Duel Machine Hunt | Lily Decoria vs. Arris Windrun

[Arris Windrun]

Lily Decoria
Down & Out​

Arris was no pushover, but even she had her limits after putting herself into such a position. Lily had little trouble slamming the cyborg against the wall. She grinned as the Jedi opened her mouth again.

Right as the concussive blast crashed into her armored gut. There was an audible crunch as metal plates bent inward, splitting synthetic fibers and cracking reinforced bone. The cyborg grunted in pain. Having been forced off the Jedi, she threw a telekinetic blast of her own at the ground, throwing herself rapidly out of the way and into a controlled roll.

She came out of it, pivoting into a Force-backed sprint, and charged at the Jedi in short order. Her leg came up in a wide arc - a classic high kick, swinging horizontally for Lily's head.

While her swift and powerful kick was still on its way, Arris twisted her body, bending until her head pointed slightly towards the ground.

The kinetic force of her movement - to Windrun's expectation - caused her holster to jerk. One handgun may've been emptied, but its twin had not. As soon as the barrel of the holstered weapon lined up with Lily's chest, it opened fire, without a touch.

If Lily ducked, it would likely fire in the direction of her collar, or shoulder.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Mechis City
Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Arris Windrun

Lily noted that her words seemed to have either fallen on deaf ears or rung too true for Arris to attempt to comment back on. Instead the fighting only intensified in response. The high kick to Lily's head came in fast and the Jedi Knight's instinct was to block the leg with her Lightsaber, she did not know if this would slice through the cyborg's limb like a hot knife through butter or if the limbs were built to sustain Lightsaber strikes. As her aunt's legs were.

This made it harder to notice the shift in the Force that a Master in the Force might have detected to see that Arris was using it to fire her blaster close range at Lily's chest. The last minute warning was the only saving grace that Lily had to prevent herself from dying in that moment. However, the bullet shot through the skin and muscle just above her collarbone. Fortune prevent the bone snapping since that would have ended the duel very swiftly.

Attempting to try a power that she hadn't mastered but learned through her aunt, Lily sent Force created ionised energy towards Arris. The power was mainly for droids but she had seen it work on other technology and thought there was a chance it could work on someone mostly machine. She was using the power to disable Arris or momentarily stun Arris, not kill the cyborg. Lily was strongly against making any Sith a martyr, especially someone with the power and influence that she knew Arris had.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Lily Decoria
Down & Out
​

Arris heard the shot connect, ripping through flesh, just as the Jedi's lightsaber tore through her cybernetic leg - the heavy metal hitting the ground with a loud thud. Sparks flew, and molten slag dribbled as her fresh wound cooled to the air.

She crumbled to the ground shortly after, rolling along the duracrete in desperate effort to get away from Lily and rethink her plan of attack. Quite simply, she didn't expect the Jedi to power through a direct hit from her slugthrower like that.

"What are you made of?" Arris barked.

Her displeased grin was quickly replaced by shock as she saw familiar energy conquer in the Jedi's fingers.

'Shit!'

There wasn't time to escape it - the ionic burst lunged forth, licking at the cyborg's body before surging through her. Arris screamed. It was ugly, painful, and loud. Piercing fuckin' loud.

Her gear was nothing special. No exotic defenses, no plan for surge attacks. So while her synthetic and metal body weren't particularly sensitive to ionic attacks, they weren't particularly guarded against 'em either. It didn't take long before her implants started glitching out. Her body tensed and spasmed as servos misfired all over. Her cybernetic heart skipped a beat, her synthetic lungs reset; her vocalizer distorted as she still screamed.

And when it reached the co-processor attached to her brain, the whole world went black.

For a moment... just a heartbeat of a moment... she stopped moving.

But then her eyes shot open, and the Dark Side hemorrhaged from her body in waves.

When it reached her skull, it melded the co-processor to her brain. Arris embraced the excruciating pain; she embraced the cacophony of primal emotions in this place. She embraced the paralyzing fear she felt on the cusp of death until all of it overwhelmed her.

Arris Windrun had been attacked this way before, on Ruusan - the day she fell to the Dark Side.

Tendril-like wires shot out from her severed leg, attaching to the ruined remains and pulling it back together.

She lept up - in a near instant - and lunged at Lily with a burst of Force-fueled speed, and threw her hand in a clawing motion - the Force tore up the duracrete ground, throwing a wall-sized block of it at the Jedi.

Regardless if the duracrete block hit the Jedi, Arris used it for momentary cover before leaping up and over, and punching down at Lily with the nub of her left wrist, throwing a phantom fist that made the final reach - a railgun-like blast of condensed energy.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Mechis City
Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Arris Windrun

It was adrenaline and her sheer determination to not surrender to pain that pushed Lily past the injury. It was not going to last forever, there was already pain sensations ebbing throughout her. But Lily was determined to continue moving. Arris was not surrendering though the Sith was now down a leg and an arm. The silver steel gaze fixed on Arris. "You give up on the endurance of a natural body far too early to realise how much one can push past limits." The Force was flowing strongly throughout Lily's body.

While she did not command mastery over the fancy Force powers other wielded, it was honed within Lily to ensure that she was always fighting at her strongest, fighting at the most precise and she was always dangerous. The determination to fight evil never left her, never waivered and Lily was determined to capture Arris and place her under arrest.

The waves of hatred blasted at Lily as she held a firm grip on her Lightsaber, trusting in the shared connection and feeling the power from the crystals flowing into her. Stabbing downwards, Lily prevented herself from falling back to the waves but slid a couple feet back. Unable to push forward in an aggressive attacking style. Instead, she had to recompose herself and react to the duracrete being launched her way. Lily strengthened the Force into her fist and threw her fist into the duracrete, shattering it with an empowered punch. The fist was damaged, cut open and bloodied from the power it took but it allowed Lily the ability to react to Arris's next attack.

Shifting last minute forward, Lily had the arm slide past her head, stabbing forward towards Arris's chest with her Lightsaber. Lily aimed to stabbed through a lung, avoiding the heart or killing Arris. Knowing that this could be the last attempt she would get in ensuring that Arris is captured. Her body sore, bruised, bloodied and seriously damaged. The injuries were going to prevent her keeping up this fight much longer without becoming a hindrance.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Lily Decoria
Down & Out
​

Flying debris from the shattered duracrete slab struck Arris in multiple places, lacerating the already weakened armor along her torso. Despite this, the cyborg didn't slow at all - even as Lily brought her lightsaber up for a ruthless strike. If anything, Arris seemed to embrace the attack, confident that the Jedi wasn't fighting to kill.

Just as the destructive blast formed a crater behind Lily, the Jedi's blade struck her body, melting through the metal plate, synthetic strand, and the cybernetic lung beneath it all. She felt an intense heat radiate throughout her body, burning so hotly that she actually felt cold after a second or two. Arris was so far inside her head that the pain she felt was a distant thing, like the fading of dreams after you wake up.

She was quick to seize the opportunity, reaching to grab the Jedi's arm before she could withdraw the blade. If successful, the cyborg would brook no delay. She'd immediately squeeze the Echani's arm with a crushing, peternatural grip, and yank in a rapid motion to snap her elbow. If nothing else, her grip should prevent the Jedi from moving the blade much at all - Arris was wary of any motion that would seek to carve out her insides; a high-risk position, purchased by her sacrificial move.

"Natural?" Arris repeated the word, a little too calmly for the hatred rolling off her, let alone after being impaled. "What a narrow mind you have." She wouldn't mind the presumptions towards her body. She'd heard plenty over the years.

The metal around her leg continued to warp, temporarily repairing the damage enough for her to keep her feet firmly planted.

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Mechis City
Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Arris Windrun

The Lightsaber didn't just pierce Arris with the usual energy and force. The blade was deeply attuned to the Light Side of the Force, burning more fiercely, a more powerful strike than Arris would have anticipated. Feeling the grip on her arm, Lily knew this was going to be trouble and instantly reached for her secondary Lightsaber, one that she didn't frequently use but knew how to handle. The silent activation of the Hydrangea Moonblade was in hopes of surprising Arris and getting to slice the arm. Unfortunately by the time that Lily shifted the blade to spin and slice at the elbow of Arris, her own dominant arm was broken.

Lily cried out in agony, the arm was in agony and loosing the strength in her arm to keep fighting as aggressively as she had been. The best she could do in the moment was to drag the Lightsaber down as she attempted to pull it out of Arris. Do as much damage to the cyborg with the attack as she could. Pooling the Force energy into her foot, Lily kicked with the power of a speeder towards Arris' stomach. Aiming to create some distance between them. The Jedi Knight knew this was not going to be a fight that was going down well, panting heavily, she switched the secondary Lightsaber off and placed it away once again, holding her main Lightsaber in her left hand.

"You truly rather die than talk with me, surrender?" Lily didn't get the conviction, why throw her life away? What if Lily hadn't been so determined to preserve Arris' life? What if at the last moment, Lily shifted the strike from the lungs to the heart? It seemed so antithetical to the values of the Sith as Lily understood them to be.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Lily Decoria
Down & Out
​

The lightsaber ripped through her, tearing away half her cybernetic lung and the reinforced ribs that caged it. There was little for the cyborg to do other than take the Jedi's kick that followed - it sent her flying back, and for a moment it looked as if Arris was going to fall over. She didn't. Somehow, some way, the Sith just stayed upright.

The Dark Side of the Force had retreated inward. Almost like a beast cornered in its lair. Dangerous, but given pause.

Arris looked at Lily then, hearing the Jedi's question - the confusion, maybe concern, in her voice.

The cyborg wrapped her arm over the injury. "I told you..." She coughed up coolant and blood. "You don't get it." There was desperation in the Force that betrayed the calm in her voice.

She thought back to Corellia.

"I'm sticking with the Covenant to be there for the people I love... in the sick little way that I do," she frowned, self-depreciatively.

"I've got people," she said. "I'll do anything for them." She thought of Nilira and Kirie most of all, though even Acier lingered on her mind. "Kill anyone. You don't think I'll dome Mercy if it comes to it?" She chuckled dryly through the trickling blood, smiling bitterly.

"Ace had a life to lose. I don't... I only have one left to give."

The Triumvir kept her guard up, despite the injury. Ready to move at a moment's notice.

"I think you've been given a rare opportunity. Your Republic will not stop to understand what we really are, and I reckon a lot of Jedi are about to follow that same mind. You tried to lump us all in together - just like they do. That's how power works, yeah? Break down the thing you need to destroy into something that is so impossibly demanding of its own destruction. Eventually... you get so high on your own sense of justice that you find any answer to the contrary simply... annoying."

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Mechis City
Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Arris Windrun

Shaking her head, "protecting those you love, those you care about. This is not the path, the things you have done, they don't keep those you love away from harm." There was determination from Lily in her silver eyes, not judgement on the excuses or doubts in herself but determination to find a way to resolve this. The blade had not been the choice Lily wished to approach things and she wanted to try and use the words once again. Especially since they were both in various states of being destroyed physically.

"The genocide on Tapani did not protect anyone. The wars you continue to wage against others, it is not because you need to keep protecting those you love. It is greed and lust for power that has corrupted your based desires of protecting those you love." Lily felt a wave of exhaustion hit her like a tsunami. Still standing too effort. "You find those you love, leave the Sith and find peace in distant worlds. Far away from the wars that are predictably coming." Lily had seen the direction the galaxy was shifting, the writing was all over the place and she didn't know have to be super observant to know things were not going to be a positive change.

Division was ruining what was meant to be a safe haven.

Switching her crossguard Lightsaber off, "I find you in battle, I will not hesitate to kill you. This is your chance to leave, to do the right thing in order to truly protect those you love. Because this Sith warlord campaign that you are on, that will only bring war and war will always endanger those you love." Clipping her Lightsaber to her belt, "I cannot warn the Republic nor would my words change their mind or focus. I tried to be a voice of caution and I am leaving the Order behind since my voice was not welcomed."

"But I will protect those who cannot defend themselves, against the Sith and against oppression in all the forms in comes in."

Lily turned to leave. She had given caution to Arris and stated that if they ever fought again, Lily would not be restricting herself to non-lethal blows.

 

[Arris Windrun]

Lily Decoria
Down & Out
​

Arris said nothing as the Jedi spoke. But she did listen. Whether or not it seemed that way was... hard to tell. She was in rough shape, to say the least, and between the damage, leaking blood and coolant, and her usual lack of expression, there weren't many cues...

...Until Lily declared that next time, she wouldn't hesitate to deal the lethal blow. To that, Arris smiled.

She listened to the rest, then watched the Jedi turn and walk away.

Her smile faded into a solemn frown once Lily disappeared from sight - leaving the cyborg alone in the middle of the abandoned industrial yard. She looked around, then down at her own body; the hole in her chest.

"Should've killed me today." She breathed.

END​

 

[Lily Decoria]

Location: Mechis City
Outfit: Jedi Attire
Equipment: Arwr Da, Hydrangea Moonblade (concealed)
Tag: Arris Windrun

Lily got back to her ship, collapsing once she was away from sight, away from prying eyes. Her body finally surrendering to the damage, the pain and the trauma that she had suppressed up until now. Her ear rang from the last blast from the stub of Arris' arm. her arm was broken and in desperate need of a splint to keep the bones in place. Her body was littered in cuts and bruises.

It was fortunate that Lily installed a personal bacta tank onto her ship, knowing that she would need one for missions exactly like this one. The fight had drained her energy, not just the energy in terms of her connection to the Force but also the physical drain of fighting and attempting to keep powering through.

Crawling her way to the medbay, Lily groaned, no part of her regretted letting Arris live. She would not be a Jedi if she did not seek to ensure that everyone had a chance to redeem their ways. That given the chance to reflect on the words shared and seeing the impact of the consequences that one's actions can cause. It can completely reframe the way that someone is living their life and make them deeply regret siding with the Sith and the Dark Side.

But it was a singular chance. Arris had already done far too much harm and Lily could not afford to endanger more lives by letting Arris get away over and over again.

Lily just hoped that this would be enough.

THE END​