PART III: POWER

Despite having done this sort of Phase Walk before, Dina found it remarkable how it still gave her a shiver to actually DO it. The other thing that felt odd was the pain she felt in her right leg, which she had actually forgotten about.

It'll be fine. Kari will patch it up soon. But right now I have a job to do.

She had used stealth before doing the Phase Walk, and it had--as she expected--placed her at that spot right behind the Sith . . . and, coincidentally, right next to the holocron.

I just need to keep him busy long enough for Dianiss to do her big nasty Sith thing, and then I'll be back out of here.

Her presence here in stealth was confusing him, but she was a long way from being fully hidden from his awareness. That would be okay. In fact, it would work to her advantage until it was clear for her to emerge.

"There is no escape from..." he started to say, but trailed off as he spoke. Clearly he was unprepared for what had just happened.

Dina wasted no time in finding her beloved TruthSeeker and calling it to her own hand, where it instantly reactivated both blades as her hand made contact with the nano-sensors on the hilt.

She had a job to do, and not much time to do it. Speed would be the key. Luckily for her, speed was her specialty.

Immediately she reached out with the Force and grabbed at the passage of time, slowing down everything in the immediate vicinity of the Sith (including his blades) and weakening his ability to counter-strike. Having caught him by surprise, she made the most of her advantage using the Force to lift as many loose stones from the area as she could. The smaller ones (which was most of them) she used to surround herself for protection, but the largest one she pushed at him at high speed, hoping to knock him off balance.

Unfortunately, the stone simply shattered when it hit him, and--worse--seemed to snap him out of his confusion.

Dina heard five lightsabers whirl through the air, all at once, and all headed in her direction. That was okay. She was ready. She'd even practiced for this.

With expert precision she dodged and deflected the blades as they came at her, sometimes all at once, sometimes in sequence. She even marveled at how this Sith was not only able to control so many at once, but also use two or even three different techniques simultaneously.

But there was that one saber that he actually held in his hand, and she was convinced that it was the key to his control of the others.

Always in motion. That was the first principle of the Echani combat techniques that she'd studied all her life since becoming a Jedi. That continuous, fluid motion made it difficult for the Sith to land a blow, though he did occasionally get in a slight touch or a glancing stab that did little more than burn the skin.

It would be death to deliberately try to move from where she was to any particular place. If she did that, her movement would become predictable. Instead, she simply let the dance play out, weaving and dodging wherever it seemed best in the moment.

Soon enough her moment came. She was just the right distance and direction away from him that she could focus all her attention on that saber in his withered right hand. She reached out with the Force and grabbed it as firmly as she could and pulled.


It didn't budge.


Somehow, he'd kept a grip on it so solid that she couldn't muster the strength to wrench it away from him. Instead, all she had accomplished was aggravating him even more.

His sabers all stopped mid-air and held position for one brief second while he was being distracted by the attempt, but Dina had put everything she had into that attempt and the one second of respite it bought her wasn't nearly enough for her to recover.

The Sith let out a huge, blood-curdling scream as nine lightsabers all screamed toward her at more than twice the speed they'd had before.

Galadina did everything she could to continue defending herself against the onslaught that rained down on her, but her strength was failing, her connection to the Force inside this barrier was impaired, and he just kept getting better at anticipating her moves.

In lightsaber combat, a keen sense of timing is crucial--particularly for a Jedi who actively manipulated the flow of time as part of her combat technique. Dina's sense of timing was impressively good . . . so good that she instinctively knew that it was 2 minutes and 20 seconds after her initial attack out of stealth when the red double-bladed saber made contact with her left arm, severing it just above the elbow . . . and that it was a mere 3 seconds later when, thrown off-balance by the sudden loss of body mass, she didn't quite move the way she'd intended and created the opening for the green-bladed saber with a dark-gray metallic hilt to stab her cleanly through the chest--not quite directly through her heart, but close enough to cut into it.

As she fell backward onto the ground, she could feel the life quickly draining out of her. Her connection to the Force fell away until all she could feel was a tenuous connection back to Dianiss.

Though that connection, all she could sense was a single thought, screamed out like a curse.


"NO!"


And then it all faded away.

"NO!" Dianiss shouted. Unable to hold on to the power and keep it under control any longer, she let go of it all, setting off a gigantic flash of light.

Once her vision cleared, Kari ran over to Dianiss--who had slumped down onto the ground, panting--and knelt down next to her. "Annie . . . look at me. Annie? LOOK AT ME." Kari grabbed Dianiss' head and pointed her friend's face at her own.

Dina was lying on the ground and instinctively clutching at her chest. There was no wound, but the pain was still there.

Dianiss opened her eyes and saw Kari there. "That is NOT . . . ." Her voice trailed off through her heavy breathing, as if she had tried to find the right words and, not finding them, just gave up and didn't see any point in finishing her thought.

Annanya sat down next to Dianiss and gently took one of her hands into her own. "I'm here, Di. Let me help you." Anya allowed her presence to mingle with Dianiss'--one of a number of esoteric talents that Anya excelled at--and let Dianiss' emotions wash over them both, sharing it between the two of them and erasing the line between where one of them ended and the other began. There was a lot of anger and hurt and especially frustration being felt by them both.

"So what went wrong?" Kinnan asked, with obvious disappointment in his voice.

Zarvell shot him a disapproving look before he bent down and kissed the top of Dianiss' head. "Just relax."

But Dianiss was far from relaxed. "What went wrong? I'll TELL YOU what went wrong. I've never done this before, that's what."

Even Anya's face was grimacing at the sudden surge of defiance that she and Dianiss were both feeling.

"And do you know WHY I've never done this before?" Dianiss continued. "Because I AM NOT ... NOT ... NOT ... A SITH!"

"Kinnan, enough." Anya said in a stern voice. The surge of negative emotion was starting to make her feel physically ill.

Dina stood up. "I'm sorry, I think it might have been my fault."

"How do you mean?" Zarvell asked.

"I know what I need to do, I'm just not sure HOW yet. I think it all unraveled because I didn't actually DO it--the ontolo-whatever problem."

"The what?!?" Kari asked, clearly not following.

"All I know for sure is that I couldn't hold the connection together." Dianiss responded. "Things have to match up and they didn't." Dianiss was finally calming down, thanks to Anya's assistance.

"Can we try again?" Dina asked.

"Let me just . . . close my eyes for a minute first." Dianiss said with a sudden yawn. "This is REALLY tiring."

"I'll stay with her and help her rest." Anya said.

Zarvell nodded his approval as he cradled Dianiss' head in his lap, stroking her hair. "If you need to rest, my dear, then rest. We are asking far too much from you--I know--and you've done well in spite of it."

Meanwhile, Kari took a container of kolto-based cream out of her pack and started rubbing it on Dianiss' legs. "This should help, too, Annie." she said.

"So I guess we're going to be here a while, then." Kinnan commented with a sigh.

"Are you familiar with a technique called 'Phase Walking'?"

"Not really, but I know some other Jedi who can do it. It's like teleporting instantly through space."

"For the weak, for those who timidly subordinate themselves to the Unifying Force, it can be used that way with little effort. But if you are strong enough to defy the Force and impose your own will, it can become something else. I will teach you this."

"What? Why?"

"Because, young one, you must learn it. My body may be immobilized but my spirit still sees the visions as strongly as ever--and my visions are unchanged. A great shatterpoint approaches, one which could bring an end to the Force itself--and to break it, the architect has gone to great lengths--even breaking a solemn oath--to forge a great weapon against it. You are to be that weapon."

"In here?"

"No." he said with a laugh. "Not in here. Your emancipation--and mine--approaches. I have foreseen it. But first, you must learn, or it will all be for naught. We'll start with something simple."

"Okay, I guess I have nothing better to do right now."

"Exactly. Think upon this moment. Hold it in your mind. Make sure it is clear in your memory. Now choose the names of two planets you have visited and hold them both in your mind, but speak only the first. Keep the second a secret."

"Okay. Tython."

"Good, now reach back those few seconds and become the person you were in that moment before. Use your strength to hold onto that moment and visualize that you will instead speak the name of the second planet and not the first. It is but one small alteration. Create that new reality in your mind and impose it upon the Unifying Force. Compel it accept your reality and release its own. Change the natural flow of the Force just the same as you did when you . . . lifted the rock."

Dianiss was taken aback at his last three words. There was no possible way he could have known about the incident when she was a Padawan, yet she could feel that it was exactly what he was referring to.

"I almost killed someone--a friend--when I did that." she said.

"Power IS danger. Learn to control it, even if reducing the danger is your primary motivation. Now do as I have commanded."

"I'm NOT your apprentice to order around, you know."

"No, you are not. You are the blade. I am the sharpening stone. Time . . . is not our friend here, in more ways than one. So proceed, if you please."

"Fine." she said in exasperation.

Dianiss concentrated on changing her memory of the last few seconds, imagining that she had said the other planet's name instead.

"You will feel the Unifying Force push you back to your own time. Stand firm. Return to the present at your choosing."

It was a strange feeling, like reliving a memory, and surreal--more so than most things having to do with the Force.

"So...?" she asked.

"Was the second planet's name Tython?"

"No. That was the first."

"Then do it again."

Continue to Chapter 30 . . . .