Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars… No way, no how… And… for the record, because I have the right to free speech, I will say that that kinda hurts… It sucks I can't ever do anything with this, and it's my favorite…
Chapter
4
The Offer
Master Lectris turned to the Rodian just as the Rodian vaulted over the bar, ready to hide from the ensuing brawl. "Some informant. Can't even handle a bar fight." He turned to Taric, who stood almost in indecision, wondering whether he should join Rubes and fight or join the Rodian in seeking security behind the refuge of the bar.
Master Lectris looked back at Rubes. She needed to do this, to show everyone that she was serious, that she wouldn't handle insufferable people who had nothing better to do with their lives.
The drunk whom Rubes had thrown across the bar stood up, brushing shards of glass out of his hair and off his tunic and wiping the smears and wetness of each of the drinker's drinks off his face. He snarled in anger. Someone behind him pulled out a blaster pistol and pointed it at Rubes, growling in frustration at the state of his clothes. The drunk held out a hand and lowered the man's weapon.
"No. We have to do this right. We can't kill her. We have to show this Twi'lek her place," the drunk grinned in pride. "Usually we don't get to touch 'em, but imagine how good this one's gonna feel after all these times of sitting in here, watching."
The man with the blaster chuckled, leading the other men to lick their lips and smirk in thirst for real flesh. The drunk yelled and charged at Rubes, sprinting to catch her, one arm pulled back in a fist prepared for a punch. Master Lectris looked back at Rubes, wondering how she would respond. Rubes smirked and sidestepped the man just as he lunged at her, throwing his whole body weight behind his single punch. She held out her leg and he tripped flying headlong past her and sliding slightly along the nice oaken wood floor of the cantina. The rest of the men, seeing how one drunk's blind rage had not done anything bristled, prepared to attack in greater numbers.
Master Lectris looked over to the Sith sitting in the back corner, wondering how they this would let this play out. Surprisingly, they sat watching, the red Twi'lek who had been dancing with them sat on her pedestal, now cloaked in a black robe. "Interesting," Master Lectris muttered under his breath.
"What's interesting?" Taric asked, sill riveted on the men who began whispering to one another in preparation for a new strike.
"Look at the Sith," Master Lectris whispered. "They're not moving."
Four other men charged Rubes this time, staggered for a rapid set of attacks.
"Shouldn't we help her?" Taric asked, backing up slightly.
"Let her blow this off," Master Lectris said, smiling slightly. "I wanna see how this will go. I wonder if she'll really be able to take them all on, and with no saber."
"No saber?" Taric asked as Rubes grabbed the first man's shirt and flipped him over her by rolling on her back and kicking him towards the drunk one.
"No," Master Lectris nodded, wincing slightly as Rubes kicked off the ground from her back to her hands and pounced forward with her feet, kicking the next attacker in the chest and landing on his chest as he fell down. "If she does, it'll turn lethal, and she doesn't want that"
Taric nodded as Rubes blocked the next man's punch and gave him a swift uppercut to the jaw, falling him backwards. The fourth man sidestepped to dodge the other man's fall and Rubes lunged forward and grabbed him, whipping him around and throwing him into the bar, where he hit his back on the bottles of drinks in glass counters behind the bar, shattering them all and falling to the ground.
The rest of the men and female Twi'lek dancers charged her all at once.
"And that, Taric," Master Lectris chuckled slightly as the angry cantina patrons approached as fast as they could. "Is our cue." He placed a hand on the wide bar and vaulted over it, landing next to the cowering Rodian and on top of the man whom Rubes had thrown over the bar. Taric followed next to him, yelping slightly as Rubes threw the first unfortunate assaulter into the bar, landing with a crunch in the solid metal of the bar.
Master Lectris chanced a glance up over the bar's countertop, watching Rubes' improvisation. Part of what made her an excellent fighter was her ability to improvise, as he learned from the little he saw in her duel with Taric. She grabbed the next one with the Force and pulled her towards him, grabbing his head, bashing his face into her knee, and throwing him back into the crowd, his nose bleeding freely as he toppled the people in his flight path.
The next one to charge tried to tackle and grab her, using the moon's gravity to do his dirty work. Rubes jumped over him and landed on his head, smashing his face into the ground as she forced it down, using gravity to her advantage. Because this took so much time, however, Rubes had to duck her next victim's swipe at her. She grabbed his hand and flipped him over into the ground, knocking the air out of him.
The two Twi'lek twins attacked her next, the first grabbing the second's hand as the second jumped in to kick Rubes in the chest. Rubes snatched the second's leg and whipped it over her head, dragging the first's as she flung them and giving the first complete and total access to kick Rubes in the chin, flipping out of her kick and landing on her feet while knocking Rubes to the ground and onto the man who had fallen. Rubes tried to jump back onto her hands again, but as she jumped forward to kick the first Twi'lek, the second, who had slid to a stop behind Rubes, kicked Rubes in the back, sending her too high, and giving the first the ability to punch Rubes across the face as Rubes leapt to her feet, catching Rubes off balance and sending her rolling to the ground.
"You two aren't helping!" Rubes shouted to them, getting to her hands and knees, spitting out blood.
The first Twi'lek smiled. "But we like-"
"What we do," the second finished. "We even took a-"
"Self-defense class offered through the bar," the first nodded proudly. "And finally-"
"It comes in handy!" The second beamed with the same sense of pride as her twin.
"Did they ever teach you how to deal with someone like me, thought?" Rubes smirked and pulled the two towards her with the Force and her two hands.
Caught entirely off guard, the two Twi'lek twins flew forward towards Rubes. Rubes smiled and nodded her head in victory and as the first Twi'lek approached her faster than the second, Rubes spun and kicked the Twi'lek across the face and she flew into her twin, landing in the wall on the other side of the Cantina.
"Some Nexu fight," one of the remaining five men groaned, slightly upset.
"You want a Nexu fight?" Rubes asked him, fed up with the men's quips. "I'll give you a Nexu fight. Get over here."
"Why don't you bring the party to us?" The man retorted, encouraged by the catcalls form his fellow attendees.
"Your wish…" Rubes said as she ran towards the scumbags ahead of her.
She flipped in the air towards them and landed in the center of their circle, attacking each one as they presented themselves. One tried to kick high and into her face, but she ducked backwards and grabbed a barstool and swung it with all her strength at the outstretched leg, shattering it on contact. The man cried out in pain as he collapsed onto the ground. Rubes kicked him and he tripped up the man behind him as they both slid across the floor. Rubes threw the chair at the third, and he caught it, prepared to use her own weapon against her. Rubes yanked the chair backwards, and the man's grip on the chair was so tight that it actually dragged him backwards and he landed on the ground with a thunk unconscious. Rubes grabbed the second to last one by the leg and flung him down, beating him into the ground and subsequently unconscious. The last one tried to run, but Rubes jumped over and in front of him, grabbing him around the neck and punching him in the chest multiple times before twirling him around, grabbing the back of his head, and bashing his face into the bar counter.
Rubes sighed in satisfaction at the groaning and moaning Lekku's clients around her. "Nothing like a good old fashioned fight to get the aggression out."
Someone in the back clapped slowly and stood up. Master Lectris stood up slowly and jumped over the counter to join Rubes. One of the hooded Sith in the back had stood up and was walking towards them, followed by the other four in black. "That was fantastic. I have never before seen someone win such a fight single handedly and without a weapon. That was most impressive," the Sith finished, pulling out a long green finger with a curved nail on the end. He took off his hood as Taric and the Rodian stood up behind the bar and climbed over it to join Rubes and Master Lectris revealing a tight green face and an entirely bald head, with the exception of a black ponytail flowing from the back of his head.
"You're a Falleen?" Rubes asked in disbelief. "I didn't realize you still existed."
"We're around," The Falleen nodded, waving off his appearance as an everyday occurrence. "But we're not here to talk about me and my secretive species. We're here to talk about you and how you might be interested in a meeting we're having tonight."
"Who's we?" Taric asked suspiciously, eyeing the Falleen untrustworthily.
The Falleen bowed his head. "Apologies. My name is Darth Xergen, and I'm a representative for Kleega the Hutt, crime lord of Nar Shaddaa. We are searching for potential Sith to join a worthy cause, and, unless I'm very much mistaken, I did sense great power in you when you were fighting just now."
The Sith behind Darth Xergen murmured in agreement.
Darth Xergen silenced them with his hand, eyes closed in almost annoyance. "We were wondering if you would care to attend a meeting with us tonight at an undisclosed location." Darth Xergen withdrew a small metal screen from his robes that could easily fit in his hand and handed it to Rubes. "Later tonight, that will light up with a location to go to for this meeting. Don't miss it. You'd be a valuable asset to our team."
With a whisk of his hand, Darth Xergen beckoned his Sith out of Lekku's and they stepped over the groaning Lekku's clients on the ground who were still suffering from the injuries Rubes inflicted on them.
Rubes looked at the metal screen for a minute and handed it to Master Lectris; he examined it for several seconds and passed it to Taric. Taric looked at it for a few seconds and handed it back to Master Lectris. "What now?" He asked.
"We wait for them to tell us where to go," Master Lectris said as he placed the screen back into his robes. "But for now, we should probably get out of here. How far away is our hotel?" Master Lectris asked the Rodian.
"Not far enough," the Rodian grumbled. "I've probably blown my cover after this mess. Come on," he sighed, a note of resolve in his voice. "I'll take you."
They walked outside, where people still congregated around the Twi'leks and in groups. Rubes smirked, and before anyone had even noticed she had left their group, she walked up to the largest of the groups.
"Rubes!" Master Lectris shouted, running towards her and not wanting another fight.
But she didn't listen to him and instead began talking to them incredibly fast and with a note of bubbly happiness in her voice with a tiny pinch of tipsy. "Oh my goodness, you guys," Rubes said, obviously very pleased with herself. "You won't believe what just happened in there! This blue Twi'lek walked in and said free drinks for the next hour! You should get in there!"
Without a second's hesitation, they all sprinted towards the bar and ran inside, clambering over each other to get in.
"Disgusting," she shook her head as the last entered.
"Rubes," Master Lectris put his arm around her shoulder. "I think you've had enough for the day."
She nodded and walked with him all the way to the hotel room. Master Lectris didn't pay much attention, however. His mind was still stuck on the Falleen, Master Xergen. It was true, Falleen were incredibly rare throughout the galaxy. How strange that one would be a Sith on Nar Shaddaa and under the employ of a Hutt. He had only ever seen two Falleen in his life, one just a minute and a half ago, and the other on Coruscant with Rinda.
"What have you heard about Darth Stendalus?" Rinda asked the screen, seated the copilot's chair of their K-Wing, the newly named Zenst, as they approached a low orbit around Coruscant. Nandon guided the ship as they approached the planet wide city, chancing glances over to the incredibly young Falleen on the screen when he could.
"Not much more than two Jedis, I'm sure," the Falleen said. "My master is just the representative of Nal Hutta to the Republic. I'm quite sure I don't know much of anything beyond that."
Rinda protested. "But we have it on good authority that your master does have contacts throughout the Republic that would know his location or at least where he has been. No one can just be off the map for years and then crop back up without someone knowing. He had to get those weapons from somewhere, and word in the galaxy is that your boss has ties to most weapon exchanges around the galaxy."
"I will have you know that my boss is a legitimate business man," the Falleen said. "He would have nothing to do with smuggling or weapons caches. He's above all that."
"Look, can we just have a word with him?" Nandon asked, impatient as he dodged a speeder flying off planet, sending the space around him spinning slightly. "Consider it a personal favor to the Jedi Order."
The Falleen scratched his chin. "I think that can be arranged. Meet me in the Nal Hutta office of the Capitol. I'll be waiting for you."
Master Lectris steered Rubes to the bed and helped her onto it. She threw off her black robes and lied down, asleep within seconds.
Master Lectris watched her as Taric slipped off his own black robes. "What do you make of this whole thing?"
"I'm not sure," Master Lectris said, still looking at Rubes. "After what I've just seen I'm glad we have Rubes on our side and not someone else's, but I don't exactly trust this Falleen. I've met one Falleen before and he stabbed me in the back."
"But you can't just judge all of the Falleen based on just one's actions," Taric said. "I mean, look at Rubes. We can't judge her just because her fellow Twi'leks enjoy taking off their clothes and dancing for money."
"True," Master Lectris nodded. "But there's something unsettling about this whole ordeal. What would make a Sith want to work for a Hutt? And a Falleen Sith for that matter? And while we're at it, what would make a Sith, with four other Sith at his disposal, follow after the greedy Hutt crime lord of Nar Shaddaa?"
The Rodian, who had stayed quiet from his shock at the bar fight spoke up. "Because the Hutt has something on him?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Master Lectris rubbed his chin. "What can you tell me about Kleega the Hutt?"
"He controls Sith?" The Rodian asked. "I don't know much about him. No one does, except for those who work directly for him. I know that he has a couple of Sith under his control, but that's about it."
"What can you tell me about the Falleen, Darth Xengan?"
"I don't know anything about him," the Rodian said. "I'm as in the dark as you are. I didn't even know there were Falleen on any planet except for Falleen itself."
"Why?" Taric asked Master Lectris. "What makes the Falleen so special? I know they're rare, but why do you care so much? What makes this Falleen so special? Is it that he's a Jedi? I know that'd be scary. Falleen already have attraction powers beyond what Jedi Falleen would have. What could possibly be so special about this Fallen that you can't take your mind off of it."
"Because I think that this is the same exact Falleen who attacked me just over ten years ago during the rise of Darth Stendalus, and, if a Falleen is working for a Hutt, then there must be something bigger than that Hutt going on here."
