Darkest Days

Chapter 7:
When The Night Falls…

"We're not pirates, or mercenaries or anything like that. We're just a bunch of people trying to find out way in this utterly fragged-up galaxy of ours."

"…And you thought Malastare was safe?"

"Safe as in: 'Out of the Empire's all-seeing eye.'"

"Hmm, guess that would make sense."

The conversation between me and the Big Boss (Real name Fenri Olen) and most of his party went on like that for about a half-hour. Introductions, history and the usual "trusting with secrets between thieves" bit were shared by both sides. All while eating damn good meat in front of a fire pit.

The only two who didn't bother partaking in the discussion were Ahsoka and the mysterious girl named Karelia, who were busy talking between each other about… Not a clue. I assumed at first they were catching up from their Jedi days, but considering the fact that they were both glaring at each other (Karelia especially)and at one point said girl actually broke into tears leaving Ahsoka to comfort her awkwardly, it was pretty obvious that wasn't going on. Fenri and I actually found ourselves glancing back to make sure one didn't kill the other.

"So… What's the story about the girl?" You have no clue how long I've been waiting to ask that question. Wait, I just told you: A half hour. Maybe a little longer.

"Her name's Karelia. She was a Jedi. Found her on some planet, can't remember which. She actually saved us from an Empire Scouting team. We offered to bring her along, mainly 'cause we like the protection. Plus we felt kind of bad for her. That was maybe a year or so ago."

"Why?" I asked, surprised by the fact that I was actually into the story.

"Jeez, you should've seen her then. She was like 16 or 17 then, but she acted like she was 8. She was constantly crying, she had temper tantrums, she grew WAY too attached to that lightsaber of hers to the point where she refused to use it in battle because she thought it would break."

"I take it she's got a… few screws loose then?"

"At first, but she's getting a lot better. Well, different at least."

"Different, how?"

"She replaced most of that sadness with… hatred. Hatred towards everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, outside of this group. She's gotten a lot quieter, but a little more unpredictable." He glanced over at the girls, still talking to each other. "That's the calmest I've ever seen her with a stranger."

"That can't be healthy." I point out "Mr. Obvious" style.

"I agree. The toll taken on her is painfully noticeable. Most days, she fine, if not a little down-trodden. Some days, she paces around, muttering to herself and sounding like a mad preacher. The worst cases happen extremely rarely, when she gets these violent impulses and just disappears for a while. Usually ranges from a couple hours to two days at most."

"Any idea what she does?" Answer was pretty apparent, though.

"Let's just say I know what you and your lady friend are here for."

It was hard placing all this together, but the answer at the end was crystal clear. Karelia was indeed responsible for the Rebel base massacre. The problem, however, was deciding what to do. Do we turn her in, let it slip and hope it never happens again or try to fix this problem?

"Now that you know, what are ya gonna do?"

"I'm not a cop or anything. I'm a bounty hunter. We were sent here to investigate a mysterious transmission, not avenge a murder or solve a crime. As far as I'm concerned, this mystery is solved, but I'll run it by Ahsoka and see what she thinks."

"Works for me." He said, slouching in relief. "When are you gonna report to you team?"

"We'll get on that later. It's not like they're expecting us anytime soon. Hell, they'd be a little suspicious if we reported in too early." We both shared a chuckle at that, but all light-hearted feelings were washed away upon hearing a menacing hiss of a whisper in my right ear that darn near made my heart stop.

"All talk and no do is neither a good offense nor defense." I jumped a bit and looked to my right, which is where I thought I heard it, but then noticed she moved to my left and sat on the grass next to me. From the light of the fire, I could see her a lot clearly. She was indeed young, maybe a bit older than Gidget but younger than Alea. She looked human, but her actual appearance made me doubt that. Her hair was almost as short as mine and was totally white. Her skin is remarkably pale and her eyes are dull and listless. She has no color on her whatsoever.

"What happened to talking?" I asked.

"I don't know. It just seems like doing is much more rewarding—"

"No, I mean 'what happened to talking with Ahsoka?'"

"She got bored." I heard Ahsoka say behind me, clearly vexed at the girl.

"I expected a conversion with another special girl to be interesting. Not my fault. Yours." She replied nonchalantly. I could Ahsoka was not taking kindly to that, so I steer the conversation to a different topic (You should have seen the relieved look on Fenri's face. Classic, man.)

"So, it seems that…"

"I know." She beat me to it. "She told me." The surprised look on my face probably helped her answer my upcoming question. "She told me she has faint memories of killing them, but doesn't really remember doing it."

"Blurry. All lost in a haze." Karelia muttered to herself, twiddling her fingers. We ignored her (or at least tried to) and Ahsoka continued on.

"Normally, I would be dead set on making whoever murdered those rebels pay, but…" It was easy to tell she had trouble saying the answer we all saw coming.

"…But you don't want to further the Jedi's already dwindling numbers." I filled in.

"Yeah."

"I can sympathize that. So what now? We call the mission a success?"

"That seems like the most logical thing to do."

"How do we make sure it won't happen again?" Ahsoka looked towards Fenri.

"How long are you gonna be here?" He seemed a bit hesitant to answer, probably for fear of making her mad.

"Well, we actually took a vote before you came here. We like it here. Safe from the Empire, plenty of resources. We're close to making a deal of mutual living with the Dugs. Aside from the wild animals here, this place is damn near perfect for us."

"Well… that was the only garrison of the Alliance on Malastare. We can afford to go without this planet. All it has is mud, methane, and a bunch of jackass Dugs." She looked at Karelia, still sitting next to me, head down and fingers intersected. "As long as they're not part of the alliance, let her kill whoever the hell she wants on this planet." That last sentence surprised me quite a bit. I expected a girl like to want to fix the problem in its entirety, but she seems ok with just not letting it happen to her friends. Burn on the people that say Jedi don't like to compromise.

"So…" She said after a bit of silence, looking at Fenri. "You got a vehicle you can spare?"

"Let me guess: You don't want to walk through the swamp again?" He grinned at her irritated reaction, but she finally sighed and gave in.

"Yes. Do you have one?"

"Yeah, we can spare one. Won't work 'till tomorrow morning. We gotta fix the engine."

"And don't forget we're still stuck here until Gidget can fix the ship." I put in.

"Sleep here, if you want. You can use the speeder to get back to your ship tomorrow morning."

"Fine." She said, though she sounded like she couldn't give a flying flag about it.

"When's morning here?" I asked after looking at the violet sky.

"Soon as you wake up." He cracked, and left to his tent for the night. Karelia followed suit, but we didn't even notice until we saw her gone. I looked at Ahsoka.

"So, you cool with all this?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, she's a Jedi, or at least was. I expected you to be all over this."

"Believe me, I've thought about it. I would love to have her join the Alliance, but she safe here. Out of the Empire's sight. Plus, she's happy here." She sat down on a log next to me.

"So did you know her?"

"Yep. She was a Youngling around the time I was Skywalker's apprentice. I remember seeing her around the Temple."

"Was she always like this?"

"I don't know. I never really got a chance to meet her until now. She seemed normal though. Something must have really traumatized her for her to turn out that way."

"Probably the Jedi massacre."

"I imagine. She's what, 17 now? She would have been 8 or 9 years old when the massacre happened. That must have been extremely difficult for her. The fact that she survived is a miracle in itself. Who knows where she went afterwards, what she had to go through after all that? Poor girl."

"Yeah…"

"One thing's bugging me though." She suddenly brought up.

"What's that?"

"If she went to all the trouble of killing those rebels, why'd she send out a transmission to us? That was a really risky move that could've attracted the attention of the Empire."

"I stick by the belief that she wanted to attract more of them so she could kill them." I said.

"But why? If it was just an episode of violence, why further it? It couldn't have gone for that long. Plus, there's no telling when she's have another one."

"Maybe she knew she was going to have another one. Maybe she expected them to come so she could do it again when she… Damn, this getting confusing. Listen, the mission's over. You said so yourself."

"I guess."

"No harm, no foul. Now, let's get some sleep."

"Fine."


Night, or at least this planet's equivalent of night, has fallen. Both Brutus and Ahsoka had turned in, but while Brutus lay sleeping in front of the dead fire pit, Ahsoka laid awake in the tent she slept in. Running explanations of this whole event through her head, so distracted was she that she failed to notice a mysterious figure silently work its way past a sleeping Brutus and into her tent. It wasn't until the figure stood over her bed that Ahsoka let out a gasp that was quickly silenced with a hand over the mouth.

"No need for anyone to hear us, dear Ahsoka." Ahsoka quickly recognized the voice as Karelia, sounding surprisingly stable. She calmed herself (but stayed alert) before the girl spoke again. "Come with me. Perhaps we can have a little… talk?" She spoke with a touch of evil.

Against her better judgment, Ahsoka complied and followed the girl out of her tent and into the misty swamp.


I woke up to find myself leaning very uncomfortably against the log I fell asleep on. My back was stiff as hell when I got up. Perhaps, sleeping on the ground wasn't the best idea. Not only is it uncomfortable and dirty, but I could've been bit by more of those Mud Maggots. Jeez, that was careless.

"Ugh, my back." I muttered to myself as I stretch in hopes of loosening myself up. The fire pit was dead and blackness still lurked over the surrounding area. Great, I was fully awake and I still couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Why did I wake up again… Oh yeah, I heard something move around. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a light. The area a little more illuminated, I found that the entrance to Ahsoka's tent was open and that she herself was nowhere to be found. Missing. Vanished. That figures.

"Great. Now what?" I'm probably gonna have to go into the jungle/swamp to find her. Was it really worth it, though? Wandering into a foggy jungle full of dangorous creatures...at night? I can't even think of a smart remark to go with that. I was saved from answering myself when I heard a beeping sound in my pocket.

"How long has this been going off?" I wondered, pulling out my Transmitter. Turning it on, I first found silence, then a dim hologram of Alea, looking frantic.

"Brutus? Finally! I've been trying to reach you for hours!"

"Sorry. Things got weird here. What's wrong?"

"Get back here. We got a problem."

No excuses this time. I'm a lazy bastard. I'm seeing a pattern here, though. Expect the next chapter around 2 months.