You stand at the very top of the Shadow Academy—the great pyramid of Lyspair—in the offices of the Headmaster. A fire crackles merrily in the chamber, background noise for the battle yet to come. Two comfortable couches sit in the center of the long, ovoid room. Your eyes land on the desk opposite the fireplace, filled with datapads and forms. The yellowish glows of the flames illuminate the shelves of artifacts and holo-books surrounding the upper tier of the room. This was a private study, the place where the Headmaster of the Shadow Academy met his subordinates to discuss important matters.

Your eyes track beyond the desk, to an unassuming door which will lead directly to the Headmaster's living quarters. A side door to your immediate right leads to the more public office. The opposite door, standing on the left, leads to a private sparring room. You hear the soft rush of metal and cloth as your opponent pulls their weapon. Despite the sanctity of the Headmaster's chambers, the fight is inevitable. It was meant to be. As your hand drops down to your own weapon, you shift into a combat stance and prepare to draw.

Farrin approached the door with caution, his lightsaber glowing in the dim light. He had sensed someone in the Headmaster's office but was not sure who it could be. Creeping to the door, he felt movement as whoever was inside seemed to quickly move inside. He stopped and concentrated, trying to figure out what they were doing. The presence dissipated, meaning that the person had left the room, and he gingerly opened the door. The room was lavish as could be expected. A large desk dwarfed the far side of the room and books lined the walls from floor to roof, but what Farrin sought was not in sight. He reached out with the Force once more and tried to ascertain what or who laid in wait for him. A door to the right seemed the most likely place according to his senses and he waited in the centre of the room, wondering his best course of action. There was no movement or sound from within that room, but there was a presence.

Suddenly, the door shattered and most of the debris flew across the room towards the startled Dark Jedi Knight. He was slow to react as he raised his hand to shield himself and tried to sweep the debris from its intended path and away from himself, but a large segment of the door hit him squarely in the leg as the rest flew into the desk, breaking it into many pieces. The Force had saved him from instant annihilation, but he had suffered a bad impact on his left leg. Wincing, he grabbed his leg as he stared at the hole in the wall where the door had been, his attempt at being stealthy had been a failure, even though he had tried to be quiet and remain out of sight. Whoever was in the adjoining room had sensed him before he had time to vanish into the shadows and had reacted accordingly.

As Taranae stepped through the gaping hole that had been a door, she smiled. She had hoped that the presence she had sensed had been this particular Knight and she was rewarded even more to see her surprise attack had achieved something. The insults to her that he had made had reached her ears and she had vowed to take down this man who believed he was above any woman, no matter how powerful. She would take him down a peg or two and hand him his butt on a plate. She would show him that women could be far more superior, if not equal.

"Hmm odd, I thought I sensed a rat; wait - it is a rat!" she remarked.

Farrin glared at the red headed female walking towards him and sneered as he knew he was superior to any female Jedi, dark or not - how difficult could a woman be to defeat?

"Taranae? I wondered when you were going to get around to paying me a visit." he grinned. "Heard any good tales or rumours lately?"

He laughed then. A deep, mocking laugh that set Taranae's anger ablaze.

"Farrin Xies. A Jedi Knight with a tendency to shoot his mouth off, it seems. Especially where it concerns," Taranae scowled, "females."

Farrin composed himself and rose to his full height.

"So you found me," he said. "Or did I find you? I like to believe the latter. Now the question remains; can you beat me? I doubt that. No woman can take me out."

"No woman can take you out? I doubt any woman would want to date a man with a bantha's backside for a face anyway!" Taranae sneered.

The comment did what she had hoped and she saw farrin's anger rise. With a quick motion, Farrin created a sphere of blackness around Taranae. He ran to the other side of the room amongst the desk debris and cloaked himself, thinking of his next plan of attack.

Farrin winced with every step he took, his blood slowly but assuredly sliding down his left leg and beginning to pool in his boot. The attack had truly taken him by surprise - odd, since he normally had an almost sixth sense about these things - and the pain was not insignificant. However, he would push himself through it. Not only that, he would channel the pain into the rage that he felt towards this blasted woman. They were of about the same size, but she was the younger and more spry of the two; with age comes experience, though, and he knew that experience would win this battle, not dexterity.

His trick with the darkness would disorient her only for a few seconds, and he knew he likely wouldn't be able to pull it off successfully again, but he made the most of her momentary confusion by dashing to the other side of the room, pain shooting through him. As he did so, he reached out with the Force to a large shard of the shattered desk and flung it at her, connecting with her right arm. Hopefully the injury to her arm would equal the disadvantage he felt with the injured leg.

In front of the fireplace, he turned, a grimace momentarily crossing his face as he stepped down hard on his injured leg, and dropped back into the Soresu ready stance his master had drilled into him - his (injured) left leg forward, pointing at Tarane across the room, his weight on his right leg behind him, and the brilliant white blade of his saber held aloft in front of him. Farrin had studied the training files of his opponent - as he had many of his fellow Knights - and knew that she was not considered a very competent lightsaber duelist. He hoped she'd give him a chance to show off the instruction his master had put him through on the proper usage of his new blade.

"Come, Taranae. I'm a good sport, if you ask nice after I beat you maybe I'll buy you dinner." With a smirk, Farrin waited for her response as the cloud of darkness parted around her.

The darkness dissipated and Taranae found herself looking at a very alive Farrin. Backed into the stance she knew as Soresu, he had a wide grin on his face, but noticed that the attack had taken its toll on his forward leg. She mentally noted it as a weak spot and readied herself, not knowing what this Knight was fully capable of achieving. Reaching out with the Force, she tapped into Farrin's thoughts and was shocked to find that he was actually waiting for her to come to him. She became wary, as knowing this, she now had a feeling that he had something planned; that something may be the one act that resulted in her end.

She wasn't as ready for this as she had thought; her opponent obviously had cunning above her own perception of him and she feared the ideas that were traversing his mind at that moment. She stepped back into her own Soresu stance, hoping to mirror his own. With her injured shoulder now throbbing angrily, she could feel a wetness gathering under her robe and spreading down her arm. She knew the injury wasn't severe, but if would definitely be an impediment to her fighting ability. Normally she would rush in, her saber swinging; but the damage to her shoulder and the worry about Farrin's thoughts made her cautious. Even knowing this, she decided on a course of action. Raising her hand, fingers outstretched, she shot tendrils of pure white electricity directly at Farrin. Bringing her arm across in an arc, she hoped to rake his midsection with the searing bolts.

Farrin saw the tell of a lightning strike and raised his saber. As Taranae pushed her attack, he followed the movement of the arc, letting the energy connect with the weapon and grounding it with no damage. He smiled as Taranae finished and saw that the attack had taken quite an amount of energy from her. Quickly, he motioned with his hand across his body, the first two fingers outstretched.

"You don't need your weapons," he murmured. "You should drop them."

Taranae's eyes took on a glazed look and she stared for a second before switching off her lightsaber and bending to gently place it on the floor at her feet.

"I don't need my weapons," she muttered. "I should drop them." She stood and looked at Farrin smiling back at her. "But I do need this," She said, drawing her DL-44 from her hip and aiming it at Farrin.

His grin disappearing, Farrin braced himself for what he knew was about to come. He had known Taranae was not an experienced duellist, but had forgotten her aptitude with blasters. Taranae fired off a couple of shots in quick succession and he moved his lightsaber quickly, attempting to deflect the shots. Another bolt headed his way and he swung, missing it. Hitting him squarely in the shoulder, the shot threw him backwards as his body spun to the right and his lightsaber flew from his hand. There was an audible whoosh as the blade flashed out of existence, the hilt rolling across the floor.

Even injured, Farrin reacted quickly, and a flash of light erupted in front of his attacker's eyes, causing her to shield them with her arms. Farrin knew that he wouldn't be able to defend against Taranae's blasters for long and took the opportunity to slip out of the door, his lightsaber flying into his hand as he reached relative safety outside the office.

"This isn't over, Taranae!" He yelled back. "We will meet again and next time your blasters won't save you!"

Holding his shoulder and limping, he moved as quickly as he could, trying to place plenty of distance between him and the female he now despised so much more.

Taranae's anger and resentment towards the older Dark Jedi Knight was building, Farrin could tell, and his taunting certainly wasn't helping things. As he stood at the ready, doing his best to ignore the pain shooting through his leg (without much success), the two Knights glared at each other from across the shattered room.

With a snarl and a burst of what seemed like superhuman speed, the female Knight drew her blasters from the holsters at her waist and loosed a volley of shots. Farrin was barely able to deflect one of them upwards, into the ceiling, but was too slow to deflect the second as it tore through the side of his robes and tunic to glance off his ribs. In pain, he only just managed to throw himself to the ground, out of the way of another pair of loosed blaster bolts from the enraged woman.

Sithspit! he thought. If I don't do something, she very well might kill me right here in the Headmaster's office! From the safety of the strangely undamaged thick wooden desk - and as Taranae continued to take pot shots at him from across the room - Farrin's eyes darted around for something, anything, that would regain him the upper hand. Finally, his eyes settled on the fireplace, logs ablaze, and a plan suddenly entered his mind.

With his right hand stretched out towards the fireplace, he reached out with the Force and flung one of the larger burning logs at the female Knight. Startled, she was able to leap out of the way, but only after the fire had singed her robes and that pretty face of hers. Again reaching out with the Force, this time to steady his injured leg, Farrin jumped from behind the desk towards the momentarily distracted Taranae. As he came down, he lowered his right shoulder into her chest, knocking her to the floor.

Quickly - and painfully, as the effects of the Force subsided and his pain returned in droves - he rolled off her and brought his lightsaber slashing down towards her prone body, stopping inches above her neck. Their breath both ragged, the two Dark Jedi Knights studied each other for a moment before Farrin finally disengaged the blade of his 'saber. Some distance down the hall, he could hear heavy footfalls as the Shadow Academy's guards approached the room. With a weary grin, Farrin offered his hand down to his opponent.

"Let's get out of here, and quickly, before they come to find our handiwork. After I spend some time in the bacta tank, feel free to hit me up about that offer of dinner." From the look on her face, Farrin could tell he likely wouldn't have to take her out any time soon.