Relics & Rivals

[Symm]

'You're fighting me now.'

Kathar felt more than saw Karn rush past him: A gust of air, a warm yet cold presence in the Force. He looked up and forced nausea down, not allowing himself the privilege of throwing up right now. Green eyes blinked away double vision as Kathar drew in a steadying few breaths; they watched Karn while the Sith threw his sabre at the terentatek; watched as it scored a hit against the creature.

Slowly his senses started to normalise, and the blood flow from his head wound had slowed to a trickle. His hair, ginger already, was a caked message of clotted red, but at least it was keeping the blood out of his eyes. He wiped his face one more time.

That wipe cost him seeing Karn get struck and slammed into the pillar. When he pulled his hand away, the first thing he saw was the monster making its way over to a prone Karn. "No," he whispered, under his breath, weakly pulling in another breath. Kathar took a trembling, testing step towards the two adversaries, but pulled up short as the world once again swam in his vision.

It was then that he felt it; the tug of the Force as Karn reached out to the crystals. He saw a vision, clear as day, of what was about to happen. Karn called out about his sabre, and Kathar stretched out, Pulling the weapon into his hand with invisible tendrils. He pressed the blade on, the lightsaber igniting its crimson blade to point behind him as he held it in a reverse grip.

The Jedi closed his eyes, to prevent the world from spinning in his vision and allowing the Force to guide him completely in what must come next.

As the crystals speared forward, Kathar pushed off and sprinted at the beast. The red shards moved faster than the Jedi, but not by much. Projectile after projective slammed into the terentatek, burying deep within the monsters armoured hide and causing it to shriek in pain and anger. Soon after, Kathar arrived within striking distance, using the other attack to cover his approach.

With his eyes closed, Kathar first struck out with his orange blade, cutting deep into a wound opened by Karn's crystal swarm. He pivoted on one foot, spinning around to slash the red across the beasts chest. Forewarned, he ducked beneath a blow that would have taken his head off; his own blade struck up and severed the clawed hand from body.

Entirely given over to the Force, the Jedi moved faster than the eye could discern. The twin blades struck again and again in a dizzying display, Kathar mixing various styles into the attack. Rolls, spins, parries and ripostes cast insane shadows from the light of the blades. Kathar cut piece after piece off of the terentatek, and the beast fell back.

With one last surge, Kathar pounced forward and buried the orange blade deep into the creatures torso. He released the hilt, leaving it impaled, and took the red into both hands. With a pounce forward, Kathar dragged the red blade across the ground and up between the creature's legs. With a jump and a kick off of its chest, Kathar flipped backwards; Karn's blade, with a click of a button, began to extend, slicing through more and more of the beast till it emerged through it's back, then cut through the body and head.

Kathar landed the flip with his back to the terentatek, coming down on one knee. Karn's blade switched off, and he Called his lightsaber to his hand, also extinguishing it.

Finally, Kathar opened his eyes, looking back at Karn. Behind him, the monster slowly slumped. Smoking halves then separated and fell to either side, sizzling flesh hissing and popping in the air of the vault.

Kathar stood, a little wobbly, and hobbled to Karn, "Are you alright?" He said, offering the younger man his weapon back. He saw blood, but he had no idea how deep the wound was.

[Rugs]

The shards flew true. One, then another and another punctured through the terentatek’s thick hide and dug into its chest, its stomach, its side. Green blood leaked from the deep wounds and dripped wetly to the floor as the beast’s advance staggered to a halt. Karn felt lightheaded and oddly dizzy as the terentatek roared its pain and frustration. Whether that stepped from his impact with the crystal or the poison working into his system, he could not say.

There wasn’t time to worry about it. For an instant, Karn considered striking again — tearing his makeshift spears free of the terentatek and gouging it further, but the ignition of his own blade in Kath’s grip stayed his hand.

Karn watched as Kath descended on the terentatek in a whirlwind of orange and red. In spite of whatever ailed the Jedi his assault was as graceful as it was beautiful. There was more than one lightsaber style at play here — Karn tried to pick them out but found it increasingly difficult to focus on the minutiae of Kathar’s motions.

Still, the display was beautiful, in a way that suited Kath, in a way that left Karn nearly breathless with awe..

It was also horrifying; despite his efforts to push it away, his thoughts drifted to the final vision, to their battle amidst the firestorm. To him struggling, frantically, to fend off Kath as the Jedi (was he still a Jedi, in that future?) descended on him with the implacable force of a landslide.

A cut across the front of his thigh, his lightsaber torn away by the orange blade. Karn staggered. Kath advanced, fingers closing around Karn’s slender neck as he picked the Arkanian up. Karn struggled weakly. The orange blade drew back...

Karn shook his head. As his focus returned to the present, he saw Kath finishing the terentatek — the Jedi wielding Karn’s blade while his own was buried in the monster’s chest. He smiled as Kath emerged victorious, as the Jedi approached him.

“Well, I’ve ruined another shirt,” he said, motioning to the tear in his clothing, “and I think I’m poisoned, but I’ll be fine.” He began to reach a pale hand for his lightsaber but hesitated.

Now’s your chance. The voice returned. Kill him, while his guard is down. Karn’s expression faltered. He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly.

He retrieved his weapon with a quiet “thanks” and pushed himself wearily to his feet. His balance wavered, forcing him to steady himself against what remained upright of the pillar.

As he stood, his attention rolled to the holocron in the middle of the room. Waiting for one of them to take it. Waiting to pit them against each other.

“How are you?” he asked Kath, gaze still on the holocron. “Looked like you took some rough hits there.” When he returned his gaze to the Jedi — as he looked into Kath’s viridian eyes — he couldn’t hide the sorrow and dread that plagued him.

“How about one last break? And then whatever happens will happen.”

Perhaps as a show of trust, or a silent admission that he knew he was in no condition to fight, Karn turned away from the holocron and began to limp back to his sack. He didn’t know anything about terentatek poison, but he had a general antidote that should at least buy him time enough to get back to his ship.

He stopped, briefly along the way, to reignite his blade and carve a horn and some of the claws from the terentatek. These followed him, drifting on currents of the Force. Colubus had denied him a trophy from the tuk’ata, but not even Empress Renata herself could stop him from taking these trophies.

“You know,” he said, voice cracking slightly as he began to dig in his bag for his medpack, “we make a pretty good team.”

[Symm]

"Yes," Kathar agreed, glancing over Karn's shirt. "You do seem to be making a habit of that." As for the poison, Karn didn't seem too concerned - so Kathar didn't make a deal of it. He figured if the Sith were dying and didn't have a cure, he'd be making much more of a fuss.

As Karn's attention drifted to the Holocron, so too did Kathar's. His grip tightened ever so slightly on his lightsaber, muscles tensing in preparation for what was to come next. There was no way around it, as far as Kathar could see.

Karn spoke, and Kathar brought his free hand up to touch his head, where the gash was. The man winced and shook his head, fingers coming away both wet and caked in dried blood, "I've been better. It looks worse than it is." The scalp was very vascular, so when it got cut, it bled - a lot. "Though I may have fractured a few ribs"; and reopened the burn from the droids earlier. "Nothing a few bacta treatments won't sort out."

A pause, then, before Karn offered a respite from fate. The Jedi nodded slowly, "Yes. That would be good."

When Karn turned away from the Holocron, Kathar knelt, adopting a meditation stance. Kathar watched as the Sith collected trophies - a fact that made Kathar smile a little. It wasn't in his nature to collect such things, but he understood the impulse. The Sith were, after all, more boastful of their accomplishments than the Jedi.

"Yes, we do." Kathar hesitated, looking away from Karn for a moment before bringing his gaze back. "Thank you. Without your help, I don't know if I could have beaten that thing."

Another pause, as Karn began to treat himself for the poison. "You know it doesn't have to end badly. Come with me, back to the Republic. We're not at war. Maybe you can leave it behind."

His voice sounded almost pleading. He didn't want to hurt Karn, and he especially didn't want to kill him. Over the day, or more, they'd spent here, Kathar had genuinely started to like Karn. He didn't want to throw that away over something like a Holocron.

And yet. There it was. He glanced back at the ancient device, rotating slowly within whatever field held it in place.

[Rugs]

Karn found his medpack after a bit of fishing around. He retrieved it and opened it, fingers dancing over a few small vials ‘til he found the one he was looking for. A bright green liquid, labeled as an antidote. It’d have to do; it was all he had, and he didn’t know if Kath had the ability to heal him if it failed. He slid the vial into a syringe and lifted the side of his shirt. The wound where the terentatek’s clow broke skin still leaked a bit of blood, and the skin around it was turning an angry red.

He grit his teeth and jammed the needle into his side to administer the medication. It burned, slightly, then made his side numb a bit, dulling the pain.

"Thank you. Without your help, I don't know if I could have beaten that thing."

“You could have.” Karn said it simply, matter-of-factly as he discarded the empty vial. The brief smirk he turned to Kath said the compliment hadn’t gone unnoticed, though. “You’re a hell of a fighter. I’d hate to end up on your bad side.” With the poison handled as best he could, Karn set about tending to the wound on his side, first wiping away the blood, then applying a bandage.

As he did, Kath began to speak. Karn paused, giving his companion’s request more thought than it likely deserved. He couldn’t leave the Sith. Not now, not after finally setting foot on the path to the mountaintop. Not now, after years of hardship and struggle.

The small rag that came with the medpack was already bloodsoaked as he turned to addressing the pair of small cuts on his head. Karn grunted and retrieved the shirt he’d been wearing and used it; to wipe the blood away from his face; it was already ruined, anyway.

He kept on in silence, thinking until he finished tending to those injuries. As he finished, he finally spoke again.

“Let’s say I do that.” Karn was fishing around in his medpack again. This time his slender fingers plucked free a stim. He was tired, after that fight, and his head still ached. The stim would see him through getting out of the citadel — whatever that entailed — until he could rest and get proper treatment.

“I leave the Order behind and run away with you to the Republic.” He rolled up a sleeve and studied the veins on his forearm, near his elbow. Finding a good candidate, he injected the stim with a quick grunt and emptied it into his arm.

“Then what? You go back to the Temple, do your Jedi business, and forget about me?” He smiled sadly as he flicked the empty stim shot away, but he didn’t break his gaze from Kath. “No, I don’t think it’d be that simple. A friend, more — whatever happened, I’d be something to you.” He began returning his things to his back, ending with careful placement of the Tuk’ata trophies. Once done, he closed the bag and turned to face Kath once more.

“Far as the Jedi are concerned, I don’t see much difference there, between that option and staying with the Sith. I’d just be another attachment.” Karn fell silent, letting the words linger. His hands closed at his side as he looked down at the ground. He didn’t want Kath as an enemy. He liked Kath their friendship, forged in the crucible they’d both endured, meant more to him than he knew it should have.

As he lifted his gaze, he looked past Kath to the holocron, waiting for one of them to take it, then focused on the Jedi’s face. He smiled. Kath was handsome, yes, even after that hectic battle. But there was more to his taking to the Jedi than his looks.

“You could leave the Jedi,” countered. “You wouldn’t even have to leave the Republic. You could keep doing ‘good,’ whatever your definition of it is — I don’t care. But we both know the only reason we may stand opposed here, after all we’ve just gone through, is because of our allegiances. Leave them behind, Kath. They’d only hold you back.” Karn inhaled deeply. It was a tall ask — an impossible one — but he couldn’t let the opportunity slip.

“Leave them behind. Kath, I don’t want to fight you.”

[Symm]

A hell of a fighter. Quite the compliment. Kathar, oddly, felt his cheeks warm at the statement, and he looked down at the ground to hide them.

'Let's say I do that.'

Hope bloomed eternal within Kathar while Karn started to hypothesise. So what if he did leave the Order, and returned to the Republic? It sounded all so promising in Kathar's mind, but soon Karn stripped away all the paper-thin logic around it and exposed it for what it was: An impossibility. The Sith pointed out the rules the Jedi, that which Kathar held so dearly in his heart, wouldn't approve. There could be no friendship, no attachment, nothing that could endure. Kathar looked now at Karn's feet, recognising that there was no hope.

He listened, then, as Karn continued - countering with a proposition of his own. Of course, even as the last syllable in 'Jedi' was spoken, Kathar had started to shake his head. There is no way; he could never leave the Republic, and he could most definitely never leave the Jedi.

'I don't want to fight you.'

Kathar sucked in a breath and shook his head one final time. "No. I can't do that, Karn. The Jedi represent everything I believe in. I've dedicated my entire life to them - over two decades. They saved me from what happened to my family; they became my family. I can't betray all of that." He closed his eyes, "No. It's just not possible."

Kathar, slowly and obviously, moved his hand to the hilt of his lightsaber.

"I'm sorry, Karn."

[Rugs]

“No.”

So there it was. Whatever else Kath said, whatever reasoning he offered about his family’s fate, about his twenty-plus years with the Jedi, it didn’t matter.

“I’m sorry, Karn.”

The same sorrow, the same pain that’d overtaken Karn beyond the vault washed over him as Kathar obviously moved to take his lightsaber. His face twisted with grief as his mind warred with his heart. Kath was a Jedi. That made him a foe. But these hours in the citadel told a different tale. Whatever the visions purported to show of what might come, his time fighting alongside Kath, talking to him, crying into his shoulder without fear of judgment — that had all be very real.

Karn looked at the ground, searching for some way to change Kath’s mind — for some way to turn them away from the collision course they’d been set upon. His shoulder’s slumped as he found nothing but hopeless resignation. “You damn stubborn man.” He half-laughed as he said it, far more warmly than he’d intended.

He looked to Kathar and smiled earnestly, if sadly, in a moment of silent thanks for the experience they’d shared. The very same thanks — as Karn’s mind raced over what they’d been through, over what could be — sparked frustration as the Jedi’s words sank in.

“It’s not possible.”

“Not possible,” he said, eyes narrowing slightly. “Not possible. Again and again, you say what’s not possible.” If some frustration — some anger — broke through in his voice as he strapped his bag over his shoulder, it was not at Kath. It was his refusal to break free, at the Jedi Order’s restraints that held fast. “You swear yourself to the Jedi, even as they tell you what’s not possible. They hold you back, Kath — you hold yourself back, as long as you cling to an Order that nearly threw you on the street for protecting your friends.”

He began to circle forward, giving Kath a wide berth. His lightsaber, as of yet, remained at his side. “I don’t want to fight you, Kath,” he repeated, “and I won’t unless you make me.” But I can’t let you have that holocron.

Karn paused, one last time, to look at Kath. One last time to admire him, to wish they’d found each other in different circumstances. Longing rippled through his presence before he hardened his will and took a deep breath.

One last time, true, deep sorrow broke through his face as he unclipped his lightsaber from his belt. “We could have avoided this.” The Force surged into him. “I’m sorry, Kath.”

He waved a hand, gathering dust and small fragments of rubble and hurled them at Kath. There was nothing large enough to be a threat to the Jedi, and Karn strongly suspected Kath’s telekinetic ability outstripped his own. But harming Kath wasn’t the point. It was a distraction, an attempt to force a reaction as he bolted for the holocron.

The Force powered his movements as he dashed toward the pedestal. He felt the Force roil and surge behind him as he threw his hand out toward the ancient treasure.

At the same time his outstretched fingers made contact and pulled the holocron free of its resting place, so too did he feel the Force close around it like a vice. He didn’t have to think to realize what was happening. Shit, shit, shit.

The holocron glowed red in his hand. The pillar, atop which it’d waited for countless years, descended into the floor and the chamber began to shake.

He glared at Kath as he tried to pull the holocron away, as the Jedi’s hold dragged Karn and the holocron both slowly, unerringly away from the pedestal. The holocron broke free of Karn’s fingers. Desperately, he reached out with the Force, trying to pull it back and away from Kath. Karn strained with every bit of strength he could summon, til his face flushed with color, but the holocron edged slowly toward Kathar. He wasn’t strong enough.

I’ve got to do something.

Their brief tug-of-war was abruptly interrupted as the Vault began to collapse in on them. Something broke Kath’s focus and Karn felt the holocron tear free of his hold in the Force. He nearly staggered back as it flew into his open hand and turned to run.

Above, great chunks of stone crashed free from the ceiling, choking the ancient chamber with dust. Karn hopped around pieces of rubble as a pair of pillars near the back of the room opened, revealing hidden lifts. A glance back showed the entrance still sealed--and Kath--so Karn bolted ahead toward one. As he stepped inside, wondering if the entire citadel would cave in around him, he yelled a final piece of advice to Kath.

“Kath! Lifts at the end of the room. Hur-” The door sealed shut and Karn was whisked away.

—-

Karn’s heartbeat still pounded in his ears as the lift finally eased to a halt. He’d hastily thrown on his winter coat and gloves during the ride. Kath was still alive; he could feel his companion’s signature in the Force, a bit below him.

That was good. That was also quite bad. Karn didn’t want to fight Kath. But he’d do what he had to to get the holocron back to the Order.

The lift doors slid open. Karn emerged into the grand entryway they’d first arrived in. He took slow, cautious steps as he looked around, regaining his bearings. Sadow’s statue still anchored the middle of the great hall, glowering toward the entry. Karn picked up his pace but hesitated as he spotted the plaque.


"Let me guess," Kath’s voice rang in his head. "Something about trespassers beware? Old Sadow here doesn't strike me as a commemorative plate kind of guy.

“Stubborn oaf,” Karn muttered, smiling in spite of himself. Then he ran, again using the Force to push himself faster. All he had to do was get out. If he could break free of the citadel, get to his ship, he’d be gone without having to fight Kath. Without having to hurt him or kill him.

He was frantically working through the Force to open the hidden locks within the main door when he heard the second lift shudder to a halt and open.

[Symm]

The anger in Karn's voice caused the Jedi to flinch, as though the expression of emotion burned him in some way. It caused Kathar to pause, however briefly, reaching for his weapon, while Karn railed against the injustices the Sith saw in the Jedi Order. It didn't help that Kathar saw Karn's point, and could empathise with the frustration - even if he didn't agree with the point made.

Yet Kathar's belief, his resolve, remained unshaken. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sabre but didn't yet ignite it.

'I'm sorry, Kath.'

As Karn drew on the Force, Kathar closed his eyes. A deep sadness washed over the Jedi as their opposing ideologies finally forced them into outright conflict. Truly he'd yearned to avoid this outcome, but it seemed as though it was inevitable.

Just before Karn released the torrent of debris, Kathar hopped smoothly to his feet. His weapon jumped gently into his hand, blade igniting as the man started to spin it. The rotation of the lightsaber cut through the hail of stone and dust, breaking the larger pieces into less dangerous chunks and disintegrating the smaller. That which pierced his guard pelted almost harmless off of the Jedi, barely causing the man discomfort, let alone pain.

By the time Kathar stopped spinning his blade, Karn was at the Holocron. Kathar removed a hand from the hilt and stretched it towards the artifact. Once again, Kathar reached with the Force, pulled it from within and sending it shooting to grab the device with invisible fingers. His arm shook with effort as he dragged the Holocron, and by extension Karn, inexorably towards him. It became slightly easier when Karn lost his physical grip and tried to fight him back with telekinesis of his own, but even that was a struggle. He curled his fingers slowly, pulling it closer and closer. He was winning.

So distracted by this battle of will, the chamber shaking barely registered with Kathar. It was only by the luck of the Force that he sensed a chunk of the roof above him breaking free. The Jedi jumped from his current position as the rock slammed into the ground where he once stood. This maneuver broke his concentration on the Holocron just enough for it to slam back into Karn's outstretched hand.

Kathar waved away a cloud of dust kicked up by the falling debris, then cursed as he saw Karn getting away. He heard, barely over the din of the collapsing vault, Karn's advice about the lifts. Without delay, he sprung into action, vaulting over and around falling rocks and shattered crystals. A chunk of the ceiling started to fall to cover the entrance to the remaining lift. Kathar jumped the remaining distance, slamming into the back of the elevator just as the stone crashed onto the floor behind him.

He turned around while the door slid shut, seeing through the gaps the entire chamber collapse inwards, leaving no space for anything living to survive.

---

Kathar realised, about halfway up the lift shaft, that he'd left his backpack down below. It wasn't such a loss, but he hoped that he wouldn't get caught out in the cold. The door slid open, and Kathar pushed that to the back of his mind. There were more pressing matters at hand.

Like Karn, he was at first cautious, unsure of where this lift would take him, and whether he'd also have to run from this place. Seeing the statue, it's back to him, brought an odd sense of comfort to the Jedi. The grand foyer.

Kathar stepped into the room and saw, through the feet of Naga Sadow, Karn working desperately at the doorway. Seeing that the Sith was having little success, Kathar pressed forward slowly.

Perhaps he should have been faster. He heard the ancient mechanisms begin to kick into gear as Karn found the right combination and the door slowly, ever so slowly, started to open.

The Jedi broke out into a sprint then, throwing his ignited sabre forward: Not at Karn, but at the top of the statue. The blade sliced through the neck of the ancient Sith Lord, separating the heavy head from the body. As Kathar's blade spun back into his hand, he jumped up the height of the statue and released a burst of power. The head shot forward, propelled unerringly towards Karn while the Sith started to slip out of the Citadel.

Kathar didn't see the result, but he chased the younger man out into the blinding blizzard that raged outside.

[Rugs]

Karn could feel Kath’s presence as the Jedi — his staunch ally turned hunter — approached. That presence, that beacon of light in this palace of shadows, had seemed so annoying and overbearing at first. Then, as they fought together — as they survived together — it became comforting, so natural that Karn hardly noticed it.

Now it was a distraction, as he struggled to unlock the hidden mechanism within the humongous stone doors to free himself from Sadow’s citadel. They’d reset in a new order, after closing behind Kath and himself. Karn had no idea which order in which to move them, but pressed frantically, desperately.

If he could get out, he might outrun Kath. if he could get out without fighting him.

Click... click... thud

There was that familiar rumbling, shaking the ground and the walls around him as the heavy doors began to slide open Slowly. Painfully slowly.. “Come on, come on, come on.” Karn threw his hands wide, reaching with the Force to urge the doors along faster.

A lightsaber ignited behind him. Karn looked over his shoulder to see Kath tear the head loose from Sadow’s statue, leap into the air as the Force surged within him.

The opening was wide enough to flip through. It’d have to do.

Karn scrambled through and out into the snowstorm, putting as much distance between the partially-opened doors as he could. He turned in time to see Sadow’s head slam into the doors — slam through the thick stone edges that still slowly apart.

He pivoted, setting his footing on the icy ground as the head bounced with a heavy thud on the ground and tumbled toward him with enough force to crush his ribs. With a grunt, he threw the Force forward, taking hold of the bouncing, spinning stone and directing it up and over him so momentum could carry it harmlessly past. It slammed into a black stone wall behind him in shower of broken rock and ice.

Karn scowled, raising an arm against the blowing wind and ice. Thorugh the blizzard, he could see Kath--the warmth of his body, the brilliant orange of his lightsaber — step out from the citadel. He could not stop himself from seeing that battle admist the roaring flames.

A cut on his thigh. A flash of pain... Karn forced the thought away. That kind of fear wouldn’t serve him — not here.

No escape. No running. Not without a fight.

Still, he didn’t need to kill Kath. He didn’t want to kill Kath — just stop him, slow him somehow to buy enough time to get to his ship.

“Fine, Kath,” he yelled over the howling wind, as he unclipped his lightsaber. “If you’re so hellbent on this, then let’s get it over with.”

His crimson blade flashed to life, piercing the snow veil as he readied for battle.

[Symm]

The chill wind cut to Kathar to the bone, but he drew deep on his inner resolve to push that discomfort aside. He squinted into the storm, seeking out Karn's already pale form against the white backdrop that was to be their battlefield. Karn's voice cut through the gale, and the resigned finality of it brought with it another pang of remorse. Then the red blade ignited, and with that Kathar located his opponent.

As he stalked forward, he shifted his stance. Instead of the usual two-handed form, Kathar held his blade in one. Instead of pointing up, he angled it towards the ground, out and away from his body. His other hand, he held pressed against his back, palm facing outwards - evidently not a part of this fight.

"Surrender the Holocron to me, Karn, and you can leave this place unharmed. You have my word as a Jedi." He knew the offer would be rejected - if it had ever been on the table, they would have agreed to that back in the vault.

So when that rejection came, Kathar tilted his head forward, looking down at the snow between them. His blade trailed mere millimetres above the ground. The brilliant heat let off by it melting the snow and sending a brief cloud of steam up, which rapidly dispersed with the wind. "So be it," he whispered, meant only for his ears.

With that, Kathar closed the distance in a blink of the eye, the blade coming up to meet Karn's in clash of red and orange. The Jedi's weapon slid the length of the others, technique carefully guiding Karn's blade slightly off the mark. He ducked an anticipated high blow, then caught the others weapon on its return swing and directed both of their lightsabers into the ground, steam billowing up beneath them.

Kathar pressed this momentary opening, shoulder charging into the Sith to set him off balance and afford Kathar a moment to step back and re-assess.

He maintained that duelists stance, frowning at the outline of his opponent in the increasingly dense storm.

[Rugs]

Surrender the holocron.

Karn grit his teeth. As if. If Kath had taken it, that would be one thing. To willingly turn it over to the Jedi Order — whatever he felt toward their emissary advancing toward him — was another altogether. “You should have taken it when you had the chance,” he called back. The howling blizzard hid the wry smile, but for a fleeting moment, some of that boyish teasing from within the citadel broke through in his voice.

Yes, he knew well Kath had been on his way to doing just that and may have succeeded, were it not for the ceiling’s timely intervention.

The smile faded. The playfulness fled his voice as has his tone hardened. His gaze flicked to the of snow, flash-melted by the heat of Kath’s passing blade. “It’s mine now.”

“Come and take it,” his voice seemed to say, even if Karn himself never uttered the words. No, a part of him wished the damn thing had been destroyed in the cave in, or in the battle with the terentateks. Then they could at least say their goodbyes and part on good terms.

A part of him trembled, knowing what the Jedi was capable of. Knowing that he wasn’t fighting to kill, only to escape — that he wasn’t bringing all of his strength to bear.

Kath muttered something — Karn could see the movement of his lips, through the driving wind. Then he was upon him.

Karn lifted his crimson blade to knock aside Kath’s orange, gritting his teeth at the speed of the blow. Kath’s saber slid along his own and when they separated, Karn swung high. This missed, and he found his blade tied up and dragged to the ground, throwing hissing steam up between them.

Kath’s shoulder collided with Karn, and the Jedi sent him staggering back. His chest ached — a warning that despite the stims and Force coursing through his veins, his injuries from below were still a very real concern.

“So what’s your aim here, Kath?” Karn growled, twisting his lightsaber in his hand, bringing it around to a balanced two-handed stance in front of him from which he could readily attack or defend. “You gonna kill me over a holocron? After all that down there? Just throw my life away?” Lightning flashed somewhere in the furious storm, hidden by the snow, announced only by the echoing thunder that rolled over them.

Karn lunged forward, blade bitting in a low rising strike-

-and found himself staggering again as a kicked pile of steaming snow flew at his face. He barely turned aside enough so that it hit his cheek rather than his eyes. As he hissed, he frantically raised his blade to catch an overhanded strike that came slicing out of the air toward his shoulder.

The blades hissed and whined against each other. For a moment, Karn’s own blade was forced down, ‘til he found his strength. Their motion stopped, wavering dangerously close to his shoulder as neither combatant could quite overpower the other. Then Karn called on the Force, felt a rush of strength come over him and roughly shoved Kathar’s lightsaber away.

Then he was on the Jedi, striking home with a blow from the butt of his lightsaber’s hilt. Unlike Kath, he offered no reprieve. His lightsaber straightened in his grip and Karn pressed onward, slipping into his unyielding, off-kilter Juyo, searching for some weak spot in Kath’s defenses.

He only needed a good glancing blow. Something that’d buy him time.

[Symm]

'Just throw my life away?'

"If I have to," Kathar said through grit teeth as he bore down on the sabre-lock. He fought for every scrap of movement, every millimetre, leaning heavily into the attack. Yet he still kept only one hand on the hilt. His other remained at his back, unmoved since the beginning of the fight. He held back, unwilling to commit everything to win this fight.

So it came as no surprise to the duellist when Karn pushed him back; though the ferocity of the riposte caught him off-guard. The hilt of Karn's blade slammed into his chin, and the Jedi stumbled back, teeth clacking together and biting his tongue. The metallic taste of blood became prominent in Kathar's senses, and he spat a glob of red onto the snow.

---

Far above, the storm kicked up. Winds kicked up to cyclonic proportions lifted tonnes of snow and tossed it about with wild abandon. Lightning strikes became ever more frequent, massive discharges of energy slamming into the ground with excessive force.

On the peak above the citadel, one such strike landed on the spire; the crack of thunder that proceeded it shook the mountains snowy blanket loose.

---

He brought his sabre up into what appeared to be increasingly desperate blocks, ceding the field to Karn at each blow. It seemed as though the Jedi was slipping; each attack met a fraction later than he'd displayed so far. Perhaps the cold was getting to him, for his skin had grown pale in the storm. As he met another of Karn's attacks with a slow parry, his teeth set to chattering.

There it was. The opening Karn sought.

Kathar saw it too.

He raised his blade, quicker than he had before as he threw off the cold. Sparks flew as the red and orange connected for one last time, barely stopped in time - to the point where he felt the heat start to burn his side. Kathar twisted his wrist, and pivoted, putting strength into the parry to send Karn's block wide open. Reversing his momentum, he slid the lightsaber back - the weapon cutting straight across Karn's chest, digging into his flesh. It was not deep enough to kill, nor to reach the bone, but a significant blow none-the-less. Deep enough to scar.

Kathar knocked away a final attempt at blocking and stood over Karn, blade pointed at his throat. "Yield!" He yelled down at the Sith. His voice carried no anger, no rage - none of the emotions seen in the third vision. Just a profound sadness. "Please." A soft plea, voice breaking.

At that moment, the ground started to shake. Kathar turned his head to look up the mountain, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

There was only a moment to react. Kathar looked back at Karn and finally brought his other hand out from behind his back. He shoved it towards the Sith, telekinesis propelling Karn across the surface of the mountain, out of the way of the avalanche.

Kathar did his best to get out of the way as well. He jumped back and then slammed his lightsaber down, deep into the stone - he held on for dear life as the white tide swept over him, obscuring him from sight.

[Rugs]

The fight was shifting into his favor. Blow after blow, Karn pressed Kath back and back. He could feel Kath’s strength waning. He could feel him slowing, bit by bit, with every crash of their lightsabers. He pressed on, giving the Jedi no quarter, no time to get away, no room to breathe. Kath had brought this fight upon them both, had stubbornly insisted that he couldn’t just let Karn leave in peace.

But Karn would end it.

Annoyance spiked as the Jedi refused to use both of his hands — annoyance that he yet struggled to break through Kath’s defense while his erstwhile companion was obviously holding back. Annoyance that Kath refused to fight him with his full strength, as if he were unworthy.

Then again, they were both holding back, weren’t they? No lightning had yet graced Karn’s fingers, and he refused to even consider releasing his ace — a power to terrible to turn on Kath, whatever the Jedi did. And whatever he told himself about his own skill, he knew what Kath could do. He’d seen it, first hand, time and again in the depths below.

There it was. An opening.

Karn twisted his lightsaber around his body, using the long hilt like a fulcrum around his core to build speed and strength for the strike at Kath’s side. A licking wound, enough to put the weary Jedi out of the fight, and he could escape.

Red and orange clashed, throwing sparks and fitful light as they hissed in the driving snow. Karn, now in a much stronger position than when he’d barely kept Kath’s saber away from his shoulder, tried to press his advantage, slowly pushed Kath’s blade back until he swore he could see steam rising from the side of the Jedi’s robes.

Then a sudden surge strength from his foe, a twisting parry that threw his blade wide. Karn scarcely had time to register horror as he saw Kath’s blade striking for his chest.

Pain enveloped him.

Karn screamed as the lightsaber’s tip lit a line of fire across his chest. He attempted — more from base instinct than any active thought — to keep his lightsaber before him as he tried to scramble away, but Kath afforded him no such mercy.

The Jedi’s lightsaber knocked his away again and Kath put him on the ground.

Karn barely noticed it. Barely noticed his rough impact with the ground, or the snow’s frigid hold around him or the biting wind on his face. There was only pain. Blinding, all-consuming pain. He held desperately to his lightsaber with one hand, though the blade fell silent. With his other, the Arkanian clutched at his chest while his legs thrashed and he yelled, trying to find something, anything to drive the agony away.

It wasn’t until Kath’s lightsaber came to hover near his throat that Karn fell still and silent. He lifted his chin, trying to create even a millimeter more space between the plasma and his skin. He fought back tears, failing in his effort as the pain--physical and emotional — overwhelmed him. Fear, as pure as any from the citadel, rippled through him, etched itself onto his face.

He couldn’t yield. That wasn’t an option. But there was nothing he could do, with Kath’ blade so close to his throat.

“Kath,” he said, his voice cracking, “how could y-”

Karn noticed the oncoming avalanche about as soon as Kath did. He yelled in surprise as the Jedi lifted him with the Force and threw him out of the oncoming snow. Karn landed gracelessly, rolling across the icy ground and into a snowbank shielded by a wide citadel wall from the worst of the avalanche.


He curled in on himself for warmth, for comfort against the burning pain on his chest as the avalanche raged over him.

—-

Karn emerged from the snow a short while later. His chest still hurt terribly, but the Force roaring within him dulled it, enough for him to move. Enough for him to focus on limping his way back to the ship.

There was no time to waste. Kath was still... somewhere nearby — the Jedi wasn’t dead. He could feel his presence.

The contents of his bag had come spilling out as he rolled into the snow. Karn recovered the important bits — the holocron for which he’d nearly been killed, his trophies, his datapad — and left the rest to lay there. As he began to leave he stopped, eyeing his lighter coat he’d worn within the citadel.

It wasn’t heavy enough to offer warmth for long against the blizzard’s fury, and if Karn's earlier experience wearing Kath's coat was any indication, it'd be too small to fit the Jedi's muscular frame comfortably, if at all. And by all rights of the lightsaber burn across his chest, he shouldn’t have felt any sympathy for Kath at all.

But even after beating him, the Jedi had thrown Karn out of the way, saving him from an ignoble death-by-avalanche.

One final kindness deserved another.

Karn found a rock tied the coat’s sleeve around it to give it some weight against the wind. He reached through the Force, found Kath and offered a weak warning in the Force — a ‘look over here’ sort of alert.

He threw the coat and rock, ignoring the burning pain the motion lit along his chest as he used the Force to push them further, and drew his presence down as much as he could as he retreated away from the citadel.

[Symm]

The avalanche passed by, tumbling further down into the valley. The snow left behind took some time to settle, creating a smooth new floor on the mountainside. While the storm still raged, the most violent of it moved past the citadel.

Sometime later, the surface started to bulge. A moment later a hand, nearly as white as snow itself, broke through. Kathar clawed his way to the surface. With one last grunt, he pulled himself free of the hole and collapsed on to his back, gasping for air.

He found himself shaking uncontrollably, so the Jedi knew he didn't have much time. Kathar pushed wearily to his feet and stumbled. He began wandering seemingly aimlessly in one direction, drawn to something, his frozen mind finding it challenging to make decisions.

Something caught on the Jedi's foot, and Kathar looked down blearily. Some sort of fabric. He reached down with numb fingers and picked it up, bringing it up to his face to feel it against his skin. Ah, yes. A jacket. With a rock on it. He frowned, unable to process this luck, but he knew to throw it over his shoulders and wrap it as best he could. Kathar didn't even take the time to remove the rock.

The man stumbled blindly along the path, his shivering getting worse and worse before stopping. That was not a good sign. He took a step and found himself falling into a snowdrift. The Jedi thrashed about for a moment, then calmed. Perhaps this was it. The visions of the future be damned, Kathar Maiavel died frozen on a planet in Sith space.

He lay there, contemplating his death when he realised that what he lay on was much harder than the snow, or even the rock surface of the world. Kathar lifted his head and blinked snow out of his eyes. Metal. A strut. He traced it up and looked above him, finally recognising the structure for what it was: His ship!

The Force, it seemed, had use of him yet.

Kathar drew on his last reserves of strength. He got to his feet and hobbled forward, reaching up with a hand towards a control panel. It took a moment for him to steady his hand and entered the code to lower the ramp. Quickly Kathar ran up the gangway and slammed his hand to raise it again, to isolate from the cold outside.

---

The Jedi woke with a start. Somehow, he'd crawled his way to a bed, got himself hooked up with medication to prevent hypothermia, raised the temperature in the ship, and fallen asleep. He didn't remember any of this. Kathar flexed his fingers, pleased to register the lightest sense of feeling again. Great, nothing lost to frostbite.

Groggily, Kathar sat up. As he did, his fingers brushed against a fabric that wasn't a blanket, and Kathar looked down. His eyes found the coat, and he drew it up into his arms. This wasn't his. Kathar frowned and turned it over in his hands, finding the rock that weighted it against the storm. It took longer than he'd admit to realise who's it was.

Karn.

Yes. He remembered now. While buried beneath the snow, the Jedi had felt a pulse of the Force. In his addled mind, the Jedi had made little sense of it, but it seemed when he dragged himself to the surface, he'd followed it unknowingly. It had probably saved his life. That thought echoed around in his mind, and it raised remorse - and a little hope - in the Jedi. He remembered the fight, and how it ended, and still, Karn helped him.

Kathar placed the coat carefully on the bed, then stood up slowly. It took a while for his balance to return, but the Jedi was soon moving through the ship. He took the controls after the vessel warmed up and carefully guided the spacecraft up and away from the planet. All too aware that he was still deep in Sith space, he plotted a course to see him out of it.

After jumping to hyperspace and engaging the autopilot, Kathar returned to the bed. He lay down and hugged the coat to his chest, eyes closing.

His last thought was his hope that Karn survived; and his absolute belief that he did. Kathar drifted off to sleep, dreaming of a city of gleaming white stone, set above a serene blue sea.

[Rugs]

Karn staggered to his ship a while later, hunched over in a vain attempt to shield the bare, lightsaber-burnt skin along his chest from the brutal cold. Overhang did protect his ship from the worst of the wind and drifting snow, but he’d not expected to be stumbling — bone-tired and with a badly bruised ego to boot — back to it in the middle of a damned blizzard.

He waved curtly, throwing the switch to lower the boarding ramp with the Force and hurried aboard. Once aboard, he repeated the motion, and the ramp and door slid shut as the power generator whirred the lights to life.

Karn desperately wanted to collapse. The stims were wearing off, piling old weariness atop him, not unlike the avalanche that’d nearly buried him.

To say nothing of the lightsaber burn crossing his chest — it took a concentrated effort to focus on anything other than that.

Still, Karn, ever stubborn, forced his way to the small ship’s fore, slumped into the hard pilot’s seat and started warming the engines. He didn’t know how committed Kath was to chasing him down, but even if the Jedi could, by some miracle, follow him through the storm, he’d not risk another confrontation.

With his injury essentially nullifying his ability to properly wield his lightsaber, his options were to surrender to Kath or turn to the dark power he’d purposefully held back. Neither would do.

And so a few minutes later, Karn’s ship roared out of its shelter, seeming to rise from the ground as it sliced through the blizzard and raced toward space.

As the ship broke through the clouds to the starry expanse above, Karn hoped that Kath had found a way to escape the storm.

---

Karn sat atop a slender metal stool, stripped to the waist as a medical droid worked at the terentatek’s scratches on his side. His hair, still damp from a long trip to the small onboard refresher’s shower, was mussed messily over his head. A bandage strip, lined with bacta along the adhesive side, stretched from one side of his chest to the other.

The wound would heal well enough, but he’d known as soon as he had a chance to look at it that it would scar.

Karn tensed with a grunt as the droid — a small, floating silver sphere with a single photoreceptor and more prods and grasping arms than he wanted to think about — jammed a bacta syringe a little too hard into his skin. He glared daggers at the stupid thing, but it didn’t care.

He quickly forgot the indignity.

The holocron, a pyramid of metal and crystal, sat atop the table before him, pulsing with dark power. Karn felt a childlike wonder. In spite of all his struggles in the citadel, despite losing to Kath, he’d escaped with it. He’d escaped with the holocron that Sadow had seen to guard so jealously.

I won, he thought, smirking as he extended a pale hand toward the holocron’s surface. That fight didn’t matter in the end, did it, Kath? His hand stopped just short of the holocron. Did Kath survive?

Why did he care, after what happened outside the citadel?

There’s no way to know, he told himself. Well... his gaze flicked to the datapad, perched atop a nearby counter. No. Now’s not the time.

He activated the holocron.

Sadow appeared before him, wearing the same glower as in the Vault and, Karn quickly realized, the same that had been etched into the statue in the citadel’s grand entrance. It seemed the old Sith Lord wasn’t a very sunny fellow.

“I’ve passed your tests,” Karn said, pride ringing in his voice. “Now you have to show me what secrets are hidden away in the-”

“Where is the other?” Sadow’s projected gaze stared flatly ahead.

“The other?” Karn furrowed his brow. His stomach began to sink as he spoke again. “What do you mean the oth-”

“Two souls are tied to this holocron now. One is insufficient to unlock it.” Sadow’s tone said he’d brook no argument.

“But I survived all of your stupid tests!” Karn bellowed at the holocron. “You owe m-”

“Return when you have the other in your company. Until then, this holocron’s contents are denied to you.” Sadow’s figure blinked away.

Karn sat, dumbfounded. The only sound in the room was that of the gentle whirring of the medical droid’s repulsor.

Until a small glass container atop a shelf exploded. Karn only glanced at his handiwork. He pounded a fist on the table, unsure whether to scream or cry. In the end, he laughed, leaning back on his stool — that got some irritated beeps from the droid — and laughed.

“Damn it, Kath,” he said, shaking his head as covered his eyes with his hand. “Just can’t let this be easy, can you?”

---

“...In the end, despite my attempted show of good faith, I was forced to combat against Maiavel. We each inflicted some mild injuries upon the other, but an intervention of the weather and the citadel’s mountainous surroundings forced our conflict to an end before a decisive conclusion.

He seemed to be suffering acutely from the cold; I can only assume he escaped the world or died on the mountain.”

A few hours later found Karn sitting at the end of his narrow bed, finishing a report to Viren. He’d still yet to sleep; the report needed doing and he’d rather get it out of the way while the memories were yet fresh. Still, weariness dragged at him.

A few mugs of tea had helped him through it; a freshly-poured one sat steaming on the table, which he’d dragged over near his bed. The medical droid’s work was done, at least. Karn wore a plain shirt with short sleeves now, with a blanket draped over his shoulders.

He took significant care to dance around the more delicate aspects of his time with Kathar. The description of the second trial was very vague and loose, by comparison to what had actually happened. He’d made no reference at all to the three visions, or crying into the Jedi’s shoulder or begging against a fight.

Karn respected his master deeply, but some things — some things were for his soul alone.

Still, something was missing...

“Maiavel, for all his aggravations,” yes, that’d be an appropriate word for such a report, “is very capable, both in and out of combat. He would make a powerful ally, if brought into the Sith. Failing that, even pulling him away from the Jedi would inflict a significant loss upon their Order. Because his presence is required to unlock the holocron, I suspect we will have our chances.”

Karn smiled at the last as he sent his report in an encrypted message to Viren, and not for the reason it indicated. “I’m not done with you,” he muttered as he set his datapad aside and finally laid down. He was so tired that he fell asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow.

In his dream, he heard the call of sea birds, felt the warmth of an ocean breeze on his face as he sat atop the wall, waiting for someone to join him.

He didn’t even notice the shade — the little shadow monster with the glowing eyes — tying the thin red thread around his wrist.