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distracted. The pike left a
    shallow cut down his left forearm before he could repulse the strange creature's
    attack. Part flesh and part machine, the renegade Jedi Master was proficient with
    the Force, and quick with it as well. Every blow the apprentice tried to make was
    instantly blocked by either end of the whirling pike. As fast as he lunged or
    retreated, the mechanical legs outpaced him. Paratus hopped around the dilapidated
    chamber like a deranged jumping spider.
    Outside his droid golem shell, however, Paratus was more vulnerable to Sith
    lightning. What he couldn't absorb into the junk metal burned him and left him
    writhing in pain. The apprentice sent bolt after bolt hurtling into the tiny figure.
    It almost seemed that the fight would be over before it had really begun.
    Then something struck him from behind, breaking his concentration and knocking his
    lightsaber from his hand. He turned, ducking robotic limbs and a sudden swipe from
    the light-pike. The mannequin of Plo Koon had risen from its chair and attacked him,
    holding a vibroblade in a crude approximation of the long-dead
    I'll Master's renowned lightsaber style. The Way of the Krayt Dragon, it had once
    been called. It looked ridiculous now in the hands of a patchwork droid.
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    Still, it had taken him by surprise. The apprentice acknowledged the gambit before
    blowing the mannequin to pieces and reaching out for his fallen lightsaber. The hilt
    arrived in his hand Inst in time to deflect another blow from Paratus, fully
    recovered from the waves of Sith lightning he had just endured.
    This time the apprentice was ready for the attacks from behind. One at a time, or
    occasionally in pairs, the mannequins moved in to distract him.
    Mace Windu and Coleman Kcaj he dismembered. Kit Fisto he melted. Anakin Skywalker
    and Obi-Wan Kenobi he smashed together and hurled out the window. Ki-Adi-Mundi he
    blasted with lighting before doing the same to Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, and Shaak
    Ti. Stass Allie he beheaded with a single stroke of his lightsaber. Yoda he picked
    up with the Force and used as a missile m strike Paratus through his flailing
    artificial limbs.
    Kazdan Paratus moaned as each junk Master fell, mourning them as though they were
    actually alive. When the last one went down, he was actually weeping.
    The apprentice reached out and caught the Jedi Aleena in a light Force grip.
    Paratus's artificial arms crumbled, unable to resist his power. Lifting the
    diminutive alien into the air, the apprentice swung his captive from side to side,
    smashing him into the window frames and roof until rubble rained down on them both.
    He deflected the worst of it from himself and saved the damage for Paratus. Soon the
    aging Jedi was too weak to fight, but still the apprentice continued battering him.
    He remembered what had happened with Rahm Kota at the very last. Wherever that
    strange hallucination had come from, he would not permit a repeat.
    Finally, the Jedi Master's strength was spent. The apprentice let him drop to the
    ground, where he was pinned by an avalanche of junk falling through the ceiling.
    Clearly dying, he lay faceup and closed his eyes.
    "I'm sorry, my Masters," he lamented. "I've tailed you." With those words, he
    expired.
    For a moment the apprentice felt pity. But he quickly swallowed it down. Undoubtedly
    mad, Paratus was still a Jedi. His freedom had come to an end, along with his life.
    Then a nimbus of glowing Force energy rose up from the Jedi's body and spread out
    around the apprentice. Sparkling, scintillating, it vanished with a silent rush into
    the walls of the junk structure.
    The apprentice stepped away from the body, unnerved and ready for anything.
    But that appeared to be the end of it.
    He raised his comlink. "Juno, I'm done here."
    "I have a lock on your location, Starkiller. On my way."
    The whining of the starship's engines was loud by the time he retraced his