Chapter 14: Encountering a new Enemy

Just as the droid had promised, he brought Angela her mask by the end up of day. It was perfect! It corresponded with the rest of her black attire ideally. When she tried it on for the first time it felt weird to have something cover her face, but it made her appearance completely unrecognizable. Angela then spent the next few days locked in her room, doing her research. She reviewed the news, newspaper, articles; anything that had to do with Yvad.

Angela sat cross-legged on her bed, dozens of papers scattered all over it. Angela was making notes on a sheet of paper.

"Yvad's last attack was 5 miles South from the capital….." she pondered, "……the capital is…13 miles from here…" Angela scribbled some more notes down on the sheet of paper before she began sketching a detailed map.

"If Yvad's last attack was here," she mumbled tapping her finger on a particular spot, "…..then Yvad has to be residing in an 8 mile distance from here….." Angela's voice trailed off and she quickly rechecked her calculations.

"13…5….yeah 8." She confirmed, "…meaning Yvad has to be around," she paused and stared hard at her hand drawn map before pointing a finger on a specific spot where she was positive Yvad and his crew were located at.

"I'm going to have to act quickly." She spoke while uncrossing her legs and instantly jumped to her feet. She walked over to the couch where she had previously laid out her black outfit; Angela quickly took off her other clothes before dressing in her black ones. First came the black shorts, then the gown, boots, and cloak. Grabbing her saber she hooked it onto her left hip; the last thing that remained was her black mask. She lifted it up and secured it firmly on her face; the mask covered her forehead and stopped right on top of her cheek bones. Besides the two holes in the mask for Angela's eyes, there was only one other open space and that was for her nose. Angela, once dressed and ready to go, quickly packed up the rest of her belongings in her bag, and slung the bag on her back. She looked over to a window resting on the far side of the room; Night had just fallen, the sky was dark and empty. Angela walked over to the window and pushed it open before she silently climbed out. Once her boots touched the ground, she pulled her hood up and over her head and took off down the street at a fast walking pace.

"I'm going to need some sort of Transportation." Angela stated in her head. A distant neigh reached Angela's ears and she traced the sound to a fenced-in-stable.

"This could work." She murmured quietly. Her eyes scanned over the fenced-in-stable and landed on a whit horse that was quietly out in the pen grazing. Raising a hand up in the direction of the horse, Angela firmly spoke.

"Come." She softly ordered; the horse stopped its grazing and slowly walked up to Angela. To Angela's luck it was still saddled up and reigned. Angela waved her hand,

"I need your help." The horse turned to its side, giving Angela permission to hop on its back. Without another word, Angela climbed onto the fence and jumped on the horses back; taking hold of the reigns as soon as she had secured herself,

"Let's go! Hya!!" she commanded, nudging the horse in its side with the heel of her boot. At the command, the white horse took off into a fast cant, and Angela steered the horse to jump the stable's fence; she leaned in close to the horse's neck as the horse leaped high into the air. Once the horse had covered the fence, Angela led the horse through the town before taking off into the night to find Yvad. Angela had left early into the night, 8 miles would be a long journey on horseback, and if she was going to complete her task, it would have to be under the night sky. She rode nonstop for 2 full hours; but just as Angela had predicted, Yvad had made camp exactly where she had mapped it out. From a distance, Angela could make out a few details about the camp, like the two glowing fires and the 8 separate tents set up around the area. She pulled back firmly on the reigns when she lied just a few yards away outside the camp; the horse immediately came to a stop. Swinging her leg over its back, she silently dismounted; Angela dropped her bag from her shoulders and quickly hooked its straps onto the horse's saddle before she took a few steps away. She held up a hand

"Wait here," she ordered quietly, "This shouldn't take long." She whispered. The horse laid down silently, and Angela quietly entered the camp, taking slow, soft steps. Angela looked all around, not one bandit could be seen moving about.

"Everyone must be asleep." She noted while observing the rest of camp. Eight tents were set up, seven of them smaller then one tent in particular.

"The bigger one must be Yvad's." she thought to herself as she carefully stalked up to it. Angela who was getting ready to charge inside and take him out while he slept, froze as her eyes landed on something else. On one side of Yvad's tent rested what looked like a wheeled cage, and inside it rested the four prisoners; two men, a woman and a young boy who looked no older than 12. Angela turned away from the tent and walked over to the cage. Reaching a hand up to the door she jingled its handle; locked. The noise made the young boy stir and wake up. Slowly he sat up and rubbed his eyes before he stared puzzled at the young women outside the cage dressed in black; Angela stared back not making any movements or sounds.

"Who are you?" he asked

"I'm here to help." She replied her voice barely a whisper.

"You're here to save us?" he cried happily while jumping to his feet and running up to the metal bars keeping him inside.

"SSsshh!" Angela hushed, but now the rest of the people had awoken from their sleep. The boy ran and clung to the woman who had just pulled herself to her feet.

"Mom, Mom, look! That lady's here to rescue us!" soon the caged wagon arose in many pleading voices.

"Oh please help us!", "Save us!!"

"Get us outta here!"

The people cried.

"I will if you guys shu…." Angela froze in midsentence as another voice stepped in.

"What's going on out there?" a rough voice called from one of the tents.

"…….shut up…." Angela grumbled while closing her eyes and she boldly turned to face the man who spoke. A large man immerged from one of the smaller tents, his eyes landed on Angela who was glaring dangerously at him.

"Hoy! What are you doing there?" he inquired his eyes narrowed suspiciously at Angela and her masked appearance. Angela rolled her eyes at the question and sarcastically replied,

"I'm scoping the real estate. What does it look like I'm doing?" she paused taking a few defensive steps toward the bandit, "By the way, this isn't a good place to run your business, it's too open, anyone can just walk on in," she spoke, grinning softly.

"Oh smart mouth are you? Well maybe I need to teach you a few lessons." He pulled from his side what looked like to be a club of some sort and charged at Angela

"Whoaaah!!" he bellowed. Angela raised both hands up in front of her and beckoned him with her fingers,

"Have at it fat boy!" she replied, challenging him to a fight. Once he was less than three feet away from her, she unhooked her saber from her hip and took up a fighting stance. The bandit raised his club high to strike Angela, not noticing the formidable blade. Angela brought her saber up into a blocking position, stopping the club in mid air; it clanged against the metal blade and the man froze.

"What's that you got there?" he asked eyeing Angela's saber.

"Nothing of great importance." She casually replied behind her hood before she took a step forward and shoved the bandit back. He lost his footing and tumbled down backwards. Quickly he picked himself back up off the ground and glanced at Angela who stood smirking down on his pathetic form.

"Gents!" he yelled, "Gents we've got company!" he cried; Angela's smirk vanished in a second. Six more bandits rushed out of their tents at the alarm, weapons were already drawn.

"Oh crap here we go…." She swore under her breath. The seven angry bandits eyed Angela while they slowly surrounded her; three on her left, three on her right, one in front. Clubs, daggers and all sorts of other hand weapons were pointed at Angela as the slowly closed in. Angela took up her defensive fighting stance; flashing her silver saber at the group of men.

"Hyaah!!" they cried as all seven of them charged at Angela. Quickly thinking, she force-pushed the three men coming in on her right side and sent them flying backwards into a tent, knocking it to the ground. As two more bandits came at Angela, she preformed a drop spin to the ground, kicking their feet right out from under them; both bandits flipped onto their head. As Angela rose to her full height, she brought her saber up quickly to block the blow of a dagger and a sphere being brought down hard upon her by the last two bandits. Angela released one of her hands from the hilt of her saber and punched one of the bandits right in his nose, breaking it; he fell back onto the ground. Then she lifted her leg up and kicked the last bandit right in his groin, as he hunched over in pain, Angela brought the hilt of her saber down on his head, knocking him out cold. Breathing in heavily, Angela scanned her eyes over the entire camp, all seven bandits had been taken out and laid sprawled out across the ground.

"Now where is Yvad?" she mumbled. The largest tent began to rumble softly, and one more man stepped out. He didn't look like the others Angela had just fought. Standing a little more than 6 feet tall, with a head that resembled something like an octopus; was none other than the infamous Yvad Jenos. His piercing pale blue eyes searched the camp, shocked as he saw that his entire had been defeated. Then his eyes landed on Angela. They took in her every detail from her black mask all the way down to her boots.

"What's your purpose here?" he asked his voice dripped with a heavy Scottish accent. Angela looked him up in down as well,

"I take it you're Yvad Jenos?" Angela asked, not exactly surprised at his horrifying appearance.

"Yesss," he hissed, "Now why would a young gal such as yourself wish to know? More importantly why are you here?" he questioned cocking his head to the side.

"Oh for a few reasons," she answered casually, "One, just thought I'd drop in, two, I'm here to reclaim the things that you have stolen," she paused giving a nod of her head in the direction of the four prisoners, "…..and three, I hear there's a nice price upon your head." She finished.

"Price?" he repeated while smacking his lips together, "I have no idea what you are talking about." He stated.

"Oh I think you do, now what's it gonna be? You can either make this job easier for me, or you cannot, but either way Yvad, your terrorizing of the people of Naboo ends tonight." She finished; Yvad threw his head back and laughed.

"I've had bounty hunters from all over this planet come for my wretched hide. It'll take more than a little gal to intimidate me." He chuckled menacingly

"We shall see." Angela challenged while taking up a fighting stance, and positioned her saber for combat. Yvad's eyes narrowed dangerously at Angela.

"So be it, but you'll receive no mercy from me!" he warned while pulling out his own version of a sword.

"Hence why I brought this." Angela replied signaling to her own saber. They both charged at each other, full speed, weapons raised high. Angela's saber and Yvad's sword connected with great force; the two metal weapons clanged loudly together. Angela pulled back to strike again; Yvad blocked her blow, the swiped low at Angela's legs. Angela jumped high in the air dodging his move, before she dived to the ground and rolled under another swing from Yvad's blade. Rolling to her feet, she jumped back a few steps before she kicked her leg high in the air at Yvad's charging form. Her foot caught him right below his chin and sent him staggering back. Angela lowered her saber to her side before she charged at Yvad and tackled him to the ground. Using her knee, she pressed down on Yvad's upper chest, knocking the breath from his body; reaching a hand out toward Yvad's sword, she used the force to disarm him, then brought both her saber and his sword up to his throat. Yvad raised both his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"Well what do you know? You've got some skills with a blade." He spoke panting slightly.

"Tell me something I don't know." Angela grumbled.

"Tell me missy, now that you have won our battle, what is it that your going to do now hmmm?" he asked

'I'm not going to kill you if that's what you're implying." She answered,

"And why not? I'm a wanted man, a murderer, you'd be doing this planet a favor by removing me from it permanently." He smirked; Angela shook her head,

"Your life isn't mine to take; the people of Naboo shall decide the fate of you and your men." Yvad was silent and stared deeply into Angela's eyes; then his smirk widened and he began to chuckle.

"You've never taken a life before have you? That's why you won't kill me, you're too……" he looked her up and down, "… pure to do it." He spoke mockingly. Angela tightened her grip on her saber and pushed the side of the blade deeper into Yvad's neck. Yvad tensed up.

"I might not have taken a life before, but that doesn't mean I can't do it." She snapped threateningly then paused for a few seconds before continuing, "Well Yvad, this was fun, but I know a few people who want to see you locked up, so have fun in prison!" she mumbled then drew her saber's hilt up above his head and brought it down hard on his temple; Yvad went limp. Angela rose off his chest and stared down on the man; a key was hooked on his belt. Angela reached a hand down and grasped hold of the key and yanked it off before turning on her heel and walked back over to the cage. The four prisoners stood wide-eyed staring at Angela in disbelief at what they had just seen. Angela took the key and placed it in the lock; after she gave it a quick turn the door clicked; and Angela pulled it open before stepping aside so the people could be freed. Angela turned her head away and gave a whistle; the white horse soon trotted up next to her. Grabbing hold of the horn of the saddle she swung herself back up onto the horse's back, and took hold of the reigns; preparing herself to once again take off.

"Wait!" called the young boy, and he quickly ran up to the horse. Angela gazed down softly at the child.

"Where…where are you going?" he asked. Angela shrugged her shoulders.

"Wherever I'm needed." She replied.

"But what about them?" he questioned while pointing to the unconscious bandits.

"I'm leaving them in your guy's capable hands. The capital is about five miles from here. I'm trusting you guys to deliver these men to justice." She explained; giving a small smile to the boy and a quick nod to the other three people, Angela gently kicked the horse in its side and took off.