Sylvi headed straight for the coordinates where Korben had sent the Jedi starfighter. Time was against them now. Since the Sith now knew where the artefact was located, they would no doubt send out more agents in order to claim it. Besides, Korben relied on her.
Was it really a good idea for her to leave him behind, though? Would Korben really be fine on his own? He claimed that he had seen visions of her dying if she stayed and fought with him, so she had done as commanded and left. But what if she turned around and came back again? Would his visions still come true?
Visions of the future were never easy to understand, and even the slightest change to the actual real life event could turn things around in all kinds of ways. There was also a possibility that taking the correct counter-measure against a foretold event, such as this one, would end up being the trigger for it in the first place.
Sylvi was wary that they were making a terrible mistake.
She had never been very comfortable with this aspect of the force. Korben certainly was, though. Since these were also his own visions to begin with, she trusted him to make the right decision. If anyone was qualified to interpret them in the right way, it was him.
Why was it so hard for her to let the issue go, then?
She checked her locator beacon again, to make sure that she was going in the right direction. The starfighter was parked somewhere in the forest up ahead. It was just a small craft, built for one person with just enough room for two if you squeezed a bit. Because it was too small to have an advanced system like a cloaking device on board, it had needed to be hidden among the trees instead.
Sylvi entered the vegetation at the end of the grasslands, and started making her way through the thick bushes. It was slow going at first, until she reached an area of bigger trees where the undergrowth wasn't as thick.
She thought of her objective as she ran, formulating a plan for her new mission. Korben claimed that she needed to dump the statuette in a star to destroy it. Since the fighter wasn't hyperspace capable on its own, there was really just one option to take. The sun at the centre of this system. Straightforward and simple, then.
From behind she could sense the energies of the force building in strength. There was a staggering amount of power being churned around back there at the farm. Korben had been right of course, as usual. The fight over there was way beyond her current capabilities. She would definitely have been a liability to her master if she had stayed.
This forest seemed quiet enough, though.
A slight feeling of discomfort suddenly crept upon her, an itchy feeling running along her back that she had learned from experience meant danger. Alarm sprung into her mind. She was not alone here. Someone was watching her. Sylvi's reaction was immediate.
She spun around and brought up her lightsaber, activating the glowing blue blade in a fluid motion. There was less than a fraction of a second to spare, but she did manage to get her weapon ready just in time to deflect the incoming shot. It was aimed at her torso, which made it very awkward to parry.
As momentum carried her around in a spin she tripped and fell backwards. Before she had even touched the ground, a rapid burst of new shots came at her, but Sylvi was ready for them this time. She was on full alert now. The shots flew away from her in all directions, making zapping noises as she reflected them on her weapon.
Sylvi landed hard on her behind. She was panting, and her heart beat like a drum in her chest. If she had reacted a split second too late, she would have been dead. Sylvi berated herself for her sloppiness. She should have been more careful, feeling out ahead instead of looking back. Of course there would be other hostiles out here, waiting for her.
Sylvi looked to the treetops, searching for the location from where the shots had come. She strained her vision, trying to detect her assailant among the leaves. There was movement somewhere up there in the tree crowns.
She braced herself for another attack, but nothing happened. No more shots were fired and she felt no incoming aggression. Instead, her attacker appeared to be busy disassembling the weapon, stowing the pieces of the sniper blaster in various slots on a backpack.
'Very good, little Jedi!' a man's voice shouted down to her. 'Not bad, not bad.' His accent was strange, unknown to her. It wasn't a Sith, though, she was fairly certain of that. He appeared to be some sort of a soldier type in that armour of his. Perhaps a mercenary. With a screaming discharge from his jetpack he descended, making a practised landing on the mossy ground.
The man started approaching her with arrogant steps.
Sylvi couldn't believe her eyes. Did this guy not know what she was? What she could do? She had just pretty much showed him when she deflected all of his shots from before and survived his surprise attack. With her signature weapon, no less. Most sane people would have caught on and taken off running. With a start Sylvi realised what an embarrassing pose she had landed in, and quickly got up to dust herself off. Even so, the strange man still continued to come towards her.
The warrior was a big and imposing man. Someone like that must be used to intimidating people in this way, she thought. Sylvi was a Jedi apprentice, though. He was the one who should be scared of her. At least if he knew what was good for him. 'Stop right there!' she shouted at him. 'Don't come any closer. Turn around and go back. I don't want to hurt you,' she tried to reason with him.
'Ha!' the warrior exclaimed in challenge. 'You, hurt me? Little Jedi, are you scared?' His advance continued, and Sylvi found herself backing away in spite of herself. She had never experienced an opponent as strangely confident as this before.
Who does this person think he is!? Sylvi had always been annoyed by these arrogant types. Mostly men who seemed to think they could push her around as they wished, either because of her sex or youthful appearance. Fine then, have it your way big guy, she thought, and brought up her lightsaber with a flourish. She ceased her retreating steps and waited for him to close the distance, her weapon humming reassuringly in her grip.
The mercenary stopped a short distance away from her. 'Don't enjoy killing little girls,' he said and pointed at her satchel. 'Throw me thing you carry, and live.'
'Why don't you come and take it? Or are yo—'. Sylvi's cocky retort was instantly cut short as the man charged forward with an explosive burst of his jetpack. He conjured a blaster pistol into each hand as he rushed at her.
He fired.
The shots were cleverly aimed, mostly at her extremities. Their angles made it impossible for her to deflect them right back at their source, so she didn't even try. Reflected shots flew away from her into the woods, burning black holes into trunks and severing branches. As soon as the man closed the distance she struck her blow, expecting to slay her enemy in a single stroke of her lightsaber.
It found only air.
The mercenary changed vector with another powerful jet eruption, flying up into the air and over her left side. As he passed over Sylvi's shoulder he extended his arm towards her. Flames spewed at her from a canister strapped under his armguard.
Sylvi wasn't quite fast enough to avoid it, and for a few seconds her left arm was engulfed in searing fire. She screamed in pain and rolled away from the cone of flames that circled her, almost dropping her weapon in the process. The left sleeve of her tunic was nearly burned to cinders before she managed to extinguish the flames. The scorched cloth crumbled off in blackened patches, exposing the second and third degree burns inflicted on her skin.
The mercenary didn't slow his assault. After whizzing away into the trees he threw three hovering ball-shaped drones into the air. The things immediately honed in on her, firing irregular shots her way. It should have taken her completely off guard, considering the agonized state she was in. Years of practise doing something very similar as a youngling was the thing that saved her neck this time.
Sylvi recognized the danger and started anticipating where to defend herself. Her deflections were good, but this was much harder than she was used to. There were more targets, and they fired faster. The realization of how lethal just a single hit would be also increased the intensity.
The mercenary flew around her in a circle. He occasionally fired his blaster pistols, adding even more complexity to defend against. Sylvi couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually she would make a mistake or get tired. She had to do something to try to get away.
One of the drones passed in between her and the enemy, and she saw her opportunity. Sylvi winced as she pushed at it with her damaged offhand, releasing a shockwave of the force. The drone flew backwards into the mercenary. It hit him on his thigh and shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile, she dodged two more shots from the other drones and used the distraction to sprint away into the forest. She didn't get far before she was cornered by the deadly machines again. Her hunter appeared shortly afterwards, as well, his focus on her regained. There were no more incoming pistol shots this time. Instead he threw three more balls, aimed right at her.
Sylvi recognised the threat with a sense of dread. Grenades.
She focused her mind and crushed the first one mid-air with the force. It exploded harmlessly out of range in a cloud of fire. The second one came too close to risk detonation. Instead she pushed it back at one of the passing drones with a force-push, wrecking both of them in another loud conflagration. The Jedi apprentice was out of tricks when the third and final grenade came at her. She flung herself away to the side, still busy deflecting more shots, fired by the last surviving drone.
The grenade exploded with a deafening boom.
Sylvi had managed to avoid the blast itself, but felt something bite into her right shin. She was hit, either by shrapnel or debris. There wasn't much pain. She had too much adrenaline flowing through her body for that, but it would still impede her movement. She needed to find her balance again, to regain control somehow.
She kept her momentum up and rolled herself in behind what little cover there was available, a large moss-covered boulder. It wasn't much but it gave her room for a small breather. The drone and warrior were out of line of sight.
Temporarily.
The remaining drone soon followed her tracks around the boulder and readied itself to take new shots at her. Sylvi didn't intend to let it get the chance. She put herself into a state of communion with the force and pulled from that vast resource of power. She grabbed the annoying little thing telekinetically and smashed it hard against the rocks, wrecking it in a shower of sparks.
The drones were all gone now, thankfully. The enemy mercenary wasn't.
He was slowly circling the boulder as well, keeping his distance. When he noticed that she was distracted by the last drone, he chose to go in for the kill. He charged, just as fast and powerful as before. This time he had a short lightsaber-like blade ready in his hand.
Sylvi heard the noise of the jetpack, and realised what was coming. She dodge-rolled just in the nick of time. The blade hit the rock and embedded itself right where her head had been only moments before. The warrior pulled it around for another attack, cutting through the stone as if it was made of butter.
Sylvi was on the defensive now, dodging attack after attack. Her injuries were slowing her down, hindering her from making a proper riposte. All she needed was one decent opportunity and she would end this in a single strike, but every time she tried something offensive the enemy stepped inside her guard and made her stagger away to defend herself instead. The Jedi apprentice did have one ace up her sleeve, though.
Sylvi cleared her thoughts and summoned all of the power that she could muster, directing it towards her enemy. She struck with her offhand again, releasing the force-blast through her open palm. The mercenary let out a loud grunt as the telekinetic blow hit him square in the chest, throwing him backwards into the tree branches.
She finally had some space to work with again. There was no way that her opponent could get past her guard now. She held her lightsaber ready in front of her, expecting to get more deflection practice. But it never came.
Instead of blaster pistol shots she heard the screaming of her opponent's jetpack again. Once more the mercenary decided to charge her straight on. Was he daft or suicidal? Now that she was ready and prepared there was no way that he could win. He would never get close enough without being struck down.
Her strike was perfect, flawless in every respect. It should have gone straight through him diagonally, in one clean stroke. But it didn't. Instead, her lightsaber stopped dead on the mercenary's upheld forearm. Sylvi's surprised expression lasted only for a moment, because in the next one she was hit in the chest by the man's open-palm punch.
The force of the blow was so tremendous that it threw her a fair distance backwards, but that wasn't the brunt of it. The palm of his glove was studded with multiple small nails that pierced her skin and delivered a knock-out stun of electricity, straight into her flesh.
Sylvi was unconscious before she even hit the ground.
She floated in darkness.
Distant thoughts swirled around her in a sea of emptiness, too far away and intangible to read. When reached for they dissipated like misty ghosts. There was no sense of self here, nothing corporeal to cling to. Just a vast expanse of nothing, with some faint points of lights flickering in the distance.
Stars?
There was no centre to her being here. Her thoughts and feelings drifted aimlessly through the blackness like a cloud in the sky. Memories and emotions on the periphery of her misty self were gradually breaking loose, disappearing into the void. She was falling apart.
She?
Her identity was starting to come loose, it seemed. Would the remaining structure of her mind go with it, as well? Death? No, it couldn't be allowed. Victory. Duty. Love. These things mattered more. The core of her being hardened slightly, thoughts intertwining to strengthen the scaffolding of her cognition. The cloud seemed to shrink and collect itself somewhat, collapsing into… something. Her?
Where is this place?
The force was very strong in this strange dimension. It surged all around her in swift currents, growing into a disarraying view once her mind got more focused on it. What had seemed like nothingness zoomed in to get more and more complex, like a fractal weave of consciousness intertwining everything. Each strand was connected to a living being somewhere in the material world. Some of them were thick and strong, while others were impossibly thin. She recognised a few of the big ones. They felt familiar to her somehow.
How did I get here?
Memories flooded into her core, delivering rapid visions of recent events. I'm Sylvi Si'Fei, padawan to Jedi Master Korben Loc. That was who she was, who she would continue to be. The determination of that statement pulsated through her sub-conscious, further collecting the outer strands of what she was.
She examined her surroundings. There was one fibre very close to her that was very easy to recognize. Sylvi knew that it was her teacher, her Korben. Emotions flooded her, heating her with warmth and joy. It strengthened her even further, almost all of herself had been gathered up into that single point that was her identity.
Korben's fibre was twirled up around another, equally thick one. They pulsed in disharmony, both of them trying to quench the other's stream. Korben and the Sith, fighting their deadly battle. She couldn't tell who had the upper hand between them. They were very closely matched. If only she could help Korben somehow, to tip the scales.
Maybe if I can go there in spirit, she thought, and dived herself into the rapid flowing river of force that was Korben. It grabbed at her in a swell of energy, pulling her down and under.
Panic struck her. She was being smothered, drowning in the massive waves of force surrounding her. She burned and ached, straining to pull herself out again. The vast current clawed at her mind, seeking to draw her back in.
In a manic struggle against the tide she got out and escaped as quickly as she could. It was no use. Sacrificing herself would add little compared to the huge pool that was already available to him. Sylvi had to find another way to get out of this.
She couldn't stay here for much longer. Her grip on life was fading. The force of this place threatened to pull her apart, to merge her with the rest of the vast ocean of power. Time was a strange concept in this bizarre dimension, but she knew that there was precious little of it left. She searched through the weave, seeking that one fibre which she so desperately needed. Sylvi's thread, her thread. It didn't take long to find it.
It was instantly recognizable to her. That is me, who I am, what I am, she thought. She repeated it over and over in her mind, like a mantra used to keep herself focused. She dived into it and let it engulf her. Compared to Korben's rushing flood, this was a calm creak. She allowed it to carry her to where she needed to go, towards one of the far away points of lights.
A body was lying there on the ground, sprawled and motionless. She was hovering above it, looking down into a blank and sleeping face. Her face, Sylvi Si'Fei, padawan of the Jedi Order. She still had to remind herself of that fact in order to keep her scattered soul intact. The seams of her consciousness were fraying faster and faster. It was becoming harder and harder to think clearly.
Her physical body was still alive, the connection to her spirit was still there. For the moment she was stable. She could have easily descended into her flesh, and returned to life once more. She wanted to do just that, but caution held her back. What could she do back in the physical world? Her body was badly damaged and so exhausted that she probably wouldn't even be able to rise up, much less fight again. The mercenary would finish her off and take his prize.
She shifted perspective to look his way. He was approaching, slowly and warily. 'Sorry little Jedi,' he said, 'but not smart to pick fight with Mandalorian.'
Oh, Sylvi thought, so that's what he is. She had heard stories about those fearsome warriors before, but had never actually taken them seriously. It appears that she was wrong to dismiss them, very wrong. If she had known about this before the fight, she would have been much more careful. Would have, could have, should have, didn't. There was no point in dwelling on it. She had lost, plain and simple. She had to focus on thinking ahead instead. Now, how could she salvage this situation, and preferably come out of it alive?
The Mandalorian picked up her lightsaber from the ground, where it lay beside her. 'You fought well, little girl. This will have place of honour in my collection.' He fastened the weapon onto his utility belt and dusted his hands. The warrior then brought out a steel blade and kneeled over her comatose form. Oh, no. No, no, no!
Panic spread through her like a shockwave. He was going to slice her throat to confirm the kill. She almost lost grasp on reality in her alarm. She was Sylvi Si'Fei, padawan of the Jedi Order! If her body died now, it would all be over. Death would no doubt shatter her indefinitely. She had to stop him, somehow.
Sylvi focused her thoughts on the man, as he put the knife to her throat. With a surge of the force she assaulted his mind, attempting to pierce it and influence his thoughts. 'She's already dead. This is just a waste of my time and effort. I saw her death throws before. She's gone already.'
The thoughts she injected into his mind fought a silent battle with the hunter's natural instinct to always make sure that his quarry really was dead. This wasn't working. The mercenary was simply too stubborn and hard to convince. Years of practiced routine didn't budge easily. She needed to do something different. Something radical. She had to take some big risks.
Sylvi tried to hold the man's thoughts in confusion, keeping up the mental battle for as long as possible. Meanwhile, she targeted herself instead. She felt for her weak pulse and shallow breathing, finding her tenuous grip on life. Then she began to unravel it. She slowed her heart, then stopped it completely. She smothered her breathing, until that seized up as well.
Her body was truly dying now. The fort that she had built up around her consciousness was crumbling, falling apart in massive chunks. There was no time to loose, she couldn't stay like this for very long. With another wave of the force she dived into the mind of her enemy once more. 'Check her, then. Make sure that she's really dead. Scan her for signs of life!' This was an easier appeal to make, easier for the Mandalorian to accept rather than to simply leave her alone.
The man withdrew his knife from her throat and wandered his gaze from her head to toe, using whatever detectors he had in his helmet to check for her vital signs. She would come up on them as dead, for sure, but still he hesitated. She wanted to scream, but no sounds emerged.
Sylvi was fading fast now, so she attacked again. 'Go on then, check her manually. If I can't feel her pulse with my own blasted fingers then she must really be dead, alright!?' The warrior pulled off his right glove and put his fingers to her neck, feeling for her pulse. He moved so frustratingly slow, and seemed to hold them there for an eternity. Her body was growing visibly pale, the colour of her lips had turned into an ominous shade of purple.
The man's gaze changed to the satchel lying on the ground next to her.
Yes! Sylvi thought, and encouraged him with another mental push. 'Take the satchel and hurry to my ship. Go, go. Go!' The Mandalorian cut the shoulder-strap to her satchel and grabbed it while standing up. He opened the bag and checked the contents. 'Yes, it's all there! Now go!'
Her world was shaking and growing fuzzy. Darkness approached at the edges of her vision. She was losing the fight. I am Sylvi Si'Fei. I am Sylvi Si'Fei. I am Sylvi Si'Fei! She repeated the chant over and over, to steady herself against the mental quakes threatening to tear her apart.
Her enemy glanced back once more, and then took off running into the forest. Yes, I did it! Sylvi needed to return to her body as soon as possible, but she also didn't want to come back too fast and risk being detected again. She stayed among the ruins of her mental fortress for a little while longer, until she simply couldn't bear the weight of it anymore.
That's it! She crumbled, and collapsed back into her dying flesh. The shock of it jolted her vitals back to life and she gasped a violent intake of air, only barely quenching the screams locked in her throat. Pain assaulted her senses from all possible angles. The burns on her left arm, the shrapnel in her right shin, and the aches in her chest. Her cuts and bruises. She couldn't see properly from all of the tears clouding her vision, and the world seemed to swirl like a maelstrom around her. Sylvi crouched into a foetal position, crying from anguish and relief in equal measures.
She was still alive.
