Luke risked a glance toward Alema, who was clearly in no hurry to engage the Skywalkers directly and was gliding back toward her tunnel.
“Hoping to wear us down,” Mara observed.
Luke shook his head. “Protecting something,” he said. “Or someone.”
Take her, Mara ordered through their Force-bond. “I’ll cover.”
Luke moved to intercept, no longer dodging or twisting,
just shouldering past Killik corpses and going after Alema. He was shocked by her ruthlessness, but hardly surprised. The line she had crossed was an invisible one, a matter of degree and intention rather than principle. Had another Jedi Knight made a similar sacrifice pursuing a Jedi goal, Luke might have condoned the act, even tried to console the individual and reassure her that it had been the best choice available.
And that made him wonder more than ever what the Jedi had become.
A trio of Gorog warriors zeroed in on Luke, forcing him into somersaults until Mara took them out. He arrived at the cutoff point after Alema, but close enough on her heels that she had to turn and face him. She showed no emotion on her face or in the
Force, but she raised her lightsaber into a middle guard-the best initial defense for an outmatched fighter.
Luke continued to bat electrobolts aside, his lightsaber weaving a green cage around him, but he made no move to attack.
“Alema, this doesn’t have to happen,” he said. “You still have a home with us. Gorog persuaded you to betray the Jedi, but we can forgive you.” Luke did not like what the war had done to the Jedi-what it had done to him-and he was determined to start undoing that right now. “Alema, reach out to me. I can help you find the way back.”
“We don’t want to come back!” Alema sprang, flying at Luke behind a whirling onslaught of slash and backslash. “Stop… interfering!”
Luke blocked and redirected her momentum, sending her tumbling into the body-choked darkness-and placing himself between her and the tunnel she had been guarding. He felt an inquiry from Mara, then glimpsed her pointing her blaster at the Twi’lek’s back. He shook his head.
Be quick! Mara broke their Force tether, then launched herself into a wild gyre of sweeping blade-light and flashing blasterfire. Han and Leia…
Luke could sense the rest for himself. Han and Leia were almost there-and they would not be so forgiving. He began to retreat toward the tunnel, weaving and dancing as the electrobolts flew thick and fast around him. Alema started after him and had to slow down to dodge and block herself.
“Alema, your anger has made you vulnerable,” Luke said. “Your sister’s death made you angry, and the Gorog are using that anger to hold you.”
“Numa was a warrior!” Alema snarled, readily shifting topics-as Luke had known she would-to the still-open wound of her sister’s death. “She would defend the Colony!”
This time, she came at Luke under control, combining the flashing blades of a speed attack with the driving stomp kicks of a power assault. He switched to a one-handed grasp, parrying her strikes with his own lightsaber, slipping her kicks with a deft trunk twist, deflecting electrobolts with the palm of his free hand.
“Numa was wise.” Luke continued to fall back, spinning around to slash open a pair of Gorog warriors foolish enough to charge him from behind. “She would have been the first to warn you against your anger.”
Luke reached out for the Twi’lek, trying to embrace her in the Force and shield her from the Dark Nest’s touch. “She would have
been disappointed to see how you have surrendered to it.”
Alema was too far gone. She attacked all the more furiously, shrieking her grief and rage in Twi’leki, slashing low and high, kicking right and left, her words as hard and angry as her blows. Time and again, Luke forced her to leave her body open for a killing blow he did not want to deliver, and time and again she failed to notice his mercy and spun around in another wild attack.
Then Luke felt an icy jolt of fear. He looked past Alema to see Gorog warriors closing on Mara from all sides, silver rays crackling at her so fast and furious she could not block them all. The first bolt burned a fist-sized hole in the thigh of her vac suit and filled the air with the stench of scorched durafiber. The second caught her in the chest, and Luke did not see the third. By then he was driving forward, pressing the attack and forcing Alema back toward Mara.
Suddenly the Twi’lek stopped, determined to stand her ground. Luke tapped her lightsaber aside, then used the Force to pull her hand toward him, drawing her off balance onto his own weapon. Her eyes widened, and the blade sliced down through her clavicle, deep into her shoulder.