-Otarri and Grievous-

Ahsoka stopped short behind me.

"Both of you, run!" One of our masters yelled to us.

We sprinted back in the opposite direction. Thankfully the conveyor was broken and had stopped moving. A guttural howl came from behind us, and the sharp chink and thunk of clawed feet thundered on, gaining speed. Ahsoka and I gained speed as well, but we were already tired from the previous chase. The two of us were also running back in the direction of our previous pursuers, although we would have preferred to face them than Grievous any day.

I understood the social norm that women and ladies are placed in the safest spots, but I really wanted to trade with Ahsoka. Most people aren't prepared to have one of the top lightsaber duelists in the galaxy on their heels; I certainly wasn't! At the time, I was just grateful that he wasn't close enough to have his sabers out and activated.

Ashoka had her's out and was occupied with scrapping the supers and tinnies in front of us. Grievous was only within 10 meters and closing. I saw another assembly line running perpendicular below us.

"Jump down Ahsoka!"

She nodded and turned to the right, letting herself drop to the next line. I followed suit and Grievous followed me. Again, he landed with a loud crunch, making me ever so aware of his relative distance. This time though, Grievous had switched on four of his lightsabers, two green, two blue, and separated his arms and his hands. The three of us were running along with the moving conveyor and we're headed right for an output. The wall of the gigantic room neared, and when we were only meters away, Master Otarri dropped down and tackled Grievous from the moving belt.

My immediate fear was that Otarri had been impaled by one of Grievous' lightsabers during that tremendous tackle. Thinking back on it, I guess it wasn't exactly a tackle at all- it just seemed it because of the adrenaline. Otarri had actually landed behind Grievous, grabbed his cloak, wrenched him to his left, and Force pushed him out and down to another conveyor. This sort of move is what I had been learning from the Jedi Masters at the Temple.

He and Grievous hit the platform and rolled through a doorway which sealed shut right behind them. Anakin reached us just as we went through the doorway we tried to reach before. I was nearly frantic.

"We need to get over there!" I said, pacing back and forth on the conveyor.

"We will, just calm down," Ahsoka told me.

"Calm down?"

"Yes, we can't act rashly now."

"Calm down? How can I be calm, when the fierfeking Jedi Hunter is fighting my master?"

"Welcome to my world," Anakin interjected.

"Look, let's go through here," Ahsoka said, pointing out an observation platform, "and work our way over to them. These droid factories are usually pretty straight forward."

We all jumped to the platform, and I followed Ahsoka and Anakin through the door. A handful of droids were at consoles monitoring the factory. They looked up at us and a small moment of silence was exchanged between our group and theirs, before they reached for their blasters. Our lightsabers were out in a flash-mine switched to two separate. I deflected two bolts with one hand, and with the other, threw my lightsaber in the air. I used the Force to spin it faster and maneuver it from the left, to the right, decapitating three of the droids as Anakin and Ahsoka finished off their attackers. I reached out my hand as my saber boomeranged back to my palm, being careful not to

overspin and cut my arm off.

"You two go to that console there and shut down everything you can," Anakin commanded.

We nodded and jogged over. Ahsoka and I worked separate monitors, and with the press of a few keys, initiated a factory shutdown. Most of processes and belts had stopped, save a few that were whirring down to a finish.

"Here. I think they're here," Anakin called over to us, motioning to a large room full of assembly lines and belts. "Follow me."

He raced out of the room with us at his heels. We followed him down a fews corridors and turns and got to another observation platform, but without the droids. At the guardrail for the platform, I could see hundreds of feet down. I stooped over and cast my eyes downward to see flashes of blue and green, indicating a saber duel.

I turned around and looked back towards Anakin and Ahsoka. "I think I see them!"

They hurried over as I jumped on the conveyor in front of us that moved out to the center of the massive room.

"Tokrin, wait!" I heard Ahsoka call after me.

It was too late. I was determined to get to my mentor. I ran along with the still fast moving belt until I came in range of a jump to another, which I effortlessly flipped to. I repeated the process again. And again. Finally, Otarri and Grievous were in better view. I had only 3 more jumps to go. Otarri raised his comlink to his mouth and his mouth moved for several seconds as he defended blow after blow from his deadly opponent. A slight whirring could be heard, even above the few remaining sounds of the factory. In a split second, a massive green bolt blew through the roof, followed by another that continued through the room to the bottom, where it exploded in an extravagant manner. Flames filled my vision and blocked my view of Otarri. Water gushed through the gaping hole in the ceiling from the lake above, and dumped onto the assembly lines, short circuiting the equipment and dousing the flames.

"Master!" I shouted above the din of flames and screeches of metal.

"Here, Torkin," I heard from above.

I looked up to see Grievous holding my mentor around the torso with his claws, crawling on the ceiling of the factory like an insect. His hands were around Grievous' legs, but there was no escape. A pit in my gut formed, and then took a dive. Otarri was slung around as Grievous used only three feet to stay gripped to the roof. The water had receded enough to climb through the hole and Grievous headed towards it. When he reached the edge he swung twice, and launched my master up into the night, quickly disappearing himself.

"No!" I shouted as I bolted into action. The upper assembly lines were still more or less intact, and acted as my launch pads to reach the outside.

"Tokrin! We'll follow you up," came Anakin's voice from below.

I said nothing out, but kept working my way up. Finally I arrived at the top line, but it had suffered a lot of damage in the initial blast from the Republic Cruiser-as in a large missing chunk right below the hole. I jogged to the edge of the break and looked around for something to boost my jump up. My eyes landed on a mostly flat plate of durasteel that had not yet fallen to the bottom of the colossal room. I closed my eyes and imagined seeing the plate lift up and move to fill the gap below the hole. Then, I focused, opened my eyes, and felt the strain enter my body as the plate shifted and moved into place. Once I knew I had a firm grip on it, I ran, and jumped the distance onto it. A thought of grievous flashed through my mind and I lost my balance, feeling the plate drop a foot or so. However, a quick thought of Ahsoka and Otarri helped me to stabilize. I looked up and judged that I would need a jump of around 40 feet to reach the lip of the hole. I crouched, felt the power under my feet and pushed, extending my legs. The next thing I knew, my hair was whipping through the air and fresh scents entered my nose. I had actually overshot a small margin and was about 10 feet above the hole, so I lunged over to a rock that protruded from the water's surface.

Observing my surroundings, I found myself in the middle of a slowly draining lake. The hole from where I had emerged, was in the shallows of the lake, so water was still present in deeper areas. Dawn had also broken; a red hue scattered across the cloudless sky. I beheld my master lying unmoving on the sandy beach. In a swift lunge I landed next to him on the sand.

"Master? Are you hurt?" I asked. I tried my best to remain calm but a crack had appeared in the foundations of my voice.

Otarri's eyes opened and he gasped. Sitting up, he lifted his arm weakly, pointed to the water, and breathed, "Grievous...water...knocked me...out..."

Anger seethed through my brain and my veins, causing my teeth to clench tightly together. I whipped around and stalked towards the water, fully activated lightsaber in hand. I brought my saber up in front of me in a horizontal plane. No indication of Grievous was present, but I trudged into the shallows of the lake anyway. A ripple came from the left. I looked to see only the darkness of the water. I continued my slow trudge forward and halted when the water was halfway up my thighs. A ripple came from the right. He was toying with me.

I didn't see the hand at my feet until it was too late.

My final breath was stopped short by water entering my mouth as Grievous dragged me mercilessly through the cold lake. Several seconds passed and my lungs were already beginning to yell for air. This state was worsened when he banked left and slammed me into a boulder, knocking the rest of my air from my lungs. Grievous' clawed hand held a grip like a vice around my right ankle; I had no range of motion whatsoever. My head began to feel light as my body steadily spent its small supply of oxygen. In a last ditch effort, as my vision started to blur, I reached for my belt and snatched up my rebreather. Thankfully, Grievous was swimming straight, to a degree, and I was just able to get the device into my mouth as my sight collapsed. With a huge gulp of air, vision returned along with thought. I used the time that he was dragging me to recuperate and to get the oxygen to every part of my body. Once my ankle began to thud with a dull pain, I knew that I was back in action, as all of my veins were flowing with fresh oxygen. I used what energy I still had to fight the current from our speed to reach for my lightsaber and bring it within range of his arm. I flicked the switch on and carefully moved the blade to his arm.

I touched the lightsaber to his armor plating, intending to cut straight through, however he felt the singe and tossed me aside. I couldn't tell up from down in the murky depths of the lake. I closed my eyes and saw with the Force. I sent feelers out from me, scanning the rocky bottom. The shore, it would seem, was only a couple meters away to my right. I did not sense any life form or movement besides a school of fish. I closed in on the one spot I had not yet felt out.

Fierfek.

Grievous sped towards me, and I turned to swim away towards shore. I looked back and saw him closing, arm outstretched.

10 meters.

5 meters.

I couldn't make it. His arm grabbed my leg once again. We moved towards what appeared to be a boulder that you could stand on and be out of the water. We weren't far from land. He hauled me up effortlessly. I hung from his grip like a hunting trophy. From the rock he was perched on it was perhaps 5 meters to the sandy shore. He reared back and tossed me onto it. I landed with a thump that knocked the wind out of me and sent the rebreather flying from my mouth, and my lightsaber from my hand. I gasped for air, until it slowly returned to my lungs, but not without my sputtering and coughing. I flipped onto my back to see a wake flowing towards me.

Just then, Grievous jumped from the shallows into the air, lightsabers out, and somersaulted downwards with me as his target. I reached for my lightsaber with the Force and pulled it to my hand. It was barely activated before he crashed down on me. His robotic body had no sense of strain, only aiding his pressure exerted on my arms. He brought his head down in front of my face and cackled; four lightsabers and all of his strength pushed down on me. Both of my arms were in the middle of my hilt, pushing with their all. In my peripheral vision, his farthest left arm move under my guard to impale me. Using the Force, I focused what attention I had on my left arm. I quickly built up what power I could, and in the pivotal moment of my arms giving way and his saber about to strike, I sent my arm to his chest and pushed with the Force, sending him sailing back into the water, and allowing me to get up and move away.

I collapsed on the sand gasping for breath, allowing my arms to stretch and legs to extend. My eyelids felt heavy so I allowed them to continue their descent until they covered my eyes completely. I listened to the sounds around me. There were hardly any.

This would be a wonderful place to come to relax, I thought to myself. Like that's ever a possibility.

The sounds of clashing blades sizzled across the water. Forcing my body to sit up, I scanned the horizon and saw Grievous and Otarri locked in combat. My master was in a defensive stance rapidly backing away from the might of four sabers. The sun was almost up and the brightening amber sky accentuated the green and blue weapons; their glow was reflected on the still water.

I forced my body to obey my will and stood. Skimming the surface of the water, I kept my eyes peeled for a way to the other shore. I decided to use the rock Grievous threw me from to leap to the other side, which was not too much farther now that the water was even shallower than before. Just as I was backing up for my leap, a moment passed that altered the rest of my life forever. My master was blocking a slash from overhead and one from his left in a continuous motion. This left his right flank completely open. He rolled to the right, passing under Grievous' attacks with ease, and moving to attack the Jedi Hunter from behind. Grievous was prepared however, and kept his momentum going, turning to the left with his right arms extended. The tips of his lightsabers sliced over the back of my master and mentor.

My heart beat faster as I anticipated what was to come.

With a few steps he stood with a leg on each side of Otarri. His two upper arms were high in the air, spinning their sabers at the wrist, and moving down.

KKSSSCHH

Both lightsabers penetrated through the lower back of the only father figure I had ever known. In a flash, I recalled every moment we spent together, from the time of my initiation into the Jedi Order, to the very last lessons he taught me. Tears streamed down my cheeks like rain gliding down a window. I stared blindly into the sun blinking rapidly. My heart beat faster, adrenaline filling my bloodstream. I sniffed and wiped the tears from my eyes with the cuff of my sleeve. In that instant, a decision was made. For once, justice would be served. Not matter how long it took, my master would be avenged.

Even if it meant the death of me.