Open Coruscant Tattered Paths

[The Storyteller]

Vader​

Vader's shade was exactly as the Sith had been in life in temperament, if not in total strength. As Alexandria flitted away from his strike, he was reacting with a lifetime of knowledge and experience that came from being the armoured behemoth that had slain so many Jedi. Masters, Knights and everything in between had been faster than Vader and yet he had endured in his suffering and hatred for decades. As he had done in life, he allowed the enemy to fling themselves at him.

He was the mountain upon which each wave of the Light broke. His presence was a cloak of pure dread that rebuffed every iota of the Light that approached him.

Acting as though he couldn't react fast enough, Vader turned, following Alex's blade with his gaze as it streaked towards his right arm and his blade. Only when she was committed to the strike did he react, his left arm surging forward with Force and strength to grasp the Grandmaster's wrist even as her blade sliced through his right arm. As the right arm was destroyed from the waist down, Vader's inhuman strength would grind down at Alex's wrist as he twisted her hand into a position designed to be awkward for her to hold onto her saber.

His right hand began to reform, the lightsaber igniting from his hand... different. Less blood red than before but still a dangerous shade of red as Vader pulled her wrist to expose her torso before swinging savagely with the blade in an attempt to carve her in two.

Kylo Ren​

The crackling, untamed, energy of Kylo Ren's blade seemed to act as something more than just an accurate simulation of his lightsaber in life. Through the almost gleeful sound, Maura would be aware a split second before it happened that Kylo Ren was excited; that something had gone right in his plans and he was almost gloating about it through the Force.

Burning embers flew at Maura from the ground even as his lightsaber missed the fleeing Jedi but as she brought her lightsabers up to defend he flung up his free hand, fingers outstretched towards her for a moment... before he pulled his hand back, fingers curling into a fist.

The reaction was immediate as the molten stone burst into brighter, more violent, flames as he used the Force to draw upon the heat of the rock to cause fire to leap forward at Maura. In a display of immaturity and spite, the flames were aimed for her head but, specifically, for her hair. The crackling and snarling of his blade resembled laughter as the Sith's shade stood to bask in his attack.

@Valen Pelora @lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

On instinct, Maura's hands - or rather, forearms - came up to defend herself against the fire that was burning toward her head. The sleeves of the cloak she had yet to shrug off fluttered up, catching the flame and beginning to smolder as the embers took hold. In a panic, Maura deactivated her lightsabers and slipped her arms from the sleeves. The ignited fabric rushed by her hair, catching the tip of her padawan braid and setting it alight.

The cloak was thrown aggressively toward Kylo while she reactivated one of her sabers to rush to cut her own hair from her head. A half-charred, half-rainbow-dyed chunk of braid fell to the ground, leaving a singed tuff of hair behind.

Unfortunately, Maura didn't really have the time to think about the loss of her padawan braid. There was a fight going on, and usually, people weren't given time to sulk about the loss of hair out of all things.

As the cloak flew into Kylo Ren, Maura would dash forward toward Kylo Ren with just her violet saber in her hand. The other had been clipped back to her belt, allowing her to muscle both arms to follow through on her attacks. She swung her saber diagonally front her lower left to her upright, cutting from his hip to his bicep if she connected. She kept herself aware of where his saber was, ready to parry any incoming strikes if necessary.

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[Alexandria Voran]

The shade grabbed her wrist even as the white blade cut through his arm. Vanishing in a puff of smoke. Shade-Vader was strong. Almost as strong as the genuine article…but she was the Grandmaster. The Force rushed through each inch of her body. Mortal strength was a thought of the past. She simply dropped the saber, twisting her own wrist around before yanking it from his grasp. It ached, but nothing she could not survive. The hilt of her unlit saber at Vader’s feet. Alex had but a moment before the duller red blade sprang at her again.

She danced back to avoid the strike. Calling the hilt into her left hand while in the same breath working the Force with her right. The Shade of Kylo Ren had given the Grandmaster a gift. She was a master of the elements. One element in particular. The fire roared at her command, growing, spreading, before leaping to engulf shade Vader…seeking to burn away the shadows. Her power hammered the flames into the red blade. Pouring the fires into that energy.

She remained ready to defend at any moment. Her saber until. That energy was what grew the shadow. That was the dark spirit. That was what they needed to destroy.

@Nefieslab @lizziie

 

[The Storyteller]

Vader​

Unlike Kylo Ren, the shade of Vader had no method to try and make itself understood. The mechanical breathing of the titanic Sith Lord was ever-present and entirely unchanging even as the Sith's shade made an aborted grab for Alex's fleeing wrist again before she was out of reach.

Caught up in his slash, the shade didn't pay attention to the flames until it was too late, seemingly shuddering to a halt when they latched onto the lightsaber blade. As the flames seemed to almost eat away at the blade, the shade of Vader gathered itself.

The Dark Side of the Force seemed to shudder and shake in the air around them as Vader emitted a pulse of force from itself that dispersed the flames and would rock even Alex back. Even as the lightsaber seemed to be becoming unstable, the Vader shade slammed its left hand into the rock beneath their feet.

Screaming pain in the Force, the mountain's rock was sundered as fissures began to emerge. Broken, jagged, lines in the rock began to race towards Alex as the shade of Vader used a similar technique to what the real Vader had used against Obi-Wan Kenobi before their last confrontation aboard the Death Star. The ground would began to break and shake as Vader's shade sought to drag Alexandria down into the darkness, to bury her under the literal weight of the failure of the Jedi of old.

Kylo Ren​

Had the shade of Kylo not stopped to revel in the pain and fear it had caused the Jedi Padawan, it might have recognized the cloak as the distraction that it was. Instead it was caught unprepared, the blade's sound turning into something of an annoyed snarl as the robe seemed to wrap itself around his head and blind it.

Reaching up with its free hand, the shade threw the burning cloak from its head to the ground and stomped on it in a display of petulance. It seemed that the Dark Side shade of the former Ben Solo had taken some of the worse traits of the former Sith.

This distraction, however, cost him as the shade hurried to bring itself lightsaber up to parry the strike and was unprepared for the strength of the double-handed strike from Maura. Her lightsaber would glow and blaze bright as it bit into the shadowy flesh of Kylo's right arm before continuing to slash up through the shade's torso.

While the torso seemed to flow around the blade like smoke, cutting through the arm had the shade's lightsaber blinking of out existence as it reeled back in. Desperate to gain some distance as it tried to regrow it's right arm and saber, the shade of Kylo threw its left hand out towards Maura, clenching its fingers as it tried to trap her in a burst for Force Slow. As he was doing so, his lightsaber flickered back to life but it was clearly wavering, as though lacking power.

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[Maura Starwalk]

Though she was caught in Kylo Ren's slow, a side effect was that Vader's pulse and shaking of the ground did not so roughly affect her. With teeth grit, she outstretched a hand from her lightsaber, palm open and fingers outstretched. She pulled the Force into her body, concentrating it in her hand. But rather than use it to strike out at Kylo, Maura used the Force in her hand to counteract the slow, allowing just her hand to squeeze into a fist.

The result, or the intended result at least, was to pull her master toward her and away from the breaking ground. Alex would feel the Force enclose tightly around her bicep, yanking her toward Maura if the Grandmaster didn't shrug it off.

"Mmmmmmmaaaaaa-ster!" She broke through the slow just in time to yank her elbow backward. Her other arm brought her lightsaber down back in front of her, diagonal across her chest. Her black eyes snapped from her master to Kylo, ready to continue their face off.

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[Alexandria Voran]

The Darkside gathered in an instant. Alex reacted out of instinct. Her body quickly fortifying as a barrier sprung up in the Force. The heels of her boots skidded backward but the Grandmaster stood tall. Watching as shade-Vader hammered his fist into the ground. Alex’s eyes narrowed. She felt the pull on her arm. Maura. She let herself be tugged, adding her own strength to the full, to vault herself from the cracking ground. Her gaze never leaving Vader or Ren.

The Grandmaster’s left hand working to hurl the chunks of rock back at the glowing red blades of the shades. She landed gracefully. Unlit saber in her hand. They were manifestations of the Darkside. Which meant they possessed those failing. “As weak in death as you were in life…both of you. Vader always haunted by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kylo Ren…attacking a child.” She shook her head. “How trite. It is a wonder even shadows of them survived.” Alex’s feet shifted into the ground. Her resolve only growing.

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[The Storyteller]

Kylo, naturally, assumed that his enemy would strike out against him because that was what it would do. It was what the Sith within the shade of Darkness understood and what it expected - so when Maura threw her Force power after her Master, Kylo was caught mid-defence.

Instead of pressing the advantage, the shadow of Kylo had half formed a Force Barrier of his own, only to pull it to a stop as the Jedi seemed more intent on helping her Master than attacking her enemy. This distraction would allow the Slow to end on Maura and she would regain full control over herself.

The ground cracked and shattered under the wrath of the shade of Vader but Alex had managed to remove herself from the area of effect with the aid of her Padawan. Through the echoing breathing of Vader, they both could feel his rage beginning to climb as both shades were forced to face the fact that they had been outplayed.

Their resentment seethed and seeped into the Force.

The Weakness That Tainted My Line Still Remains. How Disappointing. ​

Back over at the original site of the ritual, the voice sounded out again as the child left in the centre began to stretch and twist in unnatural ways as his bones were lengthened and his muscles manipulated. More pressingly, however, the third shade moved away from the child it had been standing over and reached out with both hands towards Vader and Kylo.

The shades of the two Sith froze up and seemed to try and fight back against a sudden darkening of the room as they began to fade away against their wishes. As they faded, the third figure seemed to grow darker and more solid, growing more defined as an elderly human man wearing a dark cloak and hood.

His cackle rained out as the two Sith Apprentices were absorbed - before Lightning poured from each hand, lancing across the distance at each of the Jedi.

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[Maura Starwalk]

Another voice broke into the air, sending a shiver down Maura's spine. With wide eyes, she watched as Kylo and Vader were swept away into nothing, replaced by a third figure that cackled and assumed the shape of an old man. 'No fucking way...'

His hand struck out and Maura quickly angled her lightsaber in front of her chest, bracing a split second before the lightning crashed against her blade. The force of it pushed her back even against her bracing, and she struggled to keep her stance against it.

The child did not miss her attention though. Its skull seemed to be elongating, and her ears could pick up on its small cries of pain. "Master, they're doing something to that kid!" she cried out through gritted teeth, jutting her chin toward the kid. He appeared to be changing into a completely different species - a very recognizable species.

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[The Storyteller]

Even as a shade of himself, the power of the Master of both Vader and Kylo Ren was nothing to be sniffed at. Especially as, unlike his apprentices, the Sith had never once strayed from the path of the Dark Side and so was untainted by the 'corruption' of the Light Side when it came to being manifested by the Dark Side here. As such, it would be all that Maura could do to hold the lightning at bay with her lightsaber, arcs of the stuff overflowing to sting and numb her hands even as she skidded back, holding the worst of it away from herself.

However, through distraction or surprise, the Grandmaster of the Jedi was not quite so lucky - Alex caught the sustained blast of lightning to her chest, the electrical nature of the attack causing her muscles to seize and spasm as it coursed through her body. Just as with Maura though, the lightning of this shade was powerful enough to send the Grandmaster skidding away from the point of contact. Unbraced as she was, Alex would find herself skidding across the rocky ground on her back, her lightsaber barely held in her hand as she was bashed through several smaller rock outcroppings.

The shade cackled, pulling back on its power as it cut both streams of lightning and began to almost glide across the rock towards the Jedi, blue electrical currents sparking, arcing, between his pale, exposed, fingers as the Sith shade advanced on both Master and Padawan.

You Will Know Fear, Little Padawan.​

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[Alexandria Voran]

Time seemed to slow. The manifestations of Kylo and Vader becoming an entirely different beast. Her eyes remained locked on the poor boy. Maura’s voice in her ear. Alex’s eyes remained locked on the boy. He was transforming. Becoming something, she could not fully comprehend. Such was her focus that her mind drifted. The blast from Sidious racing across the ground to strike her in chest. Alex’s armor held. Her grip tightening as she skidded across the floor. Pain burned throughout her body. The Force flooding every inch of her being. Pushing away the pain.

She flipped to her feet. The Force pounding in her chest. “Enough.” With unnatural speed she raced between Sidious and Maura. Her hand flashing out. Flames roaring from her outstretched palm. The arid air lighting between them. Her saber held ready at her side. Something smelled. Oh…it was her. The burned flesh from where her armor had failed.

“Save the boy, hurry.” Her eyes locked on Sidious. “Leave him to me. He’s nothing.” Alex flashed a smile at Maura. Projecting confidence at her young student. The Darkside was powerful, but she was stronger. The Light would see them through.

 

[Maura Starwalk]

Maura grit her teeth as the lightning spilled over from her saber, burning, stinging, and numbing her hands as her heels were pushed back along the stone. 'Hands closed. Tight,' she repeated, forcing her hands into fists around her saber even if she couldn't quite feel them anymore.

'Shit!' She watched as Shadow Sheev's lightning slammed right into her master, sending her sprawling back and slamming into walls. She could feel the panic rising in her chest, quickening her breath and trying to sneak doubts into her mind. 'You will know fear, little padawan.' She would be lying if she said she'd not been scared at all; she'd been a little scared this whole time. But when those words were spoken, banging at her door of composure with their nasty fists, she held the doorknob shut out of spite. Even if she did, it would have no idea. She hoped.

To her extraordinary relief, Alex recovered. She gave Maura a second to breathe, and the padawan let out a gasp of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. 'Save the boy.' 'Okay.' How? She didn't know, but she would figure it out.

Attempting to skirt around Shadow Sheev and always stay as close as possible to Alex as she rushed over. Maura pulled her second saber from her belt and aggressively descended upon the shades which surrounded the boy, using the Force to augment her speed. The strong Force bond between master and apprentice and Alex's intentional Light would hum through in her attacks as she attempted to slice through the shadows as many times as possible before they could counterattack.

All the while she danced around the boy, trying to interrupt whatever they were doing to him and the other children.

@Nefieslab @Valen Pelora

 

[The Storyteller]

The cackling intensified as the shade of Darth Sidious took the brunt of the flames rushing ahead at him as a challenge, feeling the way the frustration and righteous anger burned and pulled beneath the surface of the Grandmaster. As he had done in life, the master of the Dark Side drew upon every emotion and rushed them through his connection to the Force, resulting him laughing and snarling in amused anger constantly.

But seeing a Jedi wrestling with their failures was still a source of pure joy to him.

Lightning sprung from his left hand, clashing with the flames as both Force-generated elements of nature connected and seemed to violently react against one another, steam and ozone pouring off where the two streams met. However, as Alex split her focus for a moment to give her apprentice orders, the shade of Sidious took his chance, launching a blast of lightning not at Alex directly but rather at the floor off to her left, banking the short burst of lightning off the stone at her left side, with her lightsaber in the other hand and her own flames acting as a camouflage against it.

Over at the ritual circle, only one shade remained, hovering ominously at the back of the young boy as his body began to twist and bend to the whims of the Dark shade that loomed over him. Unlike before, her lightsaber carved through the 'flesh' of the shade without any resistance, even the tough of the Light not enough to disrupt the connection. Instead, as she watched, the shade seemed to be shrinking but not because of what she was doing.

The boy screamed as his mouth began to deform, his natural teeth being forced out as replacements violently burst through.

You Will Know Powerlessness, Little Padawan.​

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[Maura Starwalk]

It only took a few furiously aimed slashes before Maura realized they didn't seem to be doing anything. Though the shadow was growing smaller...and...

The boy screamed. Maura's ears pressed back against her head, trying to block out the sound as she watched in horror as teeth sprang from his own. Enamel hit the ground with tiny little clinks. It was like something out of a horror movie...

She had to get him out of here. She had to stop this somehow, but she had no idea how to. She couldn't drag him away - surely the shadow would just follow? - and she couldn't attack it either. Which left one option. An unlikely, probably near-impossible option for her, but she had to try. She couldn't let whatever was happening to this little boy continue.

Dropping down to her knees, Maura placed both of her hands on the boy's chest and did her best to try to ignore his screams of pain. Hoping that her master would protect her, trusting Alex to protect her, Maura would begin to channel the Force into her as quickly and strongly as she could manage.

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.​

Just like on that station, Maura clung to the mantra of the Order in her head. She held onto the confidence Alex had instilled in her to push back against the Dark with the Light, her eyes squeezed shut. Maura had never been taught how to Force Heal, nor had she been ever taught how to expel the Force from her in its purest form of Light. But she had to try- no, she had to do it.

Channeling every bit, Maura focused as hard as she could on the Light and tried to expel it from her hands into the boy's body. She imagined herself like a flood challenging the dam, breaking against its concrete walls until cracks began to form and the structure came crashing down. Spilling into the boy, giving every ounce of her strength to cut the connection between him and the Shadow. She kept chanting the mantra in her head, refusing to doubt, refusing to wonder.

@Nefieslab @Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

Crafty. History had been unusually kind to the mass murderer. Oh, he was roundly noted as a terrible evil. A monster nearly unlike any other…but his guile…his cunning were legendary. Sidious’ power in the Force was undeniable. Unlike Vader and Kylo, there was no redemption in his story. Above all else, he was a schemer, and she was not those he had schemed against. Alex’s faith in the Light was unwavering. The blindness of the old Order was not baked into her soul. She could not have predicted the exact nature of the attack but Alex had hardly expected him to fight fairly.

The Grandmaster had precious little time to react. Again, she dropped her saber. Her right hand quickly snapping into the place of her left, the flames conjured uninterrupted. Her left hand flashed to her side. The force quickly pooling there to catch the lightning. A move the former Dark Lord would certainly recognize. As the lightning coalesced in her left hand, she flung it back at Sideous in the flames.

Dimly aware that Maura was in the fight of her life. The bond thrumming with danger. Alex flipped the bond open. Letting flow whatever remaining strength she could muster. The pains of her labors were begging to show. Even her power was not unlimited but what choice did she have?

@Nefieslab @lizziie

 

[The Storyteller]

As Maura reached out to the boy and began to unravel her connection to the Force, baring it completely so as to push it directly into the body of the child, she would feel the weight of the Darkness pressing back against her like a weighted blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. It promised her such comfort if she only did what it asked - and laid down.

If she laid down then she could rest, her Master would be safe and she wouldn't need to worry about the peace, the knowledge, harmony or serenity anymore. It pressed upon her mind, reaching into her just as she reached out and pushed her connection against the corruption before her.

Within the boy, in the Force, a candle flickered and raged against the encroaching shadows. It was growing stronger with each moment Maura pushed herself onward but it was not enough. The Darkness was older, wiser and far more powerful than the connection of any one Jedi to the Light. Worse, Maura would be able to feel what was actually happening to the boy now in a way she hadn't before.

The boy was being physically changed at the whims of the shade who was literally half-integrated into the boy's soul at this point. The Master of Darth Sidious was doing everything he could to graft what remained of his soul onto that of the child. Their heart beat the same because it was rapidly becoming the same thing - it belonged to both the boy and the shade and the only thing delaying it was Maura baring her soul.

--

The cackling didn't stop, never relented, as even though the shade of Sidious was far more 'fleshed out' than either of his Apprentices, he was still merely a shade. Words were beyond it's limited intelligence and capabilities at this point, not that it needed words to convey it's utter contempt for the Jedi and Alex in particular.

Scowling angrily at the response to his secondary attack, the shade of Sidious attempted to back-hand the compressed lightning and force away from himself with a powerful barrier on his hand. Unfortunately his power dipped oddly as the shade currently joined with the boy took more from the deep well of Darkness in the area in order to push back against the renewed strength of the Light that Maura and Alex together were working on.

Instead the shade of Sidious was sent flipping backward - much as the original had been by another Jedi Grandmaster in the past.

Roaring as he pulled himself to his feet, the shade of Sidious fed the Force to the noise, a Force Scream rushing across to Alex along the soundwaves. At the same time, Sidious launched a blast of lightning not at Maura exactly - but at the boy instead, just to Maura's right. He didn't care for the boy but the Jedi? They might just care enough to focus on his defence.

@lizziie @Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

The shade of the Emperor went flying backwards. Alex did not relent. Gathering the Force around herself to follow. Lightening crackled around her fingers. Not a creation of the Darkside but of the elements. Dry air and the damp confines of the dark corners of the under-Temple. It laced out at Sidous as he landed. Thunder cracking over her head.

The sooner the glimpse of his soul vanished, the faster she could aid Maura. If he survived and unleashed his yell. Alex would be ready. A barrier sprining between her and the Sith Lord to buffet the raging sounds. She would still come on. Unrelenting.

She continued giving all she could to her apprentice. Aware of the Darkness seeking to worm its way inside. Her mind reached out. Your heart is here, Maura. Your soul here. Do not lose sight of who you are.

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[Maura Starwalk]

Maura felt the Darkness. She heard it, but she would not give in. Despite her active, incessant mantras, Maura knew deep down that she was just a rusty pair of breaks on the wheel this shadow creature was turning. But despite the manipulative cooing of the Dark Side, despite the pure strength of will this required and the pure exhaustion she knew would flood her after, Maura held fast. She held onto her master's words, and knew that if she did not save this boy, things would become much, much worse.

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[The Storyteller]

The lightning collided with the Shade of Palpatine as he was rolling, as the shade of the Sith Lord had been gathering its power. Roaring in pain and rage, the room shook as the Sith Lord was battered as it was least prepared, as it's power was gathering for another attack fuelled by it's rage and hatred of life and the Light. Just as the original had all those many years ago, the shade of Palpatine began to lose cohesion at a rapid rate as the lightning and Force ballooned within him.

And then burst.

The Force Scream was not fully formed but it didn't need to be, it was accompanied by a pulse of kinetic energy and lightning from Alex's own attack, repulsed out from where the Shade exploded as the epicentre of the destructive force. Even the rock they were standing on shook as the explosion radiated outward from the shade's remains. Beneath their feet, the Jedi would feel the peak the temple was built on shaking all the way down to the actual crust of the planet.

Cracks began to form in the building around them, walls bursting at the seams as large chunks of the ceiling began to fall toward to ground, some heading directly for Alex, others for Maura and the entrapped child.

With Every Heartbeat My Hold Grows More Solid - You Lack The Will To Stop Me Now, Jedi.​

Even as Maura resisted the Darkness' attempts to whisper to her, it wrapped itself further around the soul of the child they were fighting over. Unlike Maura, the Darkness had a physical link at this point, with elements of the boy's body clearly having been warped and mutated by the Dark Side. It was ensnaring his heart, the organ pumping twice as fast as it had any right to be - almost as though it was beating for two.

You Cannot Do What Is Required. That Is Why You Will Always Lose!​

A scream of pain erupted from the boy's tortured throat as the Darkness inside of him did not give battle when Maura and Alex's combined Light attempted to burn it out. Instead, it used the boy as a shield, inserting itself physically into the child so any attack against it would need to go through the boy. As the former Temple, the former Imperial Palace, began to shake from its foundations, the boy managed to look at the two Jedi through eyes part way reformed into those of a Muun.

"It hurts... it hurts so much... please make it stop!"

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[Alexandria Voran]

Palpatine exploded. There was no eloquent prose to explain the outpouring of energy. It was hate and rage. The simplest of motivators…but powerful all the same. Even a fraction of the Dark Lord still mustered a great deal of darkness in the Force.

Alex’s barrier had shielded her from the brunt of the attack. A dimmer reality quickly settling on her shoulders. She stood unharmed while the Temple around them began to shake. Palpatine’s sudden end rocking the very foundations of the ancient Temple. Time slowed in that way it always seemed to when the world was crashing down.

Alex could see the fissures growing all around them. Chucks of rubble headed for anything still breathing. Her eyes fell on Maura and the boy. That Dark entity pushing them towards darker deeds. She sighed. There was no clear path. She could not save Maura from the hard decisions. That would be a disservice to her student…to the woman she was becoming. Alex stood a little taller. The Temple quickly becoming unstable.

Power was dangerous. A seduction that even the greatest Jedi found hard to resist. History was filled with tales of the Sith reaping world ending destruction. Great wielders of the Darkside savaging all in their path. Few such stories were told of the Jedi closest to the Force. The reason was simple. To unleash their full power was to invite the desire to do it again. To dive into the well and shape the world to their will. Even the Light could be misused, and the Grandmaster was meant to be first among equals.

Yet…the truth was something else entirely. She was not first among equals. She stood alone. Two, maybe three, beings in the entire galaxy could summon the power that was a fingertip away. A power she chose not to use. Restraints she had always abided by. Alexandria Voran fought with a hand tied behind her back. But in these chambers, with only Maura as witness, she let that hand free.

The full power of the Grandmaster blossomed in her chest. A torrent of the Force nearly unrivaled in the galaxy. Her hands extended. Holding and freezing the debris in place. The Force rippling out from her body to keep the Temple together. Her mind lacing into the boy. “Would the pleasure not be all the sweeter to take me? What can the boy give you compared to the Grandmaster?”

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[Maura Starwalk]

Bump bump. Bump bump. Bump bump.

The boy's heartbeat was like a drum being played directly into Maura's ears. She could not shut it out, and she could not ignore it. The voice soared effortlessly over it, taunting her with its cutting little words. Despite every fiber of her being that poured into this boy, she was losing. There was no winning, for her or for the boy.

The boy's screams were somehow louder than the incessant heart beating too. Her own black eyes met his, wide with shock at the pure agony the child seemed to be experiencing as the flesh of his sclera and irises slowly darkened into the goat-like, black, and gold of a Muun. 'Please make it stop!'

Instinctively, Maura knew there was only one way. But she was torn - conflicted. Was it right to end the boy's life? It was the only way to end his suffering. It would stop the shadow. But Alex- but she-

"I'm- I'm sorry." Cold tears would run down Maura's cheeks, dropping onto the boy below her as she sobbed out an apology. "I'm sorry..." What other way could this have gone? Was this really her only choice, to take his life? Why wasn't she strong enough to save him? She didn't want to take the boy's life. It was selfish, she knew this, but she didn't want his blood on her hands!

"We do not take lives and we save all those we can." These were words Alex had spoken to Maura over seven years ago out on their first little mission to New Alderaan. The first part of that had been challenged before, but it'd be ingrained so deep into the crevices of her mind that even now when saving the boy required taking his life, she was hesitant. She couldn't do it! She-

Maura could hear Alex's words echo, their minds connected through the boy and through their bond. Take... her? Alex? Her master?

The padawan had squeezed her eyes shut, still sobbing, but they flew open and stared right back into the boy's. He was still staring, still silently pleading as his teeth fell out and his eyes bubbled with change. It was like the alternative struck a calmness into the girl. The boy wasn't asking her to kill him; he was asking her to save him. To do the one thing she could in this situation to prevent him from suffering in a future that wouldn't even be his. Maura's gaze softened, then hardened with determination. More forcefully than ever she reached into the boy, concentrating every iota of the Force she'd put into his body on his heart. She was exhausted both physically and mentally, but she could do it. She would.

Squeezing her brows together, Maura would attempt to stop the boy's heart.

@Nefieslab @Valen Pelora