Nathan only had time enough after
Sofiel
spoke to get his blade up. He only partially succeeded in blocking the vicious red lightning, which drove him backwards from the impact of the bolts against his blade. One errant bolt struck him in the shoulder, and only using the Force to endure the sudden shock to his body was he able to stay standing, and, more importantly, conscious. The blue blade that had taken the impact flickered on and off before Nathan shut it off and switched to his remaining, functional blade on the other end of the staff.
He'd usually seen Jedi Temples only when they were in ruins. He'd only ever been in a temple in the process of becoming a ruin once before, if one counted Castle Bloodscrawl as a Jedi Temple. The Corpses of Jedi. Blood.
Yeah. Not much had changed since the Plague
Lossa Aureus
told him there were children that needed evacuating.
Nathan hesitated. The whole scenario was terribly familiar to him. Two Jedi against a powerful Sith, with a strong chance both could be killed. He'd undergone the worst case scenario.
The thought of leaving disgusted him.
But if Lossa could keep her distracted...he supposed it could justify him leaving her.
"Try to survive rather than win. Don't let her see you sweat." Nathan said calmly before he broke off contact, guarding before running down another passage to where he had seen a lot of children inside various study and mess halls. Jedi younglings. He'd never seen so many.
He spotted a temple guard on the ground and went over to check for a pulse. Dead. Shotgun blast. He spotted the man's double Lightsaber-Pike and took it, activating the yellow blades to see if it worked, then clipped it to his belt and went into one study chamber.
Nothing but slain Padawans, their blood splashed against the stones.
Nathan grimaced at the horror, exited and began going down the passage again, coming across more and more Jedi dead.
The sounds of fire were very heavy now, and Nathan went into a guard as he got into another study chamber. He saw Sith Troopers shooting at only a few remaining Younglings, all crouched behind cover.
Nathan teleported close to one and cut off his head, drawing the attention of the others, who began shooting at him.
Nathan fell back on Niman because the situation was too chaotic to rely on Soresu and started advancing, deflecting the bolts away from him as he charged, using a Force Stun on one and taking his head off, tossing the temple guard Lightsaber pike into the face of a third trooper, teleporting the blade back to his hand, deflecting a heavy stream of bolts from the Soldiers above. They eventually got wise and began aiming at the younglings again.
Nathan teleported in front of the survivors, deflecting bolts with his blue blade, deliberately activating the other blade and dropping it.
The activated blade tumbled and was teleported above a shooter's head, a blade tip driving into the shooter's shoulder from above, being teleported out of his body and above the head of the second shooter before the first dead shooter on the upper level had finished hitting the floor, where it's uncontrolled tumble cleaved partly through the second shooter's helmet, killing him instantly. Nathan repeated the process with the third shooter, taking his arm off, teleporting up to the upper level to catch the blade as it fell, ramming it into to the trooper's chest immediately afterwards.
He teleported back to the lower level. None of the younglings recognized him, but the emotional
void they sensed within made them hesitate, take a step back in confusion at his grim countenance, his gaze offering no reassurance.
"Are...are you one of the temple guards?" a youngling asked.
"No." he answered emotionlessly.
"There's too many of them! What're we going to do?"
"If you stay, you die. Follow me." he ordered.
All seven younglings of various species gathered behind him and he led them to the exit.
He heard them whimper as he led them past the bodies. He didn't try to calm them.
"The enemy might hear you whimpering." he advised. "Your emotional expression must be kept to a minimum to avoid drawing attention that could cost you your life."
The sharpness of the delivery, and the clinical nature of the advice dampened all sound from the younglings.
"It's an unfortunate reality of the profession." he added in a whisper as he led them past more bodies. "It is impossible to engage in it without encountering
critics."
Bolts came at him from the spoke. He activated both blades, falling back on Soresu as he deflected the bolts back in the direction of the shooters, advancing slowly at the same time the Sith troopers did.
Nathan had not managed to save anybody at Castle Bloodscrawl.
He would not allow history to repeat.
