The lightning cut through the hellfire and smacked against Dan’s skeletal form, and while the force that came with it knocked him backs a few steps and was enough to disperse the hellfire back into smoke and air, that was all the harm it seemed to do him. The electricity itself could do little to a being of bone and fire, with no nervous system or flesh to fry. Physically, Dan had the advantage here, and he knew it. While he wasn’t indestructible, he was highly resistant to damage, and without the biological components that made lightning so damaging he may as well have been immune. More concerning for Dan was the telekinesis he knew a Force user could bring to bear. Jacen may not have been able to fry him, but if the Sith rammed him through a few buildings it would take quite a bit of the pep from his step.
That didn’t mean Jacen wasn’t having an effect. He was good with words. No one, not even Dan, not even now, could deny that. Unfortunately, even the smoothest operator could slip-up, if a lack of information led to the wrong words being chosen. Jacen didn’t know it, but he’d just made the same mistake. He was actually succeeding at first, his words and the Force managing to find weaknesses in Dan’s armor of rage. Jacen did know, didn’t he? Hadn’t he given in to the darker side of things out of an honest desire to do right by people? Maybe it went bad afterward, but hadn’t he at least started out on the path with genuinely noble intent? That didn’t mean Dan was sure, but maybe, maybe he was worth listening to—
But back home that cost me the love of my life, my child, my twin sister, my family.
RAGE.
Pure, unbridled wrath overwhelmed Dan’s senses. A gout of flame shot up around him, his power momentarily flaring out of control, and he stepped forward, ignoring the lightning as it crackled harmlessly against bone and fire. “You know nothing.” Though his voice had already been an unearthly growl, there was something off about it now, something somehow less human than it had been a moment ago. “Your beloved, your child, your sister, your family, all were the price of your own hubris, paid in tears and blood. You speak like you know me, Sith, but you know nothing at all.” Maybe Jacen had lost all of those things back in his home, but that was his choice. Dan had lost all of the same things, but he’d lost all of that before falling to pieces, before starting down his path to the darkness, and all because of a stupid twist of fate. The rage that reminder brought up was enough to break whatever spell the Sith had over him and replace it with pure, white-hot rage. Before Jacen could speak, the Rider spoke again, somehow quiet and echoing simultaneously. “No more talking now.” And then he threw back his skeletal head and opened his jaws as if to scream…and instead unleashed a swarm of locusts that buzzed and writhed as one mass, headed straight for Jacen. “Let’s see how well you can use your precious Force while your senses are harried by buzzing wings and biting mandibles.” The locusts weren’t really locusts, just more hellfire given temporary form, but they would do their job. Keep the Sith distracted until the Rider could get a good bead on his head, and then would come the blunt end of the hooked chain that hung around his right wrist.