Disclaimer: I told you last time I'm not saying it again! I. Don't. Own. This... Damn it, you made me say it! *curses*

A/N: Last post before my project! Wish me luck, cuz if I die, you'll never get to read the end of this fanfic cuz no one knows the password to my computer! So, hopefully I don't die. Seriously, though, I'm rubbish at presenting things. It's terrible. But you probably don't want to hear about my woes.

Thanks to those people who reviewed! (Eep, I hope you decide not to make the chocolate milk disappear! That's a staple of my diet right there! :P) You guys are awesome! Happy reading!

Chapter Thirteen

"I thought you'd come out this way," said Master Uthar. "Tell me, what were you doing in my quarters?"

"If I didn't tell your amateur torturer, what makes me think I'll tell you?" Caeli asked casually.

Students stepped from all sides, several to each companion. Caeli was left alone, but Carth, Dustil, and I were all grabbed. They weren't exactly gentle.

"Because I can kill your friends without a second thought. What were you doing there?"

"All I took is a little datapad that said you killed Dusty's girlfriend," Caeli snapped, indicating Dustil. "Then your little minion came in and called for backup, dragged me to the interrogation room, stripped me, and beat me to a pulp. Any other stupid questions?"

Uthar remained silent.

"Good. Now, I don't see how we'd make it out of the Academy alive because you've got my friends and I'm surrounded by your mindless little minions. But I have a proposition. We fight to the death. You win, I die. Obviously. I win, Yuthura has to let me and my friends go. After she takes me to the Tomb of Naga Sadow. Swear to it." She turned to Yuthura. "You too. Don't think you'll get away with the old 'I didn't swear the oath, he did' trick."

"I swear to uphold your terms," said Uthar.

"Good. Yuthura?"

"I swear to uphold your terms," the woman repeated.

"Good. Let's get to it." Caeli flourished her lightsabers. My eyes found Carth's in the crowd; they were glistening with barely concealed panic. After all she'd just been through, Caeli was being subjected to another fight, a fight with the Sith Master, of all people. I dimly registered a Sith girl on the side of the circle closest to the exit to the valley vanish down the corridor, but I had no idea of its significance.

The fight was not short and definitely not sweet. Despite my Force Heal, Caeli was still severely weakened from her torture, and Uthar was in his element.

After a good five minutes of nerve-wracking dueling, Caeli was to be found lying on the floor, backing away from the tip of Uthar's lightsaber. Fortunately for her, he was drawing this out, for a lightsaber, a purple one, flew from the back of the crowd and grazed his back, causing him to withdraw his own weapon. The lightsaber flew back towards its owner, cutting down several Sith along the way. Finally it was reunited with the hand of its owner: the blond girl I had seen earlier. And she'd brought backup. A dark-skinned female human, two green male Twi'leks, an orange female Twi'lek, and a male human I recognized as Mekel. Though I didn't know the blond girl, I knew who her friends were: the refugees from the Shyrack caves.

Meanwhile, Uthar's momentary distraction was enough to give Caeli a chance. She jumped to her feet, called her fallen lightsaber back to her, and, as the fighting broke out, ran the Sith Master through. Her fight, at least, had been won.

Thalia May and her friends, meanwhile, were having a bit of a tough time. I had to help them. I managed to kick the guy holding me, elbowed him away from me, and took his lightsaber from him. Thanks to the training Belaya had given me, even though I hadn't used a lightsaber since, I was able to be of some use as Caeli grabbed Yuthura and fled to the Valley. I was grateful for this. There was too much at stake for her to risk her life in this fight.

Dustil and Carth had also managed to break free of their captors. Carth was fighting all-out, firing with his blasters or using them as clubs, while Dustil was running through the crowd, finding his friends, and warning them about the evil of the Sith. Several even joined our cause, though he was forced to fight more than one. Galon Lor was among the first to fall to Dustil's lightsaber, and despite the help he'd given me, I was unable to find it in my heart to feel bad about it. He was a Sith, and an idiot at that. He got what he deserved.

Somewhere in the course of the battle, I found myself back to back with the blond girl.

"Another deserter?" she asked.

"Nah," I said. "A spy. I was with Caeli when we arrived."

I could almost sense her nodding. "Good to know. I'm Isyra, by the way. Isyra Vega."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," I said. "Under different circumstances, I'm sure we could have been friends. I'm Athena Sapphire. Here, I was Irena, River to my friends."

We fell silent again, fighting for our lives, parrying blaster bolts and lightsabers alike. Shortly thereafter, we became separated again.

I shall attempt to describe the conditions of that battle, though I shall avoid most of the gruesome details. The floor was littered with dead Sith, along with a few of the deserters. For instance, the orange Twi'lek was felled by the lightsaber of a murderous-looking student. Mekel was also killed shortly thereafter. That was truly a shame, I thought. He'd seen the light, he would have made a pretty good Jedi if he decided to join up. Then this had to happen.

Every other step I took involved stumbling over a dead body somehow, and as the battle progressed, the ratio of dead to living was getting higher and higher. More than once, I slipped in a pool of blood, though the use of lightsabers was quite helpful in this matter, given that they instantly cauterize wounds. Only the guards and Carth were using blasters, hence the blood.

Though the Sith were accustomed to outnumbering their opponents, they were clearly not used to being cut down like blades of grass faced with a lawnmower. Once we'd killed slightly over half of them, the rest of them turned tail and ran, some towards Dreshdae, others towards the Valley of the Dark Lords. I pitied the latter group. They were bound to run into Caeli on their way out, and I doubted many of them would survive the encounter.

As for me, I didn't envy whoever had to clean up the Academy. The floor of the central area was littered with corpses, mostly of the Sith loyalists. A few of Dustil's friends who'd turned were also dead, along with Mekel and the orange Twi'lek. Isyra Vega was kneeling over the prone body of Thalia May, and one of the male Twi'leks was with her. Carth and Dustil meanwhile, were having a hushed argument in a corner. I decided to join them.

"I can't exactly stay here," Dustil was saying. "Come on, I can help you!"

"No! It's too dangerous."

Dustil turned to me, a pleading look in his eyes. "River," he appealed to me.

"What's going on?"

"Father wants to leave me behind."

I turned to Carth. "You can't."

"Why not?"

"It's dangerous! He was the only Sith who was actually helping when we freed Caeli. Dangerous as our mission is, he'd be safer with us. And think about it, if he came, you'd know what was happening to him, you could keep an eye on him! Come on, Carth!"

Dustil, meanwhile, was looking confused. "You know each other?"

I nodded. "Caeli found me on Taris. I was a slave, but she rescued me, and since the planet was blowing up around us, she took me along. I stayed with the Jedi for a bit, then I went with Caeli."

"How did you end up here?"

"Caeli needed to come here for her mission. I decided it might be helpful if I snuck in as a spy. So I stole the identity of Irena River, snuck in here, and made a whole bunch of friends. Turns out it was a good plan, huh?" I waited two seconds, then continued. "Anyways, Carth. Please?"

He glared moodily at the floor for a full minute before he finally turned his relentless gaze to me. "If he gets so much as scratched, you'll pay the price."

I met his stare with full seriousness, understanding that he meant every word. "Understood, sir. I'll take responsibility."

"In that case, Dustil, you can come."

"Be warned, though," I added, "not everyone will trust you right off the bat. Some will be suspicious because you're a Sith. You'll need to prove yourself if you really want to belong. And Dustil?"

"Yeah?"

"Do be careful." He raised an eyebrow. "Because your father will maim, if not kill me should you be injured or killed."

Dustil nodded.

"I'll take him back to the ship," I told Carth. "I take it you want to wait for Caeli?"

He nodded without speaking.

"All right, Dusty, come on."

"Don't call me that," he growled.

"Once you get to know me better, dear, you'll learn that I have an interesting sense of humor." I winked. "And I dearly love to tease."

He sighed, rolling his eyes. "Great."

A/N: And there you have it? Like it? Review if you've got a second. Or a minute. Or five. Or several hours. Whichever. Wish me luck on my presentation this afternoon! Tell me what you had for lunch, give me a cyber-hug, whatever you want! But reviews make me happy (and if you threaten to remove all chocolate milk from the world, that motivates me. Seriously.) Anyway, have a great life until I see you next!