Jek Va'lynne's lungs burned as he sprinted. Though he was full of anxiety for his apprentice, he tried not to let his fear get the best of him and instead let the force run, cool and pure, free of emotion, through his body, giving speed to his steps.
Oli and the Republic commandos kept up with him on either side. Oli wore that same worried expression. So sincere, Jek thought. She could never hide her emotions very deep.
Suddenly she looked back towards him and their eyes met for a moment. She flushed and looked away, back over her shoulder and her expression changed from worry to confusion. She looked back at him, befuddled.
"Where's Trask?" she asked.
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Trask Gorand had arrived at a cavern with five new tunnels running out of it. He had no idea where he was headed, let alone which tunnel would lead him there. Frustration gripped him for a moment and was mingled with impatience. Pushing those feelings aside for the moment, he reached out with the force towards the space ahead of him.
There. There was something ahead of him. Something cool and enticing. Something that filled him with the certainty that he was headed in the right direction. The left-most tunnel. That's where he needed to go. Still unsure of his destination, he set out, now at least sure of his path.
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Borrak Creyn's mind was swirling. He felt sickened and disoriented and for a moment thought he might succumb to those feelings and lose consciousness. Then, through the blur, came a sharp burst of pain, as if a vibroblade had been plunged into his brain. At first his mind fled from the pain and again he felt as though he would succumb, but an invisible force, alien to his own mind, seemed to grab hold of his consciousness and guide him towards the pain. At first he resisted and felt his physical body writhe as if to escape the invisible grasp, but slowly he began to succumb. The force that had taken hold of his consciousness seemed to drive talons, as sharp as the pain that had just struck him, into it, deeper and deeper the more he resisted. Soon he gave in fully to its grip and let it take him to the source of his pain.
A childhood of exclusion, the social castes and cliques of his early schooling turning him out with barely a notice. Parents that had little time for their child while they pursued their own social and political careers, shunting him off to private lessons and tutors as if by so doing their obligation as parents to provide for the proper upbringing of their child might be fulfilled. A mother whose greatest care and concern were her court cases, rather than her own son. Hours spent alone playing in a huge room, empty but for the latest and greatest toys that were no substitute for mother, father; sister, brother; friend.
An adolescence of painful awkwardness as his motor skills failed to develop fast enough to keep up with his vertical growth. The giggles of the girls, the scoffs, sneers and shoves of the boys, eager to find an easy outlet for their own teenage angst. Borrak had come to prefer it when no one noticed him, for when they did it was only with derision.
His years at the Jedi Academy. The Masters talking amongst themselves in hushed tones, expressing misgivings that Borrak was too old to train as a Jedi. The other students who seemed to form into the same old cliques of his early school days. The success of so many of the other students where Borrak had failed to produce.
When he started at the Academy, Borrak thought that at last he had found something he could excel at. In his opening address to the new class, Master Skywalker had quoted one of his former masters in emphasizing the power of mind and will over the "crude matter" of muscle and physical skill and prowess. Yet Borrak had been met with disappointment after disappointment, even as the other students, especially Trask, had seemed to succeed with frustrating ease.
Deeper into the heart of his pain they delved, Borrak guided by that incessant, coercive force. At last the pain seemed blinding and seemed about to consume his whole being.
Betrayal.
"BETRAYAL!!!!" Borrak's throat burned as he screamed the word, but he took no note of it. His consciousness was elsewhere than the physical plane.
In an instant his pain turned into white-hot, all consuming anger. The person that was supposed to care about him the most, that was meant to guide him to success, that appeared, on the outside, to be most concerned for his happiness, had purposefully betrayed those purposes for his own, personal gain. It seemed impossible, unfathomable. Yet it was true. Borrak knew it was true. Jek had never cared for Borrak at all. He was just another roadblock in Jek's path of personal ambition. Jek's feigned affection now sickened Borrak.
Lies.
It was all lies.
Borrak returned to consciousness. His head pounded and his throat felt like he had tried to swallow a lightsaber, but he didn't care. He didn't even exert the effort to push those feelings aside. Instead he latched onto them. They were as if physical manifestations of the pain he felt inside. The pain of neglect, abuse, lies, and betrayal. A pain he was determined would end very soon.
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The Jedi sprinted on, the two commandos on their heels. Jek Va'lynne was having more and more trouble keeping down the anxiety he felt for his apprentice. He couldn't help but feel that Borrak was in grave danger, though its source, and what that danger might be eluded him. The feeling was simply one of darkness. Not of death or of physical peril, it seemed, but simply darkness.
Suddenly two Yuuzhan Vong warriors turned the corner at a jog and, upon spotting the approaching humans, began to charge madly.
The commandos fired off a volley on the run, missing wide, then dove for cover, firing again after they had set themselves. This volley glanced harmlessly off of the aliens' vonduun crab armor.
With a dual snap-hiss purple and amber lightsaber blades came to life, swung up and clashed with alien amphistaves. Jek followed through his strike to the alien staff and then brought his own weapon back up to parry a powerful diagonal strike, coming down from his upper-left. Pushing the enemy blade upward he flicked his wrist to bring his saber around in a slash towards the Yuuzhan Vong's torso. The Vong dodged back out of the way of the slash and brought his staff up in a vertical position, hands on top of a down-pointing staff, to parry a second blow as the Jedi spun on the spot and repeated the slash. Their weapons met with a jarring crash and Jek took a moment to balance himself. The alien warrior took advantage of this to press his attack Following upward through his parry the Vong brought his staff down onto the Jedi's saber and began to advance.
On he pressed and Jek let him gain more and more ground, backing up further and further, until;
A sudden burst of red light came from his right, glancing off the thick armor over the Yuuzhan Vong's chest. As the alien turned to face the new threat, another blast from the determined commando hit him full in the chest, leaving a crater in the stunned alien's armor. Then Jek finished the job by bringing his amber blade around in a decapitating blow.
Oli had been pressing her opponent hard. Waves of frustration and anxiety poured off of her. Jek could feel her impatience at being delayed in their search for the lost Jedi. She fought with an urgency that was impressive, as if every second she spent dueling her opponent moved Borrak and Trask that much further into danger. Jek relished for a moment each wave of emotion that he felt emanate from her, before catching himself and casting such feelings aside as he returned his thoughts to the task at hand.
Just then, Oli made a fatal error.
Jek felt it before it happened. For the next few moments time seemed to move excruciatingly slowly. The Yuuzhan Vong Oli was dueling made a move as if to strike at Oli's right flank. Oli parried the week blow handily, set her feet and lunged in a counter-attack aimed a the Yuuzhan Vong's heart. He used the momentum of the parry to turn on the spot, letting Oli's lunge carry her past him. Then he plunged the sharp tip of his staff into her back.
All feeling seemed to go out of Jek. His face slackened in horror before tightening up in anguish. Making no sound, for he found himself unable, he charged the perpetrator of this vile act and swung his blade through his neck.
As the Vong fell lifeless to the ground, Jek fell to his knees and cradled Oli's limp body in his arms. She looked up at him, her breathing labored and liquid, blood trickling from her mouth and her eyes rolling slightly in their sockets. All color was drained from her face. His eyes went from her face to the wound in her torso that matched the one on her back, where the alien weapon had entered. Oli reached up a hand weakly and he clasped it and brought it down in his over the wound in her torso. Fighting to empty his mind and concentrate, he reached out and touched the Force.
And hoped.