Collan spun around, his face contorted with fury. "What the hell was that?"
One of the guards quickly activated his comm unit, anxiously speaking into it. His face went pale. "Sir, we're being attacked by the Jedi! Dozens of them! They have a cruiser providing support fire from orbit, the shield dome is collapsing!"
Collan let out a furious curse before gesturing angrily at most of the guards. "Go! Support the defense! Stop them now!" Nearly all the mercenaries ran out of the chamber toward the battle outside, leaving only a handful behind.
Padmè felt relief surge through her chest. Reinforcements had arrived. This was their chance. Summoning her strength, she slammed her foot down onto her captor's toes. The mercenary grunted in pain, his grip loosening for a brief moment. She ducked swiftly as he swung a fist toward her head, reached quickly around his waist, and pulled his blaster free. She fired into his back at point-blank range, and he fell forward onto the stone floor.
Without hesitation, she spun and aimed at Collan, pulling the trigger, but the shot narrowly missed. Before she could fire again, a massive hand grabbed her from behind, lifted her off her feet, and slammed her onto the ground. The world spun as she was thrown violently across the room, skidding painfully across the stone.
Collan's voice hissed with rage. "Enough! Just kill her!"
Panting and in pain, Padmè scrambled backward on her hands as the huge mercenary advanced toward her slowly, a vicious grin spread across his face. She kept retreating until suddenly she bumped into someone standing behind her. Her heart skipped, and she looked upward, panic flooding her mind, only to see Jaden looking down at her with a calm, reassuring smile.
"Jaden!" she gasped in relief.
Jaden quickly raised his hand, and the mercenary charging forward was hurled backward, crashing hard against a nearby wall. Jaden then reached down, gently helping Padmè to her feet.
"I knew you'd come," she said breathlessly, her eyes shining with gratitude and relief.
"I just needed someone to knock some sense back into me," Jaden replied gently, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. His expression quickly grew serious as several remaining guards opened fire. Jaden immediately ignited his lightsaber—one he luckily found before coming here—the bright purple blade spinning rapidly, deflecting the blaster bolts expertly back at their sources, swiftly eliminating the threat.
He turned to Padmè urgently. "Go meet up with the Jedi outside. Lead them back here."
Padmè shook her head, determination in her eyes. "I want to help you."
Jaden smiled warmly. "You are helping, Padmè. I need you to bring them here. We have to finish this once and for all."
She hesitated for a brief moment, then nodded firmly. "Alright. I'll be back soon... be careful."
She ran toward the exit, disappearing into the hallway, trusting Jaden to finish what had started long ago.
Jaden turned sharply, advancing swiftly into the ritual circle. A dark-robed acolyte rushed forward, his red lightsaber raised, intent on stopping him. Their blades clashed in a rapid exchange of blows, but Jaden moved swiftly, and easily bypassed the acolyte's guard and drove his blade through his opponent's chest. With the immediate threat dispatched, Jaden reached out his hand toward Collan, who stood frantically completing the ritual incantations. Jaden summoned the Force, gripping Collan with an invisible strength and yanking him violently from the circle. Collan crashed heavily onto the ground with a pained shout, skidding across the polished stone floor.
But Jaden wasn't finished. He clenched his fist tighter, lifting Collan once more, throwing him powerfully across the chamber until he collided with one of the stone pillars, crashing through a collection of dark relics scattered around it.
Collan rose slowly, blood dripping from his mouth, his eyes wild with fury. "I'll destroy you for this, Jaden! Was your defeat last time not enough?" he spat viciously, murderous intent clear in every word.
Jaden faced him calmly, standing straight, centering himself deeply within the Force. For the first time in a long while, he felt clarity instead of rage.
"Not this time, Collan," he replied softly but firmly. "This ends here."
Collan rose slowly from the shattered relics and scattered debris around him, blood trickling down his chin, staining his already torn robes. His eyes were feral, murderous, filled with absolute hatred.
"I'll annihilate you," Collan hissed, reaching down and removing his lightsaber from his belt. With a sharp snap-hiss, the crimson blade surged to life, bathing his wounded face in a malevolent glow. "And then everyone you've ever cared about will follow."
Jaden didn't flinch. He didn't allow himself the anger or fear that once had so easily consumed him. Instead, he calmly ignited his own purple lightsaber, taking a defensive stance and studying Collan carefully. He knew the threat of Collan's artifact that could stop time, and the memory of their last encounter remained vividly fresh. He needed a way to counter it, but first, he had to understand it. He opened his senses to the force and reached out; the force surrounding Collan was angry and hateful, but it didn't come from him it came form within him. Inside his body, that's where the artefact lay.
Jaden focused on it, he could feel the pain and suffering that came from within, it was almost too much to bear. But he had to go deeper he had to understand this artefact if he wanted to counter it.
Though he was interrupted from doing that when Collan lunged forward flashing from one point to the other as if he was teleporting, he appeared in front of Jaden his blade slashing violently toward Jaden's chest. Jaden pivoted away swiftly, avoiding direct contact, maintaining careful distance. Collan snarled and swung again, his movements were aggressive but they were just common swings. Each blow was meant to kill, but there was little grace or skill behind them.
Jaden jumped back clearing a large distance. Collan wasn't force sensitive, he wasn't even an athletic human, so Jaden was able to dance around him easily and keep out of the range of his timestop. Though having Collan zip around and try to close the distance was annoying.
With a swift gesture, Jaden reached out with the Force and hurled pieces of rubble and broken stone toward Collan. Just as the debris closed in, Collan activated the artifact, instantly vanishing, causing the rubble to pass harmlessly through the empty air. He reappeared several feet away, a cruel smile on his face. "You can't beat me Jaden, I am invincible!" He shouted before he stopped time and rushed towards him. Reappearing closer to him with his saber held high, poised to strike.
Jaden circled back again, his mind racing. He tested the artifact again, grasping for Collan with the Force, only to have him vanish again and reappear behind him, forcing Jaden to swiftly dodge an unexpected strike. Yet as their battle continued, Jaden began noticing something subtle. Every time Collan used the artifact to vanish, it lasted exactly nine seconds, after which he had a brief but noticeable delay before he could activate it again . In these short intervals, Collan was forced to rely on physical evasion rather than simply stopping time. He was also coming close to be able to sense when Jaden was activating the artefact and what it was actually doing.
Jaden had found his opening.
Jaden hurled a crate with the Force and launched into a sprint just behind it, using the distraction to close the gap. Collan vanished again and the crate hit nothing but air. Jaden skidded to a stop, eyes darting, trying to track his movement. Collan reappeared at his flank with a raised saber, but Jaden was already moving—he twisted, dropped low, and blasted a shockwave from both palms that cracked the stone flooring and threw debris in every direction.
Jaden didn't pause. He seized a pair of shattered conduits and flung them like spears. Collan blinked again and they clattered harmlessly behind him.
Four seconds.
Jaden leapt onto a toppled support beam and used it as a springboard, flipping high, twisting mid-air. He hurled his saber in a tight arc as he fell. The blade spun low toward Collan's knees. For an instant, Collan didn't move. Jaden's heart jumped—then time halted. Collan blinked at the last second and sidestepped the saber; it clanged off a wall. It ricocheted back toward Jaden who used the force, but he didn't catch it yet. He landed, planted one foot, and hurled a telekinetic blast that sent a ring of stoneand debris forward like shrapnel.
Collan shimmered. Time stop. The debris passed through empty space.
Seven seconds.
Jaden caught the returning saber and ignited it in a reverse grip. He dashed forward again, slashing horizontally, but it was a feint. As Collan phased to dodge, Jaden slammed his fist into the ground. A shockwave ripped outward, lifting stone slabs and bending a steel pillar backward. Collan who was being overwhelmed by the sheer power hadn't been taking the opportunities to attack as the moment he did he would be blasted away.
Eight.
Jaden struck again, he moved his hands like a conductor creating a powerful wind current that whipped around debris and shrapnel. Collan struggled to dodge them by himself and once again blinked out of normal time.
Nine.
There, Collan reappeared and Jaden threw more shrapnel.
Collan didn't blink out this time.
Certainly of his victory Jaden went to finish Collan off. But just as Jaden lunged, certain the artifact had drained, Collan's mouth twisted into a vicious grin and he vanished. The air snapped. Time buckled. Jaden's strike cut through empty space.
His feet hit the floor harder than he expected, his forward momentum thrown off. His boots scraped the durasteel as he twisted to recover, but Collan was already behind him. Jaden turned—
Too slow.
Collan dropped from above, both hands locked on his saber. Jaden looked up into the red glow. He moved to raise his weapon, but there was no time. He had miscalculated. The artifact didn't drain with use linearly. After every use it would recharge regardless of if 9 seconds had passed.
He had been wrong.
Collan impaled him through the stomach with his lightsaber as he landed. "You lose again Jaden," Collan said with a massive grin stretched access his face, Jaden force pushed him back and managed to stumble backwards. "Time to finish you," he said.
Reality shattered. All sound vanished. Even the hum of the sabers disappeared. The colors around him faded to stillness, suspended in unnatural silence. Time had stopped.
Collan stood in front of him, his mouth was curled into a snarl. His eyes were wide and gleaming with bloodlust. There was nothing between them now. No defense. No help. No escape.
Jaden was frozen, knees bent, his saber held low in his grip, his mouth still open from the breath he never finished drawing.
Collan approached him a smile on his face as he drew his a lightsaber inline with his neck ready to end him. However before he could he noticed something.
Movement.
Jadens right foot scraped forward. Just half an inch. At least that's what Collan saw. His face twisted into shock. His blade stopped inches from Jaden's face. Jaden stepped again. His left shoulder turned. Jaden brought his saber up with both hands and drove it diagonally toward Collan's exposed ribs.
Collan screamed—not in pain, but in confusion—as he threw himself backward. The strike missed, but barely. He crashed into the ground, rolling once before planting his boots and launching off the floor and crawling away.Collan's eyes widened in sheer terror as he looked back at Jaden, shock and confusion flooding his features. "How did you do that?!" he screamed.
Jaden smirked slightly, regaining his footing. "Do what?"
Collan's shock quickly dissolved back into fury. Roaring, he lunged again, slashing wildly. But this time, Jaden was certain the artifact was now truly on cooldown. Jaden rushed forward, he deflected Collan's reckless blows, parrying him and easily slicing through Collan's upper arm, causing his lightsaber to spin from his hand, clattering to the floor far away.
Desperate, Collan activated the artifact again, screaming in frustration. Time halted, but now Jaden clearly moved within this suspended state, grabbing Collan firmly by the throat before freezing again in place.
When time resumed, Collan staggered backward, gasping and clutching at his throat. "How? How? HOW?!" he shrieked, panic overtaking him.
Jaden's expression was calm, almost peaceful. "I reached out to the artefact in you," he explained. "In a way, I spoke to the artifact. I understood its nature."
Collan stared in disbelief, horror dawning on his face.
"The artifact manipulates the Force itself," Jaden continued calmly. "It uses it to phase space around it between realities, creating the illusion of frozen time. It tunes the user into that alternate phased space. And once I realized that, I simply did the same."
Collan shook his head furiously, disbelief and desperation clear in his eyes.
"It's difficult," Jaden admitted. "I can only manage a few seconds myself. But that's more than enough."
"No!" Collan wailed like a spoiled child. He spun around frantically, pleading with his acolytes. "Help me! Finish him!"
But none of them responded. Collan's eyes widened in stunned horror as he saw that someone else had taken his position in the ritual circle. His acolytes had betrayed him, abandoning him to his fate. "No! NO! THIS CAN'T BE!" Collan shrieked, trembling uncontrollably. "I was supposed to become a god! This is MY destiny!"
He tried once more to stop time, but before he could, Jaden's outstretched hand clamped down on him through the Force, freezing him in place.
"It's over, Collan," Jaden said softly. His eyes closed briefly as he focused deeply, reaching into the artifact embedded within Collan's body through the Force. In one swift pull, Jaden ripped the artifact free.
Collan collapsed, screaming in agony as blood spilled from the wound, pooling beneath him. Jaden carefully held the artifact in his palm, feeling a rush of sorrow wash over him. "So much suffering is bound in this," he whispered, gazing sadly at the small device. "You powered this with the life force of other Force-sensitives. I can still feel them... trapped inside, in pain."
Jaden closed his eyes again, allowing the Force to guide him fully, gently unraveling the dark threads woven into the artifact. Slowly, carefully, he purified it, releasing the trapped essences within, setting their spirits free. Collan lay sobbing on the ground, broken and humiliated—a pitiable sight. Jaden stood over him, lightsaber still ignited. His grip tightened instinctively around the hilt. The urge to end him was strong.
But then he exhaled slowly, releasing his anger. "You're not worth it... you have nothing… you are nothing, everything you've built on your life has been destroyed by your own actions… I hope you live a long life" Jaden finally said aloud, stepping carefully past him toward the ritual circle.
As Jaden approached the center to stop the ritual, seven of Collan's acolytes swiftly surrounded him, their blades ignited, ready to strike. Jaden prepared himself for the fight, his lightsaber raised defensively. But at that moment, the ceiling above burst apart in a brilliant explosion, and a host of Jedi descended gracefully into the chamber, landing confidently beside him.
Jaden smiled as reinforcements had finally come.
(AN: Hope you enjoyed it will do the rest tomorrow, peace out, also I don't want to hear any complaining about Collan, just wait bro)
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