Chapter 10: The Twisted Jedi

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

Chapter 10: The Twisted Jedi

A/N: I'm not too happy with this chapter but after three rewrites I have had to move on. I have also had guests for the last week and the next week so sorry for any extra delay in copying up my handwritten story. On the plus side it's also enabled me to get a headstart on the next chapter...

769 BBY

2,884 ATC

Coruscant

Harry only had moments to act before Ter-ldi escaped and so, while the trio were posturing, he quickly shot a tracking micro dart into the briefcase that was now in the possession of a rather controlling Zardra. He then quickly turned away down a side street just in case they caught any movement out of the corner of their eyes.

Bringing up his holo-communicator that was mounted on his wrist launcher he then quickly typed in the Jedi's encrypted emergency code. Once again, much to his chagrin, his least favourite Jedi responded though he could hear others in the background.

"Masters...I have found Ter-ldi" Harry simply stated.

"Where, Knight Potter, are you?" came the cold voice of Master Yoda.

"Floor 900 of Coruscant" His reply lead to a definite increase in murmuring from behind Yoda the other Jedi no doubt wondering how they missed knowing, in their infinate wisdom, that their fallen student was so close to them.

"That presents a problem" came the thin and reedy voice of Master Thom (whose fifth cousin just so happened to be one of the many senators who received monthly 'contributions' from certain illustrious individuals suspected of living on floor 900).

"For your family it is" came the tart reply from a distinctive female voice. I must have interrupted the Council giving out a mission if Varlya is in the room, mused Harry, still she's not wrong.

"Send a group of Jedi Knights we will" stated Yoda.

"No" came Harry's quick and biting response "I am sorry master" he continued though it was clear from his tone that he really wasn't. "If you do that then not only will he disappear but many people will die".

"So us do, what would you have?" Yoda's voice had turned distinctly patronising in tone.

"Arrest the Vykas siblings when they attempt to leave on their ship. It has a standard Temple issue ship tracker attached to it after all so it shouldn't be hard to trace. I will bring in Ter-ldi". Harry's response was sharp.

"The Council, you order, do not" Yoda reprimanded and Harry flushed at the rebuking tone.

"And yet" interrupted the welcome voice of Grand Master Fae Coven "as disrespectful as his tone was it is still our best option at the moment". The Grand Master looked concerned "Are you able to take him into custody?".

She had every right to be concerned, Harry thought, the story of Ter-ldi was a cautionary tale for every Jedi Initiate in the Temple but nowhere in the well told story did it say that he lacked power and Harry could only assume that in the last three decades his power had only grown.

Ter-ldi's history was slightly sad in some respects as it came down to an act of duty that, had things gone slightly differently, would have helped guide the almost knight through his trials and beyond. The padawan, who at one time was a shining example of the progressive camp, may have even one day become a Jedi Master.

However, as every padawan since was taught, that was not to be Ter-ldi's fate. Both he and his master, the Cerean Kal-Don, were trying to diplomatically solve a border dispute on the Outer Rim when they were suddenly assassin had predictably attacked the Jedi Master first in such a ferocious manner that Kal-Don had fallen back. Like any good padawan Ter-ldi had immediately moved to protect his master.

In the ensuing conflict the assassin had not only been killed but Ter-ldi had been injured to such an extent that, according to the Jedi healers, he would never return to peak condition. This meant that his time as a Jedi Padawan was over and the Jedi Service Corps beckoned. Ter-ldi also had two major faults. First, like some progressive Jedi and more and more in general, he had a strong level of arrogance and second he had a dispassionate, cynical and almost scientific view in his attempts to study the Force.

All of this meant that when he was told about his injury reducing his effectiveness as a Jedi and how the light-sided Jedi Healers could do no more to help him he had, quite naturally for him, turned to the dark side. He had immediately left the Order and disappeared from all official records. Since then he had rarely been seen though the rumor was that he not only actively practiced the dark side but used it to drain the vitality of others and to temporarily restore his lost functionality.

Needless to say the order wanted their errant son brought to heel especially as people had died.

Clouding his Force signature Harry tucked his head beneath his cloak and began to shuffle forward, arm outstretched and palm face up, in the universal sign of a beggar. Luck was with Harry however as he had only gotten two thirds of the way towards his targets before they broke apart. He had been unsure, if they had remained together, how he would have dealt with all three at once.

Harry couldn't help the nagging feeling that he was missing something however, even though the tracer was working perfectly and he was closing in on his prey, he managed to put that nagging feeling aside and the vague sense of wrongness out of his mind for the moment.

Once Harry was clear of the Vykas siblings Harry sped up his movements, trying to close the distance between himself and Ter-ldi, his heart was beating heavily in his chest and adrenaline sang in his veins as the Force powered his limbs.

Maybe it was down to the fact that he was so focused on closing the distance between him and his quarry or it may have been the fact that while he was pursuing Ter-ldi he was conscious, with every single enhanced step, of trying to keep both his face and robes hidden.

Regardless of whatever it was that stopped Harry from fully focusing on and then deciphering the feelings of wrongness and missing something became moot as two things happened at roughly the same time.

First the Force screamed out a warning like a wounded animal stuck with a spear and second a rather powerful looking black fist appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and knocked him to the ground, taking the air from his lungs.

That's what I missed, Harry mused along with the pain in a moment of clarity, the third bloody droid.

As a black metal foot came down upon his head with all the forgiveness of a sledgehammer he could only think with a touch of dark humor that, in the future, his sales team had better be more careful who they sold the HP-20's to as he was tired of dodging his own creations.

Then there was only darkness.

It could have been hours or days since Harry was knocked unconscious by one of his industry's own droids. Harry would have had no idea. The only thing that Harry was aware of, at least at first, was the blinding migraine that was caused by the foot of one of his creations.

Only when he was able to think slightly more clearly did Harry manage to notice a few things. First and foremost he had been fitted with not only the standard stun cuffs but with a Force nullifying headband. Finally Harry was also chained, forcing him to stand with his arms stretched above his head and attached to the wall, and barely able to move.

Looking around he saw rough stone that could have come from a hundred different worlds at least. Although he gathered that the structure wasn't new as the stones were weathered the only other thing that was in the room was a heavily bolted door.

He was still dressed in his Jedi Robes though his lightsaber and bracer were both missing though they had not taken his ring off as they clearly did not see it as anything other than an odd ring. That gave Harry some options especially as he noted no recording devices in the bare room.

Just as Harry was starting to formulate a plan of escape the cell door swung aside with a horrid screeching sound. In walked Ter-ldi and the Vykas siblings. Ter-ldi, despite his absence still wore traditional Jedi Robes. The siblings of course were still in the same attire.

Both men looked worried though for different reasons. Zarandro was almost telepathically screaming his worry due to the fact that he had never been this close to a Jedi but had grown up hearing their legendary stories all his life. Ter-ldi's worry was clearly due more to what Harry represented as a Jedi. He clearly did not want the attention of the Jedi High Council.

Zardra in contrast looked more like the cat that had gotten the cream (or in her case stolen it) possibly because it was her droid that had managed to more than prove its worth in capturing a Jedi. He could see in her face that she felt vindicated in her radical idea that human beings were less than droids and to her this, capturing of the impressive biological specimen that was a Jedi, had just proven it.

"Hello Jedi" Her voice was so smug you could almost feel it oozing into the air around her.

"Convicts" came his witty retort.

"We are not convicts!" snapped the strained voice of Zarandro as Ter-ldi looked on seemingly amused by his 'allies' annoyance.

"Don't you dare make fun of us. You are the one imprisoned". Zardra snapped at Harry whose only response was to impudently cock his eyebrow.

"Enough" snapped Ter-ldi seemingly irritated by his companions rather than Harry" stop letting him get to you." He said in a commanding tone. He then focused solely on Harry and laced his voice with the power of the Force "Why are you here?"

"Oh you know" Harry said conversationally "I just thought that I'd get out and see the sights"

Zarandro moved forward and very quickly punched Harry in the face. Harry was tied in such a way that he couldn't roll with the blow but his only response was to check his newly bleeding lip with his tongue. His eyes dismissed Zarandro as nothing "Now that was uncivilised of you".

"And you will get more of that the longer that you keep up with your cheek" snarled Zardra seemingly oblivious to the blows ineffectiveness as an object lesson.

"As much as I hate to agree with our prisoner it was rather uncivilised" Ter-ldi smiled winningly "we Jedi are made of sterner stuff than that" Ter-ldi ignore the scornful look that Harry was sending him "however perhaps it is best if you two leave us Jedi to talk alone". With that the two siblings shuffled out while glaring at him all the while he, quite predictably, smirked at them.

"What amusing children you employ" said Harry in a falsely posh voice.

"They are older than you" came the tart reply.

"It's not the years, it's the milage" deadpanned Harry to Ter-ldi's confused look that flashed across the Cerean's face. To his credit Ter-ldi recovered quickly however.

"Better than the stupid children you serve in the Senate" came his quick reply.

"So" asked Harry changing the subject "why am I here?".

"You as in a Jedi in general or you as in William Potter Grey Jedi, at least politically speaking, a prodigy in the Force and a complete annoyance to the Jedi High Council". At Harry's shocked look he continued with a note of pride in his voice "I have my sources and, even if I didn't, you are quite famous in certain circles".

"Criminals and Dark Jedi you mean?" questioned Harry

"How dare you! I am a Grey Jedi just like you" came Ter-ldi's response.

"If you believe that then the stories of your intellect have been extremely exaggerated" harry commented quiety and decisively.

"I just want to understand all aspects of the Force" Ter-ldi argued layering his voice, once again, with the Force this time with a sense reasonableness and affability. "Surely you can understand that?".

"Is that what you want? Someone to understand you?" Harry asked condescendingly while completely ignoring the relatively mediocre attempt at manipulation.

"Surely you can understand how narrow minded the Council is becoming?" asked Ter-ldi.

"Of course I can" Harry easily agreed "however I doubt that you kept me here for my agreeable nature".

"No. I am afraid that I need you to tell me all that the Council knows about me…"

"And why exactly would I do that?" asked Harry.

"Forgive me" came the cultured voice of Ter-ldi " I just assumed you would rather that, than become my latest test subject".

"I see… and you think that I would go for this because I am afraid of you? Or is it supposed to be because I object to the Council's viewpoints on the Force at the moment.." asked Harry.

"Of course" Ter-ldi replied increasing the strength of the compulsion still flowing in his voice "surely you have heard my story and know that all I want, apart from healing my injuries, is to form my own Council and explore both sides of the Force". His words dripped honey and oozed reason. "Surely that's not too much to ask is it?".

"Certainly not" came Harry's equally reasonable reply "except for three little things. First you are not a Grey Jedi at all but instead a dark one…"

"That's a matter of perspective…" Ter-ldi interrupted.

"Really?" asked Harry cynically "When was the last time you actively used the light side or have you become to entranced by and entrenched in the dark to even remember?".

"I have just been caught up in my studies and desire to fix my injury.." came the weak and defensive response from Ter-ldi and Harry's resulting stare was beyond disbelieving.

"Which leads me, quite effectively I might add, to my second point... you are full of bantha shit and what makes it worse" he continued over Ter-ldi's sputtered objections "is that you seem to lie to yourself as well as other people apparently".

"And the third point?" Ter-ldi prodded, through gritted teeth, now perversely curious.

"Oh that one is really simple….you are utterly batshit crazy...you know...insane?" snarked Harry.

Harry would always remember that instant with a crystal clear clarity because it was at that moment that the Sith Lightning began. Given the expression on Ter-ldi's face though Harry would always find it hard to summon much regret as it was just such an honest and disbelieving expression of shock that anyone would speak to him that way.

Sometime time later and after a great deal of agonizing pain the torture stopped. Though crude by manys standards, not to mention lacking in originality, Harry's relief was still palatable when the pain lessened as Ter-ldi stopped abruptly. The silence was deafening as the Force Lightning faded into nothing.

That Harry's insults had never stopped spewing from his exhausted and aching throat was an impressive feat all of its own.

"Interesting" Harry's captor remarked in a detached and cynical fashion "It's as if you have been tortured before though it does not appear on your medical records". The thing that concerned Harry the most about that sentence was the fact that, through unknown channels, Ter-ldi had access to his heavily restricted Jedi medical records.

Ter-ldi watched Harry's body closely as the scarred and burned pulp that currently made up his torso was slowly healing. "So resilient" he remarked "is that due to your families genetic manipulation?".

"Blow me" remarked Harry in his own succinct way. Not exactly the answer the answer you were hoping for, thought Harry, but I have no intention of explaining the intricacies or majesty of the Phoenix whose tears are in my blood.

"You do realise that I am starting to get tired of your foul mouth". Here Ter-ldi laced some regret in his tone "If only you would see things my way…"

"I'd become your puppet?" snapped Harry "I'll pass cheers".

"I see this negotiation is going to take longer than expected". The utter bastard even managed to sound sorrowful about the whole thing, thought Harry, the complete and utter prick.

Ter-ldi focused on the door for a moment and then opened it with a wave of his hand. In walked a smiling and obviously high Zarandro and he had a force pike in his hands. "I will have to leave you in the slightly less capable hands of my associate here as even Jedi as wise as I need rest" Ter-ldi smiled and left.

"My turn" came the intoxicated voice of Zarandro.

"So it's the monkey's time to shine?" came Harry's mocking voice.

"I am no one's monkey" Zarandro didn't scream but it was clear that he was swiftly heading into a rage. The thing about addicts, Harry mused, was that in my experience they are really easy to bait.

"Come on then...give me your best shot!" Zarandro advanced and as he was about to wildly swing the pike into Harry's torso he continued "using that thing? You? Really?" Harry's voice was deeply mocking and he sneered "Apparently the legends of your martial arts prowess are just that….legends…".

"Fine!" Zarandro dropped the force pike and started viciously beating into Harry's torso with such force that Harry felt, within a few seconds, at least one rib crack.

With a kick and a twist Harry managed to bring his legs up around Zarandro's neck and began to tighten. Zarandro's fist pummelled at him, they clawed and scratched at Harry vainly seeking purchase on his flesh, though thankfully his voice was muffled by Harry's legs. Harry resisted the urge to viciously twist his hips. He had no desire (nor was it ever his intent) to kill Zarandro and was therefore simply trying to make his latest opponent lose consciousness.

Slowly he succeeded mainly because, while most being focused on the stories of Jedi with their lightsabers and the Force, few remembered that they were often just as well trained in hand to hand combat. In fact most lightsaber forms could be adapted to unarmed combat. The fact that most forgot may have been down to the iconic status of the lightsaber and the Jedi themselves but, on the other hand, it wasn't as if they advertised that fact.

After so many years as a Jedi, not to mention being under almost constant watch by a progressive, Harry rarely used magic these days outside of occlumency. The magic was always there though, thrumming beneath his skin like a second heartbeat, it prowled around his core like a hungry animal waiting to be used.

One of the major differences that he had found between magic and the Force was that the latter seemed to use the practitioner as a conductor (the limit to which you could control the Force therefore relied more on being part of a circuit and your bodies natural ability to manage the energy. You were to an extent expressing a Force that was layered throughout everything albeit in differing saturations and therefore theoretically limitless in scope).

Magic on the other hand flowed like thick treacle throughout the universe. It followed its own rules and lines and did not, aside from a small echo more like a spray from a waterfall than anything else, inhabit everything. Instead it caved out rivers, or ley lines, and pooled creating places of power along with creatures of wonder and terror. Most importantly (for this situation) it bonded with the animals that it deeply affected including that largely arrogant subspecies of humanity that called themselves Wizards. These Wizards, amongst other magical creatures, had a store of magic that was internal to them and therefore separate but recharged from the weak (or not so weak depending where they were) supply around them much like a battery with larger internal 'batteries' making for stronger Wizards.

All of this meant that when Harry formed the spell that he needed in his mind the band that was suppressing his access to the Force had no effect on his magic as it was not designed to stop him from drawing from an internal source of power. His ability to draw on the Force, by contrast, was effected because the band was designed to simply stop him completing the circuit to a very large degree thereby cutting him off from it.

If not for that band then Harry would only be limited by his genes and his training. His training would be important because, like all Jedi, Harry trained his body so strenuously in part to increase his natural resilience while channeling such power and to understand the feeling of being connected to everything and to ponder the will of the Force. It was not without its risks however as, aside from the dark side, exhaustion and over channelling (along with the physical damage that could cause) were a very real worry.

The spell that Harry had laboriously formed was released into the world and his cuffs snapped open and the first thing that Harry did was take the circlet that was around his head off and attached it and the cuffs to his belt. He felt the Force, once almost completely blocked, surge and almost roar before settling on him gently like a comforting cloak. If Harry had gotten into the habit of not using magic before he was now firmly cured of that detrimental inclination and with a wave of his ring hand a strong red light flew from Harry's hand and deeply stunned Zarandro.

Not having any better idea of what to do first, beyond trying to find his equipment, Harry searched his wannabe tormentor looking for a comm unit without success.

Harry braced himself and waved open the door quite effortlessly only to be confronted with two HP-20's. Both of the droids were holding blaster rifles but if there was one thing Harry excelled at it was thinking on his feet and he used the Force to quickly call the nearest blaster to his hand and, before either droid could react, pulled the trigger twice. With the distinctive sound and red bolt of a blaster both of his creations fell to the floor unable to operate as both had a hole drilled in the middle of their heads.

As both of the droids fell to the floor he finally took note of where he was. Harry was standing in a long hallway that had two doors, one to the left and another to the right, with a long corridor that curved out of Harry's sight. He opened the door on the left.

What greeted him behind the left door was an empty room. Though it was once a storeroom it had clearly been empty for quite some time if the layers of dust on the wall shelves were anything to go by.

Thankfully for Harry the room on the right hand side had more in it of use than the dust in the the left hand side one. Harry did not know where he was but in this room he finally found something that could help him as he found himself in a security room.

The computer in the corner glowed at him mockingly as no matter how much he had tried in the past, to Harry's chagrin, he had never been able to approach more than a basic competence when it came to hacking or slicing a computer. Even so Harry's fingers flew on the touchscreen looking for any information that might help him.

Ten minutes later, though he was still locked out of most systems, Harry knew that he was still on floor 900 and in fact in a well furnished apartment belonging, Harry assumed, to Ter-ldi. Given his rather lackluster skill when it came to computers Harry was quite happy to get a basic layout of the apartment and from that get a general idea of where Ter-ldi was thanks to the cameras that littered the apartment. Trust was not a part of Ter-ldi's world at any point anymore, mused Harry, master Yoda would be so disappointed.

The downside was that he still did not know where either his lightsaber or his arm bracer (more specifically a vambrace) was. This meant that he was currently on his own and unable to contact anyone for help. This also meant that, although armed, he was left feeling naked as he was without his lightsaber for the first time in years. He also had no clue exactly how many droids there were in the apartment only that they weren't showing on the cameras and given this, admittedly huge, apartment that meant very little. He finally did not know where Zardra was.

Harry once again cursed that he was not better at computers as he was sure that there was more detailed information in the database but, even with his method of rapidly acquiring skills and years of practice, he lacked the aptitude and he was still not particularly skilled. It was like that person that would have hundreds of hours of driving lessons and still, after many years, come away from their thirteenth driving test having failed. He did not know why but sometimes people simply could not master a thing and for them it was like a frustrating impossible rubik's cube that never seemed to work as well as it should.

For Harry slicing was his rubik's cube.

Still moving forward, down the curving corridor, Harry was grateful that though he wasn't able to get much information from the terminal he'd at least gotten a general idea of where to go from a partial schematic that he was able to see. Ahead, he knew, should be Ter-ldi's lounge and/or lab. Knowing my luck, Harry thought, that's where everything will go horribly wrong.

True to form, as he reached the door, it did.

Six droids came out through the now opening door, moving in unison and pointing their blasters at Harry, and once again they were some of his models. To make matters worse they were followed out by an irate Zardra Vykas and carried in her left had was his unlit lightsaber with her blaster now holstered on her hip.

It seemed, Harry mused, to be just that kind of day.

"Drop your rifle" she commanded which he reluctantly did. The weapon fell to the floor with a quiet thud and small rattle.

"Do you like my new friends?" came her condescending voice.

"What no words of concern for your dear missing brother?" came his sardonic response.

"Oh no! What have you done with him! I do hope he is not dead!" she theatrically moaned and then raised an eyebrow, dropped the theatrical voice and chuckled "I assume he is dead?" Her smile turned especially vicious as she continued "Your mistake is in thinking that I care about my dear brother... At all".

"And your mistake" countered Harry " was in thinking that a Jedi is ever defenceless".

With that, like striking cobras, Harry's hands came up coated with twin purple auras of power jumping around in arcs between his palms as he almost violently threw them forward. The Force Power known as Ionize moved quickly, the twin purple coloured streams jumped from droid to droid meeting in the middle of Zardra herself and she screamed in absolute horror.

The droids fell like marionettes with their strings cut leaving Zardra unharmed. In her defence however, thought Harry, Ionize or Destroy Droid did look a lot like the much more destructive and well known Force Lightning.

Of course Zardra herself was unharmed though she stared at him in absolute shock as he advanced.

"H-How?" Zardra stuttered. Harry could have answered her in an exaggerated, mysterious and mystic fashion and say something profoundly irritating but that wasn't really Harry's style. Instead he gently swiped his first two fingers across her forehead.

"Sleep" he whispered causing her to slump into his arms in a boneless heap. Now like her brother she was unconscious and, for the moment, not a threat to his wellbeing. He reached out and scooped his lightsaber into his hand. Harry had neutralized both siblings and took a deep breath seeking to refocus himself for seeing Ter-ldi.

Behind Zardra he heard a slow and deeply mocking clap. As Harry moved into the room he saw a mildly impressed looking Ter-ldi sitting on an expensive looking sofa with his feet on a beautiful coffee table. The main oddity in what could otherwise be described as a wonderful lounge where the tubes that littered the back wall along with a lab table.

Glancing at them and remembering his early lessons on Dantooine Harry could only guess that the Ter-ldi was trying to experiment somewhat along the lines of Malak restoring his health on the Starforge (though he clearly had yet to find success).

On the coffee table and next to Ter-ldi's feet was his vambrace.

"I must admit" said Ter-ldi " I did not expect to see you so soon".

"I'm glad that I can surprise you so much" said Harry his voice dripping with scorn.

"By your response I would guess that you have not come around to my way of thinking?".

"Because torture is known to do that" replied Harry trying not to focus too hard on his vambrace that was on the table.

"Historically it has been known to work...after a while" countered Ter-ldi "You wouldn't even have been my first".

"Not after a day" Harry said with a sense of finality and missed the smirk that was on Ter-ldi's face.

There was a heavy and oppressive feeling in the air in the lounge at this moment and both men could feel it. It wasn't like it was a shatterpoint or any great moment in the Force. What it was could only be called a moment of clarity. Yoda, Ter-ldi and Harry represented three similar but different ideas about the Force that were, in the end, mutually exclusive. Yoda was against any use of emotion and using anything other than the lightside.

Ter-ldi, for all of his fancy words, wanted power and control. Worse yet he was becoming addicted to the darkside delving too deep and too fast into those treacherous waters without proper consideration and preparation.

As for Harry he wasn't against using his emotions or even the power of the dark side as long as the practitioner was able to find a rough balance to negate, or at least minimise, the effects of the latter (though he hadn't used the dark side in this body yet).

The feeling in the room then was not so much a ultimate clash between the light and the dark or anything nearly so melodramatic. It was however just as certain to end in violence as they both knew that no matter what was said or done in this moment blood would be spilled. Both were resolute in the idea that the others ideology was mutually exclusive. Looking at each others too relaxed poses it was not only clear that both men knew this but they were simply waiting for the right moment to begin.

"Are you sure that I cannot talk you out of this?" came the measured voice of Ter-ldi "You would be a great asset to the Grey Jedi Order that I intend to build". Ter-ldi stood even as his voice seemed to drip with a calm surety almost as if, in opposing him, Harry was being utterly ridiculous.

"I am afraid not. Besides" Harry mocked "have you not realised that the little voice trick that you do does not work on me?" He then continued with "However if it helps for clarification purposes you could not be called a Grey Jedi as that requires use of the light side". Ter-ldi gritted his teeth and was clearly struggling to control his anger.

"You are just as arrogant as Yoda and as close minded" spat Ter-ldi.

"If I am then so are you but, unlike you, I don't torture people" anymore, Harry added in his mind, hoping never to do that again but fully aware that he had done that and worse while under the thrall of the Sith amulet.

"You call me Dark!" hissed Ter-ldi "You know nothing about darkness. You Jedi are failures as you squabble over useless difference and pat yourselves on the back for being all wise all the while ignoring everything important around you. You believe that the Sith are dead that they are dust in the wind and nothing but horrid echos of a best forgotten past. You are wrong". His words were now spilling out in a hateful rant, his eyes glowing with both the dark side and his fanaticism "I am aware of the Sith as they are of me. We ignore each other for the moment but they are there".

At the end of the rant the sedate and easy going appearance of Ter-ldi was nowhere to be found. Instead he seemed to have worked himself into a frenzy, pacing up and down the length of his sofa like a caged animal, his eyes never leaving those of Harry and there was even a trace of foam in the corner of his mouth.

Without warning they turned their respective gifts on each other. It was more a battle of the Force, at least for the moment, than it was of lightsabers as the very table that Ter-ldi had had his feet on earlier rose to try and knock him down at Harry's command by taking out his opponent's legs. The battle, in terms of the Force, was fairly evenly matched because although Harry was the stronger by a very large margin Ter-ldi had more skill and finesse when it came to using his gifts.

The table was swiftly deflected away even as Harry moved as quickly as he could to close the distance between the two men. While he was doing this Ter-ldi assumed the classic Form II stance as well as spewing, from his left hand, a veritable flood of Force Lightning.

Knowing that until he truly mastered Niman (if he ever was going to) he would most likely be outclassed and overwhelmed by Makashi as that form was used solely for saber to saber combat Harry knew that it would be best to end this fight quickly.

So instead of rushing in as he might otherwise have done he used another esoteric application of the Force called Tutaminis and, applying that technique, he caught the Force lightning in his bare hand. With a loud grunt of effort Harry sent it back to Ter-ldi which blew the unfortunate Dark Jedi off of his feet.

"All that time that you spent building your contacts and studying the dark side" he mocked "did you realise your mistake?".

As Harry asked that question he was reminded why monologuing was a very bad idea against skilled opponents, as Ter-ldi's lightsaber flew out of the corner of the wrecked room and Harry had to dive out of the way to avoid being bisected.

As he rolled back to his feet Harry saw Ter-ldi, clothes smoking and torn, run towards him. Harry suddenly found himself exactly where he did not want to be, on the back foot, defending against a Form II master and feeling that with every swipe he was millimeters away from taking a killing stroke. He gave ground quickly while trying desperately to defend himself against the aggressive and relentless Form II bladework.

Harry knew that if this kept up he would die and he also couldn't be sure how odd his death would look to someone connected to the Force as no one like that had seen him die up close before. So he tried every trick that he could think of, he tore panels off of walls and lights from their sockets while ducking and weaving while he bought time to think of something.

Finally he had an idea and thankfully he had moved back into the room far enough that he might have a chance at pulling it off and he ripped up one last piece of the floor and hurled it straight at Ter-ldi.

Ter-ldi destroyed it, of course, however that really wasn't the point as while he was momentarily distracted taking care of the minor annoyance Harry managed to summon something else from the floor. His communicator.

Unable to spare the time to send a complex message all Harry could do was tap out his unique emergency distress code. Jedi would be coming and coming in force. The problem that now faced Harry was that their average response time in Coruscant was around five minutes and he actually had to survive those five minutes.

Sadly those few moments in which he had been distracted sending his message were long enough to guarantee that he would not last those five minutes that he so desperately needed. Lightsaber dueling was not generally a long drawn out sequence of attacks unless the two people involved had almost exactly the same level of skill and/or power.

In this fight, in terms of lightsaber skill, Harry was easily outmatched as Ter-ldi had clearly put a great deal of effort into trying to master his chosen form of combat. That was never more evident to Harry than in the first few seconds after sending his message as he suddenly felt a searing pain across his left shoulder blade.

He watched, in a sort of detached slow motion, as not only his hand (with lightsaber still in it) but the rest of his arm right up to his shoulder joint fell to the floor. The smell of burning flesh was pungent and clogged Harry's nose even as the tears in his blood attempted to seal the wound fully inside and out.

He did not have time to go into shock however as he found himself flying through the air only to land with a hard and sickening thud on one of the walls that had no scientific equipment on it. Harry was thrown so hard in fact that he was sure that he felt something in his back crack from the force of it. He slid down to the floor gasping for breath.

"Did you really think" said Ter-ldi who was now approaching the heavily injured Harry "that you could beat me?" Whatever response that Ter-ldi was expecting was not the one he got.

"Jesus fucking Christ! Is being an arrogant sod part of your species genetic makeup or is it just you?".

"How dare you! The dark side of the Force is power incarnate, it is hunger, it is longing….it is everything!" Ter-ldi paused and then added "You have no idea do you? The Sith and I are not the only ones to admit this universal truth that the Jedi deny. If you think I'm powerful you wouldn't want to meet them".

"Oh really? Is there a name somewhere in your pointless monologue?" asked Harry in an almost distracted fashion.

"I wouldn't tell you the names of the Sith even if I knew them". He smiled bitterly "I will tell you the name of the oldest of us however mainly because you will never believe me". As he was saying this Harry began to concentrate, barely paying attention to Ter-ldi, knowing that it was highly unlikely that he would gain any useful information from Ter-ldi.

"His name is Set Harth". Said Ter-ldi, smirking and lightsaber in hand, waiting for Harry to either move or die. Harry, while concentrating, laughed quietly from his position on the floor.

"Set Harth is a myth" Harry spat "A tale told to frighten children. He would be almost 900 years old by now".

"You underestimate the power of the dark side". Harry shivered for a moment thinking about how he had lived as long as he had and if there might be other ways of achieving that.

"And you" came Harry's response, eyes finally focusing fully on his foe, sure and resolute "underestimate the power of the light". Focusing, Harry was not sure whether he used the Force or accidental magic but he managed to instinctively crush Ter-ldi's hand along with the lightsaber that was in it.

Harry thrust out his right hand (the left being across the room) and a soft golden light streamed from his outstretched palm and drifted gently. It moved like soft motes of dust in sunlight towards Ter-ldi who was seemingly frozen in the grip of the oncoming light even as darkness seemed to seep out of the Cerean. Its power seemed to grapple fiercely with the soft light its miasma swirling malevolently trying to combat the light.

The light pushed back at the oily blackness by forming a latticework that began to tighten around the darkness, containing it, and encroaching on Ter-ldi's skin. Then the net of light entrapped darkness touched Ter-ldi's skin and he disappeared with a muted flash.

"What have you done!?" screamed Ter-ldi feeling suddenly bereft of the Force.

"Force Light. I have temporarily cut you off from the Force". He would have done more than temporarily remove it if he could however Harry was not only injured but it was also the first time that he had ever used this power against someone. Harry would also like to stand up but the pain in his back and the loss of a limb was too much to be able to do that at this moment.

As Ter-ldi got over his shock and moved, as if to flee, Harry did have the energy to pin the now powerless Cerean to the wall with a wave of his hand. He did however do it much more gently than it was done to him.

Finally he heard the hum of lightsabers and looking up he saw a group of Jedi being led by his old friend Knight Varlya Tarvam.

"Hmm...the cavalry arrives...please be a dear and tidy up the place would you. He "Harry nodded to Ter-ldi "left the place in a complete mess.."

With that Harry promptly passed out.