Dren felt the force push blast through him. He tried to keep grounded, but Aeris was always stronger than him with the force, and it sent him flying. He landed upright, to his surprise, but mostly because a wall stopped him. The hit took the air out of his lungs, and he had to gasp to bring it back in. His eyes grew wide as he lifted his lightsaber. She leapt at him, with her white blade. Their sabers clashed.<br/><br/>There she stayed, keeping him pinned with her Lightsaber, and the wall behind. He stared at her, the light sabers sizzling. Flashes of green and white fell onto her soft features. Seeing her this close, it stirred something familiar in Dren. She spoke, but he didn’t respond. He kept his gaze, always diligent, trying to not let her get the upper hand and kill him. Still, he tried to watch Asha, seeing if she was okay, but making sure to not let his gaze leave for more than a moment.<br/><br/>Then Aeris said something that caught him a bit off guard. “—but I’m not like them—“ she said. Those words stayed with him, making him wonder. She was always a bit different from the Jedi, but if there was one thing he learned, it was that the dark side is not something to be tampered with. The dark side corrupts, and it feeds anger and hate. So how was she not like them? How could she skirt with the dark side, yet not fall into it? All of the stories he had heard of good Jedi turning dark, were never part way. Darth Vader was once a Jedi, one of the greatest, and he succumbed to the dark side. The story goes there was good in him that came out in the end, but the story changed from storyteller to storyteller. No matter the version, Darth Vader was certainly no Grey Jedi.<br/><br/>He stared at her, his heart unable to tell deception from truth. He still heard fighting in the background--lightsabers clashing, grunts, and bodies slamming against walls. He tried to ignore it as he had other matters. He looked into Aeris’ eyes. No yellow, no red, only green. Like his saber. He always thought the color of his saber reminded him of her eyes. Over years he just thought it was a false memory, perhaps a fabrication. Yet they were the same shade. It was as if they were connected.<br/><br/>He wanted to say he believed her, but then he would be lying. He wanted it with all of his heart, but he knew she could be trying to trick him. That is the way of the dark side, deception and hate. He gritted his teeth, and decided to gain the upper hand again. He grunted and used all of his strength to push out with the force. A shockwave, like before, emanated from him. The blast sent Aeris flying away. Dren held his saber ready and came for her--but stopped. He looked at her, wanting answers.<br/><br/>“How can you walk amongst this Sith, but not call yourself one?” He asked her. “What happened to you?”<br/><br/>The battered pillar behind them began to crack, and the upper ceiling began to rumble. Dren looked at it, waiting to see if it would fall, but nothing came. The rumbling stopped. Clearly, the temple was no longer safe. For how long, Dren didn’t know.<br/>He wanted answers though, so he waited, hoping his Jedi comrades could hold on just a bit longer.