Now, a few words about Mechi Daisuke before you meet her. She had the outward appearance of a cute little red haired girl who you'd expect a round headed kid from a comic strip to have a crush on. Only, she was a young adult who had some unusual powers up her sleeve. She could be really charming when she was trying to be… but she also had a really snarky attitude around people she didn't like… and a lot of guys in the galaxy would have done just about ANYTHING to be in a romantic relationship with her.
Not long ago, she returned from exile and made her way to Lux's place. She knocked on the door and said, "It's me. Mechi." She smiled because she couldn't hold back her emotions.
Lux now lived in an old castle on the snowy planet of Rhen Var which he used to hide from the empire. But he heard a familiar voice as he was pacing back and forth near the front gate and drawbridge. The gate opened up as soon as he realized it was an old friend. Standing right there, still in the same outfit he'd been wearing for years now... was Lux. "Hey there." He gave a small smile. "Good to see you again, old friend. It's a bit refreshing, what with the war and all."
"Hewwo Luxie!" She approached and hugged him gently. "It has been a long time, indeed."
"Hehe!" He also was a very huggy person when it came to the right people. So, he hugged her back. "Yes it has. Welcome to my not so humble abode. I hope you don't find the ice cold environment too harsh."
"Ohh, don't worry about the cold weather. That's going to change." She snickered. "How about we visit the stores? I've spared a lot of credits while I was in exile."
"Well, sure. But we'd have to go off world for it. The only life forms other than the snow-capped trees and bushes are here in this castle… and that isn't much. Just me and my companions." He paused. "Wait. You're saying you can reverse the wintry weather here? This place has been frozen solid for thousands of years, from what Angmar tells me."
"That depends on which method you like more. I can buy you some thick winter clothes... or I could hug you, which also keeps you warm." She smiled.
"Awwh! Either way, my friend. Either way." He kept his arms around her and gently nuzzled her neck. He had gotten tight like this with a lot of girls. He just didn't bother kissing any of them, unless they happened to be his long separated but not forgotten wife… Ahsoka Bonteri.
"Why not do both of them?" She huggled him. "I missed you so muchies."
"Sure. Why not?" He kept a smile written on his face. "Thanks. I'm kind of touched. Whenever you're ready, I'll lead you to my ship... unless you'd prefer to take yours, instead." Lux's paid Twi'lek house maid looked on from inside the castle. That's when he noticed her. "Ah! Lillia Fortuna, this is Mechi Daisuke... an old friend of mine. Mechi, this is Lillia Fortuna. My butleress."
"I wanna travel with you, bet you could always need a co-pilot." Mechi smiled brightly, then winked at Lillia. "Hii there!"
"Oh, trust me. I seldom ever travel alone. I always bring someone with me... preferably a trained force sensitive bodyguard. Reason is, I'm the galactic empire's most wanted. There is not a single Inquisitor under Palpatine who wouldn't like my head on a silver plate." He explained. Lillia smiled back and gave a shy wave.
"Don't worry, I know the fastest way to a man's heart... through his ribcage, if you know what I mean." Mechi giggled.
"Eeesh..." Lux thought about it as he remembered some of what Mechi was capable of. "Well, okay. Shall we go, then?"
"I'm sorry if that sounded weird. You're right, let's have a good time." She wrapped her arm around his and clung tightly. "Let's go."
"It's okay. I was just remembering the way you once nearly popped Inquisitor Ralfondoit's lungs... literally." He patted her back gently and started walking towards the direction of his ship.
"Take care!" Lillia called back.
"Ohh..." Mechi looked at him, concerned. "I don't want you to think bad about me because of what I did to him, that's absolutely the last thing I'd do if I had to." She clung even tighter while walking to the ship together with him. "At least I'm happy you're safe, Luxie."
"Don't worry." He gave a smile. "One of my bodyguards is an actual Sith lady. Her name's Terra Xar. I was surprised to discover, over the course of the time I got to know her, just how noble a soul she really is, despite her dark side powers. So, to me it's not the powers you have. It's the reasons you use them for that matter to me." He winked. "Thanks for your concern." He continued to pat her back a little more.
She meowed and imitated a soft purring. She enjoyed having her back patted a lot. "You're right about that."
Lux gave a small head nod as they reached his ship. He opened the hatch and then motioned for her to get on first. "After you, my friend."
After they got on board, they decided to set course for Corellia to visit the markets, there. As Lux took off into the air and programmed the nava computer, Mechi said, "The machines are ready for ludicrous speed!"
"Alright then. Here we go." He jumped into hyperspace on her signal. Hours passed away like minutes in the hyperspace and Mechi fell asleep in the seat. Within one half hour, Lux came out of hyperspace... having arrived at Corellia. He noticed when Mechi fell asleep. He gently nudged her shoulder as soon as they landed at a re-fueling station. "Pssst. We're there."
"Nguuuh..." She yawned and stretched a bit. "First, I'll invite you to a cup of coffee if you don't mind."
After paying to get his ship refueled, he pointed out a nearby building. "There's a cafe right next door to this place, right now." He pointed it out. "Shall we?"
"Yesh, yesh!" Her eyes widened in excitement as she spotted the café. He walked over to the front door with a small smile on his face and opened it up for her. He was taught by his mother to be a gentleman while she was alive.
"Thank you, Luxie." Mechi walked in and ordered a cup of tea for Lux and a cup of hot cocoa for herself, then took a seat. "They also had my favorite cocoa." She looked at Lux and smiled in a friendly way.
"No problem." Lux waited for her to order the drinks, then placed an order himself. "I'll have a ham and cheese omelet with a side of hash browns... and a glass of blue milk too." Then he took a seat and sipped his tea a little, smiling back at Mechi.
Mechi snickered when she saw him smiling back and blushed a bit. "Hey, do you want to take a sip from the cocoa? You won't regret it. It's very sweet."
"Well, okay." He took a straw and got that sip. "Mmm… you're right." Mechi then took a few sips herself, after giving an amused giggle. But from there, the rest of the day headed downhill… FAST.
As Lux's meal was being cooked, the door opened again... and someone who should have been dead came through it. He spoke not a word, as of yet, but started to approach Lux's table from behind his back. Mechi slowly began to slide under the table as she saw Darth Tyrannus coming. "Don't turn around, Lux."
Despite her warning, he turned around. "Dooku..." He gasped in horror. "No! It can't be! You're supposed to be dead!"
"I have a new master, now, Bonteri." The voice of the sinister old man who had Mina Bonteri murdered was unmistakable. This WAS Darth Tyrannus. "You can blame him for my return to the land of the living." He said with an evil smirk.
Mechi slowly came up again. "You Sith are like weed. Once cut, you grow again and again." Lux fingered his blaster.
Dooku paid Mechi's remark no mind. He turned back to Lux and said, "What chance do you think you have? You are no match for me without the aid of your protectors." He pulled out his light saber hilt.
Lux knew Dooku wasn't bluffing. He had been told a lot of things by his wife, back when she was around, about how it would take someone with as much potential and skill as Anakin Skywalker to stand up to this old man on his own. "What do you want, Count?" His eyes narrowed. He loathed Dooku with a passion, but knew it wasn't in his power to destroy him single handed.
Mechi threw in, "How dare you to interrupt our tea time?"
Internally, he laughed at Mechi's remark. But he turned his focus back to Bonteri. "I'll be frank with you, boy." After a short pause, he added... "Your head."
"May I have my last meal, first?" As Lux's dinner arrived, he paid for it quickly. "Thank you." He promptly took his breakfast plate... and threw it square into the Count's face, before throwing down a smoke bomb, taking Mechi by the hand, and getting out of the cafe quickly.
She ran outside with Lux. "Now that's what I call an escape in style."
As Lux and Mechi ran out the door, the Count wiped the egg and cheese from his face and turned around. "Are you serious? Do you REALLY think you can out run me?" He walked out of the cafe and said to the contact on his com link, "Release the Gigan."
"Run Luxie, run!" Mechi shouted. Lux bolted for his ship as fast as his legs could sprint. But then a spread of laser bolts hit the shuttle... and destroyed it. All they had to do was look up… and they'd see they had worse things to worry about than a resurrected Sith Lord. A monster. 50 feet tall, weighing 20 tons… almost in pure muscle mass… with laser vision, a chainsaw belly, swords for hands, and the ability to fly through space like a ship. "Holy mother of the zillo beast, look at this thing!" Mechi shouted.
"I'm starting to think I should have taken my chances and fought the Count." He looked beyond worried. "Wait..." He quickly ran to the nearest land speeder he saw and got inside. "You go get a new ship! I'll keep them busy!" He sped off. The Gigan chased after Lux, alright. It flew low to the ground, grazing the surface with its chainsaw belly as it went along, ready to fire its lasers again.
Mechi nodded. "I won't leave this planet without you!" She waved him and ran off to the shipyards to find a ship fast enough for the escape. When Mechi got there, however... she found three horned metal golems waiting there to ambush her. They rushed towards the red head upon sight of her and one even sprayed toxic red fumes that would hurt her a little bit, if they were successful in hitting her. Mechi ran right into the toxic red fume and grasped for air. She tried to escape the red fume. "Where's this... red fume... coming from?"
Then they grabbed her as she gasped for breath and took her by the arm, one on each side, and the last one holding a rusty looking blade behind her back. That was when the Count approached her from in front, smirking. "You'll have to do better than that, child."
Meanwhile, Lux was just barely staying alive himself. A great portion of the city had been laid waste to by the Gigan in that hot pursuit and nearly had the young man killed several times. "Moral of this story, Luxie. NEVER leave Rhen Var without Terra Xar or Durbero with you." He muttered to himself. The monster ended up flying right over him and getting in front of him. It was now standing right in his way... waiting for one false move. Lux unfastened his safety restraint and hopped out of the speeder at the last minute... firing his blaster's ascension cable at the side of the nearby sky scraper as his hijacked vehicle collided head on with the Gigan's chainsaw belly which was still whirring. As Lux repelled down the side of the building quickly, he hoped this would leave enough of an injury on the creature to make it stop chasing him. The explosion from the crashing speeder DID leave an injury on it… and cause it's chain saw to stop working. It was in a condition now, in which it probably couldn't fly, either. It screeched in pain and then stumbled onto the ground with a seismic thud. It looked like had been mortally injured... and would soon be dead. Lux reached the bottom and decided to comm Mechi after getting a safe distance away from the dying beast. "Mechi, I lost it. Where are you?"
The comlink rung, but Mechi wasn't able to answer the call. She tried to trick Dooku somehow. "Why don't you show me what Lord Tyrannus was capable of?" She provoked him. "Or are you scared to fight a 'child?'"
"You are no threat to me... and would not be much of a challenge even if you were." He crossed his arms then noticed her com link going off and promptly snatched it away with the force. He ordered them Golems to knock her out while he answered it. "Now, Bonteri. Which will it be? Your own life... or your adorable little girlfriend's?"
Lux was both enraged... and annoyed at the confusion on Dooku's part. "Why you son of a... Ahem. She's not my..." He face palmed. "Where the blazes are you, Count?"
She managed to shout at Dooku while she was being beaten by the golems. "I... challenge you... to a duel! Ah!" She got hit in the face.
Dooku continued to display a small wicked grin. "If you insist, little one." He ordered the Golems to get clear after they'd beaten her up to the point where she wouldn't put up too much of a fight. Then he blasted her with force lightning.
"Iyaa!" She suffered a lot in the storm of lightning. It took Mechi a lot of power, but eventually she managed to find cover behind a pillar, which stopped the lightning blast. "Auuu... that hurt!" She stayed behind cover for a moment to be sure no lightning could hit her. She mumbled to herself before attacking Dooku. "The old man is by far stronger than I expected... I only have one chance to hit him critically..." She picked up a stone and left her cover to encounter the Count face to face. "Catch this, old man!" Threw the stone at Dooku to prevent him from using the force. In this moment of distraction, Mechi sped up and attempted to perform a powerful jump kick. He caught it with the force as it was about to hit him and sent it flying back at her as she attempted to jump kick him. Then he ignited his saber. "Guuuh!" The stone hit her and she fell right in front of him. "Y-You..." Mechi rose, ready to deliver a final blow.
He then started blasting her with lightning again, as he took a step back. "Foolish one. Did you really think you could defeat me? Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!"
"ENOUGH, OLD MAN!" That was when the Count's spot on the floor was suddenly hit from behind with a rocket from a launcher Lux had pulled from the wreckage of his old ship. The Count darted out of the way JUST on time, but fell to the ground face flat in his haste to get out of the way of the explosion that would have torn him apart. Lux charged the Count with his own saber ignited and about to strike him.
Dooku got up and blocked him with his own blade. "Brave of you boy, but... foolish, nonetheless. I still have you outmatched." He turned his focus back to Mechi, ready to defend from the both of them if he had to. The Golems reentered the fight scene, as well. Lux took his chance to throw a thermal detonator at the Golems with his other arm, as the Count was still in a saber lock with him. He'd seen these things before. He knew who they served. Darth Tyrannus attempted to force push Lux away into the wall in back of him. But he was one of many who discovered Lux had a magic amulet hanging around his neck and under his shirt, with powers similar to that of a ysalimiri, that granted him immunity to most force attacks. Lux just knee kicked the Count in the groin then attempted to lop his head off. Even Dooku barely got out of that one. He blocked the attack right before he could be decapitated. He glanced around after trying to counter Lux's attack with one of his own, to check if Mechi had recovered or not. Lux blocked the old man's counter attack then took a few steps back, not knowing if he could actually best the Count on the ground. In fact, he knew he was outmatched. There was very little hope here.
Mechi rose slowly, with her stomach hurting from the lightning. "Lux, watch out for his lightnings!" But as the Count was about to let out force lightning again, fate intervened. A force push sent him flying backwards into the pillar Mechi had hidden behind in her struggle with Dooku… because Lux had also had just enough time between crashing his speeder into the Gigan and getting to the spaceport to call his Jedi protector and let him know what was going on. Darth Tyrannus fell senseless, having finally been caught off guard. But from a few rooms away, more of those golems started to come.
Durbero's shuttle would have been waiting just outside. "C'mon, Mechi! Let's get out of here while we can." Lux offered to take her hand after walking up to her as he said that.
She just knocked a golem out with a kick, when Lux offered her a hand. "Yes, let's leave this place." She grabbed his hand.
Lux ran with her to Durbero's shuttle and got on fast. Durbero covered their escape and got on after they did. Then he closed the hatch and took off. He'd already set the nava computer to go back to Rhen Var and he soon made the jump to light speed. Their escape was nearly compromised when the Gigan... which had apparently only been stunned by the crash from earlier, chased them through the air after seeing them take off. Its saw was now working again, and it attempted to fire its lasers at their shuttle... but they jumped into hyperspace just on time. It was too late for the creature. Dooku woke up just in time to witness their getaway. "Coward, Bonteri. This is just the beginning." He muttered.
After their escape, Lux looked his red headed friend in the eyes. "Are you okay, Mechi?"
Mechi held her stomach in pain. "Not really." She rolled up her shirt to reveal the burnt red marks on her belly. "The Count's lightnings hit me right here. I might need some healing ointment and a rest..." The skin was burnt from the heat of the lightning, but to her luck the organs were unharmed. "You arrived just in time, Luxie..." She cried tears of joy.
"Right. As soon as we get back to Rhen Var, you'll get that rest." He went to the medical cabinet of the ship and got her the ointment. Then he smiled his signature baby smile "Glad I could save you. That sadly isn't always how it ends." He sighed.
Mechi wiped off the tears and hugged Lux tightly. "Thank you."
He hugged back. "You're welcome." He wondered, though. If the lord of darkness was able to bring Dooku back from the dead… how many others would be brought back to plague the galaxy?
She rubbed the ointment on her stomach. "You look worried about something, Luxie..."
"Well, let's just say when a powerful Sith Lord who's supposed to be dead is back... that's a very bad sign." He replied. "The galaxy has been in turmoil ever since the Clone Wars got started. But now? It's gotten to be like there's absolutely nowhere left to go without running into danger of some sort."
"Must be Palpy and his darklings." She giggled.
"I don't know. Not even the emperor is ALL powerful. Plus, he's not the only villain I know who has an army at his disposal. He's just the most famous one." Lux said.
"Oh no. Then we might be in serious trouble."
"Yeah. But something my wife once told me is never to give up hope. No matter how dark things seem." He patted her shoulder as they made it back to Rhen Var.
THE END