I _could've_ dragged this thing on forever, but with the delay between parts...  Anyway, here's part 6.

“Debut” - part 6

“It can’t be,” Jacen whispered.

“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka agreed.  She took a few cautious steps closer to the courtyard, Jacen just a meter behind her.

The dark figure in swirling robes stood fast, and even at a distance, the young Jedi could hear the sinister mechanical breaths, a sound that had made sentient beings across the galaxy shiver with fear.

But that was nearly two decades ago, Jacen reminded himself.  His own uncle, Luke Skywalker, had ended the terrible reign of Darth Vader.  It was Skywalker who turned the man back to the light side of the Force, who witnessed his death, and honored him with a warrior’s funeral.

Jacen was the first to speak.  “Who are you?!” he shouted, his voice helped by the Force.

The dark figure did the same.  “You know me well already, son of my daughter.”

The young Jedi began walking forward, taking measured, deliberate strides.  His lightsaber remained lit, but held low.  “Darth Vader is dead, pretender.  He died when Anakin Skywalker defeated the Emperor.  If you’re trying to scare us by wearing his face, it won’t work.”

Jacen held his ground.  Another presence brushed his consciousness, and he didn’t need to look to know Tenel Ka had joined him.  The air around the dark figure seemed cold and still.  Whoever it was that stood before them, he or she was strong with the dark side of the Force.

“Your denial of my power is pointless, young Skywalker.”

Without another word, “Vader” raised a black gloved hand.  There was a sudden flash, then the air itself crackled with life as blue-white bolts of energy leapt from his fingers.  The coruscating energy enveloped Jacen, sending him sprawling to the dusty ground, his lightsaber clattering beside him.

“No!” shouted Tenel Ka, who leapt at the figure.  She was stopped in mid-stride by another blast of dark Force lightning.

Isolder could watch no longer, and grabbed a blaster rifle from the nearest guard.  “Open fire!” he cried, and loosed a dozen bolts at the dark figure.  Those bolts, together with all the others that followed a moment after, were deflected away.  The dark figure never so much as glanced at anyone but the young Jedi, writhing in agony at its feet.

**********

The shrill scream echoed through the stone walls of the Temple.  Luke Skywalker, his eyes still shaded with sleep, was at the door of Jaina Solo’s quarters within a minute.  With a thought, he used the Force to pry open the door.

His niece sat upright in her bed, beads of cold sweat on her forehead, and a horrified look in her eyes.

“Jaina,” he said, looping his arms around her, “what is it?”

“Uncle Luke-- it’s Jacen.  Something terrible is happening on Hapes.  I know it.”  There was no mistaking the terror in her voice.

There was a flurry of motion as Jaina’s parents swept into the room.  Leia Organa Solo was at her daughter’s side immediately.  Han Solo grasped both of Luke’s shoulders as the younger man rose.

“Kid, what’s going on?”

“I think Jacen is in some kind of danger.  Jaina felt it through the Force.”

There was no hesitation in Han’s mind.  “I’ve seen enough Skywalker twin stuff to doubt it.”  He knelt beside his wife and daughter.

“I’ll warm up the Falcon,” he said to them.  The two Solo women simply nodded, then he was out the door.

Luke placed a hand on his niece’s shoulder.  “Can you be ready in ten minutes?”

“Five,” she answered firmly.

“Good.  I’ll wake the others.”

Scant minutes later, two generations of the New Republic’s heroes stood in the hangar beside the Millenium Falcon.  Han trotted down the boarding ramp.

“She’s ready to go.”  He turned to Luke.  “I’m glad we decided to spend a couple of days here before the ceremony on Hapes.”  The Jedi Master nodded, and followed his old friend into the ship.

Soon, the battered freighter rose into the dark Yavin sky, and bolted for space.

**********

Tenel Ka had never felt such pain, not even when she had lost her arm.  It was as if every single cell in her body was aflame.  The dark power not only was attacking her physically.  The lightning reached into her spirit and mind and was drawing her Jedi power from her.

Slowly, painfully, she managed to turn her head.  Nearby, she found Jacen, struggling to inch his way towards her, arm outstretched.  In her mind, she heard two words, over and over.

*Stronger together...*

With all her might, she began to push herself towards him.

Jacen strained until he thought his arm might pull from its socket.  He never stopped, because he knew there was only one way to defeat the dark power.  Centimeter by agonizing centimeter, they closed the gap.

Contact.

Their fingers laced, the two young Jedi felt a surge, re-energized by the shared contact with the Force.  Pulling themselves to their feet, Jacen and Tenel Ka faced their attacker.

The dark figure called forth more lightning, and the young Jedi’s strength faltered.  Desperately, they loosed a pulse of their own light side energy.  The coruscating light struck the dark figure, sending it staggering back.

The onslaught ended.  Tenel Ka and Jacen watched in shock as the air around the figure shimmered.  The illusion was shattered, and their assailant faced them again.

He was only a few years older than they, gaunt and tall.  He may once have been somewhat handsome, but it seemed as if something had been draining him of life.  Then Jacen saw it.  Adorning the man’s right hand was a jumble of metal, chain and jewels, all ancient looking.  The man raised that hand, fingers bony and clawlike, towards them.

“Damn you!” he shrieked, and sent a lance of lightning at them.  The young Jedi dodged it.

“What now?” Tenel Ka shouted.

Jacen thought for a split second.  “We let him defeat himself!”  Turning back, he reached out with the Force, and his lightsaber sprang into his grasp.  Igniting it, he saw Tenel Ka do the same.  A moment later, they stood shoulder to shoulder.

The gaunt man laughed with a sound like breaking glass.  “Are you going to attack an unarmed opponent?”

“No,” Jacen answered simply, and lowered the blade of his lightsaber.  Tenel Ka lowered her own, and closed her eyes.

Their opponent cackled again, then loosed his greatest attack yet.  A curtain of angry bolts swarmed around the young Jedi, but neither moved a muscle.  The lightning bolts curved around them, arcing back to their source.

The gaunt man staggered as he was struck by the fury of his own hatred.  Succumbing to the blinding hate of the dark side, he pressed the attack, but found himself losing power.

Allowing the Force to flow through them, Jacen and Tenel Ka turned the energy away from them, dampening and lessening it.  In their minds, they saw themselves as twin lights, burning brighter and brighter, forcing the dark and the shadows away.

In a moment, the light was pure and the darkness gone.

Jacen opened his eyes.  The gaunt man lay still, the ground around him scorched and smoking.

Carefully, they walked towards him.  Tenel Ka turned him over with her foot.  The man looked hollow and spent, but still alive.

Jacen bent down, pulling the Sith medallion from the man’s hand.  He grimaced as he felt the bone-chilling dark side power that dwelt inside it.  Jacen threw the cursed thing to the ground, then stabbed at it with his lightsaber.  When the shining emerald blade touched the medallion, it exploded in a shower of sparks.

Wearily, Tenel Ka came up before him.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine,” he said, then sighed.  “Just a little overcooked, I think.”

“I agree.  I believe we could both use some rest.”

Jacen gave a tired, lopsided smile.  “This is a fact.”

TO BE CONTINUED…