel in progress.

Looking out from cover, he saw that the trio of Clones were slowly spreading out around Mace and Sora – then a shot from the Clone watching for him caused him to jerk his head back into the relative safety of the table.

"Ventress!" He activated his comlink again, calling for the Dark Acolyte coming his way. "Mace got some reinforcements, and I figured I should share them with you." His snark was not the result of indecision, just a desire to have another warm body for the Clones to shoot at. "Care to hurry up?"

His response was in having the door he had come though earlier open and Ventress to step in, twin blades in defensive guard. Vos thought for a moment that the Force was toying with him, given the timing on everything, but decided against questioning that right now. With his own saber active to defend himself, he broke cover and joined up with Ventress. "I can't talk to him," he indicated the two duelists. "He won't break away."

Ventress looked at the two, and while her eyes told her which was the Jedi, and which was the Sith, everything else about them seemed to blur together, such was the way they used the Force against each other. She was also deflecting shots back with fluid grace, not caring if they rebounded to the shooter or not.

"This is a mess," she said.

"Agreed. What is Saato thinking?"

"I don't think she is," Ventress noted. "We're losing, this is a trap. We need to leave."

"We have our orders," Vos replied as he deflected his own shots. But he didn't put a lot of emphasis into that particular fact.

Ventress caught that verbal ploy. "Indeed. What do you say we leave him to his fate?"

"If he wins he might be angry with us." Vos wasn't so eager for that fact.

Taking in the fight, Ventress could see the possibility. She had heard of this technique, to fight in tune with the Dark Side, and thought it might be something useful to learn. But seeing it in action? Now she was having second thoughts. The sheer determination on Bulq's face as he fought the Jedi was impossible for her to imagine on her own visage. Was the pull of the Dark Side so great that he had lost sight of why he was here?

He had, she realized. He had given himself over to the Dark Side in his battle against the Jedi, and he was lost to everything else. "He is dead," she stated the falsehood with every intention of making it real. "We fall back."

Vos opened his mouth as though to argue, but then closed it. "You get to tell Saato then."

Ventress started to back out of the room. "Fine."

* * *

Boss watched as the two 'Dark Acolytes' defended themselves with ease once the second one arrived. Before then, Delta had a good go at taking out the first one with accurate firepower, until he created cover that they couldn't shoot through.

Which wouldn't have been a problem in the first place, except that he couldn't use explosives with General Windu in the way, nor could he trust his men to shoot the enemy of the General without risking the General himself. So he had Scorch watch and keep the two intruders honest, while Fixer was ready to take advantage of any openings.

It was an impasse, one that he despised. "Sev, what's your ETA?"

"Agent and I are en route," the dispatched Clone reported. "No sign of pursuit though. Say, 4 minutes?"

"Double time it, soldier." Boss made the call as things could change in the blink of an eye.

"Roger."

Boss turned his attention back to the two across the room from him. And then frowned under his helmet. They were talking while defending themselves! Like his squad wasn't a threat at all! He wanted so much to put them in their place, but seeing that the most recent arrival was the same as one of the ones his team had ambushed already, he decided that more information was required. If she could survive a rocket without the use of armor, what would it take to put one of them down for good?

But apparently they had decided that their position was untenable, and they started to withdraw, the man opening the door behind them while the woman defended both of them. Her reflexes were amazing, he had to admit, spinning around to cover the two of them. And then they were gone, the door closed behind them, and Delta was left behind with the still dueling Jedi.

Corridors

Kyle ran, the threat he felt to Jan fading, therefore she was still alive and well. She had escaped her attacker, and that caused him to evaluate what had happened so far. Well, he had a fairly standard fight against some Dark Jedi with a gimmick, then had a nice chat with the wannabe Sith. That actually stood out in his mind as he jogged along. It was a conversation with someone who would normally be his enemy, and yet they had struck up conversation like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Definitely something to chat with Jan about later on. And the question she had asked him – 'What is Sith?' - was something he hadn't expected to hear. He had plenty of experience in dealing with those who associated themselves with that order and others of a similar stripe. To see one who was dangerous without being hostile was something he didn't have much experience with.

Well, correction, dangerous, non-hostile, and not gloating about their impending victory. It was something he didn't expect given the historical records that the New Jedi Order had.

He was seeing a lot of things first hand that the New Order didn't know about, that was for sure. Perhaps he should start writing down his observations? For posterity, or something like that as Luke would tell him.

But her question still confounded him. What was Sith? There were some easy answers, each of which were wrong. First would be those who tapped into the power of the Dark Side.

Well, that would include him and he wasn't a Sith.

He found himself in a long hallway, and saw Jan and one of the Clones down a ways. "JAN!" he yelled out, glad for the distraction.

"Kyle!" Jan turned and jogged backwards to watch him use the Force to run quicker to catch up to her and the Clone Trooper.

"Are you alright?" he asked once he got close enough to hold a non-yelling conversation.

"I am," she confirmed. "The traps worked."

"Good to hear," Kyle smiled. "I encountered one of the other intruders, and I think I talked her into leaving."

Jan tossed a wary glance his way. "Talked, or 'talked'?"

"Words, Jan. I can use them."

"We're here," The Clone said, stopping in front of a door. Kyle reached out with the Force, and was taken aback by what he felt, then saw when the door opened.

A veritable vortex of the Dark Side existed between Mace and his enemy, the two locked into conflict with and around it in a manner he had never really seen before. It was like they were both drawing on the same reservoir of power, which almost explained the sense of the Dark Side he had felt around the Jedi Master in the past.

"Kyle..." Jan said, holding her pistol out and pointed as best she could at the enemy duelist. "Can you do anything about that?"

Kyle thought for a moment, sinking into the Force to get a good sense of the fight. Once again, that strange sensation of being aware of viewpoints not his own came to him, and he didn't question it at that moment. "Yeah," he said. "You guys might want to back up," he waved Delta back, indicating that behind him would be safer than in front of him. They took the hint when Jan didn't argue.

Once they were safely out of the way, Kyle held two options in his hands. First was to try and draw on the Dark Side himself, keep it out of the fight, or use it against the enemy that was holding Mace at bay, or the second was to do something reckless and disrupt the battle in a different manner. "Your blasters, they have a stun setting?"

Boss nodded his head. "Tight quarters like this? Yes. You heard him, Stun setting." Kyle approved, glad that that particular option was available even now. And the thought of making a live capture would put an even better spin on everything. "What's the plan?"

Kyle grinned. "Once I get them to stop fighting, shoot them both."

"Both, sir?"

"Well, try not to hit Master Windu," Kyle elaborated. "But I know that the stun setting can be inaccurate sometimes, and I can ask forgiveness later."

"Roger that," Boss replied. "Ready when you are."

Kyle nodded, and took a deep breath, gathering to him the greatest measure of the Force he safely could, tapping even into the Darkness between the two fighters. It came to him, and he shaped it, molded it, and when he was ready, let it lose in the most simple technique he could.

The massive kinetic push he threw out caught the two combatants mid-swing, the ripple in the air picking up both fighters and tossing them into the air like dolls. They, and everything downrange of Kyle were slammed into the distant wall.

However, the accumulated power of the Dark Side was not to be so easily dismissed. The thing that was being fought over raged at the lack of an outlet, and simply took the easiest way to express that.

It exploded.