Coruscant: The End of the Line.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei retreated with a back-roll to avoid the ducting. He shifted his grip on his saber to give him better control while he performed the acrobatic Ataru maneuvers. He somersaulted over the debris, tumbled under the corpse, and avoided the last few converging pieces with a moonsault over Atrapes' head. Wei cut at his adversary's shoulder when he passed, landed low, and slashed at his legs.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes' lightsaber flashed and hummed violently in the air as he parried the Jedi's attack while he moonsaulted, still mostly unmoved and impassive in the face of Wei's skill and ability. His eyes did not seem to reflect any light back in the glare of the lightsabers.

The area grew colder even as the Inquisitor stepped back to avoid the slash at his legs, and swiped up with his lightsaber at Wei's head. A thrumming, like a distant drum or a heartbeat that pulsed in reality itself manifested; Atrapes lifted his saber in front of him.

The Troopers Wei had killed earlier that were still mostly intact rose to their feet again, their movements jerky, like they were puppets being pulled on taut strings. Their blasters rose again, spitting angry red bolts of energized plasma at the embattled Jedi.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei planted his feet. The blaster bolts turned away. One bolt in each volley went directly back to its source. Some bolts hit the puppet troopers, but the burning corpses still fired. Weapons slagged one after another until all that remained were useless molten lumps in the dead hands of Atrapes' marionettes.

The things could still be flung at him. Atrapes stood across the room, a great gaping black hole in the Force. An intuition suggested the leader of the Inquisitors would not break concentration easily. But Wei knew this game. The Force opened his recent memories. This man was predator all over. If he wanted to chase prey, Wei would give him prey to chase. No matter where he went, this man would follow.

For every turbolift shaft there is an emergency exit. A mundane ladder or set of stairs. Wei could gain high ground. Work his way up. Or...

The Jedi Knight closed up the distance, stabbing a heckling rhythm at his adversary's target zones. Wei had moved around a lot so far, but apart from a few steps, Atrapes hadn't moved at all. He was still relatively close to the turbolift he used to transport himself and his retinue into the lower areas. He pressed his attack, and his opponent in the direction of that lift. Too much debris and bodies here. Too much room to move.

It was dangerous no mater what he did or where he fought. So he'd fight in the only space that narrowed the danger down into a point he could block, parry, and riposte.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes fell back before Wei's furious assault, into the darkened interior of the turbolift. Their lightsabers spat and sang a frenetic song of conflict, clashing like cymbals in a discordant symphony.

He could feel Wei's flash of satisfaction at a moment of triumph in pushing the Inquisitor into such close quarters; Atrapes merely sank deeper into the Force and assumed the Duellist's Form, standing in profile to face Wei. The Force thrummed in him, vibrating ever more powerfully in an addictive rush of energy and power: he focused himself not on the power itself but funnelling it into action against his foe before him, making himself faster, keener, and ever more an abyss of nothing. The temperature in the turbolift fell drastically, such that the moisture in the air began to crystallise.

It was snowing.

Angry red gouges were scored into the lift as it rose higher and faster, their blades swinging in continual motion, each seeking to end the threat the other posed.

Atrapes said nothing, merely pushing himself to match and then, one brief moment after another, exceeding Wei's own assault. A thrust and parry turned into a slide down Wei's blade to the guard. Wei pivoted his wrist, attempting to disarm him. Atrapes pulled his blade back, and sidestepped the counter by an inch, thrusting again and swiping low to force Wei to keep moving at his pace, keeping his attacks varied and his strikes as unpredictable as possible in such a confined space, waiting for that opportune moment.

It came: Atrapes suddenly locked his saber with Wei's, using the full force of his strength, along with that the Force granted him to bring the battle to an abrupt halt with the turbolift's door directly behind his enemy, just as the turbolift stopped violently with a screech of tearing metal.

Atrapes waved one hand just as violently, tearing open the turbolift door and with a splayed left hand and his lightsaber-occupied right, let the coiled power of the Force he had been feeding off of in a concentrated burst directly into the Jedi.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei stayed empty so the Force could fill him. He worked on instinct. When the Force Push came, Wei relaxed. It hit him square in the chest and blew him backwards. The air rushed out of his lungs and he flew back like rag doll pulled by a string in his back. He sailed out into the upper level of the former Jedi Temple. The Force made him aware of the space. It told him where to put his feet. The Force Cripple pulled in a big breath, and the Force entered with it, traveled down into his legs. When he kicked off, Wei was a meteor. The attack bashed on Atrapes saber.

He knew the forms. Form II was good for quick footwork, but the flicking wrist-based parries were no match for Djem-So. The Jedi Knight planted his feet and swung hard, feeling the power corkscrew back up from his toes, through his torso, and into his arms. The Falling Avalanche technique, the famous opening strike of Form V's melee component, opened the way for more crashing attacks, each one so like the man-sized boulders that were its namesake. Wei's offensive was a force of nature. Wei kept his attention locked on his opponent to see if he was the type to try to ride the wave, or just get out of the way.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes had barely managed to step out of the lift before Wei was upon him.

Again, as he strode implacably to continue the fight, there was a swelling, like the sound of a chorus darkly chanting in the souls of the two men fighting, and Atrapes extended his hand, palm down; the stone he stood one cracked and dropped a foot.

With his new position, it was a simple parry to push Wei to the side. Yet even then the strength behind Wei's attack was undeniable: when their lightsabers clashed, the stone screeched and groaned, and Atrapes and the small section of rock he had displaced fell into the darkness below them.

There was a physical silence, but the chanting of the Dark grew even more deafening.

[Palara Iscandar]

Across the remains of the Temple, Palara skidded to a stop at the edge of the upper level staircase she'd found. She could see the glow of Wei's lightsaber in the distance, but there was no red blade signifying Atrapes.

She could hear and feel the Dark swelling in the vast empty room, making the shadows darker; the air froze in her lungs.

"Wei!" she shouted. "Run! Run, damn you!"

And everywhere, red glowing lights, like eyes, gleamed into being, floating in the darkness or hanging next to the barely visible parts of the structure still standing.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei only just heard Palara. "Not yet," He thought. The Force touched his mind. Assuring him that everything would be fine if he did the one thing he hadn't done yet: add his own Darkness to the fight. Wei Wu Wei dug up the pain of loss that froze his guts and made him look for a strong drink that burned like fire. He dug up the anger as Chariss' scorched corpse flicked across his mind's eye.

Make it righteous. Make it more than meager vengeance. Let it flow through the Light, to be an instrument of Balance.


The long, messy hair stood on end as the power coursed through him. Wei would try one last thing: Form VI. Wei hadn't given her style a name. Chariss' fighting style. It was the Form VI he developed on Geonosis, but calling it The Way of the Rancor didn't fit. "The Way of the Lily, Form VI: Chariss."

He dashed forward with an artful thrust aimed at Atrapes' gut.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes seemed to be no match for the newer style, but even so, he managed to somehow match Wei's tempo, even going so far as only using his lightsaber for attack, and dodging all of Wei's strikes outright. A quick pivot, a duck that turned into a cartwheel, three quick swipes. Even as he was being pushed back he seemed to be mocking the former Jedi.

Finally, the end came. Wei's lightsaber flashed; Atrapes could not block or dodge the blade which skewered him.

Yet it all seemed wrong.

There was no flash of pain in the Force, or sound or reaction from the Inquisitor to the deathblow.

"I am disappointed, Wei," the Inquisitor said, before dissipating into black shadow, a spider-droid rushing through the inky darkness to attack in this moment of weakness.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei scowled as Atrapes disappeared, then lopped off two of the spider droid's arms as it reached for him.

It was killing him inside to let the man escape--he had to pay!

No. He doesn't. There is no Passion; there is Serenity.

The Light that held back his own Darkness glowed brighter at the sound of the voice in his head.

Personal isn't the same as important. Wei finished dispatching the spider droid and hit his comm. The tracking signal from it pinged the starfighter, still in the sub-levels of Coruscant's infrastructure. R4 noticed, and responded by turning the ship vertical and leaving a huge scorch mark on the landing pad. The recovered Jedi stayed alert for more droids and the Force opened his memories and lead him to an area outside the building where he could meet R4.

[Rossos Atrapes]

As feared, the first droid was only the first of many. Four more floated into view, their glowing red ocular sensors gleaming in the darkness, before more light was introduced in the glaring flashes of blaster fire.

Atrapes appeared, the darkness that seemed to eat light dissipating like mist around him.

"Surrender, Wei," he said.

And in the darkness of the old Jedi Temple ruins, dozens of red flashes, as lightsabers activated.

Reinforcements had arrived.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei maintained a defensive posture and checked for his exit. He could take them. There was no way they could all come at him at once, even if they projected debris or used lightning. At some point they'd all get in each other's way.

Not today. More for you to do, there is.

Wei could sense R4 and the spacecraft coming closer. It would hurt, but he could get out through the window and land on the ship as it came by. He stood by the window and emptied himself of all desire. He let go his goals. He let go his pain. He let go his hard-won fought for his old identity. He let the Force come in, and it did in a sudden rush. The power of the Force filled his body and mind, until he felt he could contain no more power.

So he didn't.

He let that go, too.

Wei flicked his wrists, making the tip of his lightsaber snap forward and down. The Force rushed forward, as though it was floodwaters released from a mighty dam. It flowed, and kept flowing, losing nothing in power or magnitude as the Jedi gave himself as a conduit for it to flow.

Then it was time. The saber snapped back, speared the window. The transparisteel warped, then blew out into the city. Wei jumped into the whipping wind, landing on the starfighter amid shards that bit into his limbs and his back. The canopy opened, and Wei climbed in. The starfighter turned towards the edge of the atmosphere and rocketed off toward space.