_How much blood do we have to wash ourselves in before we are finally clean? Is this the price of ambition? The wounds from our friends are more genuine than the kisses of our enemies, and yet, here we tread again.

Steel sharpens Steel. _ <p>

**Uncharted Planet

Corporate Sector, Outer Rim

Fall of Antei, Day 73<p>**</p>

Sarin ignited his saber, the angry buzzing of the crimson blade the loudest thing for several clicks. He knew he was there, just a thought away. He could feel him, his madness. Raken's soldiers retreated, still within sight, but knowing not to interfere. They knew their orders and followed them without question. <p>

Muz stepped into view slowly, hands at his sides, sabers already filling his hands, the cold cylinders offering some comfort to the man. Sarin gazed coolly at him, watching the tides of the future shift in subtle ebbs and flows. <p>

The Keibatsu stopped, his coal black eyes regarding the Grand Master, his master, in the shadows. <p>

"Hold nothing back." Sarin spoke, the gravelly tone carrying over the sound of his saber. <p>

Muz inclined his head slightly in a subtle bow as the sunset tones of his saber blades spilled from his hilts. <p> <p>

**New Republic Complex

Feriae Junction, Thesme Sector

Fall of Antei, Day 98<p>**</p>

Eema Fos smiled at her fortune. The enemy had all but over-run her ship and she had managed to make it to the reinforcements before they got to her. <p>

"What element do you report to?" She asked, letting the cooling touch of the Force flush her scrapes and bruises. <p>

Digh looked at her, his eyes proud. "75th Spec Ops, Master Jedi." <p>

"75th?" Fos lowered her saber a touch, glancing over her shoulder in worry. "What did they send as reinforcements?" <p>

"Reinforcements?" The sound of charging weapons filled the hallway. <p>

Fos spun on her heel just in time to deflect a well spaced pattern of blaster bolts, the plasma spraying off harmlessly into the bulkhead. Her free hand wrapping along the Force, she shoved a wall of air into the nearest soldier, pressing them away from her with an open palm. Another volley of bolts scored the air, and her blade intercepted them, sending them back into the chest plates of several soldiers, only to watch in abject horror as the blasts disbursed across the armor without so much as carbon scoring them. <p>

Digh stepped toward her, purpose driving his footfalls as he raised the Verpine rifle to his cheek. <p>

Her mind dissected the situation quickly, even with unanswered questions. She raised her saber and moved quickly towards the Sergeant. A dozen clicking sounds erupted from behind him, little bursts of fire as the soldiers switched their weapons, hundreds of flechette darts screaming out in a cloud of pain toward her. <p>

Eema pushed speed into her muscles, the burn of the Force seething through her veins as she swung the blade in a defensive Soresu pattern. It wasn't enough to block them all. Dozens of the tiny darts fished their way through her defense, biting into the flesh of her arm, of her legs, tearing into her nerves and screaming their agony into her ears. <p>

The Knight fell to the ground as the blood began to flow, her saber skittering to the ground as the blade slurped away into the hilt. Fos tried to grasp the Force, begging it to aid her, to close her wounds, to mend her ruined legs as she fought to remain conscious through the pain. <p>

Digh didn't break stride, slinging his rifle and pulling a pistol from his thigh holster, aiming for the Jedi's eye as he moved past her, sending a bolt of bright red through her skull without hesitation. <p>

Re-holstering his sidearm and raising his rifle again, he motioned in silent hand signals for the team to move forward. They still had a mission to accomplish. <p> <p>

**Uncharted Planet

Corporate Sector, Outer Rim

Fall of Antei, Day 73<p>**</p>

Sarin bounced back away from the Keibatsu's blades, evading another well placed stroke by inches. Battering away the saberist's blow with his own blade, he reached deep into the wells of his mind, the malevolence ripping from his heart and out his fingertips, the blue arcs of lightning snarling toward Muz. <p>

Muz crossed his sabers, catching the Grand Master's lightning on the blades as the energies pushed into it caused the tattered leather of his warcoat to flap noisily. He moved quickly, separating his blades and drawing the lightning aside, freeing up his saber to strike at Sarin's exposed neck. Sarin's blade leapt from his hands, the invisible hand of the Force defending his neck as he poured his hatred from both hands into the Keibatsu's saber. <p>

Muz saw a glimmer of the future, felt the power start to breach the coils of his blade and released the saber, allowing the hilt to sail away from him on the electric current before the power cell ruptured. Snarling at the loss of his saber, Muz snagged Sarin's crimson blade with his own violet, spinning it out of the control of the telekinetic grasp of the Grandmaster. The long hilt of the Dark Lord spun wildly, succumbing to the intense gyroscopic forces of the energized crystals within. <p>

Fast hands snuck past the rotating blade and Sarin's fingers closed around the darkened ultrachrome, wresting control back from the elements. Spinning the blade hard, he brought it back around to slash into the shoulder of his opponent. Muz' hand darted up, wrapping fingers around the bitter crimson blade and culling its strength, absorbing the energy of the blade. <p>

Sarin watched with accelerated eyes as the current seemed to flow across the Keibatsu's body, pushing into the violet violence of the blade and sparking arcs of lightning as it slashed across his breastplate, another long and blackened scar drawn across the plate over his heart. The man once known as Aristan Dantes sneered. The Keibatsu was trying to dig through his armor. <p>

Wrenching the blade back away for another stroke, Sarin bound his will to the air in front of him, a wave of pressure to shove his apprentice back. The forcewave shook its way through his outstretched arm as he saw the man brace himself for the impact. Pushing him back, the Deputy's boots dragged the soil back with him, folding the ground like a loose blanket behind his heels. <p>

"I said to hold nothing back." Sarin snarled at his apprentice, raising his saber. <p> <p>

**Space

Braxant Run, Ottega Sector

Fall of Antei, Day 98 <p>**</p>

"Hold nothing back!" Vessicant bellowed through the comm as he wove his TIE Avenger through the oncoming Coralskippers, his lasers set to a stutter-fire configuration as they tore across the analog's hide. His squadron was all Plaguians, and he didn't want to explain to Braecen how he lost any ships. Sweeping across the port side of the creature, they paved the way for Thran's Scimitars to drop their Shadow Bombs on the monster. <p>

Kal Vorrac and Anubis formed up on Vessicant's wings, plowing the road, their lasers pounding the Coralskippers, overwhelming the Dovin Basals and dropping blasts into the rocks. Vessicant smiled as the skippers went down, banking hard around the bow and rolling to avoid the oncoming yaret-kor. Bouncing off the extended shields of Anubis, the magma-soaked rocks sailed away, reeling into the analog harmlessly as Aalos and Strats joined up with them. <p>

The Scimitar bombers of Scholae's 'Angels of Death' fell in behind the Avengers, Thran Occasus' voice coming in across the commlink. "You sweep, we'll clean." <p>

Vessicant smiled as he forged forward, his cannons blasting the Vong fighters into debris as they made their way to the stern of the analog. "How you doing back there, Thran?" Vess was anxious to be dealing with another clan's ships, and he would have much preferred to have had his own boys in their scimitars, but he dared not defy the orders that came from the Grand Master. He wanted a unified fighting force, and Vess saw what happened when that Knight battleteam leader refused to work with Taldryan support. At least it was Scholae this time, and not the Tally he had to play nice with. <p>

Thran armed the drop, releasing the Baradium core bomb and wrapping his mind around it, guiding it to the precise spot he needed, the stress points in the Matalok's skeleton that he knew to be vulnerable. He drew the missile down, slipping it into the gills near the midsection of the beast. <p>

"Dishes are done, man." Thran smiled as he twisted his mind, detonating the bomb, the detonators igniting the devastation that only baradium could provide. The explosions swallowed the oxygen aboard the ship almost immediately, the mute devastation tearing the ship nearly in half, the vong warriors aboard sucked into the void and crystallizing as Anubis whooped across the comm. <p> <p>

**Uncharted Planet

Corporate Sector, Outer Rim

Fall of Antei, Day 73<p>**</p>

Sarin threw down his useless saber hilt, the handgrip landing next to the smoking emitter where the Keibatsu had cleft it. Pushing outward with his senses, he wove a dense fabric of Force, surrounding himself and pushing the Deputy back on his heels. <p>

“If you aren’t willing to fight with your all, you’ll die.” Sarin snarled the words more than spoke them, contempt his primary weapon in a fierce Dun Moch display. “Of course, I’d never have thought that a mere Sorcerer could ever understand that.” <p>

Muz tested his purple blade against the mesh of power, sizzling threads of energy seething at the touch of the blade. Muz stepped back, dark eyes regarding his opponent as he rambled. <p>

“And if you, the strongest of your line, can’t defeat me, I will kill you.” Sarin continued, his words worming in through the Keibatsu’s psyche. “And after I’m done with you, I’ll hunt down the rest of your sorry line.” <p>

Muz cracked his neck and leveled a gaze at the Grand Master through the net of Dark Side energy. “What will I care, if I’m already dead?” <p>

“I’ll start with your wife, your son.” Sarin stepped forward, expanding the net and watching Muz slowly step backwards to avoid the severing knots as they clipped another corner from his warcoat. “I’ll savor their fear as I tell them how you died begging for mercy, before I…”<p>

Sarin felt the shift. Something flickered behind the Keibatsu’s form, the pattern shifted, and the future twisted away from his sight. Questions erupted in the Grand Master’s mind as he watched. <p>

“Loose my pain in fields of blood. Battle hardened, caked with mud.” Muz stomped forward, the net unraveling in front of him as his boot hit the ground, the power of the net absorbing into the man’s pale skin rather than slicing into it. Sarin gave pause, his mind almost freezing in the paralysis of analysis, debating what path to take. Drawing back his mind, he loaded the buzzing of malevolence into his arms, preparing his next step. <p>

“Ashen.” <p>

“Years of history behind dark eyes. Recurrent dreams of broken ties.” Muz tore toward him, his saber spinning in a wild mixture of Ataru and Sokan, threatening to rend him from his arms. Sarin loosed the blue arcs from his outstretched fingertips, sending them seething at his apprentice. <p>

The arcs stilled between the two, power congealing from the two men, cerulean madness pouring from the pair, condensing into a ball of force between the two, growing larger as both men poured hate into it, arcs of myriad color spinning round it, a miniature Dark Star tanning both of their skin. <p>

Thumping and cracking erupted from around them, the withering of tree and soldier alike dropping their lifeless forms to the ground as the Lords of the Brotherhood drew energy from anything near them that could fuel their own personal war. <p>

Sarin cackled loudly, his eyes lit. “You want power, schutta?” This was what he wanted to see. <p>

Muz whipped his hand, throwing his saber into the mix, the blade piercing the sphere and holding there as the world went deathly still. Sarin’s cold eyes glanced from the travesty to the black eyes of his foe. Muz just smiled as the superheated plasma ignited the latent energies there, detonating the sphere in a blinding white light, the concussion force erupting outward, tearing the soil from the ground, carving the world as the storm erupted, plowing both men asunder. <p>

<p>

**Consul’s Office

Karufr, Kr’tal System

Fall of Antei, Day 99<p>**</p>

Shadow turned from the holonet, smiling at his proconsul. “I just received word from Kir. It seems that the strike on the Braxant Run went well.” Sklib straightened his back, moving toward the chair in the Consul’s office. <p>

“If Plagueis can take the Vong in free space, Antei should be a milk run.” Sliding into the leather seat, Sklib watched the Taldrya with a smile on his face. <p>

“Well, nothing’s that easy, but yeah, we should be ready.” <p>

Sklib blinked, looking around the room for a second, thinking to himself. “Have we heard back from the advanced recon we sent?” <p>

Shadow rubbed his chin, leaning forward. “We’ve not heard back from them, and no word from Nightfall, either.” Shadow stared at the Proconsul, debating whether or not to share the rest of what he had been thinking. <p>

“Well, we’re all supposed to meet there in two days to discuss the next step, right?” <p>

Shadow nodded, slowly getting to his feet. “Have the Shadow Bombs loaded in, Sklib. We may have to fly sooner than we think.” <p>

Sklib bounced out of his chair, snapping off a sharp salute before heading for the door. Shadow watched him out of the corner of his eye. Shadow moved toward the crystal decanter across the room, getting ready to pour himself a drink as he thought to himself. It was better to keep the men ready than have them think it would be an easy victory. Underestimating the Vong caused us to lose Antei in the first place. <p> <p>

**Uncharted Planet

Corporate Sector, Outer Rim

Fall of Antei, Day 73<p>**</p>

Muz’s hand clawed past the stones, shoveling himself out of the pile of debris he was under. The ultrachrome of the prosthetic arm and hand was dented and marred by abuse, gears grinding noisily as he pulled himself free, matted hair framing a battered face and his good arm hung painfully, dragging behind him as he crawled free. <p>

Sarin shoved the boulder off of him, the strike of the Force coiling around his muscles comforting him as he shook the smaller rocks off of himself. Climbing to his feet slowly sorting out the dull throb in his legs, the Dark Lord of the Sith surveyed the damage of his little test. Pulling a small tracer from an armored pouch, he threw it to the ground, a red beacon light flashing skyward to signal the Lambda to come pick him up. <p>

Hearing the Keibatsu as he made it to his feet, Sarin eyed him warily. Muz dropped his stance slowly, raising his arm into a defensive Verdanaian posture. Sarin waved him off, eyes cast upward to see the transport spiraling a few miles above. <p>

Muz dropped his arm, flexing his shoulder, trying to shake off the fatigue. “Did you find out what you needed?” <p>

Sarin nodded silently, pulling on the sickly sweet energies as they soothed his back, his charred fingertips. The Lambda set down a few meters away with a hiss of hydraulics and retrorockets as he moved toward the opening bay. <p>

Muz flipped open the prosthetic arm, sending a message to his ship to come back within range, before shifting his gaze back. “The Brotherhood can’t do without both of us.” <p>

Sarin nodded. The Krath wasn’t stupid. Of course he would have looked to see what the outcome was. Without the strength of the Iron Throne, the clans would tear themselves apart in internecine fighting within a few weeks. Sarin looked back over his shoulder at the Prophet. <p>

“Not yet.” <p> <p>

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