Ferros Hekla exited her quarters in the northeast section of the Jedi Temple ziggurat in the mid-morning, as was usual for a sixteen year-old girl. She, like many other female Jedi of the reformed Jedi Order, refused to wear the cumbersome and unflattering Jedi robes except when the occasion strictly called for it. This morning, being a hotter day on Coruscant, Ferros wore a simple black strappy singlet top, short black skirt and synthleather ankle boots; her now chest-length light brown hair was tied up in a high ponytail as per usual. She usually got around in knee-high boots and tight-fitting trousers of some description, as did her old masters Kayla Talus and Ashlyn Valos. Most of the male Jedi wore the traditional robes more often than not, and they mostly argued that it gave the Jedi a presence that was easily accessible to the normal laypeople of the Republic, and they were functional and easily replaced. Ferros liked to think that the men of the Order simply liked to appear heroic and humble like the Jedi of old.
Byz Akkon was not one of those men. Now seventeen years-old, Byz had become a Jedi Knight almost two years ago, and had begun wearing regular street clothes as well. His old master Lenny Tanski disapproved, saying that he'd gotten too close to Ferros and was starting to copy her ideals. Byz always spouted the same reasons as Ferros, and deep down she knew that Lenny was right. The two had become very close friends since Ashlyn had brought Ferros to Coruscant from Mandalore with her brother Gavin and his best friend Xander Reklos. They spent as much time as they could together. Although both insisted that they were simply friends, rumours spread amongst their other friends and the masters that they were romantically involved.
Unlike the older incarnations of the Jedi Order, romance and attachment in general amongst the Jedi was not discouraged. Devin Rokanh, the first Jedi of the new Order, and Kayla – who was now the Grand Master – insisted that the new Jedi learn as much about their emotions as possible. They were adamant that the more experiences that each person had, the more power that person had over the emotional responses of the experiences. Liina Hriyek – who was now the master of the Jedi Academy – even taught all the students that the Jedi's major role in the galaxy was to maintain balance in the Force. She taught them that the Force was both light and dark, and without one, the other cannot exist. The one thing that stayed in Ferros' mind the most was a question Liina had posed to her before she passed her trials. 'A warlord who has committed genocide on his home planet,' she had said, 'the warlord is caught but support remains amongst the planet's government. Is it okay to let him live, simply because taking a life is of the dark side?' It was a question that Ferros and Byz had spent a long, long time discussing. The old Jedi Order would argue that the dark side must be avoided at all costs, and that killing the warlord would accomplish nothing. The newly reformed Order however, would argue that allowing the warlord to live after committing such acts would be putting the Force massively out of balance. In order to keep the balance in the Force, the warlord would need to die to prevent further atrocities. Ferros and Byz agreed with this philosophy wholeheartedly, and often wondered how they would have gotten on in an older version of the Jedi Order.
One thing that had stayed pretty much the same in all the times of the Jedi was the Temple itself. Ferros left the northeast quarter of the ziggurat and made her way to the courtyards above. It was a sunny day on Coruscant, and as the weather forecast had promised it was quite hot already. Dozens of younglings were training with one of the older Padawans, Crinnul Forster. Ferros glanced their way long enough to establish that Crinnul was teaching them the Djem-So lightsaber form, and smiled as the younglings blindfolded themselves and activated their training remotes. She kept walking, heading to the southwest of the ziggurat where the High Council spire was located. She was early, and was supposed to meet Byz in ten minutes' time before seeing the Council. They hadn't told the two young Jedi Knights anything about it other than it was important, which they always said anyway, even if it was just Ashlyn and Finnschall playing one of their practical jokes.
Ferros sat down on a bench and watched the younglings block incoming laser bolts from the training remotes. She admired how well Liina and her few Jedi assistants had done in teaching them all so well. The Order only had about thirty-five fully trained Jedi Knights, including the masters, and yet thanks to ex-Chancellor Jaru Grennar they had more than one hundred younglings and adolescent Jedi trainees. Ferros knew that she herself would have to start training a Padawan of her own soon, as would Byz. Ferros had only just become a Jedi Knight not long ago, but she felt it was her responsibility to help train, if only to decrease the burden on Liina. There was one youngling who particularly caught her eye, and she decided to watch for a while.
The youngling was a human girl of about ten or eleven years, roughly the same age as Ferros was when she first came to the Jedi. Kayla had found her wandering the streets of lower Coruscant alone only a few months ago, and brought her back to the Temple because she felt sorry for her. She disappeared for a few moments to fetch some new clothes and some food for the girl and came back to find her levitating several items around the room. Kayla found out later from her that she was an orphan and had been living on the street for as long as she could remember, and offered her a place within the Order which she accepted eagerly. She had made lots of friends in that time, and although her skill wasn't as advanced as some of the other younglings, she tried extremely hard to keep up and was learning so quickly that Liina was having trouble placing her in any one group for too long.
"You're thinking about Padawans again?"
Byz sat down next to her and they gave each other a peck on the cheek.
"Yeah, I think about it every time I see them training. They're so cute."
"You don't think we should maybe learn a bit more before trying to train anyone? We're not even old enough to drink yet."
"That's never stopped you," Ferros grinned. "Besides, I think we should. They'll learn a lot more with one of us than in a huge group with Crinnul."
"We won't be able to hang out as much if we have Padawans."
Ferros brushed Byz's straight blonde hair back from his eyes and leaned in close to his ear, deliberately brushing it lightly with her soft lips as she whispered. "What are you worried about?"
Byz's face became very faintly flushed, but if he was embarrassed then he hid it well. He turned his head to face her and drew in so close to her that to a casual observer it might have seemed as though they were about to kiss passionately.
"Who says I'm worried?" he smiled back. "I'm just making an observation."
"So am I," Ferros grinned as she closed within licking distance, biting her lower lip a little. Just as she saw Byz shifting a little closer, she stood up suddenly. "Come on, let's go already. The Council will be waiting for us."
Byz shook himself, then got to his feet and followed the short brunette into the southwest tower and up the turbolift. Ferros watched him as the turbolift ascended the spire, but he gave nothing away. He'd gotten quite good at that, but Ferros knew what he was thinking anyway.
The door to the Council chamber opened and revealed the eight Jedi Masters of the Jedi Council, waiting for them as expected. From the left were Finnschall Valos – the Chief Healer and second-cousin to Ashlyn – Liina, Ashlyn, Devin and Kayla in the middle, then Lenny, Runice Arriah, and finally Jens Blekkard who along with Finnschall were clearly the oldest of the reformed Order.
Finnschall was on the list given to Devin and Kayla by Jaru Grennar, and Ashlyn had only realised Finnschall was her father's cousin when they met. Ashlyn had been separated from her family on Shili while very young, whereas Finnschall had remained there for forty-one years before joining the order five years ago. She'd been a doctor, utilising her affinity with the Force to help treat her patients, giving her quite a reputation; a reputation that had earned her a place on Grennar's list, and subsequently a place on the Jedi Council and position of Chief Healer.
On the opposite end was Jens Blekkard, who was the second oldest member of the Order at forty years of age. He had come from rural Naboo with Crinnul Forster, where they'd been farmers famous for their produce. Grennar had added them to the list too, as he believed their famous produce was due to an innate ability with the Force. When Lenny and Byz had found them, they were only too eager to join the Jedi. Jens had advanced to the rank of Jedi Master extremely quickly, as he'd been training his whole life in one form or another and had mastered most of the basic skills already.
"You're early," Devin smiled. "When I was your age, I was never early for anything."
"You weren't trained in the Force back then, master," Byz countered.
"That makes no difference," Kayla grinned. "He's trained now and he's still never early."
Devin shot her a wounded look, which she rebutted with a mocking expression of guilt. Ferros shook her head in amazement – she'd always presumed that the Jedi Council would be entirely filled with people who were totally serious all the time. Between Ashlyn and Finnschall's practical jokes and Devin and Kayla's light-hearted banter, there couldn't be eight more normal people anywhere. Perhaps that's the key, she thought to herself. Maybe it's more about being the best version of yourself, rather than the best version of a Jedi.
"Anyway, children," Jens smiled, "there are two Jedi here waiting for their assignment."
"Ah yes," Devin smiled wryly, "I knew I was here for a reason."
"We've found out some more from our Jedi holocrons," Liina said. "Jens found out that what few Sith Holocrons the Jedi had gathered were taken by Darth Krayt back to a place called 'Moraband'."
"None of us knew what Moraband was, unfortunately," Ashlyn continued, "even Runice. It wasn't until we came across a galaxy map from back in the days of the Clone Wars that we realised what it was."
"Korriban," Ferros said solemnly. "The birthplace of the Sith."
"So it's been said," Runice replied. "We're not entirely sure of that. There's some evidence to suggest that the Sith were once a species, not an Order like the Jedi. We just don't know. A lot of this old information is long lost to the galaxy, and we'd need to recover it to have any idea."
"You want us to go to Korriban, don't you…" Ferros said after quickly scanning Runice's surface thoughts.
"We'd like you to take the Stealth X-Wings and take a look first," Runice explained. "We don't know exactly whether it's been repopulated by the Sith or not, so if it's obvious there are Sith on the planet then leave immediately before you're spotted."
"Korriban is a Sith tomb-world," Kayla added, finally finding her serious streak again. "Even without any live Sith on it, it's still a horribly dangerous place. The dead whisper strongly there."
"That's why we're sending both of you there," Devin concluded for Kayla. "The Sith Holocrons will likely be in what remains of the old academy. Don't bother looking in the tombs, the Sith are incapable of leaving a tomb alone if there's anything of power in it."
"Just make sure there's no Sith there, and if there isn't then quickly look in the old academy for the holocrons and then come straight back," Kayla said. "Don't do anything more than that, we don't want to risk losing either of you."
"Korriban is such an important world to the Sith though," Byz began to ask. "If what we know about Dromund Kaas is correct, then Korriban is close to it. Wouldn't it make logical sense for the Sith to have gone looking for the holocrons already?"
"Of course it makes sense," Kayla smiled. "But how do we know for sure? If there's a chance we can take some of their knowledge away from them before they even know it's there, I think it's a risk well worth taking, don't you?"
Byz looked a little concerned. "I suppose so, master."
"Be mindful of your thoughts," Devin told him. "Doubt leads to fear."
"We'll be fine, Master Rokanh," Ferros smiled. "I'll look after him."
"And I've told you a thousand times, Ferry, it's Devin. Not 'Master Rokanh'. That's what I make politicians and soldiers call me, not my friends."
"You know you sound more and more like Kyle Katarn every day, Dev," Kayla teased.
"Kyle could grow a beard," Jens mocked, stroking his own greying goatee, which matched his long, shoulder-length greying brown hair.
"Alright, I get it, I get it," Devin said. "So are you two clear on your assignment?"
"Crystal," Ferros nodded. "Take Stealth-X's, scout for Sith, check academy grounds for holocrons, report back."
"You forgot 'never leave each other's sight', and 'don't listen to the dead'," Kayla warned. "I'm not kidding about the dead. You'll see." She reached out to Ferros using the Force and gave her the equivalent of a hug. "May the Force be with you."
Ferros and Byz arrived in the Horuset system and immediately activated their ships' cloaking devices. For countless years the military and associated industries had claimed that cloaking such a small ship would be very difficult at best, if not totally impossible. Of course, they had done it successfully many times on larger ships of Corvette size and upwards, but said that the power draw on a cloaking device for a snubfighter would be more than it could handle. Devin's fellow Corellian, Creo, who was fast becoming a very in-demand engineer, was responsible for creating the cloaking devices, along with everything else on the Jedi's X-Wings. If the praise for recreating an ancient and primitive snubfighter like the X-Wing and making them outperform any of the current military fighters wasn't enough, then giving them full stealth ability would certainly have to be.
Ferros ran several scans, all coming up negative or close enough to it. "There's nothing here," she told Byz through the ship's comms. "It's totally deserted."
"I've never seen anything like it," Byz replied. "It feels…wrong, this place. It even looks wrong."
"I guess Master Kayla wasn't kidding," Ferros replied. "Well, let's take the ships in and have a look at the planet."
"I've got the coordinates for the Valley of the Dark Lords. Sending them to you now."
The coordinates appeared on Ferros' monitor, and pointed to a place on the very edge of where the light of Korriban's sun Horuset struck the planet. Ferros smirked as she realised they would have twenty-eight hours of exploring to do before it got dark again, and most likely even more scary than it already felt, even from orbit.
They set the ships down in a semi-secluded spot between some ancient-looking stone pillars which had long ago collapsed. There was nowhere else they could see nearby which had any sort of cover whatsoever, as the planet's strong winds and sandy desert had reclaimed most of the structures. As they disembarked, both Jedi immediately felt the strong call of the dark side tugging at them mercilessly.
"Why would the Sith abandon this place?" Byz asked. "It's so strong in the Force, you'd think they'd be lining up to take a look around."
Ferros shivered; it was very cold on Korriban, much colder than the desert landscape suggested it would be. It reminded her of an evil Tatooine, but with only one distant sun rather than Tatooine's two closer ones. But it wasn't just the temperature that made her shiver.
"You'd think so. There must be a reason, though. Maybe it's just too obvious for them to come here, or maybe they've forgotten it."
Byz began walking off towards what he assumed was the old Sith Academy. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. Come on, let's go check it out."
The two young Jedi trekked onwards. Ferros could swear she was hearing voices whispering inside her head. She remembered Kayla's advice to ignore the dead, and decided immediately that it was wise to heed it. After a few kilometres of walking they reached the remnants of the Sith Academy, which was almost completely ruined from what they assumed was a Republic bombing. Liina hadn't managed to gather too much information on what had happened here, but from what she knew it was originally built more than ten thousand years ago, by whom nobody remembered. It was rebuilt years later by a fallen Jedi named Revan, then rebuilt again three hundred years later by a Sith Emperor once named Vitiate. The academy had again fallen after the Great Galactic War and was forgotten for thousands of years, despite the many Sith Lords that had reoccupied the planet since. Liina had discovered the existence of several Sith Holocrons through her research, and their last known locations were this very academy. She couldn't be sure, but the Jedi Council insisted it was worth checking the place to ensure that the Sith didn't rediscover any of the ancient mysteries of their predecessors.
From what Liina had uncovered lately, it seemed that the Sith very nearly either destroyed the entire galaxy or assumed control of it several times. According to Jedi holocrons that had been found, Vitiate had been responsible for decades of war between the Sith Empire and the Republic. He had known of rituals that prolonged his life to more than a thousand years, and had annihilated the Republic to within an inch of its life several times, taking hundreds and hundreds of years of careful planning to achieve his goals. Thousands of years later, the Sith Lord Darth Bane had rediscovered the holocron of Darth Revan and began a thousand-year plan to destroy the galaxy from the inside. Shortly after Darth Bane's plan finally came undone with the defeat of the Galactic Empire and its ruler Darth Sidious, another Sith Lord Darth Krayt had come along and destroyed the Republic again, this time taking out the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and reinstating the Empire. The Council had felt that if these new Sith ever came into ownership of any holocrons that could reveal such monstrous secrets to them, then they may very well succeed again.
Ferros knew it was true, but it still made no sense to her that there was any possibility that the Sith hadn't looked here on Korriban yet. Even she knew that Korriban was a Sith world, and if she knew it then the Sith must. If they'd had time to repopulate Dromund Kaas and spread their teachings, they must have already come here. But all the same, she understood that it was imperative that the Jedi know as much as they can about what they're dealing with, so they had to be sure.
After several hours of wandering the inside of the old academy and finding nothing but ancient and broken computer terminals, lots of stone and some discarded remnants of armour and weaponry, they came to a room that was sealed off, and strangely enough the only place they hadn't checked yet. Ferros sensed great power coming from the room beyond, so thick with darkness that it felt as though her senses were being choked.
"If there's anything in this place at all, it's in this room," she told Byz. "I can almost smell the dark side coming from it."
"No kidding," Byz agreed. "Well, it's a good thing it's blocked by this enormous piece of stone," he added sarcastically. "What's it weigh, you reckon? About three hundred tonnes?"
"Size is nothing," Ferros grinned at him. "Come on, we can shift this, no worries."
Byz shrugged dismissively, then both Jedi closed their eyes and focused on the massive door. After several seconds of pure concentration, nothing had even budged.
"No worries," Byz smiled wryly. "We can shift this."
"Shut up and try harder," Ferros grumbled.
They tried again, beads of sweat quickly forming on their foreheads with the strain, but still nothing happened.
"Which way are you pushing it?" Ferros asked in frustration.
"Left," Byz answered with a confused expression. "Why?"
Ferros sighed and chuckled. "I was pushing it to the right. Let's try nudging it forwards slightly on the right side."
They tried yet again, and this time the stone door slid heavily inwards, only budging a couple of feet, but enough for them to get through. "Voilà," Ferros smiled happily.
The smile didn't last long though, as the room was completely bare. There wasn't even a refresher or a bed or even a chair.
"Something was once in here though, there's too much residual Force energy for there not to have been," Byz muttered an answer to a question unspoken.
Ferros closed her eyes and wandered slowly around the room, trying to remember what the Jedi holocrons felt like in the Force. Meanwhile, Byz checked out the stone door. After a few minutes Ferros stopped and opened her eyes again.
"There were three holocrons in this room once," she proclaimed. "They must have been removed recently for them to leave an impression this strong in the Force."
"Check this out," Byz waved her over. "This stone, it's out of place. Looks relatively new compared to the rest of this place. The markings on the floor sort of suggest that there was once another door here, but it was blown apart. Probably by an explosive of some sort. Check out the scorch marks."
Ferros leaned closer and saw that he was right. "Then the person who took the holocrons must have been someone who's not all that strong in the Force," she surmised. "This stone looks a lot bigger than whatever door was here before. Why would you need explosives for that?"
"But if it was someone who's not very strong, how did they get the bigger stone in place?" Byz asked.
They both thought about the answer for a few moments before Ferros responded. "Maybe they had to come back and close it all up once they got stronger. We have to tell the Council about this."
"One sec," Byz said, noticing something out of the corner of his eye. "What's that?" He reached down and started tugging at something stuck under the stone door. "Gimme a hand with this, would you?"
Ferros lifted the door slightly as Byz removed the object, which appeared to be a gauntlet of some kind, but completely crushed and useless.
"It's Mandalorian," Ferros gasped. "What the bloody hell was a Mandalorian doing on Korriban for?"
"Maybe whoever it was just happened to be wearing it?"
"I don't think so," Ferros shook her head. "Mandalorians are the only ones who wear Mandalorian armour."
"You don't wear any."
Ferros frowned at him. "This isn't the time, Byz. I'm telling you, this could only have belonged to a Mandalorian."
"Can't you tell who it belonged to by its colours or something?" Byz suggested.
"Sometimes." Ferros took the gauntlet and examined it more closely. "It's an older design…" she squinted in concentration as she turned it in her hands, but then shrugged in defeat. "It's too badly damaged, and all the colour has come off. I can tell it was no common soldier, but beyond that, it's impossible. You'd need to be Mandalorian and a bloody Kiffar to know any more."
"Well I doubt we're gonna find any more in here. Let's go back to the ships and report to the Council."
As they were heading back out to the Valley of the Dark Lords, Ferros noticed a message scratched into the back of the exit door.
"Byz, look at this," she said as she lit one of her two lightsabers. Both her sabers had long, cylindrical metallic hilts and a slanted emitter shroud, with a rubberised grip at the top near the shroud. The one she lit had a violet blade, while the other was a darker purple. Byz had only the one lightsaber, which had a much longer hilt than Ferros'. It had black rubber strips running vertically up the hilt, a thickened black emitter casing with a full shroud and a sulphuric yellow blade.
"What does it say?" Byz scratched his chin with his free hand. "Is that High Galactic? I can only read Aurebesh."
"You're a bit of a philistine, you know," Ferros teased. "Someday you're gonna have to learn High Galactic."
Ferros murmured to herself as she read the message in her mind, while Byz noticed something that he could read.
"These look like coordinates," he mumbled. "I'm certain of it. And it doesn't look like it's far from here, either. I'll copy this whole thing to my datapad."
"Okay I've got it," Ferros said, having read the whole message. "It says, 'We have gathered on Dromund Kaas. Soon the Empire shall be rebuilt, and all shall perish in the wake of the Lords of the Sith. If you would assume the power of the dark side, you will join us', then it lists those coordinates."
"You'd think they'd make it easier for dark Jedi scum to read," Byz snorted.
"Maybe it's a test for them, to weed out the weak and the stupid from the Sith ranks."
"I suppose that makes sense," Byz nodded, deactivating his lightsaber. "In any case, we better report this to the Council. We can speculate later."
Back on Coruscant, the Jedi Council had gathered in anticipation of Byz and Ferros' call, which came through a timely five minutes after they'd all sat down.
"Masters," Byz and Ferros bowed. "We've got good and bad news for you."
"Let's start with the good news, then," Devin replied cheerfully.
"We've found out the Sith haven't reoccupied Korriban, and we found this as well."
The message from the academy suddenly appeared in place of Ferros and Byz's holograms.
"Are these the coordinates to Dromund Kaas?" Liina asked with excitement.
"We think so, Master Hriyek," Byz answered. "But we'll need you to confirm it. The message certainly seems to suggest it, although I must confess that Ferry had to read it for me."
"I'll get right on it as soon as I can," Liina replied with a curt nod. "And you really ought to learn the High Galactic alphabet, Byz."
"So what's the bad news?" Lenny asked.
"Well, the academy is empty. It looks like it's been abandoned ever since the Great Galactic War, at least by the Order of the Sith Lords. Ferry better tell you about this part."
Ferros cleared her throat. "We felt the residual Force energy of three different holocrons, all Sith. We think they were moved recently, perhaps in the last decade or so, but it's impossible to tell for sure. We have to make assumptions here, but we think the person who took the holocrons wasn't all that strong in the Force."
"I assume you have some evidence to back up your assumption?" Runice said.
"Yes, Master Arriah," Ferros nodded, wrapping herself tighter in her black cloak in an effort to protect her from the strong, cold winds. "We had to move aside a huge, heavy stone door to get in, and once we did we found black scorch marks, as well as heavy scratching on the floor that seems to indicate there was once a thinner door seal. We think the person who broke in had to blow the original door up, which wouldn't make sense for a Jedi or Sith because heavy as the new door was, it was pretty easy to move aside. Anything lighter would have been easy."
"That doesn't make sense," Runice said as she crossed her legs. "If they were too weak to move the first seal, how could they then replace it with something bigger and heavier?"
"I wasn't sure at first either, master, but our assumption is that they had to come back with help in order to seal it up again. Either way, I think the Sith are trying to fool us into thinking they're much more powerful than they really are."
"That's a pretty dangerous assumption, Ferry," Ashlyn frowned. "They have the holocrons, after all."
"I think we're jumping to conclusions," Finnschall countered. "Ferry didn't say she thought the Sith were weak, only that they were trying to fool us into thinking they're much more powerful than they really are. It would explain the recent so-called 'Cold War'."
Ashlyn considered her second-cousin's theory. "You might be right about that. It's a whole lot more information than we had before, in any case."
"You've done well, young ones," Jens smiled.
"There's more, Master Blekkard," Ferros continued. "We found this stuck under the new door-stone."
Ferros held up the gauntlet she'd found, crushed and completely removed of any usefulness it once had.
"That's Mandalorian, isn't it?" Ashlyn observed. "What can you tell from it?"
"Like I said to Byz before, the colours are gone from years of decay so it's impossible to tell who it belongs to unless you're a Kiffar or some other person with psychometric powers. The only thing I can tell for sure is that it doesn't belong to a common soldier, and it's old enough that it looks at least two armour generations out of date."
"Thanks, Ferros, and thanks Byz," Kayla smiled sweetly at them. "Come back to Coruscant as soon as you can. I don't want you two staying on that dreadful planet any longer than you need to."
"Yes, master," they both said, shortly before a muffled cry was heard and the hologram abruptly disappeared.
"What the hell was that?" Lenny spat.
Devin already had his eyes closed and was stretching out his senses. It took him a few moments to respond. "Ferros is in trouble."
Ferros wiped the blood running from the corner of her mouth and watched in anger and despair as the man – obviously quite a powerful Sith Lord – held Byz up by his throat, suspended a metre off the ground. He was only about an inch taller than Byz, but was quite a great deal more solidly built. His bald head reflected the setting sun and partially hid his cruel smile behind a veil of refracting light. Ferros squinted and snarled, the voices of many dead Sith echoing within her head, desperate to be heard.
"Let him go. Now."
She lit her two lightsabers and assumed Juyo guard, carefully probing the man's defences. Byz's eyes welled with tears as he got perilously close to unconsciousness. Ferros grabbed the man's wrist with the Force and crushed it as hard as she could, then quickly released it. The grip itself had no impact at all on him, but releasing it again afterwards gave Byz the opportunity he'd needed to escape. He activated his yellow saber and quickly sliced backwards, skimming the man's chest.
"I am Darth Artaith," the man said with a grim smile, doing his best not to seem bothered by Byz's slash to the chest , "and you will come with me, girl."
Artaith seemed to spit the word 'girl' as though it tasted terrible to him. Ferros just laughed bitterly a couple of times in response.
"I don't think so," she replied. "I'm afraid you're gonna have to make me."
"That was my intention," the man said coldly, his grim smile turning slowly into a wicked and sadistic one.
Moving faster than either of the two Jedi could even detect, Artaith had closed the gap between them, grabbed Ferros' throat and punched her hard in the stomach four times. Byz started swinging his lightsaber, but the Sith simply drew his crimson saberstaff and blocked everything. Ferros' lightsabers came flying out of her hands then, summoned by Artaith even as he fought off Byz and held her immobile all at the same time. The sabers flew several dozen metres away and deactivated in mid-air as Ferros struggled to try and release the Sith's hand from her throat. Unable to focus well enough to use the Force, she swung her right leg up and hooked it around Artaith's arm, giving herself some leverage. Then she reared her left foot back and kicked the side of his head as hard as she could. Artaith dropped Ferros immediately and fell to the ground, nearly taking Byz out in the process.
Ferros collapsed and drew enormous gulps of air as quickly as she could to try and stabilise her breathing again as she saw Artaith getting back to his feet and making his way over to her. Panicking, she called her lightsabers to her hands as she got up, but Artaith stopped their progress a few metres short of her and they fell back to the ground harmlessly. As the Sith grinned at her again, Ferros ripped his lightsaber from his own grasp and threw it at him as hard as she could. The saber spun neatly and quickly at him and she used the time to gather her own sabers back and charge straight at him. Knowing he was now in a whole world of trouble, Artaith leapt up into the air to avoid the thrown saberstaff, but found himself kicked hard in the back by Byz, and fell to the ground hard.
Ferros and Byz jumped over in a single leap and landed next to the Sith Lord. Ferros picked him up using the Force and held him in the air as Byz called the Sith's lightsaber to his hand. Artaith didn't seem at all bothered by this; in fact, he just grinned at Ferros and licked his lips.
"I think perhaps that your boyfriend is getting in the way of my pleasure. He will no longer trouble us," Artaith announced, and as if on cue, Byz fell to the ground unconscious.
"Byz!" Ferros cried out. "What have you done to him? Answer me!"
"Now we have privacy," Artaith said, his grin seemingly etched onto his face like bad cosmetic surgery.
Ferros looked at Byz lying on the ground next to her and scanned him with the Force quickly to ensure he was only unconscious. However, it was a mistake that Artaith had counted on.
"Pathetic."
With the same unfathomable speed as before, Ferros found herself suspended in mid-air again and with Artaith barely a centimetre from her face. She could feel his hot, dry breath on her face as he licked his lips again. She began summoning the Force to try and free herself, but was hit in the guts again before she could. Ferros, being Mandalorian, was actually a bit amused and slightly impressed with the punch.
"That really hurt," she laughed.
"You dare mock me, little Jedi girl?" Artaith queried. "I despise your kind."
"What kind is that? Jedi?"
Artaith laughed hoarsely, like a smoker. "No," was all he said, then he roughly grabbed Ferros' breasts before punching her even harder in the face. "Women."
Ferros was beyond amusement by this point, but was still coherent and calm enough not to get carried away. "So what are we doing here?" she asked. "I like a bit of rough foreplay too, but usually I'm the rough one. Is there a point to this?"
"You sicken me, Jedi," Artaith growled. "As I said before, you will come with me."
"And if I don't?"
Artaith brought his face uncomfortably close to hers again and grinned with a subtle chuckle. "Then you will wish you had done it the easy way. I do not like women, and I was not tasked with your comfort, only your capture. So you have two choices, girl. You can come with me now, or I can beat you and rape you, and then you will come with me anyway."
Ferros felt sick as he spoke. It could have been the multiple blows she'd received to the gut, but she doubted it. Nothing repulsed her quite as much as the thought of this bald-headed, dirty-looking Sith Lord having his way with her. Then it hit her.
"What about him?" she asked, gesturing with her nose towards Byz, still unconscious on the ground.
Artaith snorted. "He would be more useful to us, in my opinion, but he is not part of my mission. He can rot here for the rest of his miserable life for all I care."
"That's what I thought," she grinned. "Okay, let's go then."
Artaith grabbed her by the throat again and dragged her away with his impossibly strong grip. Ferros choked and spluttered as her larynx was crushed, and clawed desperately at his wrist as she was dragged along the ground. Gathering the Force, she grabbed his arm as hard as she could and electrified it with Force lightning, and Artaith dropped her immediately. He withdrew his arm reflexively, and Ferros used the opportunity to launch him dozens of metres away with a powerful Force push. Even as he landed and rolled, Ferros was already on top of him, knowing she'd have to be quick and decisive if she was going to get herself and Byz to safety.
She kneeled down on top of Artaith, pressing her right shin across his throat. She kneebutted him in the head twice and punched him as hard as she could half a dozen times, hoping it would daze him a little. It did, and she quickly got up and called her lightsabers back to her hands again. As she was about to strike, she felt her feet fall away from her, and she landed on her back; more specifically on some stone fragments from one of the pillars.
"Spast!" she cursed loudly, and got to her feet again, ignoring the pain.
Just as she was about to attack again, she realised that Darth Artaith had gone, and he'd obviously taken Byz with him because Byz was nowhere to be seen either.
"Double spast!" she said, and spat saliva at the sandy ground.
