The Twi'Lek slave Arali'Vi was eating the meal pack she had been offered quickly and quietly. She was likely going to make herself sick, but it was the first time in a very long time that the slave got to eat her fill without worry of it being stolen.
Lyrii tuned out the slave as she sat on the floor of the Dark Starr's deck. She was trying to meditate, but something kept bothering her. Serra was late. That in itself was not an unusual thing, but Lyrii wanted to leave.
Serra had said one hour when in reality it would only take about 30 minutes. Yet, it had been over an hour since they had split up and there was no word from her friend.
Lyrii opened her eyes suddenly. The Force was warning her that something is wrong. She held out a hand and levitated her communicator sitting on the table to her hand. Arali'Vi watched with huge eyes, but Lyrii ignored her as she tapped on the device. There was no response from Serra. That wasn't odd either, but her feeling that something was wrong increased.
She tried the communicator again with no luck and then set the communicator to one side and focused, reaching out with the Force.
Lyrii had spent the past eight years by Serra's side, and they formed a strong Force bond not unlike the one that formed between a Jedi Knight and Padawan. Normally they could sense each other without trouble, and Serra had even been able to speak to Lyrii telepathically with her Force capabilities. Now, there was only an unanswered echo. Serra wasn't dead, Lyrii knew that much, but Serra was also not responding. Was she unconscious?
After a moment more of fidgeting, Lyrii stood and grabbed the slave's arm. Arali'Vi whimpered as Lyrii dragged her to her feet.
"Come on you," she told the slave, "get your food."
Arali'Vi snatched up her tray as Lyrii started dragging her down the common room. Dark Starr was equipped with a single prison cell, albeit one without a containment field. Lyrii punched open the door and Arali'Vi stumbled inside. She turned to look at Lyrii, her blue eyes wide with fear.
"I'm going to leave for a bit," Lyrii told the Twi'Lek. "You stay in here until I return."
Arali'Vi nodded fearfully and Lyrii stepped back and closed the door. It locked automatically. Lyrii didn't take any pleasure in scaring Arali'Vi, but she had made up her mind and thought she had better move before she changed her mind.
Lyrii lowered the ramp, and quickly walked down it to the surface of Zygerria. There were slaves and customers all around. Noise echoed from footsteps, voices in a dozen languages, and ships taking off and landing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Slowly the sounds faded. Even the heat from the sun that beat down onto the hood of her black cloak vanished as she focused the Dark Side to her. Serra was the true master of the Force, but Lyrii hoped she could imitate her well enough to find her.
The flow of ebb of the life force of all of the beings within the space port made her head spin. Before the shock knocked her out, she filtered the lifesigns. All she was looking for was Serra – a human female in with an affinity for the Dark Side.
There was a roar of engines as a ship named Xanadu Blood powered up. The backwash tore through what little concentration Lyrii had managed to gather apart. Lyrii cringed and sighed.
Her power lay in her blades and not in the Force. She was no threat to either Serra or Dooku, and that was one of the main reasons why Dooku tolerated Serra's obvious affection and attachment to her. Lyrii's same weakness was now jeopardizing Serra. Why couldn't Lyrii do anything useful?
Lyrii sighed, and closed her eyes. She felt the Force ruffle through her being. Serra… Serra was her friend, and Lyrii was such a weakling! How Serra could even stand to be around her was a mystery. I am such a letdown! There has to be something I can do!
When Heather Winters had been killed, Lyrii had been even more worthless then Serra. Serra had been able to fight free after Heather died and kill both the Jedi responsible for her slaughter, and two more all by herself.
Lyrii hadn't even woken up on her own. Serra had needed to rouse her. When Lyrii had opened her eyes the three Jedi were dead, and there was a man there she had never seen before.
"Serra," Lyrii asked once Serra had told her about the attack. "Who is that?"
He was an older man with white hair and beard. A curved lightsaber was clipped onto his side, half-hidden by the silver-clasped cloak. The Force echoed in a way that Lyrii had never felt before.
"That is Count Dooku," Serra whispered.
She held out a hand and helped pull Lyrii to her feet. Dooku was overlooking the slain Jedi, and he glanced at Lyrii.
"Who is this?" Dooku asked. "She is not as strong as you."
"Not in the Force," Serra agreed, "but she beats me every time we spar."
"Leave her," Dooku dismissed. "I need only one apprentice. That is the way of the Sith."
"Sith?" Lyrii blinked.
Serra nodded. "They're the enemies of the Jedi. Dooku says I can be his apprentice, and become the next Sith Lord. I'll get to kill plenty of Jedi. If I'm lucky maybe I'll wipe them out."
Lyrii nodded distantly, and Serra looked back up at Dooku.
"Why would I leave Lyrii?" Serra asked sharply. "She's my sister, or close enough to it. Mother's dead, so she's the only family now unless you happen to know who my father is."
"I do not," Dooku replied with little patience. "Attachment is a weakness. Your mother was a Jedi. Surely she taught you that."
"Former Jedi," Serra corrected sharply, insulted that he had just called her mother a Jedi. "Heather went rouge. How do you know about her, unless you used to be a Jedi to?"
Her smug attitude was a very dangerous one to have. Lyrii didn't like the aura surrounding Dooku. Before Lyrii could so much as open her lips to speak, Dooku had his lightsaber in his hand. It activated with a snap-hiss, and a crimson blade slid out to rest near Serra's cheek.
Serra did not flinch.
"You do not scare easily at least," Dooku mused. His lightsaber made a whoosh noise as he twirled it and pointed at Lyrii. "We leave now apprentice."
"Not without Lyrii," Serra warned.
Serra's aura was dangerous. It glowed with the same darkness as Dooku's. Dooku spun his blade as if to strike at Lyrii, and Serra darted between the two of them. Her aura spiked as hot and deadly as a wildfire.
Dooku made a move to flick his lightsaber aside before he struck Serra, but Serra didn't let him. She swatted aside the lightsaber with the back of her hand. Somehow, impossibly, it did not cut through her hand. There was not even a burn mark.
Serra raked a hand through the air as if clawing the face of an opponent, and Dooku unexpectedly almost dropped his lightsaber. Although she had done nothing but claw the air, blood now stained Serra's fingernails. Dooku looked down at his right hand that held his lightsaber. The sleeve was somehow, impossibly, torn and there were scratches on his wrist and the back of his hand that bled.
"I said," Serra repeated, "not without Lyrii."
Serra had always protected Lyrii, and in the end Dooku had realized that her natural affinity for the Dark Side was worth temporarily tolerating Lyrii. There had not been a true Sith Sorcerer in 7oo years, and Serra had just used sorcery twice. Dooku brought them back to his base on Sorreno, and Serra had thrived under his teaching as she never had with her mother.
Serra, Lyrii thought. You saved me from Dooku, from the Jedi that killed your mother, and from the slave markets of Zyggeria. It's about time that I returned the favor.
Her anger and resolve cleared her mind. She took a deep breath and everything around her faded. The words of people were being whispered to her mind by the Force, and suddenly she heard something very interesting.
"A million credits, your worth as much as a Jedi girl."
Lyrii opened her eyes. A girl worth a million credits? That was how much the bounty on Serra was! Her attention went up to the ship named Xanadu Blood that was about to leave, and she felt a presence aboard the craft that could only be generated by a Dark Side user. It was dim, and suppressed somehow, but it was there.
"Got you," Lyrii smiled and unclipped her cloak.
She took both of her lightsabers off her belt as her cloak fluttered to the ground and activated them. The honey-gold blades gave twin snap-hisses as they appeared, and Lyrii ignored the scene she made as everyone near her jumped back. Without hesitation, Lyrii force-jumped onto the top of Serra's ship and ran across its surface. Xanadu Blood was about to hit its engines and take off through the atmosphere.
"Not gonna happen," Lyrii promised whoever was flying the ship and she threw both of her lightsabers.
The lightsaber throw was one of Lyrii's favorite moves, and considered one of the most dangerous. Not only did it take years to master, but throwing your weapon away from you and hoping that someone wouldn't steal it was a risk most wouldn't willing to take. Certainly, it would never been done in a fight against a fellow Force-user where your opponent force-pull your lightsaber straight to their hand, but Lyrii knew there was no chance of that here.
Her lightsabers sliced through the left engine of the Xanadu Blood and Lyrii held out her hands. They flew through the air and both hilts landed squarely back in her palms. This was more fun than sniping from afar she admitted as the Xanadu Blood went into a flat spin and crashed onto an empty landing pad. It slid across the pad, and came to a stop.
Lyrii's lightsabers trailed behind her as she ran and jumped off of Dark Starr and onto another ship. She jumped from one ship to another until she reached Xanadu Blood's crash site. A figure in a black longcoat stumbled out of the cockpit. He drew two blaster pistols, features hidden by a wide-brimmed hat.
"Cad Bane," Lyrii hissed when she saw him.
Of course he was involved with Serra's kidnapping. Lyrii jumped off of the ship she was running on, and landed in front of him, lightsabers in front of her. Their gold light echoed the gold of her eyes, and she fell into fighting stance.
Bane stepped back and pointed his blaster at her. "A Jedi? What's a Jedi doing here?"
"Jedi?" Lyrii recoiled. "Now calling me that is insulting."
Bane's large red eyes stared, confused.
"Ah," he said after a second. "You must be a friend of my target."
"That's one way to put it," Lyrii promised and ran at him.
Bane fired his blaster pistols, and red bolts flew through the air. Lyrii dodged most of them, and deflected a few away with one of her sabers. One of the bolts flew back and knocked a pistol from Bane's hand. He flinched as his hand was skimmed by the bolt, and tapped on his gauntlet. His rocket boots activated, and propelled him into the air.
Lyrii smiled, and jumped past him through the shattered glass cockpit and into his ship. Bane was left flying there, surprised that his opponent had ignored him. Then he realized what she was doing and jumped back inside the ship as well. That girl was going to free his prize!
Lyrii followed both her senses, and the blueprints of this class of starship to find the brig. There had obviously been some sort of ray shield guarding the door, but it had turned off when the ship had crashed. Inside the deactivated cell Lyrii saw Serra lying on the floor.
Relived, Lyrii ducked inside the cell and deactivated one of her lightsabers. She clipped the deactivated one onto her belt and knelt by Serra's side. Serra had a stable pulse, but was unconscious. Lyrii sliced through the stun cuffs binding her wrists with her free lightsaber and put a hand on Serra's chest. Hopefully, Lyrii could dose Serra with some of her energy and shock her back awake as Serra had done to her before.
There was a click, and Lyrii looked up as the gold ray shield guarding the door suddenly activated, trapping her inside. Lyrii threw her active lightsaber at the ray shield, but her saber bounced off, and deactivated. The hilt fell to them ground near her feet. They were trapped!
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Bane walked up outside of the rayshield. He still had his left arm gauntlet raised, and lowered it triumphantly.
"Looks like you're as gullible as your friend there, little lady," Bane told Lyrii smugly.
Lyrii clenched her teeth when she realized she had been played. Bane had used the controls on his gauntlet to purposefully deactivate the cell, knowing Lyrii would enter to retrieve Serra. Once she had entered, he simply reactivated it. How could she be stupid enough to fall for something as simple as that?
"Now," Bane said with a flourishing bow. "I need to see how much damage you did to my ship. I've got a rendezvous to make with the Republic, and a bounty to collect."
Bane smiled to himself as he walked away and left the Sith in the cell. He'd need to contact the Republic as well. Now that he had two Sith he was sure that the Republic would be gracious enough to double the reward.
Lyrii clipped her second lightsaber back onto her belt and looked up at the ceiling. Bane had played her like a youngling, how embarrassing. She stared at the gold ray shield with a grimace.
Beside her, Serra stirred and opened her gold/crimson eyes.
She saw Lyrii and smiled, murmuring, "morning."
"Not a pleasant one," Lyrii sighed and pointed to the ray shield.
Serra turned her head towards the door and replied, "Oh. That could be a problem."
Lyrii stood up and helped pull Serra to her feet. Giving Serra a dose of Lyrii's power had thankfully awakened her, but it still didn't change much. They were still caught.
And here is problem number two. Despite their ability they are the equivalent of young padawans, sort of like Ashoka in the first two seasons before she gets her redo. Capturing Kenobi was actually their first time on a battlefield, so they're kinda naive and new to this.
Get the chapter name now? Now Lyrii isn't around to try and rescue Serra. They're both in the cell. Oops. Bane might be a bounty hunter but it is a bad idea to underestimate him and that is something both of them are having to learn the hard way.