//------------------------------// // Final: Duel // Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// Prosperity Mountain Summit Kent drew his lightsaber but didn't ignite it. He also didn't take his eyes off the Sith in front of him. With his weapon in his right hand, he slowly drew his commlink from his belt with his left hand. "Captain Springer? This is Kent. Tell Twilight I've located the entrance to the base. You should be able to use my position on your radar to find it." He keyed it off and returned it to his belt quickly. "So," Arteem said, shrugging, "I get the lone wolf." He smiled. The Sith Lord, extremely powerful and equally confident, had not drawn his weapon at all. "It's been a while since I've faced a Jedi. Especially a real one." Kent didn't give in to the taunting. He was experienced, disciplined. So was Arteem. Even the Sith Lord's smile was especially grating, designed to be unpleasant and annoying, the kind of smugness only someone so full of themselves could truly muster. His extremely-close, nearly buzzed haircut gave him a young impression, yet his pale, grayish skin and eyes were a clear indication of intense Dark Side corruption. His eyes bore the distinctive yellowish-orange tint of the Dark Side and glowed slightly in the darkness. "I don't know why I bother fighting over one planet. I control a whole galaxy, you know. My dimension? I own it. After I wiped out the Jedi, the Republic fell easily," Arteem said. Paused, just a moment to let that sink in. To see if it would. "Would you like a planet of your own? I could give you one. Some place nice. Maybe Ossus or Dantooine? The ruins of the old Jedi Temples might even have some relics that haven't been plundered yet. Doubtful, but you never know." Arteem still did not draw his weapon. But it was clear he was trying to draw Kent out. He paced gingerly, discussing genocide as casually as anything else. He could've been chatting about the weather. Kent knew, however, that this was a show. The Sith was actively sensing through the Force, sensing Kent, probing him for any subtle change in his emotions. The Force would tell him that just as surely as anything else, even through his armor. "I happen to have a few of those trinkets myself. Wanna know how many?" Again, Kent said nothing. He slowly reached down with his left hand and drew his other saber. Arteem nodded. "No talking?" Kent didn't answer, not even a single word. Every moment he spent while the cloaked idiot prattled on, it was another moment his friends were closer to his position. Friends... yes, he was beginning to think of them as friends. Funny thing, that. "Okay, then." The first lightsaber came from behind. It happened so fast, Kent barely had time to ignite one of his own to deflect it before the second one came. Couldn't deflect that one; he dodged it, a spinning blue blade. Finally, Arteem activated a pair of his own sabers. Four. The first one red, the second cyan, the third in his left hand purple and the fourth viridian. Four blades to Kent's two orange ones. He vaulted over the cyan blade as it came swirling at him again. He used one of his own sabers to keep the red one in check. Arteem, still holding the other sabers, did not engage him. The Sith was toying with him. That was both good and bad. Kent used his other saber to clasp the red blade. He whipped around and sent it flying into the cyan sword. Both opposing blades clashed in midair but stayed afloat, guided by Arteem's power. Maybe he could try to slash the hilt of one, destroy it, even the odds a bit. "Not bad, not bad at all. You would've impressed Kavar. Maybe not Vrook, though. And certainly not my master." Arteem raised the two blades he was holding and they slowly levitated out of his hands, grinning as he did so. The other two blades pulled back until the new ones joined. Kent felt his breathing quicken. The four blades surrounded him, raised high. Behind him, Arteem paced again. "My master was very hard to impress. Wasn't the best teacher, either. But she did do one important thing few teachers do. You see, she didn't just want me to understand her lessons. She wanted me to surpass them." The four floating lightsabers each extended. From their bases, another plasma blade was produced, doubling the amount of blades Kent faced from four... to eight. "And I have." The four floating double-sabers slowly began to rotate. They spun faster and faster until the air hummed all around him. Something cold gripped him, reminding him that he was more than just an armored shell. The floating sabers began to cut into the rock beneath like buzzsaw blades, sending showers of sparks into the air. "Oh shit." "What was that?" Arteem asked. "Sorry, couldn't hear you over your imminent painful death approaching. Oh well. Maybe the next Jedi will be more inclined to chat." The blades came closer, slicing their way towards him. He couldn't block them, but he could jump over them, so he did. In the split-second of time he had to decide where to jump, he knew his options. Jumping anywhere would put just enough distance between himself and the sabers that he could potentially dodge it if it reversed. But to go on the offensive, he needed to do what was unexpected. He needed to think aggressively. He needed to think... like Dan. He leaped over the spinning blades and landed right in front of Arteem. For a brief moment, the Sith Lord actually looked surprised, astonished that Kent had turned a hopeless situation completely around. With all four lightsabers still behind him, there was but a fraction of a second where the Sith was now completely unarmed. He'd sent his weapons out and didn't have a single one in reserve. Any Force power he used, Kent could deflect with his own saber... and use the second to deliver the killing blow. Kent didn't hesitate. He slashed the Sith's midsection with both his orange blades and was rewarded with the sight of the Sith staggering backward, clutching his abdomen. Arteem gasped, gripped the glowing tears into his body. "I... ah..." Arteem then looked up. "I can't believe you didn't go for the head. Do none of you watch movies?" The Sith removed an armored underlay from beneath his robes. Not all body armor was powered or had a built-in jetpack. Some of it was subtle, like a bullet-proof vest. Or in Dan's case, the athletic cup he sometimes wore. Bad guys weren't afraid to go for the crotch. Or the head. Sometimes both. "Also, aren't you forgetting something?" Kent instinctively flipped. One of the spinning blades cut through the air that had just occupied his neck, and kept spinning right at Arteem. If this had been another movie, another story, maybe that blade would've kept going and sliced right through Arteem, a fitting end to him. Instead, the Sith caught it. Kent landed and guarded with his own sabers. Perhaps he was thinking of the Sith's own advice but he instinctively guarded his own head. And the Sith instinctively stabbed him in the gut. The wind suddenly left Kent's lungs. His body instantly felt like it was a sack full of rocks. He tasted blood and smelled ozone. His armor was strong, but not strong enough to take the full force of a penetrating thrust from a lightsaber. The Sith knew that. Now, the red blade was sticking completely through him. He felt the heat, and pain from the heat, but not the piercing blade itself. It was odd. He'd used lightsabers since he was a youngling, as many Old Republic-era Jedi had, but he'd never thought about being stabbed. He'd had a few glancing blows in his time, been shot at by blasters, smashed, clawed, swiped at and thrown into the air by several large creatures, but never actually straight-up stabbed by a lightsaber. Strange feeling. His own lightsabers deactivated. He dropped to the ground, the world going black around him. "You could've had your own planet," Arteem said. The other floating sabers levitated back to Arteem. A few moments later, Twilight Sparkle and company arrived on the back of Magic Gear ALT, who had joined the battle to help them climb up the mountain. They saw Kent and Arteem standing over him. "The signal stopped here and-" Springer looked up. "Oh." "I'm sorry, is he your friend? Someone should've told him it was dangerous to go alone," Arteem said, now taunting all of them. He put his boot on the defeated Jedi. To his surprise, Kent groaned underneath him. "Eeg, I'm sorry. That must hurt. Let me take care of that for you." Arteem raised his saber and brought it down. Kent vanished. And reappeared in Twilight's hooves with the others. "Eeuh..." "Don't try to move. Or speak," Twilight said. "He won't have a problem doing that." Twilight glared at him. She'd never matched magic against a Force-user before, certainly not like the Dark Exile. She didn't know how magic and space magic would collide, but right now, she didn't care. She had to get to Dan and Chrys. And then, Phoenix Wright stepped in front of her. "Nick?" "Hold it or objection?" Phoenix smiled. "Nick..." She looked at him. She knew he was outmatched, he knew he was outmatched, this was not his time. This was not the courtroom. Failure here meant more than a guilty verdict- it meant death. "There's a time for talking, Twilight. It's not now. Your magic can help Kent more than I can. Take care of him, I've got this." She paused only for a moment. "Okay," she nodded. "We'll meet you inside." She took Kent on her back and left. Where they were going exactly, Phoenix didn't know. They disappeared from sight. Phoenix turned back around to face his destiny. "Oh, this is rich. This is real fucking rich," Arteem said. He pointed at Phoenix with his lightsaber, gesturing angrily. "You people make things too damn complicated, you know that? I didn't just wake up today, come here and say, 'I wanna get in everyone's way and kill a whole bunch of people.' Some days, sure, but not today. I didn't wake up and think I was going to kill a Jedi and a lawyer today." Phoenix smirked, drew his sword. "Day ain't over yet. You still might not." "Funny, very funny, lawyer. What makes YOU think YOU can take me? What makes YOU think you even stand a chance against ME? You know the things I've done? I'm a lot like Dan, actually. I cut through the BS, became a dominant force in my galaxy, a force to be reckoned with. All the lying, the manipulating, the spying and garbage, it all comes down to a test of strength. The strongest survive. Dan understands that." "You don't know a damn thing about Dan," Phoenix shot back. "And you're not a damn thing like him." His own anger was rising, boiling inside of him. The heat of his own rage, focused, balanced, pure pierced the darkness around them. "Heh," Arteem scoffed. "What makes you say that, lawyer?" Phoenix raised his sword. "You talk too squeeing much!!" He charged him. Arteem raised his hand. "Objection!" A bolt of Force Lightning shot from his fingertips, arcing towards Phoenix. Phoenix slashed his blade through the air, batting the lightning bolt with the steel. "Overruled!"