Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy A Fan Novelization

Chapter Twenty-Two - Confliction

"You!" Jaden's lightsabers ignited the dark space around her, crowning her whole body in a halo of golden-orange light.

"So, the itty-bitty Jedi has come to rescue her friend... that's so sweet," Alora's sickly sweet voice said.

"Where's Rosh?" Jaden commanded.

"What makes you think he wants to be rescued? Tavion turned him to the dark side. Just. Like. That."

Jaden could feel herself losing her patience as her anger built. "Where is he?" She snapped.

"Ooo, someone's getting awfully angry, aren't they?" Alora leaned forward on the railing, flashing a smile. "Forgetting your Jedi training?"

Jaden willed herself to calm down, to reason with her adversary. "Look... Alora. Why serve Tavion? It's not too late to join us and fight her-" Alora's high pitched lilting laugh interrupted her.

Jaden kept going through gritted teeth. "I'm taking Rosh out of here. Make it easy on yourself and tell me where he is."

"Oh, he's around." Alora chuckled and turned on her heel. "I think I'll go look for him..." She stopped a moment to press a button on a small detonator in her hand. Explosives in the ceiling went off and Jaden narrowly escaped being crushed by the large pieces and chunks that fell all around her. She rushed to the lift and took it up, pausing only briefly to glance at the statue. A shiver ran down her spine at the sight of the Sith Lord's monstrous face. It was a reminder of what she, and all the Jedi would have to face if Tavion's plan came to fruition. She swore that after getting Rosh out of here, she'd do just that.

In the hallway that the door at the top of the platform led into, she encountered the first cultist she'd seen so far. She was no longer afraid of fighting in tight spaces and triumphed easily by being the first to corner her opponent, overwhelming him with non stop strikes from her two lightsabers.

She ran around the twisting corridors until the passage opened up into a room filled with heat. The grated floor looked down on a chamber below that held five large tanks, whose tops were open through the floor of the room Jaden was standing in. And pouring into these ginormous containers from tubes in the ceiling, were streams of lava. Then Jaden saw her. Alora was standing on a walkway above the room, laughing.

"Ooh, but you are persistent, Jedi. But let's see if you can get past my boys. Not everyone is worthy enough to fight me, you know." Then she was gone, and the two darkly cloaked figures of Reborn jumped down to confront her.

These two were hard, tougher than almost any opponent Jaden had faced so far. They wielded dual sabers and a staff lightsaber respectively and it was difficult to fight just one. Jaden was soon pushed to a corner near one of the lava pits.

"What happens when a predator is forced into a corner?" She heard the mechanical voice she now knew to be Darth Vader say inside her head.

No! She resisted, but the more she was forced back on the defensive, the more agitated and desperate she became. I can't die here! Those were Rosh's words and now they were her own. No. This would not be her last stand.

A collection of reserved Force energy sprang anew and she pushed her opponents forward. One stumbled and fell directly into the lava, his painful screams suddenly cut short as he disappeared beneath the surface. The Reborn who was left, holding his staff saber out in front was blinded by rage and this was to his detriment. Jaden severed his lightsaber and kicked him back into another one of the lava tanks.

She half expected Alora to show back up, she didn't. She's leading me into a trap, I know it, but I have no choice. I'm playing her game, I started the moment I stepped through that door. She's either leading me to Rosh so she can kill us both or... An unwelcome thought sprang forward, but she shook it off. No, Rosh is a victim here, not the perpetrator.