Chapter 294
**Dagon POV**
The vortex of crescent moon blades from the Fourteenth Form still howled around us like a storm of silver death. Saa Qalu staggered in the center of the maelstrom, his body a ruin of shredded flesh and cracked living armor. I raised my bleeding lightsaber for the final blow, the bluish-white edge crackling with arcs of red lightning.
Then everything went wrong.
A storm of dark lightning erupted from the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter's broken form — not Force lightning, but something fouler, drawn from the living gods he worshipped. Bloody, hooked tendrils exploded from his chest and shoulders, three razor-sharp bone hooks that pierced straight through my armor and sank deep into my chest.
Agony.
White-hot, burning agony lanced through my ribs and lungs. The hooks twisted, pumping some vile bio-toxin that made my blood scream. I gasped, vision blurring as pain threatened to drag me under.
*Damn it…*
I forced my eyes open, blood-red glare meeting the Vong's fanatic gaze. He was dying, but he was taking me with him.
Gritting my teeth against the torment, I poured every ounce of remaining power into my own Force lightning. Crimson and violet arcs erupted from my free hand, slamming into Saa Qalu's chest. The lightning met his dark storm in a cataclysmic clash. The plateau shook violently. Stone cracked. Sand fused to glass.
I pushed harder, feeding the lightning with every scrap of rage, determination, and raw will I possessed. The Vong roared — a sound of pure hatred — as his body began to blacken and char. His hooks convulsed inside my chest, tearing deeper.
With a final, guttural shout, I unleashed everything.
The lightning won.
Saa Qalu's body disintegrated in a violent burst of ash and charred bone. The bloody hooks dissolved into smoke. The dark storm died with him.
Silence fell.
I dropped to one knee, lightsaber deactivating with a weak hiss. Blood poured from the three gaping wounds in my chest. My armor was burned and melted where the lightning had struck, the plasteel fused horribly to my flesh. My helmet was partly ash, one side of my face scorched, one eye still functioning while the other wept blood. The head wound throbbed viciously, warm blood running down my neck.
*Damn… I'm bleeding out.*
The world tilted. Pain blurred everything into red haze.
Then, through the agony, I felt them — faint but desperate pulses across the bond.
**Brief Scene – Elsewhere on Tatooine**
Zule stumbled as she ran toward the crash site, Rotta still clutched protectively in her arms. Suddenly she froze, eyes widening. "Master…?"
Ahsoka, already racing back from the main group with Stella, Kayla, and Flare close behind, clutched her chest. Her lekku stiffened. "Dagon…!"
All five of them — Zule, Ahsoka, Stella, Kayla, Flare — felt it at the same moment.
Dagon's life force burned brightly for one final, defiant instant — a supernova of power and will — before it flickered… and began to fade.
"No…" Zule whispered, tears already spilling down her red-orange cheeks.
**Dagon POV**
I slumped against a shattered rock, breathing shallow and wet. The bond carried their panic, their love, their desperation.
A voice called through the haze — soft, frantic, familiar.
*Dagon…*
Oh. There was no one around. It was the bond. Final moments, I thought.
I gathered what strength remained and pushed my thoughts outward, clear and steady despite the pain.
*Ahsoka… stay strong. Stella… be courageous. Kayla… stand tall. Flare… protect them. Zule… remember the light.*
Through the bond came Zule's broken reply, teary and raw: *Wait! Don't die… I'm coming!*
I smiled faintly, blood coating my teeth.
*Growing old and dying is what gives meaning and beauty to the fleeting span of a human life. It's precisely because we age and die that our lives have value and nobility. Strength is not a word that means much in regard to the flesh. Go ahead and live with your head held high. No matter how devastated you may be by your own weakness or uselessness, set your heart ablaze. Grit your teeth and look straight ahead. Even if you stop and crouch down, time won't wait for you or snuggle you and grieve along with you. Don't feel bad that I'm going to die here. As a Jedi… of course I would shield my friends. My padawans. My heart.*
The bond flooded with their cries — Ahsoka's fierce denial, Zule's sobs, the others' desperate love.
Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision. The pain dulled into a distant roar.
One eye still open, staring up at the cold stars of Tatooine, I waited for the end.