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the other came down to slice him
    vertically in two. He threw himself backward barely in time, then lunged forward to
    slash at anything that looked like a weak point before the axes could come around
    again. Cauterized limbs rained about him, clutching at him with fading electrical
    spasms. He rolled between the trunk-like legs to avoid another devastating double ax
    blow. His lightsaber scored a deep cut up the gargantuan's back as he rose to his
    feet.
    Yellow sparks flew across the room. The golem's insides groaned and bellowed as it
    turned, trying to get him back in its sights. Arms reached for him and he sliced
    them off, one by one. Ducking under the swinging blades, he sent bolt after bolt of
    lightning into the massive wound he had made, while battering it with panels ripped
    from the walls and hurled with every iota of energy he could muster.
    Finally it weakened. Listing heavily on its left side and missing one of its axes,
    it staggered ponderously backward across the foyer. Both its photoreceptors were
    dark; sparks poured in a Me.uly stream from a hole in the rear of its head. Although
    fighting blind and barely possessing any control over its primary motivators, it
    still tried to kill him. Growling servomotors kept the sole remaining ax sweeping
    backward and forward, as though he Blight stumble into it by accident. One heavy
    foot stamped at the floor in a vain attempt to unbalance him. All it succeeded in
    doing was tangling itself in junk and swaying dangerously close to tipping right
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    over.
    The apprentice took the opportunity to finish it off. Again he pushed with the full
    power of the Force, blowing its body off its tangled leg and hurling it through the
    far wall. He followed it, just in case it still had any fight left in it. Striding
    confidently through i In' gaping rent in the foyer wall, he found himself in a place
    he had thought never to enter, even in a bizarrely re-created form such as this.
    In the heart of the junk Jedi Temple was a junk High Council Chamber, complete with
    mannequins of long-gone Jedi Masters. The apprentice knew all their names; they were
    burned into his brain, those enemies the Emperor had defeated during the final days
    of the Clone Wars. They sat on thrones or stools or ordinary chairs, as taste or
    biological form demanded. Their dead eyes stared at him as he stalked after the
    fallen golem.
    The golem had collapsed in the center of the circular room, streaming smoke and
    steam from its joints. Fetid wind poured though the shattered windows overlooking
    endless vistas of waste, making a faint moaning sound. The apprentice maintained a
    state of extreme concentration. Kazdan Paratus had yet to make his move. He would be
    ready for the fugitive Jedi when he did.
    Then a strange thing happened. The droid golem's dead weight shifted slightly. A
    hiss came from a seam down its front. With a groan, its armor plating opened. Four
    long, spidery arms emerged,tipped with manipulators salvaged from four very
    different droids. The manipulators gripped the body of the dead golem and hauled a
    tiny gray figure into the light.
    "Kazdan Paratus," said the apprentice. "At last."
    The minuscule being looked at him with darting, paranoid eyes. A member of the
    Aleena species, he was short and large skulled, with bright eyes and long, agile
    fingers. The harness affixing him to the strange, mechanical arms allowed him free
    movement with his lightsaber-a double-bladed pike with one blade significantly
    longer than the other. He raised it as the limbs' function turned from arms to legs
    and raised him to full human height.
    "Sith trash," he hissed in a voice that was high-pitched but full of contempt.
    "Don't worry, Masters. I'll defend you!"
    The apprentice didn't know who he was talking to until a clamor rose from the seated
    mannequins and, as one, the junk Jedi Council woke.
    Paratus lunged while the apprentice was momentarily