Second Duel on Ambria

After Bane and his new apprentice, Darth Cognus have escaped the stone prison, they go to Ambria, where Cognus has sensed that Serra is. After finding out that Serra wouldn't be of use to him at all, Bane let's Cognus kill her. he instructs her to bury Serra Outside. Then Bane goes to his ship, The Triumph, and sends a message out to zannah stating simply "Ambria, the healer's camp". The next day Zannah arrived, and states that she has surpassed Bane and that she is the master. Bane says "Then prove it" and lunges at her. Zannah had expected Bane to come at her aggressively, but she was still caught off guard by the ferociousness of his attack. He opened up with a series of chops and slashes, causing her to stumble back under the impact of the blows. She recovered quickly, and jabbed at Bane's face, only to have him dodge and jump out of the way. Bane came back fast with a wide-arcing slash at chest level. Zannah caught the blade with one of her own, angling her weapon so that bane's attacl would be carryed into the dirt. This should have exposed him to a counterthrust, but he was already reacting to her move, driving his entire body forward into hers before she could do anything. He slammed into her, knocking her back as he snapped his head forward. Zannah threw her head back just in time, and the head butt that would have smashed her face glanced off her chin instead. Scrambling to stay on her feet, Zannah reasied her weapon back up to dodge the next half a dozen blows Bane threw at her. Zannah had always known Bane had been holding something in reserve for the day they would fight, but she only realized how much he had been holding back until now. He was faster than she could ever have imagined, and was using new sequences and unfamiliar moves he had never revealed during their practice sessions. But somehow she had survived the initial onslaught, and now had a better idea of what to expect. Bane changed tactic,settling into a pattern of feints and quick thrusts. searching for a weakness in her defense. She was being driven back in a slow retreat, and so she began to slowly gather her power, getting ready to release a powerful sith spell of insanity on Bane just when he thought he was going to win the duel. Bane circled wide trying to come in on her left flank, Zannah reacted and simply changed the angle of her retreat. with her attention split between warding off bane and gathering energy for her sith spell, she had failed to notice the freshly dug grave of Serra behind her. Her heel caught on the uneven ground as she backed up, throwing her off balance as she fell awekwardly to the ground. Bane was on her instantly, lightsaber slashing at her, heavy boots kicking and stomping at her prone body. Zannah feels her rib crack, and rolls with the impact, landing on her feet. Bane was at her again, so she threw herself into a back handspring, flipping over three times in quick succesion just to put some space between her and the giant. on her fourth flip, she thrust her lightsaber forward, meaning to impale her pursuer. Only Bane wasn't there. He had stopped serveral meters away. Getting desperate, she reached into the force, and touched her masters mind. She called upon a spell of insanity, focusing all her energy on making Bane's worse fears drive him insane. After a few moments though, Bane used his sheer will power to break through the spell, sending out a blast of dark side energy that knocked Zannah back. When she looked up, Bane was on his feet and getting ready for another charge. She reached into the depths of her power, using the last trick up her sleeve to take down her master. Black dark side tenticles rose from the ground and began to leap and jump at Bane. He managed to dodge them for the most part, but then was grazed on his right shoulder. He screamed out, feeling a pain worse than he had ever felt in his whole life. Gathering himself, he realized the only way to stop the Dark side tenticles would be to kill Zannah. He weaves, dodges, and bobs his way to zannah, managing to not get hit. He knocks the lightsaber from her hand and koncks her to the ground. Bane raises his arm for the Coup De Grace, only to have his arm hewn off by one of the tenticles that had snuck up behind him. He falls to the ground, grabbing Zannah's arm as he plays his last card, invoking the Ritual of Esence transfer. He then sees with zannah's eyes, hears with her ears. Only Zannah was there too. They begin to battle for her body,in a battle of sheer will and Dark side power. When Zannah gets up, she is moving awkwardly, like she was unfamilar with her limbs. She walks over to Cognus, and informs her that she is her new master. Cognus drops to one knee,not knowing that Darth Bane now inhabited Zannah's body. Cognus did notice that Zannah was clenching and unclenching her left hand the whole time she had been talking though.