Author's Note:
Once again, I forgot the disclaimer in the first chapter, so here it is.
I do not own Star Wars or anything associated with it.
Thanks EwanMcGregorIsMyHomeboy12 for the review. Glad you liked it. Hope you enjoy this chapter too.
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Star Wars: Lost and Found
Chapter 2:
Flattening herself against the wall and pulling the Force tight around herself like a cloak, Siri Tachi vanished into the shadows as a pair of pale-skinned guards marched past, oblivious to her presence.
She waited for their footsteps to fade, then moved from her hiding place and quickly but cautiously made her way down the darkened corridor, constantly scanning with the Force. She could no longer feel Obi-Wan's presence as she did in hyperspace but still the Force urged her onwards, silently assuring her that she was on the correct path.
Siri reached a locked door. She quickly cast her eyes around to check for guards and then, with a flick of her wrist, used to the Force to manipulate the locking mechanism. The door clicked open and she cautiously stepped inside, taking the hilt of her lightsaber in hand as she entered the room.
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Siri narrowed her eyes as she got her first good look at the room. It was easily ten metres square and lined with display cases, each of them holding an array of rare and exquisite artefacts. Adorning the walls were a dozen or more heads of various creatures, from Gamorreans to Wampas.
This was Ventress' personal trophy room.
The Jedi Master moved slowly through the room, heading for the door on the opposite wall. All the time, she kept close to the edge of the room, ready to dart for cover should anyone else enter the chamber.
She was nearly at the other door when a glint of silver caught her eye. Siri stopped and turned her gaze back to the metallic cylinder that lay on one of the tables.
A lightsaber – one that was all too familiar to Siri.
Siri picked up the weapon and held it reverently in her hand, taking comfort in the aura of Obi-Wan Kenobi that was ingrained into the hilt.
She clipped the weapon to her belt. Finding Obi-Wan's lightsaber was the last piece of proof she needed that her closest friend was here in Ventress' lair.
Siri started to move on but the Force drew her attention to something else. There was a small, ornately carved wooden box that lay just beside where Obi-Wan's 'saber had been. Reaching out, she flipped the catch and opened the box to reveal a second lightsaber placed, almost reverently, inside a velvet-lined box.
Frowning, but sensing that the Force wanted her to take the weapon, Siri picked up the lightsaber and clipped it to her belt beside Obi-Wan's weapon.
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Leaving the trophy room, Siri descended several flights of stairs before reaching a lift shaft a few minutes later. Again, she checked that there was nobody around to bear witness to her presence.
Finding the area clear, she pulled the doors of the turbolift open with the Force and stepped forward to look down into the shaft.
The turbolift was currently waiting at the floor below.
Siri jumped down, dropping softly onto the roof of the lift with barely a sound as she cushioned her fall with the Force. She looked up to the open door on the floor above and closed the doors with a flick of her wrist. Then, with a sharp push from the Force, she disengaged the brakes and sent the turbolift hurtling downwards.
Barely thirty seconds later, Siri felt the Force telling her that she was nearly at the level she wanted. Reaching out with her mind, she applied the brakes on the turbolift again, bringing it to a stop at the level where she sensed that Asajj Ventress kept her enemies incarcerated.
Igniting the violet blade of her weapon, she plunged the searing beam of plasma down into the roof of the lift and quickly cut a circle in the metal. A sharp stamp of her boot sent the circle of durasteel crashing down.
Avoiding the burning hot edges of the hole, Siri nimbly jumped down into the lift.
Immediately she knew that this was the right place. Siri didn't even need to make an effort to read her surroundings with the Force in order to feel the cloying sense of anguish and despair that seemed to permeate every fibre of what could only be a prison.
Or a torture chamber. Siri thought grimly as a chill ran up her spine.
Trying to push such thoughts aside, Siri pressed the door release button with the palm of her hand and stepped into yet another dingy, grimy corridor.
A shout of alarm caused her to spin round, just in time to see a guard approaching her.
"Hey! Who are you?" The Rattataki demanded. "What are y-"
He was cut-off abruptly as Siri grabbed him by the throat with the Force. Eyes wide in fear, the man struggled for a few seconds, hands scrabbling desperately at his constricted throat, before Siri applied more pressure to his windpipe, choking him into unconsciousness.
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Dropping the unmoving body onto the cold stone floor, Siri set off at a run, trying to ignore the feeling of revulsion at herself for having called upon the Force in such a dark manner.
It had been necessary to stop the guard from raising the alarm, but still...
Siri shook her head to clear her thoughts.
Snap out of it, Tachi. You can feel regret later, once Obi-Wan is safe. Focus on the mission.
Siri quickened her pace, sprinting through the dark hallways.
She rounded a corner and was confronted by another pair of guards standing outside a doorway, barely an arm's length away.
Her lightsaber already in her hand, Siri re-ignited the blade and swiftly decapitated the first guard with a controlled slash of the violet blade. The second man's eyes bulged in fear and horror at the fate of his comrade. He tried to un-sling his blaster from where it hung at his shoulder but the violet blade was quicker, dispatching him with a stab to the heart.
The guard's body crumpled into a lifeless heap on the floor beside the headless corpse of his comrade.
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Kenobi screamed in pain as Ventress stabbed her knife brutally into his left arm.
"You know, Kenobi, you Jedi are right about one thing: 'There is no death'." She smiled thinly as she recited a passage from the Jedi Code. "Not for you, at least. No. No death – only pain." She smirked cruelly, punctuating her words by cutting a second knife across the Jedi Master's left thigh.
Obi-Wan gave another whimper of pain as his battered body sagged in the restraints.
Ventress leaned forward and tilted his chin up with her fingers so that she could look him in the eyes.
"What was that, Kenobi? I didn't quite catch that."
The Sith assassin opened her mouth to make another mocking comment when she heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting in the corridor outside, followed in quick succession by two meaty 'thuds'.
She turned away from her captive, hands reaching for the curved hilts of her own lightsabers at her waist.
The door to the prison cell hissed open, revealing the silhouette of a woman standing in the doorway, the glowing purple blade of a lightsaber at her side.
Asajj Ventress stepped away from her captive to confront the new threat, her fingers deftly plucking her lightsabers from her belt as her lip twisted into a contemptuous sneer.
The newcomer took a few paces forward as well, bringing herself into the dim light. Finally, Ventress got a good look at the female Jedi.
Admittedly, in her dark red leather unisuit, she didn't look like a Jedi, but realistically there wasn't really anything else she could be – not with the lightsaber and the sickeningly light Force aura that emanated from her.
"Release him, Ventress and I am willing to consider your surrender." The Jedi stated coldly.
Ventress cackled madly. "I am sorry to disappoint you, my dear, but I have grown rather fond of Master Kenobi's company." She crooned. "I could always arrange for you to stay here with him though, I suppose." She smiled.
The Jedi continued to walk slowly forward, but remained silent. As she drew closer, Ventress was able to make out the other woman's face.
Tachi.
She had never met the Jedi Master but had heard rumours of her skill as a pilot before the war and at the Battle of Geonosis. Though she had rarely been seen on the surface battlefields, word was that she was a more-than-capable leader.
"You know, Tachi, this doesn't seem like much of a rescue to me." Ventress commented lightly, but with a hint of scorn in her voice. "Listening to some of my contemporaries, anyone would think that you were a cunning strategist. This plan seems rather poorly thought out."
Ventress ignited her twin red blades and moved into a Makashi stance. "I think I had better teach you a lesson."
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The Sith assassin sprang forward, hoping to catch the Jedi off-guard but Siri reacted quicker than the blink of an eye, bringing her blade up to block Ventress' attack.
Ventress snarled at her opponent and briefly disengaged before launching back into another attack.
Siri parried the first blow, then ducked under the second blade, sending Ventress stumbling past her.
The Jedi Master didn't waste the opportunity that had presented itself and immediately launched into a counterattack employing Form II herself against the dual blades of her foe.
Ventress was caught by surprise and was forced back several paces by the Jedi Master before she recovered and stood her ground once again. She cut at Tachi with her left blade, forcing the Jedi to parry and forcing the other woman into a blade lock as she upped the pressure on her opponent's blade.
Then she lunged, stabbing at Tachi's heart with the blade in her right hand.
But instead of flesh, her blade found only air.
Sensing, more than seeing, the red blade coming at her, Siri disengaged her own weapon, unbalancing Ventress as she spun out of the way and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to the Darksider's back.
Ventress steadied herself and glared fiercely at the Jedi as the two women began circling each other.
"There aren't many of us who practise Makashi these days, so when I heard that you were one – trained by Count Dooku himself, no less – I was looking forward to the challenge." Siri commented conversationally. She sighed sadly. "Clearly you were a poor student, though." She taunted.
Ventress took the bait and screamed with rage as she leapt at the Jedi Master again, hacking and slashing furiously with her crimson blades.
It was a fearsome assault, fuelled by intense rage, which should have overwhelmed most ordinary duellists.
But Siri Tachi was no ordinary duellist. She deftly parried every strike, her face remaining a calm picture of serenity the entire time.
After a few minutes in which an observer would have got the impression that the Jedi Master was almost toying with her foe, Siri parried a blow with her lightsaber then lashed out and backhanded Ventress across the face, sending the bald woman stumbling backwards.
"Very disappointing." Siri mocked again as Ventress angrily wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.
The Sith assassin turned to face Siri once again and that was when she caught sight of the two lightsabers hanging at her opponent's belt. In that moment, only one of the weapons interested her though.
"That is not yours!" Ventress screeched furiously at the Jedi Master. "Give it to me!" She screamed, pointing at the lightsaber which had once belonged to Ky Narec – her former Master. "Give it back to me, you thieving Jedi whore!" She yelled furiously, spittle flying from her mouth.
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Siri arched an eyebrow at the Sith assassin. The pale woman looked more like a rabid Akk Dog than a sentient being. Siri lightly touched the hilt of the weapon at her waist.
"You mean this?" She asked.
Ventress stayed silent, seething with rage.
"Well, you're welcome to come and get it."
Ventress gave a feral cry and charged the Jedi Master.
The Dathomirian cut down at the Jedi with both blades aiming to bisect Siri from shoulder to hip.
Siri ducked the attack and pivoted on her left foot, spinning her body round behind Ventress as the Darksider barrelled past.
Distracted and unbalanced by her rage, Ventress had left herself open.
Siri didn't waste the opportunity. She made a backhanded cut with her 'saber.
The strike was accurate and deadly.
The assassin screamed in agony as the burning violet blade scorched a long, deep cut across her back.
Ventress staggered, almost drunkenly, from the pain. She tried to turn around to face Tachi once more but she never made it.
Instead, a powerful Force push sent her flying and she crashed through the wall into the next room.
Ventress gasped in anguish as she slammed into the hard stone floor. Her entire body was in agony. Thankfully, she was soon enveloped by the welcome oblivion of unconsciousness.