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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3806609" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 523: Of FlashTo most of the galaxy, thinking of a lightsaber brought about images of Jedi Knights and similar, related things. The Force, the ideals of the Order, and the fluid, elegant, and definitely flashy style of combat the weapons always seemed to be involved in. It was the last of which that was likely the most common. When someone thought of a lightsaber, when they thought of the Jedi wielding it in combat, it was a graceful and a very unique sight.    Of course, most of these people were also thinking about fully trained Jedi Knights fighting against other, similarly trained, opponents. In those cases, yes, a lightsaber duel was a flashy, amazing, and graceful dance of sorts. It was exactly what little children dreaming to be Jedi one day would see in their minds eye. And it was reality for a great many Jedi.    For a month-long-trained apprentice and a barely-trained dropout from the Academy, this was in no way, shape, or form, the case. Well, except for the flashiness, but it was a different kind of flashy. Where a duel with trained combatants was flashy, this was due to the use of the Force to perform amazing acrobatic feats and last-second parries to turn a fight around.    But for Tobias and Tokarr, flashy could only be used because it was night, they were outside, and the lightsaber blades were the only sources of light beyond the few stars above them. It was not a word relating to style, but to the light, itself. This was because neither Tobias nor Tokarr had any real training in lightsaber technique. It was one thing to hold a weapon and swing it, it was another to actually know what to do with the weapon when confronted with an opponent.    A flash of blue across his face was enough of a warning for Tobias that he didn’t need the Force yelling at him to move, even though it was. He twisted his body awkwardly to the side, letting the reckless, poorly aimed downward swing simply cut straight through air he very-nearly occupied, then tried to do what Jyren had taught him in the few lessons Tobias had received: use a missed attack to force the opponent onto the defensive.    It was a sound theory, but putting it to work ran into a complication he had no expected. Namely, his sidestep to get out of the way caused his legs to cross so that when Tobias began to pull his arms around to swing his own lightsaber, he completely lost his footing thanks to an odd stance, and momentum took him down onto the grass below him.    A sharp, almost blinding pain arced up through his body as he landed on his tail, and Tobias found himself cursing being Alraxian. A second later, though, when his ears caught a sound and the Force began screaming, Tobias was thanking his fast reflexes and strong senses when he rolled out of the way of another swing and was able to bound up onto his feet in one quickly motion. The fact that he landed on unsteady feet was a minor difficulty he chose to ignore for the moment.    Sadly, the importance of strong footwork was not exactly something most young apprentices even considered when lightsabers came to mind.    The Miraluka shifted his weight slightly, as the strike at the ground had nearly thrown him down face first, then charged at Tobias again, a determined expression on his eyeless face. Tobias’ eyes watched his opponent’s blade, seeing the blue weapon coming in low and towards his left side. Trying his best, Tobias swung his own blue-green lightsaber in a downward arc and, to his surprise and happiness, actually batted the attack away.    The joy ended, though, when Tokarr slammed into him head on. For once, however, Tobias didn’t find himself landing on his backside...or tail. Despite still being quite young, he was still stronger and a bit large of build than his attacker, and was able to stay upright, if a bit unstable, rather than fall to the ground. Tokarr, however, was essentially a human with an altered physiology, and so was a great deal less...solid than Tobias.    There was a loud thud, a pair of grunts, and then a third grunt as Tokarr hit the ground...and then the fizzling of a lightsaber. Despite the impact, Tobias had managed to follow his opponents lightsaber; not through sight, as his vision had gone slightly blurry, but through sound. It had gone far more to the left than it would have if Tokarr was still holding it...and the sound was definitely from the weapon deactivating due to its safety mechanism. Which meant...    Tobias’ vision came back into focus in time to see Tokarr still on the ground, preparing to scramble for the lightsaber hilt that could be seen, just slightly, a couple of meters away. Quickly, Tobias brought his own lightsaber down so that the point of it was very, very close to Tokarr’s face.    “Don’t,” Tobias said, almost pleading. There was no way to read the look in Tokarr’s eyes, as he had none, but he wasn’t exactly hiding his feelings through the Force. All of the Miraluka resonated with fierce anger and determination.    But despite having no eyes, Tokarr had a way of focusing his Force-vision so that it really felt like he was looking at...no, right into Tobias. The intensity caused Tobias to feel uneasy again, the cold determination that Marix had always told him was necessary fading away into a more normal reaction for someone his age...fear.    And Tokarr felt it.    “Do it.”    Two words, but Tokarr spoke them in just the right way. He wasn’t begging, he wasn’t pleading, he was ordering. Maybe the Force was laced through the words, but that was doubtful. Tokarr wasn’t skilled enough for that...or shouldn’t have been. But somehow, the tone was just the right way to cause Tobias to act before his brain could get a word in.    He pulled the weapon back, then reversed the motion to take Tokarr’s head off.    At that exact moment, Tobias’ brain caught up, screaming and waving at the rest of him to get the attention it swore it deserved.    The jerk of Tobias’ hands could very well have been enough to continue the weapon through its intended target, but it didn’t. Somehow, some part of Tobias managed to hold his arms just steady enough when they were forced to a sudden stop just centimeters from Tokarr’s neck.    For a long few seconds, Tobias stared down at the scene below him, eyes wide with shock.    He’d nearly just killed this Miraluka.    He was still so very close to finishing it.    But...    “No.”    ...but no matter what Marix taught him, tried to grind into him, Tobias was too much like Jyren.    Tobias shook his head, the blue stripe in his jet-black hair getting lost and becoming more a mess than a stripe, then pulled his weapon away and let it simply hang with his arm at his left side. In a voice that was gaining a bit more confidence, he said, “I won’t kill you. Its not the right thing to do.”    Jyren would have been proud of him.    Marix would have been strangling him.    But Tobias had done what, in the end, both of his parents, and Master Ral, had taught him to do: trust his feelings. And they told him that no matter what this Miraluka had done, it wasn’t right to kill him. No matter the lives Tokarr Anansin took, Tobias was not his executioner. To make that choice would make Tobias no better than Tokarr.    Sadly, this kind of idealism was something that rarely worked out as planned. And while Jyren had lived with it for years, even coming to expect things to go wrong despite his choice, this was all still very new to Tobias. He really only had stories and his own personal feelings to work from. By those logics, it was over, and Tokarr would agree to what had been said and surrender.    Tobias’ first real, true wake up call to the way the galaxy worked hit in that moment, when Tokarr’s leg swiped both of Tobias’ out from under him. The young Alraxian hit the ground on his side, surprise at the sudden attack gripping him and causing his body to freeze for a half second. When he got control again and turned to the sound of rapid footsteps, Tobias saw the Miraluka sprinting through the darkness straight for his lightsaber.    And then, just as suddenly as Tokarr’s attack, three bright red blaster bolts cut through the air. The first went right over Tokarr’s head, but the second hit him in his left shoulder, spinning him around so that the third bolt struck him square in the chest and dropped him to the dirt one final time.    Before Tobias could figure out what was really going on, his ears detected two sets of rapid footsteps growing closer, and so he shifted around again to see two figures quickly approaching, both with blasters raised and obviously ready to fire. Even with his Alraxian eyes that worked quite well in the dark, he couldn’t seem to make them out...then...    “Tobias?!”    The voice he knew. The voice was one of the last ones he’d expected to have heard. When the Twi’lek pilot, Rea, came into view, Tobias was still on the ground, just staring in shock and not at all sure what was going on anymore. When he saw the Duros, Rulae something or other, a moment later, that didn’t help. Tobias opened his mouth multiple times as the two blue-skinned humanoids moved towards him at a much slower pace, but could never really find words to speak.    Adrenaline was fading, and slowly things began to catch up to him. As the two starfighter pilots asked him questions he didn’t really hear while helping him to his feet, Tobias finally formed a coherent sentence, “Venda...did you find her? Did you find her body? Is she really...she really...is she...dead...?”Apologies for the lack of updates at all for the past week or so. Its been crazy. Here's hoping I can work into a schedule of sorts again. Ugh to studio work.</blockquote>

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