Cain launched at Dooku with a fury that split the air.
He became a blur of motion, gold flashing with a dark hue, indigo streaking like lightning, his blades carving through the space between him and the Sith Lord with lethal intent. His feet barely touched the earth as he propelled himself forward with a burst of raw Force-infused speed.
His movements shifted, this was Jar'Kai and Vapaad, fused with the unpredictable fury, with the deadly speed and precision of Djem So. Two sabers, two storms, two angles of death.
Each strike was a perfect intersection of precision and violence. Each movement flowed like a river… and striked like a Krayt Dragon.
Dooku's eyes narrowed. Rather than retreating, he stepped forward.
His Makashi danced. Shii-Cho fundamentals grounded him. Soresu instincts sealed every opening.
His red blade became a line of surgical perfection.
The field around them disappeared behind the clash of color. Flashes of gold. Streaks of indigo. Arcs of crimson.
The sound of their strikes shook the clearing—PHAM, SHHK, WHAM—KRAAAK—every blow followed by the counter-blow, every strike followed by deflection or redirection.
It was the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.
Cain pressed forward relentlessly, eyes burning gold with focus. Dooku flowed backward with ease, each step placed exactly where it needed to be.
Cain began to feel the build-up.
The storm inside him. His power rising, pressure building like a tide that refused to recede.
Then his Shatterpoint vision flared.For a split second,Dooku's form fractured.
Thin spiderweb cracks.
Glass-like fractures shimmering through his body.Flaws in the flow of the Force. A moment where the future could be altered.
But Cain's already knew he couldn't reach them. Every time he angled for a strike Dooku shifted, redirected, or pivoted the weakness out of range.
Dooku felt it too, the boy's rise in power, the danger of letting the fight stretch.
His expression sharpened and his speed doubled.
His counters grew harsher.His footwork sharper, and his strikes faster.
Cain's eyes strained to track him.
Just half a second, just a fragment of a moment and Dooku became too fast to fully perceive.
The next exchange was a blur...SLASH! CLASH! SHHK! WHAM!
Cain lunged in for a heavy two-blade strike, Dooku pivoted.
With a twist of the wrist...KRAKKOOOM!
Force Lightning erupted like a thunderstorm exploding from his hand.
This wasn't a bolt, or a stream. This was a storm.
Cain barely crossed his blades in time.
Lightning ROARED across the field, engulfing him in blinding white-blue light.
His stance buckled.His teeth clenched.
His muscles burned.
The lightning overpowered his guard, searing along his arms, chest, legs, snapping violently across his nerves as he screamed through clenched teeth.
And then, Dooku appeared in front of him.
A crimson meteor shower.
His blade moved in a ripping blur. Ten, twelve, fifteen strikes in under two seconds.
SHHK...SHHK...SHHK...SLASH...WHIP...THRUM...
None lethal, But were agonizinglly painful.
Fire cut across Cain's shoulders, chest, arms. Lines of burning agony streaked down his ribs, thigh, and side. Blood seeped into his robes. His breath ripped from his throat.
Dooku ended the sequence with a final, elegant flourish, and struck upward.
The blade grazed Cain's face...SKRRRSHHH....
A patch of Cain's white hair drifted to the ground. A searing vertical slash carved through his left eyebrow, down to the top of his cheek.
Cain's scream ripped through the forest.
Dooku stepped back, calm and cold.
"You have shown me more than Skywalker did," he said. "But you are still lacking… Padawan."
Cain's vision blurred, his world flickered.
Yet when he lifted his head. His right eye, his golden pupil, glared up at Dooku with rage and fury that could burn stars.
Dooku smirked.
"Good. Let the anger flow."
Cain spat blood and rose, staggering but unbroken.
"I'm just getting started… old man."
He lunged.
This time, Dooku didn't counter with elegance.
He simply blocked, meeting every blow with raw physical force.
Dooku's enhanced physique showing its truth, years of conditioning, training, discipline.
Cain noticed it immediately.
He's not even using perfect form anymore…
He's overpowering me with pure strength.
Cain's teeth clenched as he dug deeper into the Force, a burst of speed, a feint with Anakin's blade.
The indigo saber came down in a vicious arc, meant to draw Dooku's defense. Cain pivoted.Golden blade angled. Almost hitting Dooku.
But Dooku vanished in a blur of speed. He then reappeared behind Cain and...SKRSSHHK!
A burning line slashed across Cain's back.
His knees buckled, his vision shook.Pain exploded through his spine.
Cain fell to his knees, breath torn from his lungs, limbs barely responding.
Dooku stepped toward him, raising his blade for the finishing blow.
"I will not kill you, Cain," he said softly.
"But I want to see which of you or Skywalker will be a truly worthy of apprenticeship."
The crimson blade fell...FWOOOM!
A new blade ignited blue. Blocking it.
Dooku's eyes narrowed.
Standing in front of Cain...arm extended...mask glowing faintly, was Master Plo Koon.
"Dooku," Plo said, voice low, trembling with restrained fury, "step away from my Padawan."
Dooku's expression chilled.
"Master Plo. It is… good to see you again. A shame it's under these circumstances."
Then the forest lit up.One by one, dozens of blades ignited. A mixture of Blue, Green, and Yellow. Jedi were emerging from the treeline.
On the opposite ridge...Mandalorians in blue and multicolored armor appeared. Jetpacks humming. Rifles and vibroblades drawn.
Dooku assessed the battlefield.
"I believe…" he said calmly,
"that our conversation is over."
Plo struck first. And Dooku met him...CLASH...FLARE...CLASH...
Other Jedi rushed in to support.
Theb Dooku thrust out his hand. BOOOOM....!!
A tidal wave of Force lightning exploded outward, forcing the Jedi to leap back.
And then, He vanished into the forest, a blur of Force speed, fleeing toward his ship.
Plo raised a hand.
"Do not pursue!
Anakin and Cain need immediate medical attention!"
Master Fay was already with Anakin, her hands glowing, desperately stabilizing him.
Seris and Barriss knelt beside Cain, healing what wounds they could.
Cain drifted in darkness of the void. It was cold and silent.
Then a voice appeared. It was cold silky, yet eerie and dark.
"…so soon…
You have awakened me…
so soon… You will know my love."
The voice was so ancient and deep it sent fear shooting through Cain.
Cain instinctually tried to reach for it...But was pulled back from the void.
He awoke with a sharp gasp.
His body jolt upright, and agony followed.
He lay in a healing bed within the Tython temple medical wing. His robes replaced with bandages. One eye wrapped in a bacta patch. His entire body was aching.
He turned. In the bed next to him lay Anakin.
Unconscious.
His right arm… gone.
A stump now bandaged and freshly treated.
Cain's breath hitched.
His fists clenched.
A rage unlike anything he'd felt before,
A cold focused fury rose inside him.
"Too weak…" he whispered.
"I'm still too weak…"
His golden eye narrowed. "I need to become stronger, or I wont be able to protect anyone."