11: Blind Rage

Come now, young one, a sinister voice echoed, surely you do not wish to be a pawn forever? By now, you must realise that Malik only sees you as a plaything; something for which he has no real purpose...

"Shut up,"Darth Syntarus shouted in the vacant hallway, "I know what must be done. I'll kill Athaliah, and then take my rightful place at Malik's side..."

You are a fool, the voice hissed in his mind, and you will die a fools death...

He'd been walking for over half an hour now, and with the mixture of energy lingering in the air, been unsuccessful in tracking down either of his targets. Making his way into an abandoned hangar, which was labeled Dock 34, he finally felt a flicker of energy. He stopped in place, looking around carefully, and tried to sense it again.

"Looking for someone," Athaliah shouted from atop a tall stack of crates, "Jedi ain't here. I'm looking for 'em as well."

"Fortunately for him," Syntarus replied, drawing his saber, "there will only be one Sith to fight against!"

"I should've killed you when I had the chance," Athaliah retorted, drawing her own saber, "This time, you won't be coming back!"

Leaping down, she infused her saber with force lightning, and struck down hard. Syntarus barely had time to dodge the hit, but was knocked back by the pulse wave that was sent out. He was now aware of her full power, but although his visor H.U.D calculated a one in one hundred chance of his success, he was determined to kill her. Stepping away strategically, he carefully watched her form and technique, and awaited an opening. Athaliah wasn't about to give him the chance, and as she sliced at his legs, forcing him to jump, she rolled up and blasted him back with a powerful push.

Slamming into the far wall, knocking over a smaller stack of crates, he struggled to get back up. His mechanical body was well constructed, but not meant to handle the stress of such powerful attacks. She wasn't letting up, however, and rushed at him in a blur of speed. He barely had time to dodge as her saber impailed the steel wall behind him, and he carefully landed on the platform above her.

"You can't run forever," she growled as she jumped up to face him down, "I was foolish not to end your miserable life."

"Yes," Syntarus replied dryly as he nodded, "Yes you should have, and twice I have risen from near death."

"You know what they say," she jeered with a snarl, "Third time's the charm!"

Lunging in yet another blur, her saber clashed with his, and as sparks struck out in all directions, Syntarus' scanners indicated a useful tool. Just behind him, his helmet had detected a group of drum barrels filled with fuel. Needing only to redirect her saber, he could use the distraction to catch her off guard, and end her easily.

"So," he began to say as he stalled, "You're going to kill me, and tell Malik what? You think he won't have your head for killing his favored assassin?"

"That's where you're wrong," she replied with a smirk, "It was Malik who ordered your execution, but we were kind of hoping you'd kill the Jedi first. Looks like I'll be doing your job for you from now on."

"Impossible," he growled, but his scanners indicated she was telling the truth.

Enraged, he jumped back in a flip, and as her face gasped with shock, her saber struck the barrels directly in the center. What Syntarus had forgotten to take into account was the explosion from the strike, and he was sent flailing onto the ground below by the flames. Athaliah hadn't been so fortunate, and as the fuel ignited and spewed out to her, she'd managed only to jump away in time to avoid being burned.

What she hadn't avoided was the splatter of fuel that sank into her eyes, and caught fire. The barrels exploded, knocking her off the ledge she had kneeled on, and sent her to the ground as well. She could do little more than scream aloud as her eyes burned painfully, searing until darkness settled in entirely, and she was rendered blind. Had she been capable of forming tears, she would've cried from the pain, but along with her sight, that was gone as well. As both she and Syntarus struggled to get back up, she tried not to panic, and gave herself to the force.

xxxxxxx

Willow felt a mixture of confusion, rage, and concern at the sight before her. As Dakriel struggled in the arms of an active clone, she slowly reached for her blasters. At first, she hadn't been certain of what she was looking at, but behind the white eyed Zabrak was a shattered cryo-tube, which he'd obviously sliced his way out of. Looking above the glass, she could barely make out the words K. Vass, followed by an unreadable sequence of numbers.

"Put him down," she snarled, un-holstering her blasters, "or I'll put you down..."

The cloned Sith, incapable of speech, could only hiss and growl as she raised her blasters and aimed for his head. As she did so, the sentient squeezed harder, making Dakriel scream in slight pain, and then she fired. In an instant, Dakriel was released, and the crazed clone collapsed to the floor in a heavy thud.

"Are you alright," she asked Dakriel as he slumped towards her.

"Yeah," he replied, "You know, no scratches or bite marks, but other than that I'm super."

Looking down, she could see just how lifeless this sad creƤture appeared. However, neither of them had time to waste, and a spine tingling noise shifted through the air, sending a chill down their backs. Suddenly, as every cryo-tubes were bashed open from the inside, multiple clones began pouring out into the lab, and were swarming in all directions.

Willow grabbed Dakriel's arm, and they ran, trying to reach the door. The sentients were fast, and more ravenous than anything Willow had ever seen before. She'd outrun everything from speeders to Corellian Slice Hounds, and these beings seemed faster than both. To make matters worse, every time they got close to one of the exits, a group of them would swarm, cutting them off. In mere moments, they were cornered in the center of the lab, both armed and outnumbered, and no way out.

"Daks," Willow said in a low tone, "remember that time we went to Tattooine?"

"Yeah," he replied, "and there weren't any zombie clones there."

"We were camped on a ledge," she continued, ignoring his sarcasm, "and a swarm of Womp Rats attacked us. This is no different than that."

"Except that those were Womp Rats," he retorted, "these things are worse..."

Suddenly, a few of the clones roared, and rushed at them in a frenzy. Willow fired her two blasters with extreme precision, while Dakriel managed to get most of his shots as well. One by one, the creatures fell, hissing and growling as they did so, but the bodies began to pile up. If Willow had counted the tubes, she might have noticed that there were over two dozen clones, and would've been more careful with her ammunition.

As both Willow and Dakriel's weapons jammed from empty magazines, they were still outnumbered two to one. Four of the clones had survived the onslaught, and the two bounty hunters were trapped. Their faces grew with an almost human look of joy, and as they drew closer to Willow and her young ward, they began to growl simultaneously.

"When I tell you to," Willow told Dakriel, "you run."

Dakriel nodded, and as the creatures crouched in preparation for their attack, Willow drew her hidden vibro knife. Jumping first, she stabbed the first clone directly in the center of his forehead, while the other three attacked her mercilessly. Dakriel, seizing the moment, dashed past them and escaped through the entrance they'd come through.

xxxxxxx

Xenos had spent the last half an hour trying to hack into the cloning facility's mainframe system, but on top of its notorious difficulty, he was also struggling with the alien language it was encrypted in. He'd learned a multitude of languages in his time as a Sith acolyte, but realised that he had never learned the language of ancient Zabraks. He was now relying on full instinct, and began keying in different codes into the computer. If he couldn't reprogram it, he would sabotage the entire system.

After yet another half hour, he'd finally gotten something that almost made sense. Before his eyes was a yes/no question in the ancient language, but he couldn't be certain what it said. He tried his best to make out the words in front of him, but could only comprehend half of it.

"Either I'm about to select a different language," he mumbled to himself, "or this terminal is about to self destruct."

Pressing a finger on the holographic screen floating above the terminal, he selected the one he was almost certain was "yes." The holographic screen flashed between green and blue for a few seconds, and then an entirely new screen came on. It gave a long list of multiple languages from English to Rodian, and he selected the obvious choice.

"Now we're getting somewhere," he said with a smirk and began hacking the terminals.

xxxxxxx

Darth Syntarus soon realised what had happened, and slowly walked towards Athaliah with a dark grin. As she gently reached for her eyes, realising they were decimated, she felt a surge of rage and despair fall over her. Closer and closer he stepped towards her, light saber in hand, and felt a swell of pride flowing through him. It was almost too perfect, and he revelled in the thought of killing her slowly and painfully. She stood up, calming herself slightly, and began to try and fight off the pain in her skull.

Her head felt as though it would burst at any moment, but knowing it wouldn't was a slight relief. The dark side swelled within her, and she carefully reached out. She could almost see her surroundings, and even felt where the assassin was, even as he stepped closer, careful not to make a sound, she felt his movements. Only one thing remained: her light saber.

"Alas," Syntarus began as he stepped side to side, as if to throw her off, "the young apprentice dies the way she should have months ago, when the dark lord Malik took hold of his destiny..."

"Months which he has spent training me," she replied in a calm, dark tone, "and using you."

"You are blind to the truth," he retorted, "even more so now. Any hope for you has burned away."

"I told you," she replied, finally sensing her light saber a few feet in front of her, "I'm going to kill you. I don't need my eyes to do so..."

Lunging at her, from only a foot away, he lashed out with his saber violently. Sensing his sudden jolt, she flipped back, high up in the air, avoiding the attack entirely. As she came around behind him, pulling her saber to her in mid air, she simply landed, and decapitated the assassin. The movement had been swift and clean, and as the circuits that had once connected his head to the rest of his body fried, his body limply collapsed to the ground while his head rolled away.

"Third time's the charm indeed," she mumbled with a growl as she took his saber from his corpse.

She stood for a moment, taking in her victory, and feeling the dark side swell within her. Although she was now blind, it hadn't hindered her in the least, and her mind quickly travelled to her next objective. Making her way out of the hangar, she tried to sense where the Jedi had gone, leaving the remains of the assassin where they laid. She'd fulfilled the first part of her assignment, and the Jedi was next, along with his friends.

xxxxxxx

Dakriel, along with Xenos and Malik, had felt the death of the assassin echo through the force, as if some strange bolt of energy had suddenly exploded around them. He'd been running in a confused maze of turns and doors, and now found himself lost. In his panic, he hadn't been aware enough to take note of his surroundings, and now found himself in a long hallway, with no doors or rooms.

The presence of the dark side was still here, and he couldn't sense whether or not Willow was still alive. Another hour passed, and he felt as though he'd been walking for much longer than that. Rounding a corner, he finally came across what appeared to be a command center. Entering it, he noticed a mass of computers and terminals, and the room was full of Imperial officers and Troopers.

"Hey," the Commander demanded upon seeing him, "What do you think you're doing in here? Who are you?"

"Uh," Dakriel muttered and then ran back out of the door.

Immediately, a group of Imperial Troopers ran after him, firing aimlessly and barely missing him. He was tired, but that didn't stop him from running as fast as he could back the way he'd come. As the hallway stretched on once again, curving as it did so, he sensed something else ahead of him. Faster he ran, reaching out to the swell of force energy he'd sensed, but suddenly stopped upon seeing who was waiting.

Seeing him stop, the Troopers slowed down, and aimed their weapons at him. Completely unaware of the Sith apprentice above them, hanging on to the frame of the ceiling, they zeroed in. Dakriel looked up at her, noticing her burnt eyes, and the dark holes that they had once been, and then he felt the dark force energy lurking inside her. Just as the Troopers prepared to take him, she leapt down, cutting them all down within seconds, then turned to face Dakriel.

"You're not the Jedi," she said dryly as the boy stood up, "but I can sense the force within you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Dakriel began, "I'm just a bounty hunt-"

"Don't lie to me," she snarled as she lifted him by the neck with the force, "Tell me where the Jedi is, and I'll kill you quickly..."

"Ack," he managed to mutter as he struggled for air, squirming helplessly against the force around his neck, "Fuck you..."

Suddenly, she was sent flying back by a powerful push, and Dakriel dropped to the ground, gasping. Xenos had sensed the Sith, and that Dakriel was in danger, and wasted no time in showing up. Athaliah, caught off guard, had hit the window with a heavy thud, and cracked the glass.

"You want me," Xenos said with a scowl, "here I am."

"I don't think you understand," Athaliah growled as she stood up, "I don't want you, my master does."

Firing a bolt of force lightning, she hit Xenos directly in the chest, knocking him back. Dakriel rushed at her, firing from his blaster, but she merely pushed him back into the wall, knocking him out. Catching his breath, Xenos tried to fight off the effect the lightning had left, and stood up cautiously.

"So," he began, "You're not even at the top of the food chain, just a dog sent to do her master's work. Life's a bitch, isn't it?"

"Mind your tongue," she growled, firing yet another bolt of lightning at him.

This time, he drew his saber, and deflected the bolt easily. As he smirked, Athaliah grew angrier, letting her rage fuel her, and drew both her sabers with a snarl. Simultaneously, they both clashed, and sung in rapid flourishes. Xenos had succeeded in pissing Athaliah off, but whether or not that was a good idea or not remained to be seen.

As their light sabers slammed together, the alarms suddenly went off, and footsteps could be heard echoing through the halls. Lifting Xenos with the force, choking and tossing him against the far wall, Athaliah put away her sabers. Confused slightly, Xenos put his away as well, and stood up.

"We'll have to dance some other time," she said with a smirk, "See ya around, Jedi."

With that, she blasted the window open with a force push, shattering it, and leapt out in a dash. Running after her, Xenos watched as she flipped and landed two stories down on a bridge, and calmly made her way towards a docked Sith Fighter. There was something about her that seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it, and he put it out of his mind. Behind him, Dakriel slowly regained consciousness, and Xenos walked over to help him up.

"Come on, we've gotta get out of here," Xenos said as he helped Dakriel get up, hoisting him on one shoulder.

"Willow," Dakriel muttered in a dazed confusion, "Have to get...Willow..."

"No time for that," Xenos replied as he collapsed the hallway where he'd run from.

Cautiously, he searched for the exit, using only the force to guide him in the right direction, and came across their docking bay. Suddenly, a squad of troopers spotted them, and he ran with Dakriel as fast as he could to their ship. Blaster fire chased after them in a storm of red and blue, striking the walls and nearby crates as they did so, and Xenos still had a few yards left to clear before reaching the ship.

"Blast 'em, don't let the Jedi escape," a few Troopers shouted to the others as they fired relentlessly.

Just in time, Xenos and Dakriel made it aboard their ship, and as the Troopers swarmed, Xenos fired up the engines, and the ship went roaring out of the docking bay. Dakriel seemed to be recovering more, and suddenly coming back to reality, he began to panic.

"Stop," he yelled as he tried to reach for the controls, "we have to go back, we have to help Willow."

"We can't," Xenos insisted as he pushed Dakriel off of him, "We don't have the time or the man power to save her, we'd just be giving ourselves over to them!"

"Willow would rescue me," Dakriel started, but was cut off by Xenos.

"Willow would want you to leave while you had the chance," Xenos roared, silencing Dakriel, "Not get yourself captured or killed trying to save her. She can handle herself, trust me."

"Typical Jedi," Dakriel mumbled in slight anger.

Making their way out of the facility, and heading towards space, a violent series of blasts rumbled their ship temporarily. Watching in horror, Dakriel saw the entire facility go up in flames. One after another, the large, round structures exploded in a fiery blaze, sending up mushroom shaped flames that evaporated in the pouring rain. After the series of explosions, the structure began to sink, and as Dakriel watched helplessly from the Raven's Claw, he could do little more than cringe in sorrow as their ship left the planet's atmosphere. Setting their coƶrdinates for the neutral planet, Belsavis, the Raven's Claw left Kamino, and blasted off into the stars.