The daughter, the princess, and the Dark Lord.

Hubris

Stelmaria Bay

The young Togeruta slowly strolled through the dark corridors of the Jedi Temple. In the faint light cast by dull utility lamps, set up to pierce the suffocating darkness her light blue skin looked gray.

She was barely more than a child by most standards. But despite being only sixteen standard galactic years old she was more than met her eyes. Her angular facial markings gave her an almost primal and feral aura. Her gray eyes held a hardness that no normal child at that age should hold. She walked on light feet, with the grace and sense of balance of a dancer.

However, the long pail hilt of a double-bladed lightsaber hilt which she held in one hand betrayed her as a very different kind of dancer. Her body was like a whip, many years of drill.

The weapon itself was a piece of art from a Craftsman's point of view, decorated with artful engravings and the two ends of the weapon were reinforced with Durasteel.

Clad in the same old-fashioned combat suit that the previous owner of her weapon had worn during the days of the old republic the Togruta looked as if she was had been born into different age entirely and in some ways she was. The dark fabric was hardened and could protect from minor scratches and blunt blows while her Durasteel grieves and bracers could protect from much heavier blows. She listened to the sounds of battle raging behind her where her cousin and ten young Mandalorians were engaging the Garrison force of Stormtroopers.

Her parents had told her tales of the halls she now walked through and despite having only seen pictures of the temple from before the fall of the Jedi Order she did recognize a few things. There was the main hall of course, and a few seconds ago she had passed through the fencing halls. That was about it. It was hard to imagine her mother and father grown up in this.....tomb? Her father maybe, but her mother seemed too cheerful and light-hearted for these cold halls...

It wasn't far anymore. Suddenly the young woman froze dead in her tracks. She wasn't alone.

"Foolish girl," A high-pitched female voice crooned.

Stelmaria slowly turned around and smiled. The slender form hiding in the darkness would have been invisible to a human. Then the figure stepped closer and activated a red bladed lightsaber.

"Did you really think you could just walk into the Jedi Temple? Drop that weapon of yours and your life will be spared for now. This entire complex will be overrun by thousands of troopers within minutes." The woman offered generously.

Stelmaria smiled coldly and activated one side of her weapon and held it off to the side. Even in the blue light of her blade, it was impossible to make out her face.

The strange woman laughed. .

Like her father had taught her she took a mental step back and analyzed the situation. The woman seemed confident by her posture and how loosely she held her weapon. Then granted, usually, sixteen-year-old girls weren't much of a threat to an older adult.

She slowly closed the distance between them and stuck a low blow. Lightsabers met with a flash of brilliant light and a shower of sparks. Relying heavily on the first fighting style Shii-Co she allowed her enemy to push her back, trying to fend off the storm of blows as economically as possible. She kept her elbows close to her body and deflected with measured movements.

An almost insane laugh tore from the inquisitor's lips as she drove the young Jedi back towards the wall. Stelmaria felt oddly calm as she blocked, dodged, and danced out of the way, trading distance for time and allowing her partner to fatigue herself with blunt, uninspired attacks.

She had played out this kind of duel a thousand times in dry runs and sparring matches with partners far more skilled than this Inquisitor. Her mother Ahsoka had come up with this very simple strategy and she had her father had driven it as close to perfection as possible in the time they had available.