Ace
Again, he found himself staring at a mirror. His mind went to that terrible place again and the sound of the glass breaking snapped him out of his waking nightmare.
"How am I doing today Acetylene?" he asked mockingly to his own reflection. To his surprise, it answered back. He knew only he could see it. That revelation did little to still his heart.
"Remarkable that you still recall them. You had faith that the Jedi could save them, that there was no way one of them would be a traitor" his reflection spoke but its mouth never moved except into an exaggerated rictus grin.
He splashed water on his face, trying to wash the image away. He couldn't, that bizarre distorted image of himself only he saw remained, staring unblinkingly back at him.
"Caught up in a war you wanted no part of. Your Master no less. And you knew your older sister was no match. You could have saved them if you told them you knew what he was thinking"
"No. Please...stop" he sobbed. The sink rumbled as his chest wracked with each breath.
"And the Sith, just as bad. Killed the one you love to get back at her teacher, but you could have stopped them" the face's eyes burst, spilling out undulating worms, and rivers of blood that seemed to have hands and claws tearing at the rotting flesh of his terribly deformed reflection.
"That life is over. I have no need to remember any of that. Just go." He rammed his fist into the mirror, a heavy and thick impact. The face faded away, and the last vestiges of his dissociative episode left him. He hated those moments, where he found himself back at the temple, so long ago, reliving the same day over and over again.
Most of all, he hated that he hates. He believed in the positive in every one but every one had, in some way, manifested some awful extreme that he could not leave alone. Sith, Jedi, Republic, Trade Federation, every one of them have given him reason to lose faith.
Right now though, there was hope. The kid, bless her, was passed out after he hijacked the Mandalorian slave ship. He had to kill a Jedi, detonated some fuel cells and sent him screaming through a window, but the bastard attacked first and wasn't listening to reason because of the damn Sith lord following him.
He killed the Sith too. Third degree burns are a nasty way to go. He knew what would happen. The Jedi and Sith would brawl, lose sight of what was going on and the kid would have been sold into slavery or worse, on some pleasure world that hid behind bureaucracy that the Jedi couldn't, no more like wouldn't do anything about.
He heard her breathing, held onto it mentally, an anchor calling him back to reality.
The breathing calmed him and his senses spiked. He became acutely aware of everything. He knew there was a crime syndicate that paid a lot of money for that Mandalorian. They weren't going to be happy when they find his remains scattered across the plains he programmed the ship to nose dive into at velocity. That took a lot of ingenuity on his part, and he hoped loading the bodies of the Sith and Jedi would at least give him a days time to get the little one to safety.
But fate has never truly favored him, merely gave him remarkable circumstances that he has survived. It was looking like one of those situations.
Try as he might, he couldn't avoid it. They would hunt her down unless he did something excessive, something that would make them forget about her and focus only on him.
The screaming at the door came, only after he could feel their vehicle pull up. He knew they planned on killing him and likely the kid too. Too bad he had far more dire deeds in store for these malignant sacks of bantha droppings.
By the time they broke down the door, the kid was nowhere to be found. They only found him, grinning, staring a thousand miles, straight at them and keenly through them.
"WHERE IS SHE?" one man screamed. They all had blaster trained on him.
He didn't answer. He just stared, hands up in the air as if in surrender, but his broken smile and bright purple eyes openly mocked the gesture and dared them to open fire on him.
Before they could react, shards of the mirror screamed past him into their throats, silencing their screams, as a pair of large wicked shuriken lanced out from their holders and buried themselves into a pair of survivors. One of them was still alive when the sabers flashed to life. He felt himself hurled through the air, down the stairs tumbling violently into others who had come to find the girl.
Acetylene didn't let up. They screamed, he smiled and like a falcon he was airborne.
"Holy shit..!" someone exclaimed. Ace didn't have time to register who said that. Everything about this moment imprinted on his brain like stroboscopic film, blinding images of fright and terror that fed his drive and focus.
The two shuriken, as if possessed of a life of their own, shot from the apartment he had resided in for the last 13 hours, buried themselves into the driver of the get away speeder as Ace was airborne. He landed hard on the cab of the vehicle, a sickening crunch telling him the occupants were trapped. Both sabers came to life and he quartered the vehicle without a second thought.
Weapons fire. Blasters bolts coming for him like hundreds of star hot angry hornets bent on rendering him inert. A wild, disturbing idea popped into his head and despite how grizzly the casualties would be, he smiled.
Twelve men left, he knew he needed to leave a survivor, one to tell the crime boss about all the blood. One to enrage them so bad that they lose sight of the kid and only think of him.
He used the force, called his shurikens back to him as he wrenched the driver out of the mangled vehicle. He was stuck, pleaded with Acetylene for mercy amid blaster fire.
The sabers flicked to life, and the mans suffering was ended. Without a second hesitation Acetylene hurled the upper half of the mans body up and over the wreckage of the car. Stunned, some of the thugs shot the corpse. The other drew back in disgust.
And that's when the true terror began.
A blinding purple blur, and Acetylene had closed the distance. The sabers came to life again but they did not meet flesh or metal of the closest thug. Rather they cross and deflected a blaster bolt into another as Ace dropped under the line of fire and emptied the contents of his mouth between the two sabers, towards the hapless victim.
Tendrils of liquid flame engulfed the man, his screams drowning out all else.
Ace rolled to his feet, into a savage side kick that crumpled the rib cage of the next man. Coughing blood, he didn't see the pommel of the saber as it crashed into is teeth. His vision dimmed, then darkness stole his sight.
Nine left, he thought to himself. The shuriken, followed by the rest of his knives, shot out in a haphazard fashion and flayed most of the appendages of one mans face, his blue green blood adding an unpleasant serene undertone to the absolute carnage.
Eight. Getting close. Uncertain if the other two will live, he tried again. A blaster was brought too close and what was this? A knife? The knife was drawn too far away. Hilt check to the jaw, tooth chips and black gore shot from his mouth as his eyes rolled back.
Seven...where was seven? Something heavy hit him in the spine. No blood, all kinetic. Acetylene stumbled to his knees. Damn, he thought. Not done yet.
He rolled to his belly and once he got his legs under him, he bolted forward, and with a snap kick he dropped another. Rebounding, he brought go the sabers to life and ripped into the man who brought him to his knees.
Five. Two ran. That left three.
His breathing was heavy. His eyes wide, the light of his weapons gleaming sinisterly from his gaze. He stalked forward. They slinked back. He screamed and closed.
Two blaster bolts, one deflected into the speeder, igniting the fuel. Vicious flames licked at the pale sky as heat upon heat lashed out at him and his victims.
The stinging sensation brought more fury to his movements, the tell tale sign of a glancing blow from the frightened man's blaster. Acetylene eclipsed his view and descended upon him, knees first, crushing his collar bones and ribs.
Two left. One tried to run, turned his back only to have a bright indigo spike erupt from his sternum.
"Oh, now what to do with you" Acetylene said as he turned towards the last man. He had fallen, soiled himself.
"You are dead you know that? Dead you crazy bastard!" the man screamed. "They will find you, they are going to murder your ass! Just another nameless victim!" he stammered as Acetylene stalked closer.
In one wicked, scintillating movement, sabers met flesh and the man screamed, now minus a set of toes and a hand.
"MURDER!? Let me tell you something about murder. Its fun. ITS EASY. AND ITS TIME TO LEARN ALL ABOUT IT"
Ace keeled down on the man and pinned him in place as he drew a wicked claw like knife from a sheath strapped to his arm. He leaned in close and whispered into the man's ear.
"Victims...aren't we all..."
"Ace, why do I have to wear your gas mask? I can't see" the little one asked. Inquisitive she was, brought a smile to his face.
"There was a bad accident, Elara. Someone was transporting a lot of stinky gases that can make your eyes burn. My mask will protect you" Ace lied. He hated doing so. But, he didn't want the child to see any of this.
He carried her on one arm as they descended the stairs. Any minute now, authorities would be here and with luck, he would be well away and have the kid home by the time her parents would be having dinner.
He found his beat up speeder and helped her get situated, pushing it well and far away from the carnage down a back alley out of sight. Please don't let her see what I have done, he kept thinking to himself.
He could see the lights of the first responders. Quickly he mounted the bike and helped Elara get comfortable.
Twist of the throttle and they were off.
He made a few last loops, trying to make sure no one was following him. The little one laughed with joy every time he took a curve in a thrilling way.
He kept at it until night fell and the little one was tired. Quietly he eased his speeder close to where he knew the little girls family lived.
"Alright Elara. You can take the mask of. Its time to go home. Your parents are worried about you." he said as he helped her down
"Okay Ace. Will we go on another adventure like this?" she beamed.
His mind flashed back to the Jedi and his shocked face, tried to keep his minds eye off it, and said "Maybe another ride on the speeder someday. But you can go on all sorts of adventures when you read". He felt corny and a little goofy saying this, but his head wasn't working quite so well and he wanted to keep Elara safe as possible.
Her family was one of the few that was resisting tenant evacuation in a bad sector. He knew the kid was kidnapped to send a message.
They approached the door, only to have it open suddenly. Instinct nearly took over and Ace found his left hand already on the hilt of one of his knives, his heart already pumping. Quickly, he threw a hood over his face, covering his eyes and ears, hoping to remain a little anonymous.
"Elara!? Is that you!? " the woman exclaimed. The child ran towards the mother as her father also stepped outside.
"Mommy! Daddy! An angel came and got me!" Elara exclaimed as her dad came rushing as well. The mother looked up, and she immediately recognized who the man in black was.
"Elara, dear go inside with your father. I have to talk to the angel" the woman spoke. There was an icy tone to her voice that Ace couldn't miss, but was glad the father and the kid did.
" There are no angels here, just a lie to light the ways" Acetylene snarled as he tried to turn away.
"Richter, what are you doing here? We agreed, it would be best for her if we never saw each other again" the woman asked.
"What am I doing here Lucy? I have no idea. Maybe, just maybe, I just saved my daughter" he caught himself. He kind of choked a little. "I just saved your daughter from a fate worse than death. She was bound for a slave colony." his eyes smoldered as he whipped around and tore the hood off. "You were supposed to get safe, get far."
"We called the authorities! They were doing" she started, but his gaze cut her off mid sentence
"The authorities? Hah what a crude joke. They were busy doing fuck all while I watched some bounty cart up a bunch of little kids, half of whom didn't survive the tranquilizers they got pumped full of. But no, the infallible authorities were on the case, there was no need for me" he snapped. "Would you rather I stood by while terrible things happen, knowing I could do something?"
"No, and we are glad you did. I'm sorry. I just...I don't know what to think of all this" she said softly.
"Its fine." it wasn't. He hurt, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"You know Richter, you could become a real Jedi. You aren't as bad off as you think" she said with a smile. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and went back inside.
As he got on the speeder, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Only it wasn't himself, but the contorted horror he saw too often in mirrors.
"I know I'm not as bad as I think. I'm afraid I am much, much worse"
At that he sped off into the night.