The lowercity streets were all but abandoned once the elevator doors slid open, with only a slight resistance. The figure stepped out of the illuminations of the elevator and began slowly walking down the pitiful street.
Alleyways branched off the main road, that no doubt lead to the apartment complexes of this street, and further more the Undercity elevator as well. As the figure continued on down the street, all kinds of rubbish passed by his feet, causing the only sounds in the depressing lives of the lowerclass of Taris.
Upon rounding his first corner, the figure stopped before a group of three more figures. The middle one stepped forward, unhooking his weapon from it's sheath as he spoke, the two behind him copied his moves, "Lord Malak was most displeased you escaped Revan's ship alive. He has offered a great reward to whoever destroy's you." As the final words escape it's mouth, all the robes covering the four figures dropped. Three dropped to reveal a trio of Dark Jedi, whereas the lone figure revolved into the figure of James.
Summoning the force to bring his sabers to his hands, James mentally got into his zone for when it came to a fight. Closing his eyes, James activated his twin blades simultaniously, using the force to determin which assailant would strike first. As fate would have it, the leader attacked first, but sloppily. His form was all over the place. It was a mirical that this man had not been killed sooner. Instantly James' eyes shot open as he brought his red lightsaber above his head to stave the attack off, whilst using his purple blade to swipe the mans chest. With an agonised cry, the man fell, lifeless before he hit the floor. The two others looked nervously at each other. James believed them better trained, but still fresh to Jedi killings.
The one on the right, obviously a woman due to her curves, hefted a double blades red lightsaber, whilst the male on the right held two lightsabers much the same as James'. The only differance being his blades were shorter than the Jedi's.
Spinning his sabers around him once, James used the force to black out the lights temporarily as he shut off his sabers. The Dark Jedi weren't as smart and kept theirs on, casting eerily red shadows along each wall. A sound of a pebble being kicked instantly made the two Sith spin around, swinging their blades. What they weren't expecting was for James to be standing between the two of them as he activated his sabers. The woman was a little quicker than the male and quickly adapted, whereas the slowness of the male cost him his life.
As James slowly turned around, allowing the lights to return to life, he slowly approached the scared Sith, who was backed up against the wall, nervously sending bolts of lightning his way, upon which he merely absorbed with his lightsaber. The woman fell to her knees and dropped her lightsaber at her feet, begging for her life,
"Please, I'll do anything! Please don't kill me! I was forced to train with the Sith! Let me go, I beg you!" She cried in self pity, and if James was correct, she only sounded as old as an elder teenager. No doubt she'd had to do many dispicable things whilst training. James never shifted his stance, nor showed any change on his facial features. "How do I know your telling the truth?" At this, the woman ripped off her mask to reveal a young and unscarred face, with fading yellow eyes. "Use the force, tell me if you find I'm lying." She demanded, the pleading in her voice dissapeared, leaving James to search her thoughts.
Upon not finding anything decietful, he decided on a course of action. "Go to Dantooine. Tell them that I sent you there. You know my name, yes?" Upon her quick nod, James continued, "But first answer me a few things. Have you had any information through the Sith that Bastila Shan and Daniel Newberry have been harmed or captured by anyone?" When she looked thoughtful, James paused, allowing her time to respond. "We got a tip that they had been taken by the Black Vulcars. Well, one of them anyway. The Hidden Becks may have the other. I'd think about checking the Hidden Becks myself." When she finished answering, James continued on with his final question, "What will Malak do if he can't find Bastila?" At this the woman looked down at the floor, sadness in her eyes completly, "He'll do the last thing he can do. He'll destroy the planet. I'd give it a few days, tops." At this she quickly bowed before James, "James Merek, I pledge my allegiance to the Jedi Order, I owe you a debt that can never be repaid. I shall go to Dantooine and plead my case there, and petition for a master. If our paths cross again, I would wish that I will have earned your trust. May the force be with you." She finished as she stood up and bowed her head in respect, to which James just gave a simple nod, signaling that she should leave. Now. As he watched her run, he thought just how much she looked like a younger version of Sasha.
After she had dissapeared from view, James gathered his robe, slipped it on and continued to the Hidden Beck base that James remmembered from dealings in the past. It was where he was originally heading for anyway.
As he approached the base, James noticed a tall, strongly built black woman with sharp features and an even sharper double bladed tremor sword standing guard vigilently outside the Bek entrance.
As he got closer, without breaking stride, he allowed his robe to open at the front, revealing his two personalised cylinders hanging on his hips. The hilts were as deadly as they were beautiful. Eventually, the woman finally spoke up after eyeing up his appearance and noticed his lightsabers.
"Friend or foe?" The woman demanded, getting ready to fight if she had to. James took this all in stride and pulled back his hood enough for her to reconise his face. "Friend." He spoke in a low, barely audiable tone as he glanced over his shoulder and spotted Kaidon and Carth in a small brawl with the Black Vulcars.
He knew their leader, unfortunatly for James, personally. James had known him when he was second in command of the Beks and once the breakaway from his original gang, there was a killing at the peace agreement between the Beks and Vulcars. It was his Jedi partner for the mission. A woman named Anja Tamari, a bright eyed young Jedi knight who weilded a particularly elegant double bladed yellow staffsaber. If James would ever be able to regain it, he'd place it within her burial chamber on Dantooine. Right before the rolling hills of Dantooine began after you left the Enclave there. Every evening, the sun would just shed it's last rays on her concealed resting place. Every Jedi that fell beside James and Dan, they brought home and buried on Dantooine, or Alderaan.
He was brought out of his memories by the door slowly sliding apart to allow him entrance. He respectfully bowed to the guard and went inside to talk to a friend on Taris.
On his way down the main corridor to the main room, James passed a young, blue Twi'lek and a huge Wookie. Giving both a polite berth, he continued on his way along the otherwise empty corridor. The walls were generally a metalic grayish blue colour that was the personal colour of the Hidden Beks, and would continue to be for the rest of their existance. As James walked up to the final, familier door to the main hub of the gang, James felt fear and pain from Dan and Bastila down in the undercity before they both became muted, Bastila much more so.
Moving with a greater sense of urgency, James rushed into the room, earning cautious glances from all the present gang members and angry threats from Zeadra. "Stop, or I'll blast you into atoms right where you stand." She called over.
Upon seeing her, James felt an anger that he wasn't used to. The sudden yellow glow of his eyes told Zeadra to back down immediatly, to which Gadon just chuckled heartily and embraced a Jedi friend that he hadn't seen in years. Upon the two friends embracing, James' eyes returned to their natural dark colour and a smile graced his features as he removed his robe. "So, what brings a Jedi to a planet under Sith control, hmm?" Gadon began as he sat down across from James on a seat with the same colour as all the walls.
James was about to reply when Gadon held up a hand to silence him. "I know why your here. Your looking for those two Republic officers aren't you?" When James merely took a sip of some offered Juma juice and nodded, Gadon continued. "Well, the woman was captured by the Vulkars. The man, they left him for dead." When that last bit was announced, James let forth a spray of the intoxicating liquid from his mouth. "They what?" James demanded, anger coming forth again. James quickly calmed himself down after a second or two whilst repeating the Jedi code over and over in his head. "He wasn't just a republic officer. My spy's that were there told me that he was a Jedi. Her too. He was protecting the woman at the hidden camp that they'd set up, and as she was hit by a stray shot, he let his guard down. He was shot seven times in the back as he tried to get to her. They say Brejik's got both of their lightsabers as well." Gadon finished it off there, noticing two more figures approaching.
As Zeadra stepped up to them, James spun around and threw her against the wall with the force. "Kaidon, hold her arms, Carth, you get the legs." James ordered, as he began searching her body. He'd heard it, and he was going to find it, even if it killed him. As he searched everywhere apart from her head, she began yelling at the top of her voice about being violated by a sick Jedi.
Finally searching her head, James spotted a small audio recording device hidden between her two head tails. When he brought it before her face, she instantly looked guilty, not wanting to meet the gaze of Gadon or any other Bek. After he showed it to Gadon, he decided to crush it, slowly. Doing this would mean that whoever was listening on the other end would be temporarily deafened by the static coming through. With a quick hand motion, Gadon sent two lacky's over to escort Zeadra to the holding cells that they had fashioned, after disarming her of course. James finally acknowledged Kaidon and Carth since the incident and welcomed them with a smile,
"Thanks guy's, would've taken longer if you hadn't shown up. May I introduce you both to a personal friend of mine, Gadon Thek, leader of the Hidden Beks." When both men said their hello's, James motioned for them to take a seat and for Gadon to continue and bring them up to speed.
"As I was just saying, there were reports of two Republic officers crash landing into the undercity in the same pod. Now, my spy's that were just there at their capture have informed me that they were both Jedi. One was a man. The other, a woman. They captured the woman, and left the man for dead." Kaidon and Carth seemed incredulous. They had only thought that Bastila had gotten away as far as they were concerned. Kaidon spoke up to ask the question both soldiers were wanting an answer to.
"How did some common street thugs over power two well trained Jedi?" At this, Gadon seemed a little afronted, but quickly hid it. Not quick enough to hide it from James though.
"They stunned the woman with a lucky shot, and the man let his guard down as he went over to help her. The man took seven shots to the back. They said that he was barely alive when they checked him." When James reached out into the force, and into the bonds he held with his friends, he sensed Bastila's muted presence somewhere in the Lowercity, and Dan's slowly building one in the undercity. Right where the outcast village was supposed to be. This brought some elation to James' feelings and allowed the anger that had been churning in him recently to just dissapear and to be replaced by hope. Hope that Dan would be okay to move, and hope that after they got Bastila off planet.
During his searching, he'd missed a fair amount of the ten minutes he'd been zoned out of. Coming back to the conversation, he saw Kaidon and Gadon shaking hands. "So, find Mission, get into the Vulkar base, steal the prototype and race in the opener? Sounds like a deal to me." Kaidon announced as they finished their confirmation. After that was done, the two soldiers stood up and looked over to James. "I need to clear a few things up. Go. I'll meet you in the outcast village." He said with a dismissive wave.
Both soldiers nodded and began walking to the door. Since the crash, all formalities had been thrown right out of the fucking window. James was secretly glad. He hated soldier's always looking up to the Jedi, and the Jedi always thinking they knew everything about a combat situation. It took time to learn how to lead soldiers. James had learnt this very early on in the Jedi civil war. It was also a skill that he'd have to keep on learning. There was never any perfect commander. Only imperfect ones.
Gadon watched the others go before he poured himself another cup of Juma. "Gadon, you know you can't let Kaidon ride the prototype. For all you know, it'll atomise him. Why not put any of your riders on it, instead someone I've been ordered to look aft- shit, I've said too much." James cursed himself for the slip that he'd made. Gadon didn't even raise an eyebrow at it, and merely accepted that there were things he shouldn't know. "Your friend. He's alive isn't he? It's Dan isn't it?" Gadon asked as James was putting on his robe. The mere pause gave Gadon all the answers he needed. Say what you want about a blind man with cybernetic eyes, but they can read anyone, Jedi included, like a book. Gadon merely nodded before telling him to hurry his ass up, to which James happily agreed before bidding his friend goodbye and walked out of the base.
James ran as fast as he could down the deserted streets of the Lowercity. Trash was thrown around violently by the maliscious hand of the wind, causing cans to scrape along the floor, or papers to slowly fly by. James rounded what must have been his seventeenth corner, running on memory alone to where the elevator was, and came in sight of his goal.
Gauding it was an unobservant Sith grunt. James had no time to play Dark Jedi, and instead merely threw his purple lightsaber at his targets head. The head hit the floor before the body. Upon this attack, the turrets began to turn to face him, but were all interrupted by a wave of lightning meant to short circuit the annoying little bastards. As he sprinted into the elevators open and waiting doors, he unconciously fixed his personalised Jedi robes and hair, pulling the hood over his eyes once the doors closed.
AN: Ooh! Well, James is now in a hurry, and there wont be as much of him in the next few chapters, which I find nice, considering how so far in the KoTOR storyline, it's mainly been focused on him since the Endar Spire. Well, next chapter, Dan will definatly be found, but in what state, you wont know until I post it. I admit, I spit out fairly short chapters, but I believe that there's enough detail in them to make them pretty epic. What do you guys think?
Another pointer, who like James' short Darksider moment? ;)
For anyone who decides to flame me on the emotions shown by James and later by Dan, remmmeber that these two came to the order later than the average padawan, and they may be equals to Revan, and only Revan, but they still make mistakes and aren't infallible and have epic god powers. Their still only human. Also, remmember that James also shares a bond with Sasha, who is another fairly emotional Jedi, much like Bastila and Juhani.
Anyone got any idea's for what should become of the Sith that James sent to Dantooine, send it us in a review and suggest any names as well please! :)
People will also notice that I've changed James' last name, and dropped a hint a story in the KOTOR and Battlefront 2 epics section of the Star wars communities section. If any of you can spot it, then send it to me in a review and write the name of a character (first and last name) and their species and characteristics, to have your own Jedi or Sith in the story, that will cause a small problem for James and Dan, not to mention the rest of the crew.
NOW GO READ DISPLACEMENT IN THE OLD REPUBLIC'S LATEST CHAPTER! IT'S SICK! :)