I stood in front of Barriss' quarters, completely undetected by the passing Jedi. Beyond the door I could feel the potential Sith meditating. She was attempting to smother her emotional desires but failing horribly. The Dark Side was singing to her like a siren and she would not last much longer if she was not taught how to become a True Sith.
Rubbing my fingers together in my right palm I ground the door into dust, stepping through before restoring it exactly as it was a moment later. A hissing ignition of plasma sounded from behind me, the heat of her blade curling some of the hairs at the nape of my neck.
"Now, now, settle down." I flicked my fingers out of my palm and grasped the blade with the force, ordering the plasma to retract into her lightsaber. A click followed soon after as the saber was turned off.
As I turned I heard her take a few steps back, her nervousness shining like a beacon in the force. Her quarters were a mess. There was books strewn around her desk. Rubbish had accumulated inside one of the trash cans next to her bed and the bed itself was half drenched with sweat.
"W-why are you here...?" She asked me in trepidation, her voice slightly quivering.
"Have you decided on your path?"
She gulped as her back struck the far wall of her chambers.
"I... I thought I had more time..."
"Unfortunately matters have become more complex and I must soon depart for another world. I need your answer within the next five minutes otherwise I will need to leave."
She took a deeper breath, her gaze becoming erratic as she started to process her decisions. I hadn't wanted to do this originally but the mission changed things and now we were possibly being hunted by the Jedi Order. As if to confirm my suspicions a general alarm screeched throughout the exterior hallways.
'They are definitely searching for us.' I thought sombrely.
"I- is there really no chance of me continuing as a Jedi?"
Sighing is mild annoyance I walked up to her bed and sat down on the edge; one of the dry ones, and stared her down plainly.
"Very little. You could try but it would be like asking a flame not to consume oxygen. Fire can burn from other sources but will always attempt to use oxygen as a fuel source."
She paled a touch, her face turning a pastel green in place of her usual verdant pigment. Her body language was screaming that she wished to take my offer whilst her facial expressions murmured the opposite, that she wished to stay but realised it was unrealistic.
"W-what would I be learning from you, if I... were t-to accept?"
"Anything in my power that you wish to learn and anything that you may wish to. I do not offer to teach things without precedence or need. If you wish to wield a lightsaber I will teach you the forms. Science? I will give you my experience in several fields and access to the complete Jedi archive, restricted sections also... I will become your 'master' and you will become my 'acolyte' or 'apprentice'." I paused for a moment to let my words sink in before continuing.
"As I stated previously... Choice is all important to True Sith. We detest chains of any kind. We hate those who would chain others. We love those who fight for freedom, we care for those who have suffered from chains. The Jedi originally attempted to chain us to their ideologies and philosophies, we took that to heart and defied them... All of the Sith you have heard tales of have hated chains in one way or another, but what they failed to do was to isolate the influence of the entity Jedi call: 'The Dark Side'."
"Does that include you three?" She asked immediately after I finished my impromptu speech.
"No. We were taught by Darth Apocrypha to isolate ourselves from 'The Dark Side'. We use the force, plain and simple. Jedi have the same problem with 'The Light Side', though many of them see this as a boon instead of a problem."
She started to settle into the conversation now and relaxed into the wall, leaning her weight against it.
"O-okay, I accept." Though I felt like smiling at her acceptance of my offer, I stifled it.
"Good. Now, I will cover you with the force and make us invisible to everything they could detect us with. Then we will take a transport to the nearest spaceport and grab a ship."
Barriss immediately grabbed a travel bag and grabbed several of her personal effects, her speed rather impressive despite her dishevelled appearance. Whilst she scurried around I stood and stood impassively in front of the door, spreading my senses throughout the surrounding Jedi Temple.
There were hundreds of Jedi now scouring the temple level by level. Windu was walking alongside a detachment of temple guard that were raiding sequestered study areas in the lower archives, searching for me and my two companions. Obi Wan was striding alongside Anakin and Ashoka, heading in our direction.
"Hurry, we do not have much time Barriss. Anakin and Obi Wan are very close." Her speed doubled as she tapped into the force a little, her celerity blurring her motion to such an extent that I could almost see a second pair of hands superimposed over her original set.
I tracked the two Jedi and the Padawan as they reached the end of the hall. Rolling my shoulders I looked over my shoulder and watched as Barriss began collecting several Holocrons she had hidden below her bed. Frowning, I made a quick decision.
"Finish your packing. I will confront them. When you are finished come out into the hall and we will escape." The verdant woman stopped what she was doing to stare at me with incredulity before nodding her head in acquiescence.
"Okay... master..." The last word was whispered, not that I cared in the moment.
Opening the door I stepped out into the hallway, my head angled in the direction of the oncoming trio. Their presence in the force sharpened to a fine point at the instant they saw me.
"SITH!" Anakin screamed out in anger, his eyes flickering a dull yellow for a nano-second as he drew his lightsaber and ignited it in one motion. Obi Wan was quick to follow, alongside Ashoka who stood just behind them and looked especially nervous.
"Ah, the 'Chosen one'... Good to see you again. Is there an issue gentlemen?" I extended my senses out to encompass the entire hallway as they slowly stepped towards me, shuffling into a position that they could lunge at me from. My hands were clasped behind my back loosely, ready to snap down to my own saber should I need it.
"Nexus, what is going on? Your companions have suddenly disappeared and you are interacting with a member of our order that is in a sensitive condition..." Obi Wan asked in minor desperation. They were confused and taken off-guard... They had every right to be confused and paranoid. This didn't mean I was going to simply give them all the answers and reveal our secrets.
"We had our information exchange. I informed you of the dangers, the truths of what is happening... My companions decided to go on their own ways, as is their freedom to do so. I found the information I needed from our exchange in the archives. Now I am helping an unfortunate soul who had been denying her true nature because the Jedi refuse to understand that some people and things can't be chained to ideology."
Obi Wan was blinking wildly whilst Anakin was seething, his eyes flickering back and forth between blue and yellow. Anakin was most likely suffering from all of the revelations I had dropped onto them and now our 'supposed' betrayal of the Jedi's trust; though we did no such thing, openly. Ashoka, I noticed, was actually agreeing with me. The Padawan's force presence was bared open for anyone to read and it exposed a deep ceded understanding of our philosophy.
"TRAITORS! We trusted you! We conversed with you! And now you steal information from us and dare to harm a JEDI!?" The 'Chosen one' was positively frothing at the mouth. He even took a powerful step forwards, readying a force leap from what I could understand of his body language.
"Calm down Anakin!" Obi Wan shouted in panicked worry.
"Pathetic." My exclamation made Anakin recoil as if slapped.
"You say I am a traitor yet hide your relationships from the entirety of your order. You say that I stole information and yet I remember sitting amongst Jedi for several hours simply reading at a public archive... If we speak of theft, what of you and your theft of those Sand People's lives?"
Ashoka and Obi Wan were staring blankly between me and Anakin. The Padawan felt completely confused and slightly betrayed. The master felt a deep sense of horror as I spoke about Anakin killing sand people.
"LIAR!!!" Anakin leapt towards me in a spin, his lightsaber stabbing outwards from the zenith of his thrust.
In an instant my right hand dropped to my lightsaber and I pivoted on my feet, my saber alighting and sparking against Anakin's. As he barrelled past me in the air I shoved my left hand forwards in a claw-like motion and force pushed him further down the hall until he was rolling end over end; eventually stopping at the very last doorway in the hallway.
"You say you are Jedi, and yet you struck first. Perhaps you aren't as 'light' as you present yourself to be... Anakin Skywalker." I watched Obi Wan wearily, my saber extended in his direction whilst my mind also focused on the obvious threat I had just temporarily debilitated.
Ashoka shut off her sabres, backing off in revulsion at what her master just did. Obi Wan did the opposite however and started advancing towards me, his style focusing more on defensive deflection, parries and quick exploitation of gaps in an enemy's defences.
"I will not strike at you Obi Wan, so you may as well switch for Soresu if you wish to confront me." He grimaced at my statement, his form shifting ever slightly into a more neutral stance that enable him to switch into Soresu or go into more violent stances.
"You watched him attack me first. You must feel his instability for yourself, yes? Do you not understand that the Dark Side has been gnawing at him for his entire time as a Padawan and Jedi? Fed by the chancellor in hopes of making him his Martial? See reason, there is no need for conflict."
"Unfortunately... You have attacked a Jedi inside the temple and it is now my duty to apprehend you Darth Nexus." His words sounded almost hollow as he recounted Jedi dogma and security code.
Shaking my head I felt Barriss start stepping out of her chambers.
"Very well. You leave me with no other choice." Obi Wan leaned forwards on the balls of his feet, readying to receive or take a strike. Anakin started stirring from behind me, his emotions thrashing at the edges of his enforced control.
"Ashoka... I understand that you have stepped back, please take shelter before we start fighting." I said to the horrified and disgusted Padawan.
"N-NO! This is wrong! Why are we attacking him!? M-master attacked him first!" Obi Wan became paler at the implication of her words, his eyes narrowing in my direction. It felt wrong to cause this much pain to the exhausted general but I had chosen my path and I couldn't make him back down without violence.
"I will not run away when a victim is being targeted for the mistakes of the perpetrator!" Ashoka shouted aloud as her own lightsaber flicked on, at their lowest setting; the training setting.
Obi Wan charged towards me, his left hand held out for balance as he took a mild stab in my direction. I slapped it away with the base of my lightsaber and immediately pirouetted into a downwards slash that he deflected with a desperate upwards deflection.
Sparks erupted between our blades as we entered into a fast pace duel. He attempted a force push that I nullified with one of my own before spinning to my right and slashing down at his ankle. He skilfully dodged the strike with a quick jump before he started a series of stabs that forced me into weaving myself out of them.
Recognising the rhythm of his attacks I began sprinkling some Soresu into my moves, deflecting the stabs and slashes until I spotted a small weakness in his posture, caused by a previous wound; most likely. I parried two diagonal slashes before sliding my blade around behind his own and slashing the ignitor off, the molten slag collapsing to the floor is a sizzling clump.
He was panting in exertion as I turned my blade off.
"Enough, I have won. You fought valiantly and attempted to stop me, now I shall take my leave and you can attend to your duties." I turned just in time to see Barriss ignite her saber against Anakin who's eyes were glowing a violent red-yellow.
I walked over to Barriss as Obi Wan slumped to the floor, Ashoka beside him settling him down. The chosen one immediately focused on me and pushed Barriss into a wall, his eyes fixed onto my own in hatred.
He rushed me with celerity and attempted a horizontal slash towards my stomach. I say attempted, because I immediately grasped the blade and his body with the force and held him in place. The saber and his body vibrated in place as if he were placed behind a blurry mirror.
"You're a failure of a Jedi and are pathetic as a Fake Sith. Hope your master and order can save you from its clutches before you do anything beyond the pale." I walked around him and pulled Barriss up to her feet with an errant wave of my hand.
Anakin was fighting back like a man possessed but he didn't have a stream of pure force that was passively being generated inside of him. He ultimately stayed locked there until I escaped with my apprentice, taking the quickest route out of the temple.
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