A’Nikori feels relief in her heart as she sees the Chancellor unharmed, bound to a black chair in an observation tower on the Separatist flagship.
She hurries over to her.
“Chancellor,” Opalwan says with a short, decorous bow.
“Are you alright?” A’Nikori asks, struggling to keep her emotions in check.
Even now, she feels fear.
The Dark Side is strong here.
“Cor T’Duku...” Eerabik murmurs, her eyes glancing to the Sith Lord who has entered the observation tower from behind them.
“It has been a long time, A’Nikori Starflier and Master Opalwan,” Cor T’Duku says. He gestured to them. “You will surrender your lightsabers, if you please. We don’t want to make a mess of this in front of the Chancellor."
“You need to get help,” Eerabik tells them. “He’s a Sith Lord."
“Chancellor Eerabik, Sith Lords are our specialty,” Opalwan calmly replies.
Both Jedi ignite their lightsabers.
“This time, we’ll take him together!” A’Nikori says, keenly remembering her defeat at Cor T’Duku’s hands early in the war.
Their blades clash, fluid blurs of blue and red.
“I’ve been looking forward to this,” Cor T’Duku says, grinning with wicked intent.
“My powers have doubled since the last time we met,” A’Nikori replies.
“Good, twice the pride, double the fall."
Using the Force, Cor T’Duku shoves Opalwan out of the way, slamming him against a wall hard enough that the Khennet’an Jedi Master is stunned into temporary unconsciousness.
It is all too easy, really.
He feels the anger and hatred surge in A’Nikori’s heart.
Good.
Now, the most dangerous part of this operation: building that fire within her, so that it burns through the constraints of her Jedi training, allowing his Mistress to properly initiate Starflier into the ways of the Dark Side.
“You have hate... you have anger... but you don’t use them,” he tells Starflier.
A’Nikori’s blows struck harder now, but they were still tempered, held back.
A’Nikori feared the darkness within herself.
And without that, she was little more than a frightened child to T’Duku, more practiced than before, but ultimately inconsequential.
And he had been worried that A’Nikori might be a threat to him?
“Don’t hold back now, A’Nikori!” Darth Vidia suddenly said in Chancellor Eerabik’s voice. “You know what you have to do! Your anger gives you focus! Use it!"
What? Why was Vidia getting involved so soon?
But Cor T’Duku didn’t have time to dwell on that.
It was like Vidia’s words had flipped a switch in A’Nikori’s mind, and suddenly the fury of the inferno consuming the Jedi from within was unleashed upon him.
A’Nikori began raining blow upon blow upon T’Duku, immediately forcing him to go on the defensive. Her fear, anger, and hatred fed back on itself, making A’Nikori more and more powerful with each strike. She advanced like a juggernaut, a force of nature, and there was absolutely nothing that T’Duku could do against her but give more and more ground.
A’Nikori’s power in the Force, and natural aptitude for the Dark Side was incredible. It was still far from fully honed, but her raw power...
It might just exceed that of his Mistress.
T’Duku could see Vidia looking on with a mixture of malice and pride. Malice at the thought of his own impending demise, and pride at-
How could he have been so blind?
A’Nikori was so powerful in the Force, because Darth-
A burning pain cut that thought short, as the blue plasma of A’Nikori’s blade cut through his hands. A moment later, his own red lightsaber had been pulled through the force into one of A’Nikori’s talons.
Forced to his knees, T’Duku saw the deadly blue and red blades held above him, poised to strike.
Yet now, at the moment of truth, A’Nikori seemed to hesitate, as if realizing what sort of power she had been drawing upon.
“Good, A’Nikori, good!” Darth Vidia chuckled in Eerabik’s affable manner. “I knew you had it in you!” Her tone then lost some of its warmth, and issued a command, yet still with a touch of a casual air to it. "Kill him. Kill him now."
“Ch-Chancellor!” T’Duku sputtered. “I thought-!"
“You thought that you could bully the good people of the Republic?” Darth Vidia sneered. "Or that failing, as you have, you could bargain for immunity? That I somehow might
need you to rebuild the galaxy after the war? The only reward you shall have, T’Duku, is exactly what a traitor like yourself deserves!” She turned her head. “A’Nikori, what are you waiting for?"
“I shouldn’t...” A’Nikori, murmured. “It’s not the Jedi way..."
Was there still mercy in her heart, even after immersing herself so deep in the Dark Side, T’Duku wondered.
“Starflier! The chancellor!” he pleaded desperately, reaching for the lifeline that A’Nikori had seemingly offered him. “She’s the-"
“DO IT!” Vidia barks, harsh and commanding.
T’Duku felt a surge of emotions rush through Starflier.
Fear at disappointing the Chancellor.
Anger at the sight of his own contemptible display.
Hatred for what he had tried to do to Opalwan.
Suffering with the knowledge that what she was about to do was wrong.
But Starflier did it anyway.
The blades closed in, burning through fur, flesh, and bone in an instant.
Cor T’Duku’s severed head rolled across the floor, and his corpse slumped to the ground a few moments laters.
A’Nikori breathed heavily, looking at the body of the defeated, broken man she had just murdered.
“You did well,” Eerabik said from behind her.
“I shouldn’t have done that...” A’Nikori said, staring at the Sith lightsaber in her left talon, one of the two weapons she had just used to commit her crime.
“No, you did well, and you did what you had to. A Sith Lord, like the late Cor T’Duku, is
never defenseless. He was armed with the powers of the Dark Side. Even without blades or hands, he was far too dangerous to be left alive. Besides, you wanted your revenge for the loss of your wing. You don’t have to deny it to me, A’Nikori."
“It still wasn’t the Jedi way!"
“But it was
natural, my child,” Eerabik replied silkily, “And your revenge also happened to be the instrument of justice for his crimes against the Republic. By killing him, I can safely say that the end of the war is finally within sight. Dolorous and Taranch will also need to be killed, of course, but without T’Duku to unite them, the Separatists cannot hold together as a political movement for long. Why, if anything, I should expect that the Jedi Council to appoint you to the rank of Master, not only for saving my life from that Sith Lord, but for the great service you have just rendered to the Republic. What do the exact circumstances of it matter, next to the result? They would be fools to think that you are not deserving of the position after this. Perhaps I shall even ask the Council to grant you a seat among them."
“I... don’t think they’d take kindly to that, Chancellor. I mean... what you say... makes sense... but they’ve never let politicians have a say in their membership."
“Because they are jealous of their power, A’Nikori. All who have it are afraid to lose it. That is as true for the Council as it is for myself. Though of course, I am afraid of what would happen to the Republic if I did not have the power I need to protect it from all those who would threaten it... whether external or
internal. But I am confident that the present circumstances will oblige them to consider my request quite seriously."
The ship rocked. It was taking fire from a Republic cruiser. Did they not realize the Chancellor was still onboard?
“We have talked for too long, A’Nikori”, the Chancellor said as the Jedi freed her from the cuffs. “We have to make our escape now."
A’Nikori’s gaze turned to her old Master. “We’re not leaving without Opalwan, Chancellor."
“There’s no time, A’Nikori,” Eerabik said urgently. “If we try to take him with us, we will
all die! Honor his sacrifice for the Republic, and make him proud, as the Jedi Master you were born to be."
A’Nikori shook her head.
“His fate will be the same as ours."
