Jedi Insurgency 268

Standing upon the cracked, floating remains of the Jedi Temple, Malgus stared down at the assembled Jedi in contempt. 

Standing there, smug in their victory…he would not allow Revan the fruits of such a conquest so easily. The ancient Jedi would have to earn it! 

Hurling chunks of stone, lightning, and raw hatred at them, he watched as the group worked together, batting aside the attacks one after another. Crushing his fist, the large slab he stood upon began to crumble bit by bit. Boulders rained downward in a continuous stream, whilst dust filled the air, obscuring vision. 

Feeling petty, he ripped a statue-about the size of a transport-free from its pedestal, and sent it spinning through the air. Hidden within the dust, Malgus gave this object most of his attention, speeding it up as much as he could. 

Streaking through the air, the statue was sensed ahead of time, but due to the thousands of boulders continuously collapsing, not many had a mind to stop it, as they were otherwise occupied. Revan and his partner were the only ones who took action, and moved forward to dice it up. 

Malgus smirked to himself, as his plan came to fruition. Already in motion, he hid himself in the dust, deactivated his lightsaber, and retracted his aura to the maximum. Leaving behind a Sith amulet filled with negativity, and the Darkside where he had stood upon the floating Temple remains, the device acted as a homing beacon, partially masking his presence in the Force. 

Soon after saving the Jedi, Revan & Keira jumped up the falling rocks to confront Malgus. However, the Sith Lord had long slinked away. Covered in a fine layer of dust, Malgus's gear appeared brown, the same as any other Jedi. Withdrawing a green lightsaber from a nearby corpse, the emerald blade sprang into existence, furthering his deception. 

Approaching a group of Knights & Padawans, a few glanced his way, but didn't pay him any further attention as they were clearing the air or tossing aside boulders. Without so much as pausing his step, he approached them. 

The first Knight, a beautiful Twi'lek girl reminding him of his wife was sweating as she tossed aside yet another rock. Exhaustion colored her face, yet her determination sang in the Force. 

Pity. 

His stolen green blade rammed itself through her back without a second's doubt. Finishing his first victim, he was quick to move on. For the next one, he came across a pair of lovers. Holding hands, the couple-a pink Zeltron man & pale Togruta woman-were combining their powers to shift aside a pile of stones. Malgus corrected them. Slamming an open palm downward, the heavy pile of dust they had shifted aside returned with quadruple the force. Before the couple could dodge, they were crushed in place, buried forever. 

Cloaked in obscurity, he traveled from group to group, picking off the Jedi at the edges, avoiding anyone where more than five people gathered. Before long, half of the 100 Jedi had been culled, their corpses mutilated beyond recognition so that Revan could not bring them back. Several times, he swapped the color of his saber, and even tossed his green blade at one Jedi, impaling them in the back right in front of a dozen others. Chaos and confusion began to spread through the line, and they huddled together like Alderanii sheep. 

Prowling like a Vornskr that smelt blood, Malgus's bloodlust was reignited. The fresh kills and destruction of Force Sensitives was rewarded by the Darkside, affirming his place as an apex predator. 

By the time the dust cleared, Malgus stood back where he had started. However, this time, the gates to the Temple were broken in two. When the Jedi spotted him, less than a quarter of the broken piece of the Temple remained floating in the sky. 

“Show me, Revan. Show me what balance looks like. What do I have to do to make you stop holding back? Clearly killing these weaklings isn't enough. That trite about protection is not you. No, I know what motivates a man.” Malgus said in a searching tine as he stared across the great hall at that masked man. Then, he glanced over his shoulder, and caught a glimpse of his wife hiding in some recess, waiting to take a shot with her sniper. He pivoted his gaze towards Keira. 

Yes. He knew exactly what to do to witness Revan's true potential. 

Squeezing his fist once more, this time, he completely obliterated the remaining chunk of floating Temple debris. Instead of large stone, or giant boulders, an incredibly dense layer of fine sand poured down onto the battlefield, like the sand in an hourglass. 

Malgus leapt through the opening it created and crashed into the Jedi line, scattering three Knights with the impact of his landing. His saber carved a red crescent through the haze. 

He broke one guard, crushed a throat, and stomped a chest in all in one fluid motion. By the time he had slain four, Revan and Keira were upon him. 

Malgus feinted at Revan, then turned fully on Keira, driving her backward with a series of massive overhead blows. Each strike forced her lower. First she caught them with Form VI’s balance, redirecting and answering with a well timed [Force Push] & [Force Pull] to save herself, or knock him off balance. Then she shifted into Form III, in an effort to buy time for Revan to rejoin the fight. Despite her best efforts, she was pushed back inch by inch. 

Malgus sensed victory and pressed harder. Keira’s back slammed into a broken column, and Malgus raised his blade for a killing stroke.

Keira smiled.

“Got you.”

She dropped flat, and Revan's twin blades came over her as he appeared out of her shadow. Malgus barely twisted away. The strike scored across his mask, cutting through the metal of his respirator exposing the burned flesh beneath. Malgus roared in fury, and slammed his elbow into Revan's jaw, popping the barrier the man had that protected against blunt attacks in the process. Revan staggered, mostly unharmed, but somewhat concussed from the hit. Malgus knew he had less than 0.1 seconds to land another strike before Revan recovered, and followed up with a thrust of the fist meant to punch through his chest.

Keira swept Malgus’s injured leg with a kick of her own, sending cracks into the bone of his exposed thigh. Buckling in place, he growled as Revan dodged, and countered. 

The masked man in front of him caught the thrust on his saber, stepped inside it, and struck Malgus in the breastplate with his palm.

The Force detonated at point-blank range as Revan used a targeted [Force Repulse] directly on Malgus's chest. 

Malgus flew backward through the remains of the Temple steps and completely broke the last remnants of the Temple doors. The impact created several sonic booms across the battlefield. 

Malgus pulled himself free from the rubble with a snarl. His armor was ruined, and hung from his body like a can that had spent one too many rounds in an electric can opener. 

One eye had gone red with burst blood vessels, whilst the other still burned with a terrible, undiminished will. He dragged himself upright through raw will alone, using hatred as fuel where blood & oxygen began to fail. 

The remaining Jedi had lost that jovial sense of an easy victory, and now regarded him with the solemnity required of the situation. They didn't respect him, a Jedi never would. Perhaps they didn't fear him yet, at least not all of them. But they understood now what they were dealing with. 

Malgus stood before them, a monster, a warrior, and a relic of endless war. In another life, perhaps, such courage might have been noble. Here, bound to cruelty and domination, it had become a furnace that consumed everything near it. And these Jedi were but another forge from which he would craft his destiny. 

Malgus took a deep, painful breath, and charged once more. This was it, Malgus knew he could go on for many more hours, but his warrior's pride balked at the idea. Either Revan's spine would be broken, or Malgus would gladly mount his head on Revan's wall as a crowning achievement. There could be no higher honor for a Sith than a glorious death! 

Revan met him head-on, blue and red collided again and again in a storm of stabs, cuts, and brutal near misses. Several times, Malgus burst through the energy shield defenses, only for Keira to strike from the right, her green blade carving toward the damaged plates at his ribs. Malgus blocked her with his off-hand gauntlet, letting the saber bite halfway through the last shreds of his armor before he shoved her back. Three Knights struck at his legs. He leapt over their blades and came down like a falling walker, scattering them with a Force blast.

Revan pursued through the blast, not giving him a second to collect himself. 

Malgus swung for his neck, to which Revan ducked beneath it and answered with a slash across the Sith Lord’s forearm. Malgus’s grip faltered as his armor finally failed, leading to catastrophic damage in his muscle fibers. Keira struck his saber hand, and he couldn't maintain a strong enough grip. The red blade flew from his grasp, spinning end over end into the sky.

Malgus did not give up. A purple lightsaber seized from a nearby corpse during his guerilla tactics earlier floated out of his robe and wielding it in his offhand countered Revan. Pushing his rival back, he then shoulder checked Keira, ramming into her at full speed. Losing a leg to her green blade for his troubles, he was uncaring as he mercilessly beat her across the face with the nub of his arm. Meanwhile, he parried aside Revan's frantic assault with his stolen lightsaber. 

It happened all so fast, that despite the wounds, Malgus was having the time of his life. A true warrior's send off. 

“Show me, Revan. SHOW ME.” He roared, slamming his lightsaber directly towards Keira's face. 

All light across the chamber suddenly seemed to vanish as it was sucked towards that white robed figure. Inch by inch, the light was devoured until it bled away from that man, leaving behind a creature wrapped in cool hatred, protective malice, and righteous fury. This cornucopia of contradictions coalesced into a singular form. 

For a second, time seemed to stall. Malgus's blade-inches above Keira's face-froze in place. 

As a Sith, Malgus hated following others. He believed only the strongest should rule. Only those who defeated him were worthy of being followed. He bowed his head in supplication. 

“All hail Lord Rev-.” 

The shadow creature tilted its head, appraising him, and then a pair of lightsabers were in his chest. 

Malgus stared into its eyes, and he saw two perfectly white circles like full moons. Within, a pair of fish-one black the other a barely visible off white-swam in a circle chasing one another's tails. And then he knew no more. 

~~~~~~~~

AN: We'll do some more Tython exploration after this, Order building, bonding, and questing. I just wanted a major fight with Minty Green Tomboy to help reestablish her character. As well as a chance for Corvus to feel like he redeemed himself for his ‘failure’ to defend the Jedi Temple from Anakin.