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The air was dry and the wind stirred the powdery surface layer of dust up into the air. Yet there was a foulness, like rotting, like a bog, that did not come from nature without some kind of moisture available. It was worse than that. It did not come from the planet. Cole followed his feet to the campsite where the Other waited.
Foul and seeping. Dark. Taint. Tainted. Cole took a breath. “You’ve gone wrong. You used to be good, bright, shinning. But you’ve got it wrong, lost your way. You aren’t helping anymore.”
The man, what used to be a man, turned, his face twisted by the Dark Side, blue veins lightly glowing under paper pale skin. “And you seek to judge me? Dare to call yourself a Jedi? I did what was necessary.”
“I know,” Cole’s eyes closed but his other senses were active. “You did the only thing that felt right. You were trying to help. I was like you, I killed them because I could. They were afraid and I made the pain end, saved them from themselves. But I was wrong. The Dark Side gets in to everything, twists everything. But you don’t have to be like this.”
“The Wardens do what no one else has the strength to do. You Jedi turn your back from what is necessary. Innocents are dying, yes, but now we can destroy a greater evil. We will make the galaxy better, make it into what it should be. And you and your precious Jedi Inquisition shall not stop me.”
Sensing the intent before the Warden had finished speaking, Cole raised his lightsaber into guard position and was ready when the Warden’s lightsaber ignited with a sizzling hiss, an ugly red from the crystal at its core. The Warden drew upon the Force to make himself stronger, faster, but Cole listened. He steeled himself and listened to the rage in the Other’s mind, felt the blows and was no longer there when they landed. He let the Force flow through him, guide him. Felt the shock as his opponent’s death found him before he could truly feel the pain of it. A merciful death. But death was never merciful. “I am sorry I could not help you,” Cole told the body in the sand.
He lowered his lightsaber and touch the comlink pinned at his throat. “The entrance to the Warden base is clear, Inquisitor.”