Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.13.3

Feeding off of her emotions, Barriss did not show any remorse as she attacked Luminara. Gritting her teeth, she put all of her energy into driving Luminara back and away from the temple. Her yellow eyes were wild, and she willed herself to let go of all her Jedi training. It had been Tyrannus's weakness during the challenge and she refused to let it be hers too. 

Luminara thought that maybe she could fight off Barriss long enough to make her tired, but without any restraint her ex-Padawan was attacking her with movements she had never seen before. Barriss wasn't just trying to defeat her, but destroy her. Her red sabers went for her head, her neck, her chest, and any part of her body that she could cut off from her. Luminara now had two lightsaber blades to watch out for and had to push herself to avoid getting sliced in half. 

Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to counter-attack. Luminara knew Barriss was lost, but with every stroke she brought down on her Luminara felt the pain behind it, the anger, the fear. Barriss was suffering, and she knew it was because of what she had done, and not done, for her apprentice. Shame and sorrow welled up in her like never before, not even when Barriss had been accused of treason for the first time. 

Barriss used the Force and threw her backward, knocking Luminara off her feet. She lunged and stabbed downward with both blades, narrowly missing the Jedi's head. It got so close that it burned holes through her headdress, and when pushed Barriss up and away from her, the lightsabers dragged the cover off her head, allowing her black hair to fall around her face. 

No one had ever seen Luminara without her headdress, least of all Barriss. She knew the importance of it though, and she could see the shame fill her as she realized what she had lost. Good, she thought. Let her feel it. She lifted the headdress with the Force and sliced it in half, destroying whatever hope Luminara might have had of getting it back. Not giving her a chance to react, Barriss ran at her, screaming and swinging her lightsabers wildly. 

Luminara barely dove out of the way in time. This is my fault, she told herself, I've caused this. I've brought this down upon myself. She deflected Barriss's next stroke, moving backward and trying to stay on her feet despite the fear that broke her inside. There was no way to know what hurt worse: the knowledge that Barriss wanted to make her suffer, or that she had caused Barriss to suffer herself. 

Suffering can only lead deeper into the Dark Side, Luminara knew, pushing Barriss back to give herself time to think. I won't let myself fall, and I have to try and save her no matter how hopeless it is. If she was the reason that Barriss was choosing the Dark Side, then she would not rest until Luminara was dead.

When Barriss got back to her feet, she was greeted with the sight of Luminara turning off her lightsaber. Chin hanging low and tears slipping down her face, the Jedi Master kneeled on the ground, dropping her weapon besides her and letting it roll away. 

Barriss doubted the act at first, but she saw Luminara's pain just as she saw her own and she knew there was no deception in her. Looking up, in a broken, weary voice, Luminara begged, "End it."

The Sith apprentice was stunned into silence, but she obliged without hesitation. She wanted nothing more than to finally free herself from the past she tied with her old master. Approaching the Jedi, she spun the hilts once before driving them into her chest and removing them just as quickly, leaving two gaping holes behind.

It hurt, but even the pain of damage to her lungs couldn't outweigh the guilt Luminara felt. Looking up at Barriss, two last words fell out of her mouth, in a voice that was barely a whisper: "Forgive me."

Disgusted, and with no intention of doing so, Barriss kicked the dying Jedi over, hoping it would speed up the process. Her life Force drained away, leaving an empty corpse on the ground. The student had killed the master. 

In the distance, a horrified scream pierced the air, startling Barriss and putting her on guard again. The satisfaction of finally ridding her life of Luminara passed, and she remembered what else was happening at the moment. She reached out and felt for her master, her true master, and sensed him in the same direction as the scream. Leaving the body behind, Barriss ran to rejoin the rest of the fight. One Jedi down, three more to go. 

~

The scream had come from Shaak, who had felt Luminara's death in the middle of her duel with the other Jedi and Sith. When she felt her friend's spirit disappear, she couldn't comprehend it, couldn't reason, couldn't think. The other Jedi felt it as well, but none so much as her. Unable to channel her loss, she had let it out uncontrollably, sending a pulse through the Force that knocked both friend and foe away from her. She too sank to her knees as her strength left her body, just like her friend had left her. 

Shaak had feared that Barriss might harbor anger towards Luminara, and she knew that Luminara felt guilty for Barriss's actions, but the thought that the girl would have killed her, she hadn't even dreamt that it was possible. And yet, she still felt Barriss in the distance though she knew Luminara was gone. Anger brewed inside her and without thinking, she ran off in the direction of the Sith apprentice. 

The other Jedi tried to call out, tried to warn her that they needed her to fight Maul and Dooku, but she heard none of their pleas. 

Maul, who had recovered the quickest of the two Sith, chuckled as the Togruta ran off. "And the four became three," he narrated, pleased that his apprentice had overcome the greatest obstacle in her quest for freedom. He faced Fisto and Windu, preparing his stance again. Windu seemed to be preparing to fight Tyrannus, so Maul singled out Fisto. "You only lasted this long by standing together. Imagine how devastated she will be when she finds you dead!"

Windu had no intention of that happening, but he couldn't focus on that intention without taking his concentration off of Dooku. The Sith swung his red blade to meet his purple one, and the fight carried on. 

While he was proud of his apprentice for her victory, Maul had the feeling that the Togrutan Jedi's rage might overpower Barriss's. He needed to get back with her, preferably before Shaak Ti exacted revenge for her friend. That meant he needed to dispose of the Jedi he was dueling currently. 

Kit Fisto made his advances, using strong strokes to push Maul back, but Maul caught his saber with his own, spinning it across his chest and flipping it away with one smooth motion. Using the Force, he pushed the Jedi back in the air, then pulled him close and cleaved his body in two. The pieces of his body fell to the ground behind him, and so ended Master Kit Fisto.

"No!!!" Windu shouted from afar, but he was trapped in a saber lock with Dooku and couldn't take on Maul as well. He pushed the count off of him, but the old man was too skilled a dueler. Windu couldn't escape him without leaving himself vulnerable, and Dooku was the one he was supposed to bring in. He had to make their deaths worth it, he had to complete the mission.

Free of his opponent, Maul jumped through the air on top of the temple architecture, looking for Barriss and Shaak. After a moment's searching, he saw them dueling fiercely not far away and it was clear his apprentice was losing. He raced over, refusing to abandon her. With a shout, he jumped off the stone building and on top of Shaak, right as she was about to deliver a fatal blow to her friend's murderer. Barriss flinched as the blue lightsaber came crashing down on her head, but the kill she expected never came. Her master knocked the Jedi away before she could harm her.

Maul spun his saber and took his defensive stance in front of his apprentice. Shaak stared furiously at the two of them, tears burning at the corners of her eyes. She wanted them to pay, she wanted them to feel the pain she felt. Slowly, steadily, the ground beneath their feet began to shake, and Shaak raised an arm to the stone behind the Sith. With a strangled scream, she pulled as hard as she could, shattering the foundations of the temple and bringing it crashing down on her enemies.

Thinking from instinct, Maul only had enough time to make one move, and he didn't hesitate to do so. In the precious seconds he had before the stone crushed him, he lifted Barriss and threw her out of harm's way, away from the stone and away from Shaak. She cried out, reaching for Maul, but there was no more time left for Maul to be saved.

The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was his apprentice's yell:

"MASTER!!!!"