"What's the point in – just –" His voice breaks a little. "– What's the point in decimating us and then expecting me to – follow you along –"

The shadow stands unmoved.

Dante gets onto his feet, stumbling a little, and calls his lightsaber to his hand.

Let him come.

The lightsaber sparks to life, amber, held carefully –

– and then he charges.

She stands utterly still until the very last moment, then raises her palm and catches the tip of it. It sinks in and does not emerge from the other side. When the hilt reaches her, she rips it out of his hands and blasts him backwards.

He's flung through the air, lands a distance away, injured but not to the level of broken bones – and starts trying to get back up –

He will be allowed to do so.

"What – corrupted you –?"

"This is not corruption. This is purity."

"It is probably not helpful to argue semantics."

Does he want to die? Because this is how he dies.

"— But – purity of what –?"

"I am the truest expression of the will of the Force this galaxy has seen in millennia."

"The will – being fate, the lack of choice?"

"The will being eradication."

"Of – people, everything –?"

"All life is food."

"I assume that wasn't meant to be reassuring."

"The denial of this truth is the weakness of the Jedi."

"So what's next." He looks around himself, wounded, disarmed. "I'm almost completely at your mercy."

"Submit, or die."

It takes a bit of thought.

But then: "I surrender," he tries.

"Then kneel."

He does so. Bends his head a bit, too.