Gray

Chapter 4

"Now this, is exciting." Glaize sounded like he may have been kicked back somewhere with a cup of caf watching them like a good holo.

"Are you okay?"Ahsoka asked, her concern and attention turned towards Fahili. The blazing white of her lightsaber held the red blade at bay, but she hardly seemed to notice.

The Nautolan nodded in silent shock. The Inquisitor seemed to take offense to Ahsoka's apathy towards him and reached out with a hand sending a violent force wave meant to hurl her back. Fahili could feel the reverberation of the Force pass over her despite not being in its direct path.

Ahsoka didn't budge. Like most well trained Force users in combat, she maintained a basic Force shield to guard against such attacks. "Perhaps if you had remained true to yourself, Jedi..." She put her free hand up. "The force would have grown strong with you." His eyes went wide before he was sent sprawling several feet away by her own Force push. Apparently he'd forgotten his basics when he let rage guide his actions.

Evaan gasped and looked at Ahsoka."You are our reinforcements?"

Ahsoka smiled "Am I not enough?"

"More than... When Fulcrum said he'd send help..."

"I am Fulcrum."

That stunned the room into silence. She turned her blade in her hand so that it was in reverse-grip. "But more on that later. Where is Adara?"

"I'm here!" The Mirilian said as she sprinted out from a corridor. Blaster fire chased after her.

"More troopers are coming!" Assata said as she hefted her weapon. "I'll provide suppressive fire. Head back towards the ship!" She powered up her weapon, the rising hum that would precede a deadly storm of blaster bolts sounding as it came to life.

"Assata!!" Assata turned to see the spinning, flying scarlet saber ripping through the air directly towards her. It would have been her death if not for Evaan shouting her name in the nick of time. In more of a stagger then a step, she managed to angle out of its direct path. Her heavy canon wasn't so fortunate. The lightsaber cut clean through the barrel of her weapon, rendering it useless.

In a howl of rage, Assata spun and let the half of the weapon she was holding fly in Adara's direction, catching one of her pursuing Stormtroopers in the head, dropping him to the ground. She then pulled the blaster pistol from her hip, proceeding to follow up with precision shots in a two-handed grip. "That did not go as planned!"

The saber returned to its owner, who had already been running in Adara's direction. "I'll kill you all!" he bellowed.

Adara yelped as she was suddenly yanked in a different direction from that which she was running, by way of Ahsoka's pull on the Force. At the same moment the Ex-Jedi, propelled herself forward, intercepting the Inquisitor. Her blade met his in a vibrant crackle of energy. "No one dies today..." Ahsoka said as she looked him in his cold yellow eyes. "Unless they ask for it."

The hate exploded through him and manifested in raw Dark Side power as he forced her off and moved in with a furious assault. His spinning blades flashed end over end. Ahsoka fell into step with him and instead of trying to parry each individual strike from the fast-moving weapon, she simply allowed her blade to trace its direction, using a two-handed defensive grip as practiced in the defensive fundamentals of Soresu, saber form III.

Her stance allowed her to fend off each blow without expending extra energy or attempting the impossible task of trying to parry each individual blade rotation. At the same time, it granted her momentum. Still, believing that she would eventually break under his brute force assault, he continued. But Ahsoka was a master of saber combat. Soon her defense had slipped naturally into offense.