STAR WARS / FiM: Realms of the Heavens

by Tathem_Relag

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Other to Crave It

Everfree Imperial Garrison
1/7/4
3:01 A.M.

Twilight strode down the halls of the garrison, humans pressing themselves against the walls to let her pass. Most of the highest-ranking officers and their bodyguards had learned that she had been “converted,” and they let her go wherever she wished, clearing those areas of anyone without the security clearance to know about her “defection” before she arrived. That would be their downfall. She had been given access to their repair facilities and armory, letting her acquire all the parts she needed for her secret project. Well, all the parts except one, but that had been easy to get with a letter to her brother and sister-in-law. They had been confused, of course, but she had explained that she needed it for magical research, and they had accepted it. Now, her secret weapon (and quite a lot of lost coat hair) hidden beneath the black cloak she had gotten from Rarity, she was ready to destroy her erstwhile Master.

She could sense him inside his room, sleeping. This would almost be too easy. She pressed a button on the panel with her hoof, and the door hissed open. She tensed for a moment, but the lump in the bed, barely visible in the dark room, remained unmoved. A thin smile crossed her lips. “Goodbye, ‘Master,’” she said, quieter than a whisper. “Rot in Chaos.”

---

Malen sensed his apprentice approaching, murder in her heart. The fool thought he had been arrogant enough to fully relax around her. He hadn’t slept since he had arrived on this planet. Meditating on the Dark Side provided him with sufficient energy, though it wasn’t something he’d want to do for more than a month. It had also been difficult to go into a proper meditative state while in a bed without falling asleep. The hardness of Imperial military bunks, even those of officers who couldn’t afford to purchase beds off of the civilian markets for their quarters, helped in that regard.

The door opened. After a moment, his heightened perceptions picked up, as clearly as if she had spoken directly into his ear, “Goodbye, ‘Master.’ Rot in Chaos.”

He had absolutely no intentions of doing so – or at least, not yet. Dressed only in his trousers, he leapt out of his bed a tenth of a second before a Force blast utterly annihilated it. Calling on all his might in the Dark Side, he pushed her back out into the corridor and pinned her to the wall. His lightsaber flew into his hand as he lunged out after her and slashed across her chest, intending to end the fight immediately. Instead, he carved a deep gash in the wall when she blinked out of existence. His combat precognition let him know exactly where she would reappear a brief instant before she did so, and he brought his lightsaber down in an arc that split her head in two.

Or at least, it would have if another scarlet beam hadn’t intercepted his own. His breath escaped from between his teeth with a hiss. She has a lightsaber?! How?! He disengaged from the saber lock and gestured at the door panel. The dim nighttime lighting in the hall was immediately replaced with a painful red glare, and a claxon blared throughout the base. He didn’t have time to gloat as the tip of his foe’s blade flicked out like a striking viper, faster than he could parry. He threw himself out of the way, but a searing pain flared up across his chest. He stumbled into the wall, barely managing to throw up a guard against the next flurry of attacks.

A lull followed as both combatants took stock of the situation. Twilight smiled to herself. Her vision was rapidly becoming reality. She found it hard to believe that this insignificant creature had once fought both Royal Sisters to a standstill or tossed her around like a bratty foal with a toy he was discontent with. She could practically taste the fear rolling off of him.

Malen briefly glanced down at his wound. It was shallow, and the cauterizing effect of lightsabers meant it wasn’t bleeding anywhere near enough to put him at risk of dying. Then he looked to his enemy. It was hard to tell for certain, but he was fairly sure that she was using a form of Makashi altered for telekinetic lightsaber combat. That was bad.

In his training, he had tried to prepare himself for just about any situation he might encounter, developing a respectable amount of proficiency in Shii-Cho, Ataru, Shien, and Niman. Unfortunately, none of those forms provided any advanced techniques in defense against lightsaber attacks. While he was a Jedi, the chances of him encountering another lightsaber wielder in combat was next to nil. As an Inquisitor, he was mostly dispatched against Padawans and lower-level Knights, none of whom posed any real challenge to him. Most of them had used one of the two most popular forms, Ataru and Niman, and had defensive skills that were even more lax than his own.

Makashi had been rendered dead by its total lack of any form of blast deflection, and the number of beings alive during the Clone Wars who had achieved a significant amount of skill in it could be counted on his fingers. What Makashi truly excelled at was lightsaber duels against a single opponent – exactly the situation, Malen noted grimly, that he found himself in right now. He was only still alive because Twilight’s application of the form was strictly novice-level. However, he still had a chance. Makashi had one weakness in lightsaber combat – it couldn’t hold up against a powerful offense. The ideal form to exploit this was Djem So, but against such a raw initiate to the fencing style, Ataru would be sufficient.

With a roar, he threw himself at her. He had to push the limits of his skill in the Force augmentation of his speed in order to outpace her parries and keep her on the defensive, but gradually, he pushed her back. Both combatants struggled to control the distance between them. Ataru had a heavy focus on the integration of strikes with the hands, feet, elbows, and knees, whereas Makashi was all about fine point control. Right now, they were fighting at a medium distance, most of their strikes colliding at the middle of their blades. If he could get into grappling range, the fight would be his. But if she managed to reestablish her distance from him, she’d cut him to ribbons.

He had only this one chance at victory, these next few clashes of the blades. Ataru was a weapon of last resort, quickly exhausting even the most youthful and athletic of practitioners. Makashi, by contrast, was well-known as an extremely energy-efficient style. Its greatest master, Darth Tyranus, had been able to keep up long duels with the likes of General Grievous without tiring. If Malen was to win the duel, it would be within the next thirty seconds. Otherwise, he was doomed.

A door at the end of the hall hissed open, letting in a squad of CompForce troopers. It distracted Twilight for less than a quarter of a second, but that was all Malen needed. He pushed her blade out of the way and took his left hand off his own hilt, striking her across the face. Considering how absurdly resilient ponies had proven to be, he suspected that it hurt him more than her. Still, it accomplished his objective. The sudden pain caused her to lose the intense concentration needed for telekinetic lightsaber combat, and the aura around her hilt disappeared.

He snatched her lightsaber out of the air and went at her with both blades as the troopers opened up. He knew that he had actually just made her more dangerous, not less. Lightsaber combat was something she had no skill with, and something he could conceivably beat her in. But now she was freed of the distraction of having to control her own blade. If he allowed her to regain her concentration, she would tear him apart with her Force powers. His objective now was to keep her focused on the sheer terror of a Jar’Kai practitioner and the growing number of troopers responding to the alarm.

Unfortunately for him, he failed miserably. A Force shield blocked all the incoming attacks, and he had to lunge out of the way of a Force blast that cleared the hall of troopers. He charged at her again, only to have both sabers ripped out of his hands and thrown to the side. Continuing to advance, he struck out with his left hand towards her throat, and was met with pain as her teeth closed around it.

Channeling his agony into power, he unleashed a burst of lightning into her mouth. Unfortunately, her paroxysms only made her jaws clench harder, and he roared as he felt his little finger come off. He abandoned his lightning, and instead slammed the side of his right hand into her carotid artery. That caused her to back off, opening her mouth in a silent scream of pain and letting his hand, quite a lot of blood, and his removed finger fall out.

He summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, but his vision swam and turned gray at the edges when he tried to wrap what remained of his left hand around the hilt. He stumbled towards her, then found himself seized in her telekinetic grip. Feeding off his rage and pain gave him enough strength to avoid being crushed outright, but he was unable to protect himself from being smashed through the half-meter-thick durasteel ceiling, nor regain enough control over himself to land on the roof instead of plummeting ninety meters to the ground outside. It wasn’t the worst beating a Force-user of his caliber had ever survived, but it was far beyond what he was prepared to keep fighting after.

Twilight flew down and stood before her helpless adversary. How pathetic. Somehow, Malen rose to his feet, but he was no threat. His first step resulted in him falling to his hands and knees, and then his side as his mangled hand refused to hold his weight. He coughed up blood, and a huge, red-stained smile spread across her face. Her vision was complete.

Comments

[Kaiser change name]

Twilight. You just made it worse

[Last-place]

Wow, that got nasty real quick. While I figured her special talent might have made her capable of learning quickly and quite possibly at a level greater then we could imagine. I never really thought Twilight would act so quickly on it. And it seemed like she was still growing stronger and capable as she fought. I wonder how far she will get?

Interesting turn this chapter.

[Wacky]

One thing I do like about Twilight's descent to the Dark Side, she's been portrait realistically. A smart being that thought out the problem and came up with a way to achieve her objective.

[Revan]

Somehow I don't think Malen is out of the Fight.

[211]

Ooh, boy. The apprentice has surpassed the master. Now all that remains is to subjugate, then supplant him. I really hope Twilight's friends can pull her out of this, because her descent into the Dark Side is only accelerated by her success.

[davyflor]

Wonder how Celestia will react to this.
SITH TWILIGHT!!!!!!!

[Mr Dorito]

Oh boy, if Twilight kills Malen and Imperial High Command hears about this, they're going to send an armada to bombard this planet into oblivion. Maybe Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader will even pay her a visit. Or better yet, send Starkiller.

[Ganondad42]

Well, Twi, you played into his plans to well. Now your just what the Emperor wanted, and your no match against him and Vader. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth Sira
(Supposedly it means corrupt/corruption in the filipino language... Guess thats a thing...)

On a side note, I think that Boba Fett could kill her quickly. Slug throwers would get her like they got plenty of Jedi. And Twi wouldn't expect a solid projectile.

[Just Sandy]

7317407 he should be in this time a little kid if he is even born at all

[Neo-Scott-Lightning]

7325303 true man, very true, troopers are pretty baws in there own right.

[LK-52O]

Twilight killed her master.....Traitor!!!

[Im Iteration]

7329292 ahh, the way of the sith! What a wonderful taste of karma!