Chapter Text
Tyler’s grip through the Force held Josh completely still. Every muscle locked, unable to move or speak. Josh’s jaw felt like it was wired shut, and despite the panic fluttering in his chest, there was something dangerously thrilling about the helplessness. He pressed his lips together, letting out a soft whine that barely escaped.
Tyler leaned in close, breath warm against Josh’s cheek. He let out a low chuckle, fingers still braced beside Josh’s head, tightening subtly so Josh could feel the relentless Force pressure pinning him in place.
Then, purposefully, Tyler shifted his body forward, pressing his hips against Josh’s lower half.
The movement was both intentional and precise. The cloth of their pants brushing together, fabric sliding against fabric. Every inch of contact sent a jolt of heat through Josh, a tension that left him trembling.
His eyes fluttered shut as Tyler’s hips ground back and forth, creating a friction that was almost unbearable. His breath hitched, coming out in a surprised, pained half–moan that sounded closer to a whimper.
Each shift of Tyler’s weight pressed into him more insistently, pressing home exactly how dominant Tyler could be, reminding Josh that he was utterly at the Sith’s mercy.
“You’ve fallen so far, Jedi,” Tyler purred, his voice low and rich with dark amusement. He slowed just enough for his lips to brush Josh’s earlobe. “Day one of your mission to bring me to the light, and you’ve already given in.”
Josh’s pulse thundered in his ears. Heat coiled low in his belly, a dizzying swirl of confusion and want. His heart pounded against his ribs as Tyler’s hips shifted again.
The Force still held him fast, but it was the press of Tyler’s body, warm and unyielding, that truly trapped him. That closeness sent a rush of need through his veins, something raw and unfamiliar.
Tyler let out a soft, mocking sigh, fingers trailing slowly down Josh’s temple.
“You’re going to make such a powerful Sith, Joshua,” he whispered, his voice nearly swallowed by the hum of the night beyond the fabric walls.
Josh’s chest heaved, nerves alight, overwhelmed by sensation. Tyler’s breath ghosted against his skin, the steady, insistent grind of his hips blurring thought and instinct.
It was like a blindfold settling over his eyes. Darkness folding in around his mind as the Dark Side seeped deeper, taking hold. Part of him fought, but another part… wasn’t sure it wanted the struggle to end. The surrender felt both terrifying and inevitable.
He was pinned, not just by Tyler’s body, but by the intoxicating pull of the darkness within. And somewhere beneath it all, a whisper of desire echoed louder than reason.
Tyler’s gaze dropped to his lips, then climbed back up, eyes glowing with flickers of red and unmistakable triumph.
“Know this,” he murmured, voice husky and slow, “you will be mine. No matter what happens. You. Will. Be. Mine.”
Each word landed with the rhythm of his hips, pressing Josh deeper into the cot. Their robes tangled and bunched between them, a whisper of fabric against the intensity of their bodies, of everything neither of them was supposed to feel, but couldn’t stop.
Josh’s breath hitched, a mix of frustration and want swirling violently inside him. He tried to focus on the rough canvas of the cot beneath him, on the distant chorus of nocturnal insects outside the tent, but Tyler’s presence swallowed every thought.
And beneath the surface, a darker current tugged at him. Slow, insistent, like cold fingers wrapping around his soul. He could feel it. The dark side, dragging him down, whispering promises of power and freedom from the burdens he bore. The more he fought, the tighter the shadow gripped, seeping into his blood, into his very being.
And then, slowly, Tyler’s control loosened. The invisible grip that bound Josh began to slip. Not completely, but just enough. Just enough for his fingers to twitch, for his limbs to ache with the ghost of movement. Josh’s muscles trembled as he blinked up at Tyler, confused and breathless.
Tyler hovered above him, his breath hot against Josh’s cheek, his mouth barely brushing the shell of his ear as he murmured, “Fight back.” There was a goading edge to his voice now, half dare, half demand. “Show me you’re still in there, Jedi.”
Josh’s jaw clenched, the Force around it slackening just enough that he could feel his tongue shift, feel the pain where Tyler’s earlier grip had silenced him.
And deep inside, a part of him wondered if fighting was even worth it anymore.
Tyler shifted, repositioning himself with slow intent, and then lowered his head.
Josh barely had time to process the movement before Tyler’s tongue dragged a languid line across his bare torso. From his belly button to just below his collarbone, leaving a trail of damp heat in its wake. Josh shuddered, breath catching, as goosebumps prickled across his skin in a sudden wave.
A low, involuntary sound slipped from his throat, something between a gasp and a growl. His hands clenched reflexively in the sheets, mind splintering beneath the assault of sensation.
Their foreheads met again, breaths mingling in sharp, shallow bursts. Tyler’s hair, disheveled and damp with sweat, fell in wild strands over his brow, brushing against Josh’s skin.
The lantern cast a flickering glow through the canvas of the tent, catching on the angry slash of the scar across Tyler’s nose. It made the bruises on his throat look darker, deeper. The hickey stood out stark and possessive against pale skin, almost black now. A brand.
And Tyler’s eyes, those cursed, red-ringed eyes, never wavered. They burned with hunger, with knowledge, with intent. He saw everything: every flicker in Josh’s expression, every tremble in his chest. He catalogued each one like a weapon.
“I can feel it,” Tyler whispered, the tip of his nose brushing against Josh’s. “The fear. The anger. It’s already in you, isn’t it?” His hand slid over Josh’s chest, splayed wide, fingers grazing sensitive skin and teasing over a nipple. Josh flinched at the contact, body taut, breath ragged.
“You’re so close.”
Josh let out a choked breath, his chest heaving. The pressure Tyler held over him cracked, just slightly, but it was enough. Enough for something to snap inside him. Not fear. Not resistance.
Power.
He had felt it before. Earlier that day, in the tangled fight among the twisted trees of the forest. The dark side had whispered then, a tempting shadow crawling beneath his skin, and it had scared him. But now… it roared louder, and he couldn’t deny its pull any longer.
He moved.
The Force shattered like glass between them, and Josh surged upward, capturing Tyler’s mouth with his own in a bruising kiss. There was no hesitation, no tenderness, just heat, and fury, and something deeper that had no name. His hands tangled in Tyler’s collar, dragging him closer, devouring the space between them.
Tyler gasped into the kiss, surprised, but only for a heartbeat.
Then Josh flipped them.
With one fluid, Force-fueled movement, he rolled their bodies, shoving Tyler down against the cot with a thud. The shift knocked the breath from Tyler’s lungs, and before he could react, Josh’s hands closed around his wrists, pinning them hard against the canvas.
Their positions reversed, and for the first time, Tyler looked up at Josh.
His lips parted, breath shallow. The smugness was gone. Replaced by something sharp and intrigued. His gold-ringed eyes gleamed with dangerous amusement.
“Perfect,” he breathed, “keep going.”
Josh didn’t answer. His eyes were darker now. Storm-cloud grey, flecked with something wild and unnatural. It sort of looked like a deep, condemning red.
His chest rose and fell, hands gripping Tyler’s wrists tight enough to leave bruises. The Force rippled off him in waves, barely restrained.
He knew what it was. The dark side. It pulsed through him like wildfire, surging with a fierce intensity that drowned out the whispers of the Jedi Code. It filled his veins, seared his nerves, and for a fleeting moment…it felt intoxicating.
The weight of the Code, the endless rules, the restraint, the fear of failure, it all began to peel away. In its place: fire. Raw, real, and consuming.
And Tyler saw it. His smirk faded, replaced by something deeper. Approval, maybe, or anticipation. He didn’t resist when Josh leaned in, didn’t fight when Josh’s hands released his wrists only to move around his back, pulling him upright in one swift motion.
Josh held him there, breath ragged, eyes searching Tyler’s with equal parts fury and need. Then kissed him again. Hard. Furious. The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was a collision. A battle. Josh clung to Tyler like he was the only real thing in the galaxy, and maybe he was. In that moment, nothing else mattered.
Tyler responded instantly, a low, hungry sound rumbling in his throat, his hands gripping Josh’s back fiercely. They were locked in something that felt like combustion. Like stars collapsing inward.
The Force crackled around them, wild and uncontained.
And somewhere deep inside, Josh felt a shift. A strange, twisting sensation curled in his gut, like he was trapped behind invisible bars. His own self fighting him, a war he hadn’t expected. He noticed it, but for now, he didn’t care.
Josh’s lips crushed against Tyler’s with an intensity that felt as though twin suns had collided. Warmth flooded Josh’s cheeks the moment their mouths pressed together, every nerve ending igniting beneath the brutal press of Tyler’s body against his.
The scent of sweat hung heavy between them as their tongues met in a sharp, urgent dance.
Josh’s hands tightened around Tyler’s back, pressing him closer until there was no air between their chests. Tyler’s arms wrapped around Josh’s shoulders, fingers digging in just enough to guide the angle of the kiss, to deepen it.
Each movement felt both violent and electric: the way Tyler’s tongue swept in, the heat of Tyler’s breath catching in Josh’s mouth, the sharp scrape of Tyler’s teeth at Josh’s lower lip as the kiss grew more demanding.
The cot groaned beneath them as Tyler shifted his weight, and Josh tasted just a hint of copper. Josh’s heartbeat thundered so loud it echoed in his ears; he could feel Tyler’s pulse pounding under his chin, felt each faithful tremor of the Force thrumming between them.
Their knees tangled, bodies slick with sweat under the dim lantern glow, and Josh knew he was as lost as Tyler was found. Unable to distinguish where his desire ended and Tyler’s control began.
The world narrowed to the desperate press of lips, the flash of red-ringed eyes behind half-lidded lids, the thrill of power surging through Josh’s veins. Every breath that rasped between them echoed with promise and danger, a promise that neither intended to deny.
But then, a sudden sharpness cut through the haze.
A cold flicker of doubt, like a whispered warning buried deep in Josh’s mind, stirred beneath the rush of sensation. The darkness, thick, enveloping, all-consuming, wrapped tighter around him, and with it came the weight of everything he was trying to fight against.
Something in the Force twisted.
Unseen and unbidden, Tyler’s raw emotion, fear, longing, and control, pierced into Josh’s mind like a blade slipping between armor plates. The connection flared open without warning, and suddenly Josh wasn’t just feeling Tyler.
He was inside Tyler. Or Tyler was inside him. The lines blurred.
They stood on a foreign planet. Ashen ground stretching toward obsidian cliffs, lit only by the eerie glow of twin moons hanging low in a violet sky. The air shimmered with the hum of distant engines, echoing like cries of long-dead droids. The stars above were wrong, constellations fractured, unnatural.
Tyler was there, silhouetted against the horizon like a wraith. His cloak whipped around him in the wind. And then, with a hiss that sent a chill through Josh’s spine, twin lightsabers flared to life in his hands. Not the deep red of a Sith’s fury, but twin blades of green and blue fire.
The blades pulsed, not steady Jedi sabers, but unstable, flickering, crackling like they were forged from torn kyber and memory. Part dream, part nightmare.
Josh’s breath caught. A ripple of confusion and longing hit him like a shockwave. That was the Tyler he wanted to believe in. A balanced, Jedi, lit from within.
Tyler tilted his head, the light casting angular shadows across his face. His expression was unreadable. Part grief, part triumph. And then he smiled. Not warmly, not kindly. A slow, curling smirk like a holocron whispering secrets best left buried.
“I have you right where I want you,” he murmured. His voice wasn’t his own, it rang with echoes, voices layered beneath like chorus lines of Sith and Jedi long dead.
The sabers spun in Tyler’s grip, a flourish both mesmerizing and menacing. Form IV, Ataru, all corrupted, refracted through a darker lens.
The Force shattered.
Josh gasped as the vision splintered like struck transparisteel, the fragments slicing through his awareness. The alien stars fell away, the sabers extinguished in smoke, and he was back. Pressed against Tyler, heart hammering, mouth open as if surfacing from drowning.
The heat of Tyler’s kiss still lingered, but everything felt changed. The warmth now shadowed by that glimpse of what could be, what might already live inside Tyler.
The Force hummed around them, unsettled. Restless. It crackled like static between two wires too close to touch but already arcing. The echo of that laugh clung to Josh’s senses, wrapping around his thoughts like smoke he couldn’t breathe past.
And buried beneath it, deep in his core, the vision’s afterimage refused to fade: Tyler, cloaked in power, wielding light like a weapon. Like something stolen and twisted.
Green and blue sabers should’ve meant peace, justice, the path of the Jedi. But in Tyler’s hands, they had flickered like illusions. False promises. Lies painted in familiar colors.
Then everything snapped into place. The pieces he had ignored, downplayed, wanted to overlook, now fell together like a cruel puzzle closing around his mind.
The way Tyler had looked at him from the beginning. Not just with interest, but intent.
The way he spoke. Cruel, careful, always skirting around vulnerability with just enough charm to disarm Josh's defenses.
The way he touched. Forceful, but precise, as if mapping out weak spots.
The vision hadn’t come from nowhere. Tyler had projected it. Not a memory. Not a fantasy. A weapon.
Josh’s breath hitched, chest rising in uneven, ragged bursts. The realization burned through him like a lightsaber dragged through durasteel.
This, this was how Tyler wanted him to fall. Not by saber-locks or battle cries. Not with fury or fire.
But by erosion.
By desire.
By offering him everything he was never allowed to want.
The Jedi taught him to let go of attachments. To master emotion, not succumb to it. But Tyler had twisted that, offering affection as a slow poison, murmuring comfort while pulling him inch by inch from the light. He hadn’t just touched Josh’s body, he had infiltrated his mind.
Tyler had studied him. Known exactly where to press. And Josh, he’d wanted it. That was the worst part.
Tyler’s gaze lingered for a breath longer, lips parted like he was about to speak or command. His eyes glittered with something too confident, too satisfied. Like he’d already seen the outcome and was simply watching Josh catch up.
He leaned in again, gaze heavy with promise, his mouth curving like he’d already won.
Josh shoved him back.
Hard.
Tyler fell onto the cot with a surprised grunt, the impact soft but jarring. For a flicker, just an instant, his expression cracked: surprise… followed by something like triumph.
The realization made Josh recoil like he’d been burned.
“W-What am I doing?” he choked out. “You’re...you’re in my head. Get out. Get away from me! ”
His voice cracked like a stressed hull, thick with horror and shame that scraped raw against the back of his throat. The words felt foreign in his mouth, like they belonged to someone else. Someone less weak.
He staggered back, legs trembling, vision swimming. It was like the tent wasn’t real anymore, like the walls were too close, like the air was thick with residual Force energy. His skin crawled where Tyler’s hands had been, as if the contact had branded him.
The vision still clung to his thoughts, sticky and suffocating. Tyler wielding sabers the Jedi should have claimed. Tyler smiling with the certainty of someone who knew Josh would break.
The feeling wasn’t gone. It lingered. Just like the dark side always did.
Josh turned, nearly tripping over his own feet as he reached the tent flap and tore it open. Cold air blasted his bare chest, and for a second it was like he could breathe again. The chill stung his sweat-slick skin, sharp and purifying.
He stumbled outside, boots crunching on wet grass and soil. The vast night sky spread above him. Swollen moons, stars scattered like broken crystal, nebulas pulsing in distant colors.
His breaths came faster, shallow and panicked. Each inhale scraped against his throat like sand, and the air no longer felt like oxygen. It was suffocating, thick with shame and smoke. Tears welled unbidden in his eyes, blurring the stars above into streaks of distant, indifferent fire.
He staggered back, the grass cold and slick beneath his feet, the weight of his failure slamming into him like a kinetic blast. The Force roiled around him, violent and wild, mirroring the chaos in his mind. Not the steady stream he’d known since he was a child, but a churning ocean, its currents jagged and unpredictable.
His hands clenched at his sides, knuckles white.
This is what he wanted. This is what he planned.
To make Josh fall, to make him his.
What would the Council say? What would Master Keons think? What would any of them see if they looked at him now?
He had betrayed everything: his discipline, his purpose, his restraint.
And worst of all, he hadn’t fallen in battle. He hadn’t been bested by power, or tortured into weakness.
He’d wanted.
The realization seared through him like a blade of pure red energy.
His nails dug deep into his palms, drawing tiny crescents of blood. He needed the pain. Needed something to ground him. To hold together the pieces of a self that felt like it was fracturing apart.
The chill of the night bit at his bare skin, but it wasn’t enough. Not to cool the shame that scorched beneath. Not to scrub away the phantom touch of Tyler’s hands, or the vision of those twin sabers. Green and blue, yes, but wielded with malice.
What kind of Jedi am I if I fall so easily?
The question echoed like a hollow drumbeat, over and over, reverberating through the hollowed-out space where his certainty used to be. Doubt coiled tight in his chest, like a serpent. Poisonous, squeezing, and suffocating.
Then, the tent flap rustled behind him.
Josh froze.
Tyler stepped into the moonlight like a specter born of shadow and desire. His silhouette cut against the night. Tall, sure, cloaked in the confidence of someone who already knew he’d won.
He moved with that same predator’s grace that always put Josh on edge. Each motion fluid, economical, quiet as a shadow-cat stalking prey. He wiped his hands lazily on his trousers, like brushing away crumbs from a feast. Like none of it had meant anything.
Twin sabers hung at his belt, their hilts glinting in the low light. Not ignited, but not forgotten.
Tyler’s gaze swept over him, shirtless, trembling, wide-eyed with panic, and something wicked gleamed in his eyes.
Josh’s breath spiked. His pulse thundered in his ears, so loud he thought the Force itself might be vibrating with it. He took an unsteady step back.
“I said get away from me.” His voice was a snarl, but brittle, cracked with emotion. “Stay back. ”
Tyler’s lips curled slowly, like a sarlacc uncoiling in the depths. Mocking amusement danced in his eyes.
“What changed, Padawan?” he asked, and the word wasn’t a title, it was a blade. Sharp and gleaming with mockery.
He stepped forward. Then again. His boots whispering against the earth. Like he didn’t fear Josh would flee. Like he knew he wouldn’t.
“For a moment there…” Tyler’s voice dropped, silky and amused, “it was like looking in a mirror.”
Josh shook his head violently, as if to clear the vision, the voice, the truth.
“That’s...that’s not true,” he breathed. “I-I...you tricked me.” His voice trembled under the weight of betrayal. Of his own stupidity. Of the darkness he’d let into his mind and called it warmth.
Tyler laughed. Not loud. Not cruel. Just dark. A sound that slithered beneath Josh’s skin.
He began to pace. Slow. Deliberate. Circling Josh like a bounty hunter eyeing a wounded target.
The Force fell still, tense like a drawn bowstring. Even the night seemed to hold its breath.
“Really? Me? ” Tyler teased, voice syrup-thick and deadly. “I would neverrrrr. ” He dragged the word out like a blade across stone. “You did this, Joshua. You reached. You wanted. I just… helped you find the door.”
His gaze burned as he stepped closer.
Josh turned with him, refusing to let Tyler out of his sight. His back stayed square. Every muscle coiled tight, instinct overriding exhaustion.
He could feel the dark side still clinging to him. Like tar on his skin. Like smoke in his lungs. It didn’t fade. It hungered.
Tyler stopped. His smirk widened, all teeth and shadow.
“I almost had you,” he whispered. “Completely. Fully. In one day.”
His voice was drenched in satisfaction, thick with power. Like he’d cracked a kyber crystal just to hear it scream.
“Isn’t that marvelous?”
Josh’s heart thundered. The air between them sparked, charged with memory and madness. With temptation. With choice.
He stood trembling at the precipice, staring into the abyss Tyler offered. And Tyler relished it.
Then, pain.
Invisible fingers coiled around his throat. Josh’s eyes widened in shock as his breath was suddenly strangled, yanked from his lungs by an unseen hand. His feet skidded back in the dirt, boots dragging, the Force pressing down like durasteel clamps.
Tyler’s hand was raised, steady and poised, his expression unreadable. Only the gleam in his eyes betrayed the thrill. The high.
“You let me in,” Tyler said calmly, as if explaining something inevitable. “You let this happen. That makes you just like me.”
Josh’s hands clawed at his neck, a useless reflex. The pressure mounted until he thought his spine would snap. But somewhere beneath the pain… the fire returned.
The Force answered.
A pulse rippled outward from his core. Josh reached for it with everything he had. No control. No focus. Just will.
His hand shot out and Tyler choked.
He staggered back, one foot sliding in the dirt, as Josh’s invisible grip slammed into his throat like a durasteel clamp. His smirk faltered. His eyes flared.
Josh’s vision blurred with rage and tears as he poured every ounce of his pain into the hold, matching Tyler’s brutality with his own. Both their arms were outstretched now, mirrored and trembling, each a conduit for raw, unfiltered hatred.
The Force cracked between them like lightning. Twisting currents of light and shadow, warping the very air. The grass around them flattened from the pressure, tents rustled violently, and the night itself seemed to recoil.
Neither of them said a word. They didn’t need to.
The Force howled through them, into them, against them. For a long, endless moment, they were nothing but fury. Two storms locked in place, caught in their own reflection.
And then, Josh faltered.
His arm dropped, chest heaving, his mind finally registering the horror of what he was doing.
I’m trying to kill him. This is not the Jedi way.
Tyler dropped next. His hand fell limp at his side as he stumbled forward, coughing once, sharp and painful, but laced with bitter laughter.
“God, you just love choking me tonight,” he rasped.
Josh staggered back, heart still hammering, every nerve in his body on fire. The moment hung between them like a blade suspended in air.
They were no longer predator and prey. Just two broken things, each holding up a mirror the other didn’t want to see.
But Josh wasn’t finished.
He thrust out a hand, summoning his lightsaber from where it lay inside the tent. The hilt leapt through the air, spinning cleanly into his grip with a snap.
With a sharp click-hiss, the blade ignited. Brilliant blue. Pure, defiant, and shaking slightly with the hand that held it.
Josh raised the saber. His body coiled and low, the blade angled forward, his eyes fixed and burning.
Across from him, Tyler straightened. Wiping a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. Slowly, deliberately, he unclipped both hilts from his belt.
He didn’t speak. He didn’t smile.
He just ignited both sabers.
The red flared against the night, casting his face in bloody light, illuminating the sharp lines of someone who had chosen the abyss.
The hum of their sabers filled the silence, each note singing of history and loss and unspoken pain.
They stood there. Blue against red, light against dark, breathless, broken.
Waiting for one of them to move.
Waiting to see who would fall first.
And it was Tyler.
With a predator’s precision, he lunged. Both crimson blades flared wide, one high, one sweeping low, forcing Josh into a swift backward dodge. Their sabers collided with a shriek of plasma and sparks, the first clash exploding between them like a thunderclap.
Josh moved instinctively, falling into Form IV’s fluid counters. Spinning, pivoting, letting the Force carry his momentum like wind through leaves. But Tyler was relentless. His twin sabers were merciless, a whirlwind of crimson arcs, Form VII in pure expression: Juyo. Vicious, unpredictable, and hungry.
They fought in silence at first, boots scarring the ground, breath ragged, the night alive with light and fury.
And then, Josh saw it. The mark on Tyler’s neck, dark and fresh. A hickey. His hickey. His focus wavered for a fraction of a second, just long enough.
Tyler’s blade came dangerously close, grazing Josh’s bicep. He hissed, pivoting hard, swinging wide to force space between them. But the image lingered.
Tyler noticed the hesitation and smiled.
“Really, Jedi?” he taunted between breaths, blade angled with lazy menace. “You’re going to fight me with that look in your eyes? Don’t pretend you didn’t want it.”
Josh gritted his teeth and struck again. High, fast and clean. But Tyler caught it with one saber and brought the second down with punishing force, slamming it against Josh’s defense until he staggered back.
And then Tyler saw them.
His gaze flicked down and caught the edges of violet blooming low on Josh’s abdomen, creeping up his neck beneath his collarbone. Hickeys. His hickeys.
Tyler laughed.
“Oh,” he said, almost breathless, “this is deliciously pathetic.”
Their sabers locked again. Blue and red sizzling in a white-hot X between them, faces inches apart.
“We were all over each other five minutes ago,” Tyler sneered, voice rough from the lingering bruises around his throat. “I was inside your mind. Inside you. And now you want to kill me? Over what, shame? That’s what you’re wielding the Jedi Code for now?”
Josh’s jaw clenched.
“You used me.”
“I told you I would.” Tyler twisted one saber to try and wrench Josh’s blade away, but Josh broke the lock and spun low, coming up behind with a clean strike that Tyler just barely blocked.
The fight blurred. Each move faster, more desperate, more personal. Their breath came in harsh bursts. Not a battle of ideology, not Jedi versus Sith. Them. Their touch. Their kiss. Their marks burned into each other’s skin like brands.
“I should’ve killed you the first night,” Josh spat, sweat dripping down his brow as he pressed forward, saber flashing in a desperate upward arc.
Tyler leaned in mid-parry, eyes wild.
“But you didn’t. You wanted me.”
Another flurry of blows. Josh’s blade a streak of blue fury, Tyler’s a crimson storm. Dust flew from the earth. A tree branch overhead cracked and splintered under stray strikes. The Force rippled and shuddered, dragged into their orbit like a tide pulled by twin moons.
Josh shoved Tyler back with a Force push, harder than intended. Tyler hit the ground with a grunt, one saber skidding just out of reach.
He didn’t rush to retrieve it.
He just sat there, grinning up at Josh from the dirt, chest heaving.
“Look at us,” he said, voice full of mockery, but not devoid of something… darker. “The scars still fresh. Our hickeys still warm. And you think this ends in one of us winning?”
Josh stood over him, blade ignited, hands shaking, sweat and dirt streaking his face, then lunged.
Tyler was ready. He leapt up, dirt smeared on his legs. The red blade came up in a vicious arc, but Josh ducked beneath it, pivoted on his heel, and slammed the hilt of his saber against Tyler’s wrist. The weapon flew from Tyler’s hand and hit the ground with a dull thud, deactivating on impact.
Josh didn’t let up. He swept in again, knocked the second saber from Tyler’s other hand with a flick of his wrist and a precise, controlled burst of the Force.
Tyler skidded backward across the mud, weaponless, breath ragged. His eyes flicked to his sabers, both out of reach.
Josh raised his blade and pointed it directly at Tyler’s chest.
“It’s over,” he said. “Stop.”
But Tyler… laughed. Of course he did.
He surged forward in a blur of motion. Spinning low, ducking beneath Josh’s saber, flipping over him in one fluid movement. Josh turned fast, but not fast enough. Tyler landed, tucked, and rolled, grabbing one of the red sabers and igniting it mid-motion.
The crimson blade hissed to life once more.
“Joshua, this is getting so repetitive,” Tyler drawled, voice crackling with dark delight. “Kiss, fight, kiss, fight. Are we stuck in a holo-drama or are you just that conflicted?”
Josh’s jaw clenched. He came at him again. Faster, harder, no hesitation this time.
Their sabers clashed once more in a screech of light and fury. But Josh moved differently now. Less cautious, more brutal. With one clean strike, he nicked Tyler’s thigh enough to burn, to make him stumble.
Tyler let out a sharp snarl, eyes flashing.
“Careful,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
Josh’s face twisted, fury boiling up in his throat.
“I don’t want your hands on me. Not ever again.”
Tyler faltered. A stumble in his aura. A crack in the darkness. His saber dipped an inch. His smirk twitched, like it might collapse under the weight of something deeper.
Josh didn’t hesitate. Blue light surged forward again, driving Tyler back, each strike echoing with clarity, with rage, with refusal.
“I don’t want your lips,” Josh spat, slicing the air. “I don’t want your voice in my head. I don’t want your touch, your manipulation. Any of it.”
Their blades locked again, red and blue grinding against each other with a screech of power. Sparks danced between them. Tyler’s teeth bared, snarling, his mask of confidence fracturing with every passing second.
“You wanted all of it,” he snapped, voice strained. “You still do.”
Josh’s saber hovered, searing inches from his cheek. He could see the flicker of the flame in Tyler’s eyes.
“I did.” Josh’s voice was quiet now, ragged. But sure. “But now I see you for what you are.”
He shoved.
Tyler stumbled back, and Josh didn’t follow. The tension stretched, taut as a garrote, the Force groaning between them like a temple under siege.
Tyler’s chest heaved. The smirk was gone. Something colder took its place.
Then, he lunged again.
The red saber came fast, a downward arc of hate and heat. Josh blocked, barely, the collision slamming down his arms. Tyler twisted. Dirty, brutal and fast. He swept the saber sideways in a cruel angle just enough to slide past Josh’s guard.
The tip of the red blade kissed across Josh’s face.
He screamed as the heat seared across the bridge of his nose, slicing a shallow, brutal line, a twin to the scar carved into Tyler’s own nose.
Josh stumbled back, one hand flying to his face, the other keeping his saber raised. Blood ran down into his mouth. The pain was white-hot and blinding.
Tyler stood over him, grinning again.
“There,” he breathed, voice velvet and poison. “Now it truly is like looking in a mirror.”
Josh’s lip curled. He spat right into Tyler’s chest.
“Fuck. You.”
Tyler looked down at the spit on his chest, then up again, his laughter peeled out of him, low, wicked, almost joyful. It echoed in the trees, around the tent, into the broken silence of the aftermath.
“You see?” he crooned, voice like smoke curling around fire. “We’re back to the same rhythm. Kiss, fight, push, pull. God, it’s poetic.”
He tilted his head, studying Josh with theatrical fascination.
“Tell me. Do you shove me away because you hate me, or because you hate how much you want to come back?”
Josh’s hands trembled at his sides, saber still ignited, its blue glow staining the dirt between them. Blood ran warm down his face, the scar burning fresh. But it was nothing compared to the ache in his chest.
He gritted his teeth.
“I’m done with this.”
Tyler arched a brow.
“I’m going to focus on my mission,” Josh went on, voice steadier now. “I’m going to meditate. I’m going to return to the light.” His grip on the hilt tightened. “And I’m going to save you, whether you want it or not.”
Tyler gave a slow, theatrical sigh, brushing a hand across the bruise already blooming at his jaw.
“Ah, the noble Jedi,” he purred. “You still think you get to be the one who fixes this. That your light is a leash I’ll follow like a lost pet.”
He stepped forward just one pace, red saber casting its vicious glow across his face.
“Oh, Joshua,” Tyler whispered, voice intimate, sharp. “Still clinging to that righteous indignation like it’ll save you.” His grin returned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You can’t bring me to the light. You never could.”
Josh’s saber burned brightly , bathing his blood-streaked face in pale blue. His eyes met Tyler’s, and this time, they didn’t flinch. He took a single step forward, like anchoring himself in the truth.
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”
Tyler paused, just for a breath.
Josh inhaled shakily.
“Maybe you really are lost.”
For the first time, Tyler didn’t laugh. He didn’t smile. He just stared. Quiet. Empty. The heat in his face gone, the fury dimmed to a low, burning coal.
His saber lowered slightly, not as surrender, but as… acknowledgement. A flicker of something ancient crossed his face. Sadness, maybe. Regret. Or just the illusion of it.
He took one slow step back, then another, eyes locked with Josh’s. No fear. No hesitation.
Then he smiled. That same sharp, devastating smile.
“Save yourself first,” he said, voice calm and cruel, as if it were inevitable. “You’re a lot closer to falling than you think.”