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When You Give a Man Power
Chapter 51
Those under my command didn’t even hesitate immediately shooting at the figures who blocked the bolts. The lightsabers hummed and sizzled against the rain drenching everyone.
Every shot was deflected with a few almost hitting some of them. A quick shove had them knocked out of the way, the bolts sailing past them hitting the ground or nearby buildings. No point in ordering them to retreat with us surrounded and the Jedi were not willing to let any of us get away.
Not like any of them could outrun one of them. Fight or flight. With each of them knowing the stories of those who had encountered Jedi running wasn’t an option. So it was a fight to the bitter end. A blade hummed, aimed at someone’s neck from behind, but it stopped, hissing like a horde of angry snakes against my vibrosword.
The Jedi’s blade illuminated their face enough for all to see a look of surprise. It was quickly replaced with a face of intense concentration. The blade lock didn’t last long with the Jedi disengaging before going for another strike that I blocked before countering with a series of cuts and slashes that forced them onto the defensive.
The others not idle in that time got some distance firing away at the Jedi who swiftly closed the distance. The blade humming and hissing from each strike I felt a deep-rooted instinctive fear of the lightsabers around me but it was soon drowned out by the hunter in me singing in my blood.
The Jedi engaged in a duel with me went for a counter strike that was halted when a knee was driven right into his diaphragm before my sword lopped his hand off then speared his throat. The two Jedi behind me about to help their friend cried out in shock and horror.
Pulling out my pistol and firing at one forcing them to deflect while the other engaged me blocking his swings with my sword. Not even giving up on shooting them the Jedi deflects them back at me only to stare wide-eyed when I deflect the rebounded shots with more blaster bolts.
The shots rebounded like a couple of pinballs making it far more difficult for them to predict where they were going. I didn’t plan any of it, just going with the flow improvising on the spot. The other I was dueling one-handed was struggling, each blow of mine sent them skidding back giving up on going on the offensive instead opting to stay defensive.
A thrust from me that they blocked only for my blade to continue pressing into theirs. A blade lock that I used to my advantage forcing their weapon higher up. The man stared into my eyes with fear before my blaster turned in his direction.
“No!” The other cried out but it was too late. The trigger was pulled once, twice, three times. Each shot made the man wince before he fell over dead. The Jedi rushed towards me with my squad down several members before another Jedi raised their hand. An invisible wave hit the remaining survivors slamming them against a wall where they fell unmoving.
“Jango we got Jedi!” I yelled into my comlink sidestepping a thrust that almost took off an ear before taking evasive maneuvers with the remaining Jedi beginning to surround me, cutting off room to move. Backed against the wall four of them held their blades at the ready before thrusting them forward to skewer me.
Jumping over the blades and leaping from the walls I landed on a roof before running further away from them. The Jedi weren’t far behind me as they soon joined me along the rooftops. Our rushed steps intermixed with the pitter-patter of the rain.
“Kriffing bastards are early… head back to the fallback positions other squads are being notified. You’ll have support coming in,” Jango said some other stuff but I was a little occupied avoiding getting cut and flash-fried by the bloodthirsty pacifists hunting me.
One of them leaping up cutting me off blade flowing into a stance akin to what someone would use when wielding a two-handed sword putting as much force as they could into each strike. I met them head on angling my blade to force theirs off course feeling tremors run up my hands and arms noting the others would soon be upon me.
Taking a risk my hand snapped out grabbing one of their wrists as my sword kept their sword in place. A quick brutal squeeze had them grunt when their arm was broken before pushing my sword against them even more.
They grunted and pushed back doing an admirable job. “You're not half bad. A shame about your fall.” I smiled at him as he gave me a quizzical look not understanding what I meant.
He soon realized what it was when my leg kicked the side of his knee snapping it and with a powerful shove, he slid down the side of the building hanging onto the ledge with his sole good hand.
Leaving him behind moving across the buildings, the Jedi was not far behind. Ducking under a blade that nearly took my head and leaping over another before blocking a third one stopping my momentum pushing the Jedi nearly off the edge.
“You will pay for all the lives you have taken in this war.” The young blonde-haired woman said to me calmly yet her eyes showed resentment.
“So you're going to ignore you and your buddies here killing a bunch of people as well along with your entire order leaving many planets to get razed to the ground by the Hutts?” I countered trying to force her away but she managed to angle herself to the side avoiding the fall and going through a rapid exchange of blows.
“We had to if we were to defeat you and your masters. Do not insinuate we are evil like you.” She snarled her strikes getting even faster as she even started hopping around me.
It was like fighting multiple people at once when I had to block from multiple different angles and directions. She was all over the place spinning around my strikes and just avoiding them instead of trying to block me. Another Jedi landed near me rushing blade at the ready to lop my arm off.
Taking my blaster and shooting it at him he deflected them while still charging. One of the shots was at an awkward angle I could take advantage of. Aiming at it and pinging another shot off of it sending the recently fired bolt sailing towards the current headache I was dealing with that was mid-air.
No choice unless she wanted to take a bolt to the head she deflected it in time. Lightsaber out of position my sword aimed for her heart was knocked off course when she tried to block; instead, it pierced one of her lungs as she exhaled eyes wide with blood staining her drenched robes.
She fell from the roof as a few looked down only to deflect several blaster shots. “Do you really think it’s best to mourn one of your own when a life and death fight is happening right now?”
They all had looks of contempt and disdain directed towards me. I gestured to myself with my blade and blaster, “Don’t hate me, you guys decided to enter this conflict without thinking things through. And you're the ones who came to attack me so what happens by this point is on each of your shoulders. Especially when you're going lethal.”
I pointed my blade at each of them for added emphasis. They didn’t even bother trying to speak with me after that. The game of cat and mouse had resumed and I didn’t know who was the cat and the mouse by this point. I guess all of us were both currently.
One of the Jedi mid strike scoffed. “Lethal? We are trying to capture you! You're the one who is killing us and taking innocent civilians hostage.”
His strike was blocked before angling him in front of two others who would have skewered me. “You call trying to cut my arm off at the shoulder or going for my head non-lethal? And the kriff you accusing me of keeping hostages. The civilians are kept in a section of the city where they wouldn’t get caught up in this so long as they don’t try to rebel or fight back they are safe!”
Disengaging a grenade is held in my hand before it’s tossed towards them. The grenade stopped halfway to them losing all momentum before it was held in the air by a robed figure with their hand held out.
A quick shot detonated the grenade with me leaping away from them. “The loss of arms and legs would allow us to contain you! Many sentients can survive losing their limbs. We only tried to go for your head after you proved yourself too dangerous. You're a liar just like your Hutt masters. Those civilians are being kept in the government building.” One of the others argued while they ran along another building parallel to me.
“I’m not lying the civilians are over in that section of the-- What?!”
For a moment the fight between the Jedi and me came to a stop when a blast followed by fire and smoke rose high into the sky knocking me and the Jedi from the rooftop.
Spinning and falling an outstretched sign was grabbed swinging off of it bending and breaking it leaping from various buildings landing into a roll. Rising to my feet I look in the distance not understanding what just happened.
That was the section of the city that we had the civilians in…
Side stepping a lightsaber as it carved into the wall. A high cut for my head gets blocked. A thrust for my gut is dodged. On and on it went with two more Jedi dropping down behind me with several more waiting above.
“You monster!” One snarled his eyes beginning to glow yellow.
“Jurn calm yourself!” One of them tried reasoning with their friend.
“I felt it! All those lives snuffed out… those were the hostages you just killed.” Jurn accused me.
I was drawing a blank confused about who had decided to be the biggest idiot this day and killed all those people. “It wasn’t me and I don’t kill civilians. It might have been my people or… it might have been the one commanding your operation here pulling some kind of stunt.”
“Lies! This ends now.” Jurn growled out. He and the others rushed me.
The Jedi was far faster and stronger. Each blow from him was enough to force me on the back foot but his body was far easier to read. The others were slightly more difficult with their robes helping hide their bodies from view and how calm they were in comparison. They all were upset but they were keeping it together enough not to let their emotions get the better of them.
Vibrosword in hand I fended off multiple strikes even nearly taking out a few of them but the others managed to intercept my counters saving their lives. Entering bullet time when one of them intended to pierce me from behind I stepped out of the way of the strike, angling myself to avoid the other lightsabers intended to trap and kill me.
The sword rose slicing through the man’s arms like a sharp knife into a nice tender steak. The Jedi's arms now separated from his body as he watched in horror his blood sprayed out drenching me and the others near us. I had to fight off the urge to lick it up but the fight given to me helped keep it in check. The Jedi grew bolder and more intense, no longer holding back like they were before.
Jurn himself was always in my face, never once letting up in his ferocity. Before his strikes were wide sweeping blows that covered a good portion of the alley making it hard for me to avoid them while he wouldn’t do it too often since his fellow Jedi were near him and he might hit them.
But now he was swinging with reckless abandon. Enough so his fellow Jedi had to keep their distance unless they wanted to get hit.
“Everyone who has died from this evil war can be laid at your feet-- Hold still!” He screamed out in rage and spit flew from his mouth.
His eyes looked like a blazing fire, staring deep into my soul. Despite the intensity behind them I only smiled smugly just dodging and blocking. “Now why would I do that? Do you need a handicap or something? You're not a very good Jedi.”
He fumed and bristled at my comments, each one of them getting under his skin. He distanced himself from raising his hand as the rain and debris around the street we found ourselves on moved as if pushed by an unseen force.
The water became a rushing tide with the debris made into shrapnel. The telekinetic tide rushed towards me but it soon parted past me after a barrier formed between me and it.
My outstretched hand held the ward steady with fractures formed along it from the force push. But it kept the water, debris, and force push from doing a thing to me instead the building behind me had a crater take form on its side.
“Well, that’s not following the Jedi way.” I scolded him, making him fume.
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!” He said it over and over again getting angrier by the second. Just when he was about to use another push my hand came up his eyes widened before a torrent of lightning rushed out towards him.
He barely got his lightsaber up in time to block the lightning as it coiled around his blade wanting to snap out at him but couldn’t. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I might be able to fend them off but with how many there were and a battle going on around me I can’t afford to hold back any longer. Taunting them to make mistakes and mentally screw with them could only do so much. By this point, I would accept the consequences of everyone seeing what I could really do.
The gathered Jedi gasped in shock at the sight. Not giving Jurn a chance to find a way out of this, a blaster bolt found itself landing right in his face. He lurched back before falling over dead, his blade extinguished.
The various Jedi all looked at me like I was some great evil. I had a good idea of why they would think that. A wave of my hand had several figures take form each overlapping with me taking on my exact appearance, blood included. No one but myself knew who the real me was.
They all brandished the vibrosword rushing into the Jedi hesitant but it gave way to battle instincts as they charged them head-on. The various illusions evaded their strikes with only a few getting hit but they didn’t disperse.
I raised my hand near two of the Jedi who were confused, incapable of telling which one was the real me. One turned about to attack me but a flash of light and the sound of thunder made them miss and instead found my blaster pointed at their temple blowing their head to pieces.
The sound of speeders over the storm above coming towards my location told me that back up had finally arrived. The other Jedi's eyes were closed yet she dodged the blaster bolt before deflecting two more. The force is such bullshit.
Not that it mattered in the end. Empty hand held out she braced herself expecting lightning instead she opened her mouth for a scream that never came when she was flash frozen her body encased inside and out in ice.
The wave of magic rushed down the street turning the ground to ice, turning rain mid-fall into frozen shards, and any Jedi who couldn’t get out of the way of the attack had their blood flash frozen.
Nearly all of them were caught in it with only a few that got out of it alive. The rest looked like ice sculptors carved from their last moments of life fighting off an imaginary enemy. Those still alive shook off the ice that had formed along their robes.
They eyed the various copies of me warily as they all swaggered closer alongside me. “May the force be with you all.” One said solemnly.
“You don’t have to die here. Run away.” I said stopping with all of my copies. My voice reverberated across the street making it difficult to know where it came from.
“No. You have to die here, Sith.” He hissed the word like it was a foul-tasting poison on his tongue.
A bubble of laughter erupted out of me. They looked uneasy but made no move to retreat. “A Sith? Is that what you think I am?” Disbelief laced into every word.
“We may not be capable of feeling what you are doing through the force but that lightning… only Sith could do such a thing. Master Qui-Gon was right. No matter what you must die. For the Republic!” He cried out charging alongside the others who mirrored his battle cry.
They rushed past the various clones shooting, slashing, or punching them but they ignored it rushing past each one. I know they weren’t doing this randomly, they were figuring out which one was the real me by process of elimination. Even if it costs them their lives.
Backing away from the four Jedi and sending another flash freeze their way. The ice formed instantly as the wave neared them and they raised their hands. Like a snowstorm parted before a windshield they held and it passed instead turning the sides of the buildings and street into a solid sheet of ice.
The hum of repulsors had me look up to see five speeders with heavily armed people on them look down at me and the Jedi slack-jawed. “Shoot them!”
My agitated yell at them snapped them out of it before they opened fire. Despite the odds stacked against them in what was a suicide charge the remaining Jedi hadn’t given up on trying to kill me.
A grunt of annoyance was all I gave them when two of them rushed at me. The other two Jedi were preoccupied trying to block the blaster bolts that rained upon them. None of them tried to shoot at the two near me not wanting to risk shooting me by accident.
My vibroblade was held in both hands as we exchanged a series of blows. Both of the Jedi attacked with a ferocity that made everything before seem tame by comparison. Pushing them back or trying anything to get some distance to either use my blaster or magic. Gritting my teeth when one of them managed to blade lock my vibrosword with the other aiming for my hand.
Letting go of my sword it clattered against the ground. Stepping away while evading various strikes that left glowing gouges in the surroundings cutting through everything.
A quick frost spell instead of aiming at them when they brought their hands up again I aimed for the wet ground. It turned into a thick sheet of ice with the two Jedi struggling to maintain their footing on the now slick as snot surface.
That moment of hesitation was all I needed, hand raised towards Jurn’s lightsaber that had managed to survive the carnage this area had borne witness to. It rattled and shook, struggling to rise and come to me as if it was resisting my telekinesis.
Just when one of them got enough balance they lashed out aiming to bisect me at the hips. The hilt finally snapped out of whatever was going on and ignited now in my firm grip. The blades locked and sizzled against one another, the Jedi looking unnerved yet he continued pushing against me, making me slide back along the ice.
That would be his undoing. Instead of falling over unbalanced like he was after his feet nearly fell out from under him instead I was skating along them like an elegant Olympic ice skating champion.
Using the momentum and curving around to the Jedi’s horror. He was outpositioned and off balance. His lightsaber was brought up to block my feint that appeared like it was going to slam down like a two-handed claymore he instead let out one final gasp when a thrust not unlike that of a fencer pierced his heart bringing the thunderous beating to an end.
Despite the beast in me feeling unadulterated joy at getting another kill I felt bad for them. I didn’t want to kill them. But there was no choice in the end. Either I do this and build myself up enough to handle Sidious or let them kill me and let things go to absolute shit in the future.
I’m not sitting back and letting someone kill me no matter how good they are when I can pave the way to a better future.
Glancing past the other Jedi I saw the speeder crews and my men on top of the roofs were handling the other two with the pair being forced further away from me and the remaining Jedi.
The Jedi for their part handled the ice far better than their compatriot. By handle I mean they telekinetically broke the ice apart throwing large sheets of it at me. Another ward followed by flames had the large pieces melted down enough to not outright break my ward.
The Jedi rushed me coming in from the side. Lightsaber activated I met his strike with my own as he tried to overpower me finding me as immovable as a particularly stubborn tree stump. Where his style was about overpowering me I remained evasive and angled his strikes off course. Every time our blades bounced off one another I applied pressure using the tip of the blade nearly getting him each time before and after the strike.
A leap off the wall had me bending back from it using a series of thrusts that forced him on the defensive. He was doing far better than I expected. He was at least moderately better than the other Jedi.
Glancing past him seeing an army of droids turning the street I decided to end this here and now. A quick usage of bullet time slowed him down even further as he tried to go for a desperate move trying to take my hand off when I was mid strike. Angling the blade to block the desperate strike and leverage my blade to land a grazing blow along his arm.
He pulled it back with a grimace on his face that morphed into horror seeing me force his blade out of position. He desperately tried to go for an attack but it was too late. It was fast. So fast that for most people it was a blink and you’d miss it type of moment.
The lightsaber went right through his neck. No resistance of any kind. He didn’t even seem to register the pain when the flesh was instantly flash-vaporized. His head rolled along the ground with a look of sorrow and horror. Not the kind someone had when they were afraid of dying.
It reminded me of the kind I would have when I believed I had failed my… parents. Time returned to its normal flow, his body falling to the ground, his lightsaber extinguished before I grabbed it.
A speeder lowered to the ground near me as I looked up at it, the crew looking unsure of what to say or make of what they just witnessed. Before getting on the speeder the crew urged me to quickly leave worried about the horde of battle droids coming towards us.
Casually raising my hand not even bothering to aim it and firing off a single bolt of lightning that zipped across what had to be several hundred battle droids destroying them in a matter of seconds. Stepping onto the speeder beyond the hum of its anti-grav repulsors, the rain hitting the ground, and the thunder above the crew was speechless.
Just staring slack-jawed at the bodies of the Jedi, the lightsabers I took for myself, then the small army of droids that lay dead in the streets twitching with steam and smoke wafting off the now cooling metal.
“Let’s go,” I ordered them and they snapped out of it, taking me back to our little command center. The comms were busy as orders were dulled out, squads giving status updates, if they needed reinforcements, where enemy positions were, and what they had overrun or if they had been repelled.
This night was only going to get worse I thought to myself.
