"You shall pay for your failures, Master Kenobi,” said Hett calmly as he loomed over the fallen Jedi Master. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but I cannot allow you to further taint the Order with your poor teachings.” Hett raised his lightsaber high above his head in a killing stroke. As his highly trained muscles begain their downward arc, Hett suddenly became blinded by a sandstorm. Millions of tiny shards of rock, worn to fine points by a millennia of winds and scorching suns showered Hett, enveloping him in a cocoon of grit and dirt.
Using the momentary diversion he created, Obi-Wan leapt to his feet and planted a solid kick square in Hett’s chest, knocking him down. Using the Force, Obi-Wan continued to shower Hett with sand and rock, burying him in a tomb of Tatooine’s soil, pressing down on him with all his might. “You have been corrupted, my old friend,” shouted Obi-Wan. “You have fallen to the Dark Side, and I cannot allow you to spread your evil.” Kenobi stabbed down into the sand, hoping to strike a killing blow on Hett to end the confrontation. However, nothing ever came easy for a Jedi, and now was not going to be different. As Obi-Wan’s blade came stinging down into the sand, Hett’s crimson blade sprang forth to deflect the thrust aside as he leapt out of the sand trap.
“Nice try, Master, but you will have to do much better than that.” Hett’s blade came fast and wild, anger taking over from precision. Hett’s blade crossed Obi-Wan’s repeatedly, left and right, up and down, so fast that their blades shone in a mixture of blue, red, and purple hues.
Suddenly as if hit by a starfighter, A’Sharad was thrown backwards, landing in a heap several meters away dazed and confused. Obi-Wan stood his ground, almost glowing with Force energy. “You clearly have not finished your studies, old friend. Had the Clone Wars not broken out, perhaps your training could have reached their height. Instead, you have underestimated what the Light Side is capable of.” Thrusting his arms out in front of him, grasping empty air, Obi-Wan picked up Hett from the ground, holding him high above the ground. “You have brought this upon yourself, Master Hett. Together, we could have brought the Jedi back from the brink of extinction. Instead, I must now wipe the stain of the Dark Side from you completely. I am sorry. I have failed you, just as I have failed Anakin. You are but another lesson that I may learn from so that I can help usher in a new era of the Jedi; A wiser, stronger breed of Jedi. Farewell A’Sharad Hett. May the Force be with you.”
In a moment of panic, A’Sharad threw a barrage of bolts of electricity at Obi-Wan, startling the venerable Master into letting him go. “I cannot allow you to end my time here,” gasped A’Sharad as he recovered his balance. “Perhaps now is not the time. But we will have our time, I promise.” Using the Force and Master Kenobi’s own trick, Hett threw up a sandstorm, but this time to hide his escape. When the sand cleared, Obi-Wan had recovered his composure, Hett nowhere to be found in the Desert landscape.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” remarked Obi-Wan, as he strode off into the Jundland Wastes to his home.
“I do not fear you, Sith witch. I am not the Jedi you are accustomed to hunting. I will fight back, and I will not bow down before you.” Quinlan Vos’s jade saber glowed in the darkness of the strange cavern in which he found himself. Mentally, he gathered all of the Force power he could muster. This was not going to be a civil fight, and Vos knew it.
“Silly Kiffar,” spat Cheai Xatal, “I shall rip out your intestines and use them to hang your wife and child!”
The stunned look on Master Vos’ face made the Bothan smile wide, showing her fanged visage. “Do you really think I will allow that,” stammered Vos?
“You don’t have a choice in the matter, Jedi. I will kill you like I have so many others. But this time, I think I’ll enjoy this slaying even more. I can feel the conflict in you, Vos; you want to tap into the Dark Side, like you have so many times before, but you don’t want to fail your offspring. I can feel the conflict in you, and it tastes rich!”
With that, Vos leapt forward, hoping to catch the grandstanding Sith offguard. He raised his lightsaber high above his head in a Form VII Vapaad maneuver, one that utilized speed and strength in an effort to knock back his opponent, regardless on their readiness. The ploy worked, as the Bothan Sith had mere seconds to ignite her forearm saber in an attempt to parry the brutal attack. Xatal had only ever seen such savagery in lightsaber combat when she was being taught by Lord Vader himself. She had barely survived the encounter then, but she was determined to not repeat those mistakes today. Allowing the force of Vos’ attack to throw herself backwards, Xatal used the space to gather herself, igniting her lightsaber claws and extinguishing her forearm lightsaber. Attuning the crystals in her gloves, her claws grew to the length of her forearm. Rushing forward, she lunged at her target with the ferocity of a mother gundark protecting her children. Her highly trained reflexes easily pushed aside the Jedi’s next attack, and added in one of her own, a vicious swipe at Quinlan’s leg in hopes of severing the limb from his body. In an equally fast maneuver, the Kiffar Jedi barrel rolled over the body of the Bothan, avoiding her attack and adding in one of his own. Vos swiped at Cheai’s extended arm, but she was able to twist out of the way and block with the claws on her opposite hand. Picking themselves up and resetting themselves for attack or defense, Vos realized he was now between the Sith Assassin and the exit from the cavern. He had a choice to make now; retreat and continue running from the assassin, or stay and face her until the end. Momentarily, Master Vos allowed himself to think of his family. In that briefest of moments, he knew that the choice was already made for him. He would stay, and slay this Sith witch. Failure was not an option; his family depended on that.
Calling on the Force, Vos threw up a Force bubble surrounding himself, as well as thrusting an enormous Force Push at the Bothan. In response, Cheai Xatal threw up a Force shield to defend against the incredible onslaught. Caught off guard and now a little frightened, Cheai Xatal put everything she had, calling upon the darkest recesses of the Dark Side to protect herself from the attack facing her. That, proved to be a costly mistake for her. In a split instant, Vos recognized the error in the Sith’s defense, and split his focus to pull an enormous stalactite from the ceiling behind Xatal, hurtling it towards the back of her head.
Cheai instantly felt the incoming missile in the Force, and turned to deflect the mighty stalactite, and in doing so, opened herself up to the original Force push, hurtling her face first into the cavern wall. The room spun in a swirl of black, red, and green. Completely disoriented, barely conscious, Cheai Xatal called further upon the Dark Side of the Force to give her strength to pick herself up again. She turned slowly, wobbling around on unsure legs, to face the Jedi Master. As her mind snapped back to reality, she saw Vos moving towards her with purpose. Quickly, Xatal threw out several fingers of Force lightning, snaking their way through the burning ozone of the atmosphere, seeking the body of the unsuspecting Jedi. But the Jedi was suspecting. He was preparing for just such an assault, and easily absorbed the flickering attack with his emerald blade, fastidiously brushing it aside as he raised the blade for a killing stroke. In a flash, the blade came down, and a searing pain erupted like a volcano on Mustafar in Xatal’s shoulder. With a look of pure horror, she looked over to see her amputated arm lying next to her, still twitching and writhing, as if kept alive by the Force itself.
“Please, Master Vos! Think of what we can do together,” cried Xatal, the pain clear in her voice. “You don’t have to kill me. You can teach me to control the Light and the Dark, just as you have. Together, we can over take Vader and the Emperor and end their reign. Please! Please don’t-“
And with the final stroke, one more Sith ceased to exist in the Universe. “May you find peace in the Force, Cheai Xatal.” “I must seek out Master Kenobi now,” mumbled Vos. “Where am I going to find transport on this rock?” Master Vos closed down his blade, hooking it back on his belt as he turned away from the remains of the Sith assassin lying still on the cavern floor. Her presence no longer felt in the Force, it was time for Vos to make his way to the spaceport and find transport.
