Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 3)

Chapter 34: "Stop being weak! Remember what he did to your family."

Neerada gave full rein to her hate. She let her passion rule her body, to control her perception, to govern her mind.

The electrostaff twisted in her hands, parrying and deflecting Mahon's two red sabers, seeking for a way in, a chance to strike.

At her side, she was barely away of her sister's actions. She thought her slow, that she held herself back, that her unwillingness to take life would condemn them to fall under the blades of their enemy.

She started to hate Ella for it.

The burned face of Mahon seemed strained in a perpetual snarl. He crossed his right saber over the end of her staff and pushed forward, his foot lashing out to catch Neerada's ankle by surprise.

As she staggered he stepped back, letting Ella fall into his trap where he had her to himself for precious seconds. Her sister's green blade was engulfed in a flood of slashing red, being pushed low and pinned for a heartbeat as Mahon followed it with a swipe that would burn the side off Ella's face with his free saber.

Ella slipped to her knees and twisted aside with a scream of effort mixed with despair. Neerada felt the panic in her as her sister was aware of her mortal danger, and of how close she was to being mutilated.

Mahon's blade crackled in the air barely a finger width from Ella's cheek.

"No!"

Neerada jumped forward and swung the end of the staff toward Mahon's unguarded face, forcing him to break from his assault on Ella, forcing him to hasten back several steps to where the combat could begin anew.

Ella rose with a sharp breath.

"Thank you," she said.

"You need to fight harder, sister," Neerada instructed her. "The only way for us to survive this is if he does not. Do you understand? Stop holding back. Stop being weak: remember what he did to your family and people. He has to die."

"I was the strongest of all of us, Neerada. Second only to Titus Perdition. Neither of you are strong enough."

"Perhaps not," Ella said. "But there are two of us."

Ella's run caught Neerada off guard. Her sister leapt to face Mahon from his left, drawing his attention.

Neerada closed in on his right, seeking to divide his effort, to seek for an opening.

She felt the effort Ella was putting in, felt her fear, and recognised that it wasn't all fear of Mahon, but rather of herself and her power, of what she could do if she just had the courage to release it and to use it.

But it was also compassion and concern, for Neerada. The sister she had never known.

Compassion for her was holding Ella back!

It was a shocking sensation for Neerada to discover. No one had ever shown such care for her before.

She would use that compassion. She would use it to fuel the hate Ella would need!

"Mahon!" she screamed.

Neerada put everything into her attack. She struck with her electrostaff on a diagonal line, stepping in between Mahon's sabers, trying to pin his nearest hand back with the Force, willing it to slow, knowing there was no way she could come away unscathed, aware that it was the only way to create the opening.

The bar of the electrostaff hammered against Mahon's shoulder, pushing him into a crouch.

A split-second later, too late, and Ella's green blade swung up, severing the end of Mahon's lightsaber but missing the vital target of his wrist.

Mahon jerked aside, dropping his ruined weapon, but drawing his other blade inward toward Neerada's unguarded right flank.

A voice, her own, screamed a single word as her flesh burned:

"ELLA!"

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