Ferus saw the glow of Vader's lightsaber as he activated his own.
This was it, then. The final confrontation.
He was ready. His rage was ice and fire.
He charged.
His first blow was easily parried. He came at Vader again. Again. Circling, jumping, vaulting past him, turning. Each time his lightsaber came toward him, it was either deflected in a shock that ran up his arm, Vader simply wasn't there.
"If you cannot even touch me, how can you win?" Darth Vader asked.
Ferus focused on his anger. He remembered Palpatine's words.
There is no limit to what you can do.
He charged at the dark figure again. This time his strike came close. He touched the edge of Vader's cape. He smelled the singed material.
Now, while he's off balance. Now.
"Maybe I'll just get lucky," Ferus said. "Anakin."
Vader came at him with surprising swiftness, but Ferus was able to Force-leap away. Still he sensed that Vader was holding himself back, playing with him for now.
"So you know who I was," Vader said. "Do you think that would make a difference to me? Anakin Skywalker is dead."
"Was it because the Council wouldn't let you become a Master? You always had to struggle with your ego, didn't you?"
"It was never a struggle. I was always the best."
" 'Best' is not a Jedi concept."
"That is the trouble with the Jedi."
Ferus wasn't tired yet, but he knew he was expending too much energy. He was tapping into his anger and fighting better thah he ever had, but it wasn't enough. He had to unsettle Vader. He had to find the key.
He had everything he needed to defeat him, didn't he? He had the Sith Holocron for strength, Vader's true identity in his hand, his own rage. With those tools, he could do it. The Emperor had told him he could. Ferus thought quickly. He wanted to pick the battleground. Someplace that would unsettle the former Jedi.
There - the stairway to the Jedi High Council spire. Ferus started to climb. He knew Vader would follow.
He came out into the circular room. It was half rubble, the seating blackened lumps, the vast transparisteel shattered. Wind whipped through the room.
The Dark Lord entered. The wind blew back his cape. He stood, legs apart, ready for battle. Looking forward to it, Ferus was sure.
"The Emperor cannot protect you now," Vader said.
What next? What could Ferus do to get him off balance? He suddenly had a flash of intuition. He remembered what Keets had told him.
"What about Senator Amidala?" he asked, leaping away from Vader. He faced him, his lightsaber held in an offensive position. "What about Padme? What happened on Mustafar?"
He felt the quake in Vader. He had reached him at last.
"Do not mention her name!"
"I thought it was a lie, that the Jedi killed her," Ferus suddenly understood, the Sith Holocron burning under his tunic. "ft wasn't. You killed her, didn't you? You killed the woman you loved."
Vader's wrath filled the room. Ferus could feel it. Instead of turning away from it, he took it. He filled himself with it.
This is what the Emperor meant. This is the last step.
He flew across the room and this time he landed a blow.
Vader roared. It was a howl of fury, inarticulate, undisciplined. Totally unlike his usual icy control. The control box on his chest started to smoke.
Stones in the floor ripped out and were flung toward Ferus. He dodged them, rolling and twisting away. A blackened piece of furniture flew across the chamber and smashed into the wall over his head.
Anything that could be torn from the floor or walls came at him - conduits, debris, hunks of stone. He dodged and weaved, attacking and retreating as Vader hit him with everything he had.
"How did you kill her, Anakin? Did you lose control? Did you see her die, Anakin? Is that why you wanted Zan Arbor to perfect that drug? Was it for you, Anakin? So you could forget her? So you could forget your wife?"
Another roar from Vader. part of the ceiling gave way. Durasteel melted, smoke rose from the debris. Ferus leaped over a gaping hole in the floor and attacked Vader again, but his lightsaber cut through empty air.
The anger inside Ferus was now like liquid fuel inside him. He was feeding off Vader's rage, he was pushing every molecule of his body and feeling every molecule of the room respond to him. Everything was clear, hard-edged. His body obeyed him without any hesitation, and his mind was focused. He had no doubt that he could defeat Vader. No doubt.
And that was what the dark side brought him.
When he won, when he defeated him, he could take the victory to the Emperor, and he could be greater than Darth Vader, more powerful than even the Chosen One had been.
He charged at Vader and made contact. Vader waited a beat too long to deflect him. The blow shuddered off his body arrnor. Something inside fused and the plastoid melted. Ferus could smell buming circuits. At the same time, he detected a tremor in Vader's arm.
Suddenly he was picked up and slammed against the wall. He fought to hold onto his consciousness.
"Don't . . . get . . . cocky," Vader said.
Ferus rolled away from the blow that followed, barely escaping. He looked up. For a moment Vader was just a shape at the side of the room. For a moment, a trick of the eye or the light, he saw the room as it had been. The seats were restored, the air traffic outside flashing, the potent energy of the Force filling the room because the Jedi Masters were still alive.
Ferus felt it invade him, the sense of peace and light.
No, push it away! Listen to us! You could have been a great Jedi Knight, and they let you go! They never appreciated you!
It was true, wasn't it? Ferus saw himself as a Padawan, standing before the Masters. Taking responsibility for something that wasn't his fault. Tru's lightsaber. He had fixed it secretly. . . .
He remembered that day. He remembered the compassion in that room.
Another vision came to him, of himself as a Padawan, accepting responsibility for what he had done. The Jedi Masters sorrowful, showing him the two paths he could take. He could have stayed. He chose to go.
His choice.
The room returned to its ruined state. He was crouching, breathing hard.
Connect.
The Force was still here in the ancient stones.
The stories of all the Jedi who had lived and died here, they were here, too. His story was here. Not as distinguished as most, shorter than many, but his. He had followed the path for as long as he could, as well as he could, and the Masters had never asked for more than that.
He felt the wisdom of the Masters inside him, and he gripped that feeling with his hands and let it fill his heart. He rose. He had no doubt that they had reached out and touched him. Many hands on his shoulder, showing him. Here is one way. Here is another. Choose.
He had come so close.
He walked out of the dark side and into the light.
I am a Jedi.
Now he knew with absolute certainty that he had to be rid of the Sith Holocron. It had been slowly poisoning him. He had been a fool to think he could take what he wanted and not be corrupted. He had fallen into the Emperor's trap. Almost.
He Force-leaped over Vader, surprising him, and let himself fall into the hole in the floor. He heard Vader's chuckle.
"Run like the coward you are!"
The wind whistled past his ears as he fell. He landed safely in the Map Room. He headed for the stairs.
He took each turning at top speed, Force-leaping most of the way. He knew where to go. The heart of the building, the power core. No longer operational, it would still contain enough residual energy, if not to destroy the Sith Holocron, then to damage it. He ran through the hallways and found the central conduit that ran, he knew, straight down to the power core. He reached into his tunic.
You are throwing away your only chance at success.
This is not the kind of success I want.
The voices of darkness were a clamor inside him as he held the Sith Holocron. He threw it in. He felt something rip inside him. It was an agonizing pain that sent him down on his knees. He breathed through it, calling on the Force to help him.
He felt it lift. He was exhausted, but he was free. He was himself again.
Vader came out of nowhere, raising a gloved hand. Ferus felt himself lifted up, over Vader's head. He couldn't breathe.
"You should know before you die that your dream is dead," Vader said. "Don't you know I can bow anyone to my will?"
Ferus was slammed against the wall. He felt himself losing consciousness.
He was glad, in the end, that he would die here at the Temple. With the ghosts of his friends, his mentors, his fellow Jedi. He would become one with the Force in the place he first discovered and nourished it.
—The Last of The Jedi: Reckoning
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