X-COM Headquarters Laboratory, Mandalore
The two darksabers clashed roughly, giving off a high-pitched and ear-racking note as Vera and Kylo lunged at each other, the latter far more furious in his approach. Vera suffered from hesitance, despite the resolve she'd tried to steel herself in after all this time. Just like when they'd last fought, she feared what would happen if her attacks hit.
"Don't do this, Agdar." She begged, trying to push through the blade lock. "Don't cross a line you can't come back over."
"That line has been crossed for years, Arendal." Kylo replied unapologetically before shoving her back roughly.
Vera hurried to regain her footing. "If Cyrus could see you now."
"Perhaps if Cyrus hadn't decided to die in a pointless sacrifice he could." The Knight of Ren approached slowly.
Kylo brought his saber up above him and swung down with all of his might, once again forcing Vera to stumble backwards. She moved against one of the lab walls before rapidly sidestepping, just avoiding being cut clean in half by Kylo's Varja. She began to prepare for a small firestorm, still drawn back by her hesitance.
"Agdar..." She panted. "Stop it. You're better th-"
"Agdar is dead!" Kylo burst out in anger, swinging twice in an X.
Vera managed to dodge one slash and parry the other. "He's not!"
She made a quick slash towards the Viscount's head, making a narrow cut before trying again and managing to damage the mask over the eyes. Kylo recoiled backwards, gripping his helmet.
"Take off that mask." Vera demanded, then said in a softer voice, "Just get rid of it, Agdar. I want to see the face of my son."
Kylo Ren stood still for some time after, then began to use his free hand to remove the helmet from his head. Dropping it unceremoniously to the ground, and pulling back his hood in the process. His short red hair was in a strange position due to the helmet, and a new scar on his right cheek made a small gap in his beard. His left eye seemed reddened instead of its usual light blue, possibly from Vera's darksaber being so close to hitting it.
"Your son is dead." Agdar repeated, his helmet no longer distorting his already-deep voice, not allowing for any more time to pass before he lunged again at Vera.
She was taken by surprise after trying to take in the details, being knocked over with ease and ending up on her stomach. In her efforts to get up, she felt herself pushed via the Force into the wall, leaving her on her back.
"This could have been our day!" Agdar shouted, his feelings of intense betrayal pouring into his words. "Can't you see that?! We were going to light the fires of revolution!"
"I never wanted a revolution!" Vera shouted back, getting on one knee. "I wanted equality! I wanted tolerance, I wanted peaceful change!"
She tried to attack, but her lack of willingness to fight him left her strike easy to block. Agdar swiftly brought his blade up to counter hers, leaning forward with anger.
"What you want is impossible!" He lifted his knee and kicked her roughly in the stomach, sending her into and over one of the rails, lying on the floor.
Agdar picked his helmet up back off of the ground, walking around the railing to where Vera lay. Before she could get up, he stomped on her stomach, forcing her to cough and try to catch her breath. He clenched his darksaber roughly, but held back from pointing it towards her neck.
"...but I understand." Agdar continued quietly. "Because all I wanted was your support. Until you betrayed me and all that we stood for." He put more pressure on his foot. "So as I set upon the world, delivering the justice that the Mandalorian Kingdom so greatly deserves, I am going to make it my mission to destroy everything you love."
"VERA!" Both of them could hear a voice in the distance, and both instantly recognized it as Idun's. "Vera! Where are you?!" They heard footsteps coming closer.
Agdar glanced to Vera's face, watching it change from sadness and fear for herself to panic for her older sister. He began to lift the helmet back up to his head, putting it on as it was before despite the now warped metal in some areas. No doubt the heat from its damage just made him angrier.
"Starting with her." Kylo finished.
Vera immediately tried to shout a warning to her sister, for her to get away while she could. Her own wail of pain came first, as she felt an unbelievable burning in her shoulder from Kylo's darksaber. However, any thought Vera had for herself, even through her pain, faded as she realized Idun would begin to rush here.
And just as she'd feared, Idun ran into the entry of the laboratory, her eyes wide as she saw her sister on the ground and the Viscount's darksaber cutting clean through her shoulder. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" She shouted.
"I-Idun..." Vera whispered, far too quiet and interrupted by heavy breathing. "Please, go."
If Idun heard her sister begging for her to leave, she ignored it. In a roar of anger, a miniature blizzard appeared around her and she lunged at Kylo Ren, drawing her Varja and moving to stab him right through the chest. Faster than she could react, however, she felt an unbelievable pain in her arm, an unbearable burning. Suddenly she began to feel cold, not the kind of cold that she welcomed or found herself stronger in, as she slammed into the ground.
Vera hurried to overcome her pain and crawled rapidly over to where her sister lay. Idun's arm had been severed from above her elbow, and she hadn't even managed to stay awake through the injury where she lay. She rapidly shook her older sister, as if that would get her to wake up from her pain, and whispering her name quickly. And behind her, she could hear Kylo approaching, raising his saber. Vera flung herself over Idun and waited for the attack.
Instead, she heard a grating sound of a Varja against... metal. Not another saber, which she didn't think should be possible. Trembling, she looked up to see what had happened, and saw Qrow Branwen blocking the attack with the flat of his blade, easily pushing him back.
"Get yourselves to the medical bay." Qrow ordered Vera while nodding at Idun, turning back to face Kylo Ren. "I'll take care of this guy."
Vera nodded quickly, able to lift Idun over her good shoulder thanks to the Warframe she had, and began to hurry out of the laboratory. When Kylo began to pursue, Qrow used a shotgun blast to propel himself above and landed between them. By then, Vera and Idun were long gone, causing Kylo to glare through his helmet at Qrow.
"You're in my way." He growled.
"And I'm not moving." Qrow replied.
Qrow didn't move to crack any more one-liners or other jokes, simply entering a stance and holding his sword defensively in front of him. Already, Kylo could spot a huge difference - this man wasn't afraid to kill him. Not wanting to let him get the chance, the Knight of Ren got a short running start and leaped to attack.
Mission Control
Bradford continued to occasionally duck out of his cover and fire at the advancing ADVENT troopers, Merrik doing the same to his left. They'd lost the hangar fifteen minutes before, so he'd ordered Qrow to Mission Control and Idun to assist Vera with the Knights of Ren that she was pursuing. He could only assume they were fighting through the base now, making their way to where he'd ordered.
The situation in Mission Control was getting worse as time went on. Their position wasn't the easiest to defend, and the attacking troopers were either staying in better cover at the doors, carrying bulletproof riot shields, or being assisted by a hidden shieldbearer. He was beginning to wonder if he should order Merrik to use the explosives. However, he began to see a flash of red behind the troopers - a Knight of Ren's Varja.
"Knight!" He shouted to Merrik and the other security. "Behind the line!"
They all began to focus their fire on the new enemy, ignoring those behind cover. However, the Knight, no, apparently Dame of Ren approaching used a regular-length Varja and a shorter one to deflect all of their shots, some directly back at the shooters. Bradford attempted to shoot through her defense, but the Dame simply deflected his attack into one of the lights, which began to spew sparks.
Bradford set his rifle down and drew his own Varja, Merrik doing the same, and they both sprinted at the Dame of Ren. However, she ducked underneath Merrik's slash and kicked him aside, catching Bradford's attack with the longer Varja and pushing him back. Through her mask he could almost feel her smirk, but suddenly she jumped back, put her sabers away, and threw both of her hands out towards the security.
Each and every one of the X-COM operatives still standing found themselves thrown to the back of the room, many hitting the wall with sickening crunches. As they sat there, the Dame strode calmly over to the hologlobe and waved an ADVENT officer over. The captain promptly took a hard drive from one of their pockets and handed it to the Dame of Ren, who inserted it next to one of the hologlobe's terminals and began a download.
The troopers began to spread out and keep an eye on the incapacitated security, waiting for the word to withdraw. A low tone denoting completion of the download could be heard soon, and the Dame of Ren removed the hard drive before handing it to the same captain who'd given it to her.
"Is there anything else we need, Baroness?" The captain asked.
"No, Captain." The Dame began to leave Mission Control without another glance to the X-COM operatives. "We have what we need. Have the demo crews destroy the hangars and recall everybody before the Kingdom responds."
"Yes, Baroness." The captain nodded, relaying the order throughout the attacking force.
Bradford watched as they left, struggling to get to his feet and only succeeding by the time they'd all left. He hurried to the hologlobe to see what the Dame had copied onto the drive, his heart sinking as he found out. She'd copied everything, every single little detail about X-COM, even ones that shouldn't have been accessible from the hologlobe under normal circumstances. In his shock he found himself leaning against one of the outer terminals and sliding to the floor.
"Should I give an order to try and pursue, sir?" Merrik asked in a doubtful tone, holding his side in pain.
"No." Bradford shook his head. "Focus on getting the wounded to a med bay, and find Dr. Vahlen."
Laboratory
Qrow brought up his sword and blocked Kylo's strike with ease, pushing the Viscount back against the floor. Without missing a beat he moved to slash at the Viscount again and again, forcing him to be on the defensive. Kylo quickly moved back and to the side to avoid the strikes, holding his hand out and starting to push Qrow back. Gritting his teeth, Qrow fired the shotgun on his sword several times to counter it and pushed himself feet-first into the Knight, kicking him to the other side of the lab.
Kylo stabbed his saber into the ground to slow himself down, scraping to a halt before he hit the wall. Using a leg to kick himself off of said wall and sprinting at Qrow to attack, moving as if he was going to slash but then jabbing forward to stab him through the stomach. At first Qrow went to defend himself against the slash, but when he realized what Kylo was doing he angled his sword differently and fired the shotgun.
The blast flung the sword against Kylo's saber, deflecting it with ease and having Qrow swing his weapon in a circle. In the ensuing curve, he managed to step forward and use the force from the blast to slash a narrow cut across Kylo's stomach, smirking at his success and stepping back.
"You're better than the others." Kylo complimented grudgingly, ignoring the pain in his gut and stepping back.
Qrow stopped and squinted for a moment. "You three aren't so bad yourselves."
Kylo began to hear static in his helmet, then Svea's clear voice. "Kylo, I have the data we need. We're leaving before the Kingdom responds. This is all Daniselsen needs to win us the war."
"I'm not finished yet." Kylo responded, promptly shutting off the channel and focusing on Qrow again.
Qrow simply held out his free hand and mockingly dared Kylo to approach. The latter pounded a fist angrily on the side of his stomach to strengthen himself through the pain, then running forward and beginning to rapidly attack. The two of them began a swift exchange of blocks and attacks, moving throughout the lab and making cuts in the terminals or railings before both of them stepped back.
Kylo watched and caught his breath as the seemingly unaffected Qrow pulled a different trigger or gear on his sword. The Knight of Ren stepped back and held his saber defensively, expecting him to use his shotgun again, but the weapon began to fragment and curve as the handle lengthened, soon transforming into the unmistakable shape of a scythe. Qrow swung his new scythe around him before slamming it into the ground, aiming the shotgun barrel at Kylo.
Shocked by it, the Viscount nonetheless managed to get out of the way of the shotgun's blast. Said blast helped Qrow pull the scythe out of the floor with ease, and he began to run at Kylo before making a large swing. Kylo hurried to block the scythe, jumping out of the way as Qrow used his shotgun to propel it for another rough swing and lodging it into the wall. Seeing his opening, he attacked again.
Without the aid of his shotgun, Qrow drew the scythe from the wall and fired the shotgun again, swinging it into a position to deflect Kylo's attack. Wasting no time, he then proceeded to kick the Viscount in the knee and then punch him in the chest, knocking him over. Kylo rolled back to his feet and blocked the incoming attack, now facing an entire storm of attacks from the other man interrupted only by the blasts of a shotgun.
Despite all of Kylo's improvements in fight endurance, he began to find himself tiring with each attack he blocked. Every time Qrow swung, the scythe's attack was scarily precise for such a large and heavy weapon, and the force provided by the shotgun just tired him more. He realized that while his improvements had let him take on Idun Arendal with such ease, he wasn't ready to face this man.
Kylo managed to jump back, resulting in a pause of the other man's attacks. "What's your name?"
Qrow looked around and them pointed at himself questioningly, as if there were any others in the room. "Name's Qrow. 'Course you understand that's all I can tell you."
"Of course." Kylo muttered, suddenly pushing his hand out and using all of his remaining energy to repel Qrow from him as he began to leave. "Apologies, but I must withdraw. Consider the victory yours."
Qrow jammed the scythe into the ground as an anchor, switching to a lower-powered shell to fire at Kylo without moving the scythe from its position. The shot apparently only grazed the Knight of Ren as he withdrew, prompting him to remove the scythe from the floor and pursue. Before he could get far, however, he heard Bradford's voice over his commlink, and he sounded disturbingly tired and defeated.
"Qrow, get to mission control." Bradford ordered. "We need you up here. ADVENT's pulling out."
He sighed in slight anger, knowing Kylo was too far gone to catch by now. "I'm on my way. What's wrong?"
"ADVENT just took out a huge number of our operatives and aircraft." The central officer paused. "And they copied down practically all of our data... we might have just lost the war, Qrow."
Qrow began to transform his scythe back into its sword, then sheathed it on his back. "I'll be right up."