Jedi under Siege

17

Luke Skywalker arrived across the river at the Massassi ruin known as the Temple of the Blue Leaf Cluster, a tower of crumbling stone blocks. He came alone, hoping to negotiate but ready to fight.

This was the site Brakiss had chosen for their meeting, their confrontation … their duel, if it came to that.

Luke listened to the jungle noises: the chatter of creatures in the underbrush, birds in the vines overhead—and explosions from Imperial fighters in the sky. He hated to be here by himself when he could be beside his students, fighting with them to defeat the forces of the dark side.

But Luke had a greater calling, a more important one—to stop the leader of these Dark Jedi, a man who had once been Luke’s own student.

Branches parted in a thicket beside the carved pillars of stone. A man stepped out, moving as if he were made of flowing quicksilver, a confident liquid shadow. His perfectly formed, sculpture-handsome face smiled. “So, Luke Skywalker, once my Jedi Master—you have come to surrender to me, I hope? To bow to my superior abilities?”

Luke did not return the smile. “I came to speak with you, as you requested.”

“I’m afraid speaking won’t be enough,” Brakiss said. “You see my Shadow Academy overhead? The battle fleet of the Second Imperium has just arrived. You have no hope of victory, despite your meager reinforcements. Join us now and stop all this bloodshed. I know the power you could wield, Skywalker, if you ever let yourself touch the powers you have neglected to learn.”

Luke shook his head. “Save it, Brakiss. Your words and your dark-side temptations have no effect on me,” he said. “You were once my student. You saw the light side, saw its capabilities for good—and yet you ran from it like a coward. But it’s not too late. Come with me now. Together we can explore what remains of the brightness in your heart.”

“There is no brightness in my heart,” Brakiss said. “I did not come here to banter with you. If you won’t be sensible and surrender, then I must defeat you and take the rest of your Jedi academy by force.” He withdrew a lightsaber from the silvery sleeve of his robe. Long spikes like claws surrounded the energy blade that extended as he pushed the power button. Brakiss heaved a quick sigh. “This seems like such a waste of effort.”

“I don’t want to fight you,” Luke said.

Brakiss shrugged. “As you wish. Then I’ll cut you down where you stand. That makes it easier on me.” He stepped forward and swung his blade.

Luke’s reflexes kicked in at the last instant, and he leaped back, using a touch of the Force to add power to his spring. He landed with legs spread, crouching, and pulled his own lightsaber from the belt at his waist. “I will defend myself, Brakiss,” he said, “but there is so much you could learn here at the Jedi academy.”

Brakiss laughed mockingly. “And who’s going to teach me—you? I no longer recognize you as a Master, Luke Skywalker. There is so much more that you yourself don’t know. You think I’m weak because I left here before I completed my training? Who are you to talk? You were only partially trained yourself. A short time with Obi-Wan Kenobi before Darth Vader killed him, then a brief time with Master Yoda before you left him … you even came close to true greatness when you went to serve the resurrected Emperor—and you backed away. You’ve never completed anything.”

“I don’t deny it,” Luke said, holding his lightsaber in a defensive position. Their blades clashed with a sizzling sound. Brakiss’s lips drew back in a grimace as he lunged again, but Luke parried his attack.

“You taught that becoming a Jedi is a voyage of self-discovery,” Brakiss said. “I have continued that self-discovery since I left here. I abandoned your teachings, but I found more, much more. My self-discovery has been vastly greater than your own, Luke Skywalker, because you have locked many important doors to yourself.” He raised his eyebrows and his eyes glinted a challenge. “I have looked behind those doors.”

“A person who willingly steps into mortal danger is not brave,” Luke said, “but foolish.”

“Then you are a fool,” Brakiss said. He swept his lightsaber low, intending to slice off Luke’s legs at the knees—but Luke lowered his blade in turn and went on the offensive, clashing, striking, driving his opponent back. The Dark Jedi’s silvery robes fluttered around him like nightwings.

“You can’t win, Brakiss,” Luke said.

“Watch me,” the Master of the Shadow Academy said. He attacked with greater fury, opening himself up to anger so that his viciousness grew as he struck again and again.

But Luke maintained his quiet center as he defended himself. “Feel the calm, Brakiss,” he said. “Let gentleness flow through you … peaceful, soothing.”

Brakiss merely laughed. His perfect blond hair was tangled and plastered to his head with perspiration. “Skywalker, how many times will you try to turn me? Even after I fled your teachings, you pursued me. Don’t you know when you have lost?”

Luke said, “I remember our confrontation at that droid manufacturing facility on Telti. You could have joined me then—you still can now.”

Brakiss dismissed that with a snort. “Those events meant nothing to me, a diversion until I found my true calling—forming the Shadow Academy.”

“Maybe you need to look for a truer calling,” Luke said. He slashed sideways to deflect Brakiss’s lightsaber again.

Now Brakiss took a different tack, whirling around. Instead of striking at Luke, he slashed one of the tall temple pillars, a cylinder of marble etched with ancient Sith symbols and Massassi writings. Sparks flew from the blow, and the lightsaber sheared the column completely through. Gravity, clinging vines, and the overhanging stone made it unstable.

Luke dove out of the way as the pillar split in two. The front lintel of the Temple of the Blue Leaf Cluster tumbled down. Stones and branches crashed from side to side, broken stone flew in all directions—but Luke danced out of the way, avoiding injury.

“You seem quite light on your feet, Skywalker,” Brakiss said.

“You seem quite destructive to ancient structures,” Luke said. He scrambled over the new rubble, coughed in the settling dust, then clashed again with Brakiss. “Perhaps you should check on how your Dark Jedi are doing. My students have been defeating them quite consistently.”

He heard the battle continuing in the jungles and longed to get back to his trainees. The meeting with his former student had been no more than a distraction; it was leading nowhere. “This has gone on long enough, Brakiss. You may either surrender or I’ll defeat you directly, because I have work to do. I need to get back to defending my Jedi academy.”

Brakiss showed the faintest glimmer of uncertainty in his normally calm and peaceful eyes when Luke drove in, this time intending to win. Luke struck again with the lightsaber, always maintaining his focus and drive, not letting anger take control, doing only what he wished to do.

The Master of the Shadow Academy defended himself, and Luke saw his chance to strike. He altered his aim just slightly, not striking the energy blade itself. He could have swung lower to take off the hand of his former student, much as Darth Vader had cut off Luke’s own hand—but Luke didn’t want to maim Brakiss in such a way. He needed only to ruin his weapon.

His lightsaber struck across the top of Brakiss’s handle, just below the terminus of the energy beam and above the knuckles of the grip. The top two centimeters of the spiked-claw end of Brakiss’s lightsaber sprayed off, sheared away in a smoking, molten mass.

Brakiss shrieked and dropped his sparkling lightsaber to the ground, where it lay useless, smoldering, no longer a weapon, simply a hunk of components … none of which worked.

The Master of the Shadow Academy held up his hands and staggered back. “Don’t kill me, Skywalker! Please don’t kill me!”

The terror on Brakiss’s face seemed all out of proportion to the threat. Surely the shadow Jedi knew that Luke Skywalker was not the type to strike down an unarmed enemy in cold blood. Brakiss clutched at his silvery robe, fumbling with the fastenings.

Luke strode toward him, lightsaber extended. “You are my captive now, Brakiss. It’s time for us to end this battle. Order your Dark Jedi to surrender.”

Brakiss let his robes fall away, revealing a jumpsuit and repulsorpack. “No. I have other business to attend to,” he said, and ignited the repulsorjets.

As Luke stared in astonishment, Brakiss rocketed skyward, flying high out of reach. The Dark Jedi instructor must have landed his ship somewhere nearby, Luke realized, and he would no doubt head directly back to the Shadow Academy.

In dismay, Luke watched his fallen student escape once more—defeated, but still capable of causing further damage.

The pain of loss flooded Luke’s mind, as fresh as on the day Brakiss first fled the Jedi academy. “Brakiss, I’ve failed to save you again,” he groaned.

The other man dwindled to a small point in the sky and disappeared.