Jax Pavan’s clash with Darth Vader at Kantaros Station turns a pursuit into a deliberate last stand, then into an escape made possible by I-Five’s intervention. Jax refuses to let Vader take Thi Xon Yimmon, the Jedi starfighter, or the dangerous knowledge carried in Jax’s own mind. Though he enters the confrontation prepared to die, the destruction of the Delta-7 Aethersprite and the arrival of help let him escape the station and rejoin his companions aboard the Laranth.

Approach and Stakes

As Jax makes his way back toward the medbay, he throws two more Force projections along his trail to mislead the pursuers he senses below and ahead. The deception cannot work on Vader: the Sith Lord has already sensed Jax through the Force, leaving no place to hide. Rather than continue evading him, Jax heads directly toward the dark energy signature ahead.

His priorities are absolute. Vader must not retrieve Thi Xon Yimmon, keep the Jedi starfighter, or capture Jax. The danger is not limited to what Yimmon knows: Jax recognizes that the knowledge in his own mind could cause destruction on another order of magnitude, with terrifying consequences for the Cephalon species alone. At a branching corridor, he weighs escape in the Delta-7 against turning left to face Vader and perhaps end the pursuit there.

Jax considers whether his understanding of time currents could give him an advantage. Vader cannot know what Jax is capable of, and the currents around the station may be manipulable enough to confuse the Sith Lord. The possibility remains uncertain, but the choice itself is decisive: Jax stops treating flight as his only option and turns toward the threat.

The Duel in the Docking Bay

With his lightsaber activated, Jax races back to the docking bay where the Delta-7 Aethersprite is hidden. He enters the vast chamber and turns as Vader comes through the portal behind him. Vader offers him a choice between surrender and death, claiming that the outcome makes no difference to him. Jax knows the offer is a lie. The difference matters to Anakin Skywalker: if Jax capitulates, Vader can treat the surrender as vindication of Anakin’s fall to the dark side.

Jax also understands that killing the last Jedi would not, by itself, satisfy Vader. The Jedi Order is already something Vader lives to crush, but Jax believes that the last Jedi must do more than simply die. When Vader commands him to choose, Jax attacks. Their lightsabers repeatedly meet, slide apart, and lock again in the machine-scented air of the docking bay.

As they fight, Jax gradually works backward toward the Aethersprite’s berth. He takes care not to appear to have given up; if Vader recognizes that he is being lured, Jax cannot predict how the Sith Lord will respond. The movement gives the duel a second purpose: Jax is not only resisting Vader but positioning himself near the hidden fighter and the connection he can use to trigger its destruction.

Vader presses him to surrender. Jax refuses, saying he would rather die than let Vader have what is in his head, and addresses the Sith Lord as Anakin. Vader pauses completely before raising his lightsaber and answering, “As you wish … Jax.” As Vader advances, Jax reaches for the connection between the pyronium and the ship. A simple command could set off the trigger. He is prepared to destroy the starfighter, himself, and Vader rather than allow his knowledge to be taken.

Intervention and Destruction of the Aethersprite

A sudden flash erupts along the hull of the neighboring starfighter, like a door opening between the ships. Jax recognizes a familiar voice, but hesitates: he still believes he must carry out his plan. A volley of blasterfire streams from the radiance between the vessels and targets Vader. The Dark Lord leaps over Jax, lands beneath the Aethersprite, and rolls clear as the shots sweep along the ship, melting its port landing struts. The fighter sags toward the deck, its bow dropping with a metallic groan.

The intervention is I-Five, a human replicant droid carrying the Nemesis blaster rifle on his android arm. Beside the droid, Jax hears I-Five urge him onward and explain that he will not lose Jax as he lost Jax’s father. Jax keeps moving. Behind him, the blasterfire intensifies; Vader’s Force-backed rage is followed by an explosion that knocks Jax off his feet and pitches him against a small courier vessel.

The docking bay is now in chaos. Fire spreads, klaxons sound, and a repeated warning orders personnel and vessels to evacuate because another explosion is imminent. Jax climbs into the tiny two-seat courier with I-Five’s head under one arm, places the head on the second seat, and starts the engines. He asks whether the Laranth is on its way into the asteroid field; I-Five says it is, provided the crew followed his last instructions.

Escape and Aftermath

Jax steers the courier away from the burning wreckage and through the shuttles fleeing the bay. As he clears the station, he looks back toward the crippled Aethersprite. A second explosion tears through the docking bay, hurling the ruined fighter into space. The pyronium consumes the blast’s energy and leaves the starfighter as a tiny, glittering piece of debris among the Imperial shuttle bays. Jax doubts Vader will be able to track it down, but he can still feel the Dark Lord’s cold rage and knows Vader has survived.

The escape is not a clean victory: Jax has denied Vader the fighter and escaped capture, but the pursuit has not ended, and the knowledge in Jax’s mind remains a threat. He locates the Laranth among the commercial vessels evacuated after the incident on the Imperial side of the station, docks with it, and transfers aboard. Then he lets the courier drift in the shelter of a slowly moving asteroid.

Back aboard the Laranth, Jax feels both joy and trepidation after everything that has happened and everything he has done. He steps onto the cramped bridge with I-Five’s head still in his arms. Sacha Swiftbird, Den Dhur, and Yimmon turn toward him and hold their gaze in a long, heavily silent moment. The encounter ends not with reassurance or a spoken welcome, but with Jax returned to the people he had been trying to protect—and the uncertainty of how they will receive him.