The Fog of War/Part 19

"You know you've missed me," Alecto taunted, feinting at Tirien's face before retracting into a jab at his abdomen.

His blade whipped up to catch the feint with a little pop of plasma collision, then parried her jab sideways and twisted into a lunge that made her skip back. "I have," he admitted. "But don't worry, my aim is improving."

They fenced through the maintenance area as Alecto sought an opening. He had improved since Gizer, though no more than she had in the same time. He was a little taller; between that and being a male, he might have had more strength to bring to bear if he hadn't sacrificed that advantage by fighting one-handed. True, it gave him a little extra reach, but it also made his sword hand a prime target. Alecto just couldn't quite seem to reach it; he might have abandoned being stronger than her, but he'd made no such concession with speed. She spat out a lock of hair that had come loose of her ponytail on another nimble dodge.

"I'll get it for you," Tirien offered, and his blade flashed in at her face so fast that Alecto had to lean back to make it miss; she swung at his wrist, but he spun a complete circle, coming back to guard with his blade extended and forcing Alecto to check her instinctive follow-up charge.

Some ten meters away, Zeff was battering at Narasi's guard. "You're on the wrong side, Zygerrian. The rest of your people have chosen the winning side."

"I'm the one who's seeing clearly," Narasi retorted. "Is it the dark side clouding your vision, or just that ugly helmet?"

Through the crackling haze of their crossed blades, Alecto saw Tirien roll his eyes. "Banter when you're a Knight! Focus now!"

"Yes Master!"

Alecto deactivated her blade, slipping under Tirien's and bringing it back to life in a sudden tràkata strike, but he flung himself sideways and the spear of energy impaled only the air. Alecto laughed in enjoyment as she pursued him.

"Darth Saleej gave you an apprentice?" he asked as they traded blows.

Some day, Alecto thought. "Zeff's on loan. Don't worry, though, he's good."

"So's Narasi."

As he rolled under her sai tok and she had to overleap his rolling cut at her ankle, Alecto glanced once more at Zeff's fight with Narasi, as she had now and then the past few minutes. All her life she had been underestimated—too small, too weak, too hesitant, not to mention too female for more than one Sith—and her enemies had died for it. She had sworn never to make the same mistake herself, and so she could concede that Tirien was right; Narasi was good. For a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old she might even be more than good. She was incredibly light on her feet and agile in her movements, and puberty had given her a foretaste of the disproportionate Zygerrian brute strength, too. Her style was still amateurish at best, but her moves were strong and she was not the brash child who had charged Alecto on Gizer Battlestation.

But Alecto hadn't lied; Zeff was good too, and he was several years older and more experienced. Narasi was mostly playing defense, and she seemed reluctant to commit to a definitive assault; her attacks ended with one or two strokes. It would just be a while until Zeff could batter down her defenses and put an end to her, and not a long while at that. She was starting to wear down. She didn't feel afraid in the Force yet, but the attacks were coming less frequently.

Tirien came in with a lunge, then suddenly abandoned it. As Alecto dropped back to an instinctive guard, he blew her off her feet with a Force push, then spun to face the other duel. Alecto kipped up at once, but Tirien had just enough time to wrench a pipe section out of the rest with the Force. As the ruptured pipe spewed steam into the basement, turning it into a misty haze in seconds, the severed segment rocketed through the air and hit Zeff's shoulder with an audible thud. He only snarled in pain, his mask turning it into a buzz like a swarm of very angry bees, but even as Alecto slashed and forced Tirien back into their fight, she could see the breathing room Tirien had bought his apprentice; Zeff kept up his attacks, but there was less force behind them now and Narasi began to counterattack.

"That was a cheap trick," Alecto chided.

Tirien disobligingly moved his face out of the path of her lightsaber and scoffed, "This from a Sith."

"Conceded," Alecto said, and gave him a wink. "If it weren't a problem for me I'd be proud of you."

Tirien lunged and Alecto parried with a charge, forcing him to retreat into a two-handed guard. She backed him toward a low pipe, then hit him with a Force push; he stumbled over it and landed hard, and Alecto sprang as much as the ceiling allowed, coming down to impale him. He rolled aside, and she ripped her blade free toward him; he retreated out of range, and as sparks and molten metal flew he raised a hand, the burning droplets parting to either side of him.

Alecto laughed. "You're a much better challenge than most of the Jedi I meet, Tirien. Thanks for that."

He parried her rain of cuts and forced her back with a jab that nearly singed her elbow. "Thank me by stopping this, Alecto."

She stared. "You expect me to surrender? Would you?"

"Never," he swore, and, anticipating her cut, he stabbed at her knee; the ceiling was too low for a real leap, and she had to resort to an ungainly butterfly twist to the side. Tirien didn't pursue, holding a one-handed guard. "You're better than this."

"Oh, I'm just warming up," Alecto promised, whirling her blade in an infinity arc.

"Not better than me, better than this," Tirien insisted. He was not enough of a fool to actually look for Zeff and Narasi, but he turned his head that way a little, probing with the Force. Lowering his voice, he said, "You saved my life, and Narasi's."

For one second fear slipped a cold, sharp dagger between her ribs. Then she channeled fear into fury and fell on Tirien in a quick assault. He gave ground, eyes narrowed in concentration, parrying again and again, barely daring a jab to break her flow. His blade was nearly vertical when he touched the Force and Alecto stumbled on a piece of sheet metal he had pulled loose from the floor. She threw herself back and ripped it free entirely; Tirien cut it in half as it whirled toward him.

"You saved us, Alecto," he repeated.

Her senses drifted upward where she felt another duel in progress. "No one will believe you."

He shook his head with a look of disappointment. "Only a Sith would take speaking of her kindness as a threat."

She rose slowly, eyes narrowed in anger. She thought of his arrival in the basement—such incredible fortune, her theory actually proven correct, a Sith civil war averted. Zeff had struck at Narasi from the shadows, but she had given it a second before going for Tirien. His back had been turned, and presented an easier target…but he had also been on his guard by then.

It was a trick; he was making her question herself to distract her. She could hear how forced the taunting lightness in her voice sounded now as she retorted, "I evened us up, nothing more. That's just good policy; it encourages others to save my life in the future, and I'm a big advocate for that cause.  But you only get one, Kal-Di; you want me to spare you again, you'd better save my life again."

The look on his face was hard to read. "I'm trying to."

Alecto renewed her assault, but this time Tirien stood his ground; it was so odd for him to fight two-handed that for a moment she struggled to adapt. In that moment he suddenly caught her wrist with one hand; she matched him as he made to strike off her sword hand, and they grappled, Alecto kicking at his shins, until he wrenched them both sideways over the pipe he had stumbled on, back into the main corridor. He managed to land on his back; she tried to press her blade down at his face, but his boot found her gut and he pitched her over his head.

She had enough control of the Force to turn herself in midair, landing in a roll instead of coming down on her neck. They rose as one, but a sizzle of plasma on metal and a slop-p-p-p-p sound drew their attention. Narasi had hacked through a thick pipe, and it showered wastewater and sewage on Zeff as he stepped forward to take advantage of her open position. Alecto could smell the choking odor from ten meters away, and though Zeff's airtight Ubese armor insulated him from the spray, his cry of disgust made it clear his helmet didn't filter the smell. He wiped at the goggles of his helmet frantically, blocking one-handed as Narasi cut at him. His boots slid in the muck as he struggled for purchase, and Narasi kicked him hard in the chest. The blow knocked him to his back, and she sent him bouncing across the floor with a Force push.

Alecto rolled her eyes. "Like I said, on loan. That is not my fault."

Narasi ran to Tirien's side at once; she hadn't been in the line of fire, but the splattering sewage had clearly hit her boots too, because she brought the smell with her. Tirien commented, "Inventive. But you're showering when we get out of here."

She nodded, but her big blue eyes met Alecto's violet ones and her face was hard. "Strike with purpose," she muttered. "Don't hesitate."

She was clearly talking to herself, but Tirien winced. Taking a deep breath, he said, "With me, then. Go in on her left."

They attacked together; their teamwork was imperfect, but vastly improved from Gizer. Alecto had to focus on defending herself; Tirien had put himself on the side of her sword hand, presumably so his quick little jabs could check her strikes every time she tried to take advantage of Narasi leaving herself open. One-on-one, she would have eviscerated the Zygerrian in seconds, but at Tirien's side Narasi was able to pick up on some weak spots and blunt what might have been successful strikes. Together they kept Alecto on defense, leaving no opening for her to dare an attack.

Zeff had just rounded the end of the maintenance corridor, wiping his visor again, when he turned back the way he had come. A Force push slammed him into the permacrete, and as he staggered, a second blew him out of sight again. A black-haired Human who seemed vaguely familiar skipped over the pool of sewage, barely sparing it a glance. "Tirien!"

Tirien flicked his blade at Alecto's face, forcing her back, and called, "Bit busy, Aldayr."

"Mali needs help!"

"So help him!"

Alecto sensed the Human's anger; wasn't that interesting? "He sent me for you—it's Vandak!"

Tirien aborted his assault, and Narasi lurched to an off-balanced halt at his side. Alecto took the moment to breathe, re-energizing her muscles and coiling the dark side to spring. "There were a lot of you Jedi, then. Good thing I brought some friends too."

Emotions warred on Tirien's face, and Alecto sensed the effort it took to dominate them, but he finally gestured Narasi back with his off hand. Both Jedi began to retreat. "Another time, Alecto."

She smirked. "I don't think so."

And she launched herself at them. Tirien defended himself, eyes narrowed, but Narasi had to fling herself back. The third Jedi started toward them, a double-bladed lightsaber hilt in his hand, but hesitated; the corridor wasn't wide enough for all three Jedi to fight side-by-side. Alecto pressed the attack, knowing she couldn't afford for Tirien and his apprentice to resume their two-pronged assault. Tirien's frustration at being unable to fly to Darakhan's aid was obvious, and frustrated men made mistakes.

"You don't want to leave me so soon, do you?" she teased. "Just deserting me when a more famous Sith comes along? And here I thought you wanted to kill me, T."

She showed him her bottom lip for a heartbeat. "I'll bet you say that to all the Sith."

If it was Vandak and Darakhan, the Corellian Knight was doomed. His survival on Taanab had been more luck than skill; but for Darth Hokhtan's retreat order Alecto and Vandak would certainly have slaughtered him, but even alone Vandak was more than capable. If she held Tirien and Narasi here long enough, perhaps Vandak would even come down to help her finish them off. Not a bad way to seal an alliance.

"Tirien!" Aldayr cried.

Alecto saw Tirien's yellow eyes through the haze of the three blades, and for a second there was conflict there. Then his face hardened in a surprising way and he squeezed his off hand into a fist. The Force buffeted her back a step, but Narasi wobbled back the other way, looking startled. With a swipe of his hand Tirien sent his apprentice rolling down across the floor, where Aldayr pulled her to her feet. Tirien didn't even look at her as he moved to meet Alecto's strike.

And then Alecto had to stop teasing him and toying with him, because the duel stopped being a game.

In a rare moment of praise, one of her tutors at the Sith Academy had told Alecto she was fire made flesh—unpredictable, chaotic, consuming everything in her path. But Tirien was lightning, every blow deadly and blindingly fast; taking the heartbeat to track its path was dooming oneself to be struck by it. He stabbed and lunged with impossible speed, countering every slash, parrying every cut, interrupting the flow of Alecto's attacks and driving her back toward a maintenance turbolift shaft set into the wall.

Before he had been trying to best her, she realized. Disarm her, take advantage of the slips she made and weaknesses she showed, exploit the opportunities in the fight where the Force might lead him. Now he was stabbing to create those openings, driving every blow for her neck and her heart. Now he was trying to kill her.

The realization filled her with fury, and she unleashed it through her blade, slashing and stabbing in a chaotic frenzy that belied her single-minded drive to destroy the Pantoran Knight. The Force rocked her and threw her off balance, and the green blade nearly cut her throat. She twisted aside and came back with a ferocious onslaught, and he parried until he could rip up deckplates with the Force and hurl them at her with bone-shattering momentum. She threw herself into a triple twist, parallel to the floor, but even as the plates whizzed past above and below her, she almost touched down with her spine in his blade; she spun aside and drove him back with a cut at his eyes with a heartbeat to spare.

He's as good as I am, she realized with a start. Tirien was a famous Jedi, but that was meaningless; a cyclops would be famous among the blind. She had never truly believed it before now, but she realized the duel really could go either way.

That drove her on. Sith did not fail. She pulled all the darkness in the Force she could conjure, fueling her rage with that stubborn refusal to submit that had brought her through every trial. Three blows a second, four…the duel bypassed observation, down to instinct. Death was coming, Alecto knew. She was its servant, but she served it best by creating it. They were only seconds away from the moment…

Then Tirien flicked his blade straight up, and Alecto knew; his chest was impossibly exposed. She started into the stab with such commitment that she only heard the hsssss after the caustic spray of steam scorched her cheek and her left eye.

"Agh!" she screamed, throwing herself back. Blinking against the pain, her left eye watering, she saw Tirien had cut open a pipe stretched along the roof of the corridor. She reached for it with the Force, but Tirien was a heartbeat faster, and his blade darted into the stream; the gas caught fire and the pipe became a flamethrower.

Alecto glared through the flames, but Tirien used the Force to push the fire at her, and she had to scamper out of range, raising a hand to shield herself. The heat in the air warped his form, but she saw him retreating, ripping other pipes open with the Force, feeding the fire while he turned the deckplates to an impassibly slippery soup of sewage, water, and coolant chemicals. Alecto slapped the lift call button as she sensed the Jedi fleeing.

She almost screamed his name, but choked it down at the last second; she would never give him the satisfaction of her impotent rage. Instead, she roared, "ZEFF!"

Her anger bled into the Force, and another pipe burst as her voice rang through the subbasement. She sensed the Ubese struggling toward her. "I can't reach you!"

"Go around!" she commanded. "Up to the assembly room, now!"