The now somber team moved forward. There were no jokes, no banter. They realized they weren't invincible anymore as they proceeded up the stairs, counting the floors. Carra had done her best to slow Evra's bleeding and mend any broken bones, he had, but it had exhausted her, being badly wounded herself. She was tiring breathing too hard as she moved.
Nayama was smoldering with anger.
"We should make these people suffer as much as we can," she spat.
"I'm with you, Nayama, believe me. I think I'll shoot their leader in the groin," Evra grunted, enraged with his failure to protect his team. If he could breathe fire, he would have been snorting jets of it out his nostrils. C'bal's death was getting to him, threatening his self control.
He gave a signal to halt as he spotted something black and round on the wall at the top of the next set of stairs.
"What the hell is that?" he asked, blinking his good right eye, the other a bloody, burnt crater.
Nayama got a look at it.
"A Type seven frag mine, motion sensitive," Nayama smirked. "I'll set it off,"
"Don't!" Evra snapped, pulling her back.
"Evra, you know that kind of explosive can't harm me," Nayama assured him. "I'll be fine."
After a moment's hesitation Evra reluctantly let her go up the steps.
His faith would not be rewarded, to say the least.
The instant Nayama got within range of the device, it went off, but it turned out it was decidedly NOT a frag mine.
Instead, with a his, a high pressure jet of green gas, went off, forcing Evra and the rest to back away, but hitting Nayama point blank.
Nayama began to shake and scream, to Evra's horror, her shrieking began to sound like it issued from underwater as she dissolved into a bubbling, oily black mess that splashed down the steps, running across Evra's boots where it began to curl and flake up. The shrieking finally stopped.
Evra wanted to throw up. Two dead. Under his watch, no less. His failure was even more complete than it already had been.
"Acid," Kodos breathed heavily, clearly in shock. "An acid mine. Someone KNEW we would use her!"
"We need to retreat," Carra said, eyes watering with anguish.
"They'll try and pick us off if we go back the other way. Probably have an ambush set up the way we came. We have no choice but to go forward," Evra stated grimly. Nayama's death was like a knife in his chest, hurting far worse than C'bal's, but why-?
Evra decided not to dwell on why. That would open a can of worms he wasn't prepared to deal with in regards to HIS version of his fallen team mate.
"Move up," he said, choking back bile.
The team exited the seemingly endless flights of stairs and was greeted to a large room with a panoramic view of the cityscape. The traffic around the hotel had been diverted due to the terrorist threat.
Evra spotted a pile of bodies. The hostages had all been slain, their throats cut. Blood everywhere. Civilians, Janitors, one person, a Bothan, had an ID badge marking him as the hotel administrator.
"Heartless thugs," Carra spat.
Kodos went forward, Evra following close behind along with Carra, actively guarding with her lightsaber.
Kodos kneeled to check the bodies. He looked at Evra and shook his head.
And then his head was tumbling off his shoulders from the high powered blaster shot that went through the window, fired from a nearby building and pierced his neck, turning it into a smoking stump.
Evra stared in shock, even as Carra pounced on him, screaming for him to get down as another blaster shot rang out. He scrambled up, and tried to lift Carra up only find her dead also, hit in the chest, eyes opened as blood pooled out of her mouth.
Grief and rage warred in him as he dove behind an enclosed desk, but no shots came.
Instead, he heard a scrambling a footsteps pouring out of another turbolift.
Evra rose, trying to aim his rifle, only to be hit full on by a blast of lightning.
Ironically, this eased his pain, at least temporarily.
When he came too, he was strapped to a steel folding chair, bruises from stun rods all over him. Floodlights turned on nearly blinded him.
A figure stepped forward.
"So this is the great Riordo The Lucky. I'm betting you don't feel so lucky now, do you?" a familiar old voice rang out.
Evra stared up at his enemy, trying not to keep his mouth from dropping.
It was Colonel Bluefin.
"You?" he asked, stunned.
"We met before?" Bluefin asked, straightening his black beret and smoothing over his black, military jumpsuit. "Never mind, doesn't matter. I knew they'd send their best after us, but I didn't think their best would frankly be so easy to dispatch. Your failure will hurt this tawdry excuse for a Republic, especially when I decapitate you live on the holonet."
"Why?" Evra got out.
"DOOMSAYER will never surrender the galaxy to the Sith, no matter what form they take. If we have to ignite the war all over again, we will. And the man on the street agrees with us! They hate it that you rotten Sith punks are in power. Your death with be the ignition we need to gain more recruits."
"You're insane. It's over man! For forty years apparently!" Evra protested weakly.
"Riordo," Bluefin said with a smirk, twirling his curved-hilt silver lightsaber. "As long as Force users like you are allowed any power whatsoever...it will NEVER be over. As you are about to learn."
Riordo's hands and feet were bound. He couldn't do anything but glare.
His heart began to pound realizing he was about to die in a 'better' world.
He saw a bunch of other ragged looking Dark Jedi surround him as Bluefin walked over to a small, white, orb-like floating camera and turned it on by hitting a switch at the top of it. A mechanical eye protruded out and stared at the grimacing Sith Warrior. He spat at it.
"Fellow Citizens," Bluefin began to narrate, coughing a bit. The shadows seemed to give the wrinkles on his face added depth. "Fellow citizens, now is a call to arms, ever since the Sith Philosophers seized power from a demoralized and weakened Jedi Order, we live in a virtual theocracy. Let the death of this man, Riordo Evra, be the beginning of the end. Behead him when ready, gentlemen."
Evra didn't feel the white hot bar of plasma that should have been going through his neck. All he felt was a surge of heat from his back and the force of a blast from behind. Then two detonations from the front. Smoke and debris filled his lungs and he began choking violently.
He heard someone scrambling over to him and undoing his bindings.
"Evra! GET UP!" he heard Rose Tyler yelling. "We have to go!"
Evra stood up, spotted his lightsaber and a blaster nearby and picked them up, making certain to shoot Bluefin twice in the head before he departed the makeshift execution chamber a hotel room had been turned into through the hole the explosives had made.
The Doctor was waiting in the adjacent hotel room. "Fantastic!" he said with joy. "You're alive!"
"Not for long if we don't get out of here!" Evra breathed.
"I got the TARDIS waiting close by. Had to lock on as close to your bio-signs as possible, but-"
"The lecture can wait!" Evra interrupted.
Evra, the Doctor, and Rose scrambled out into the red painted, marble-floored hotel hall and rushed for the Turbolift as blasterfire rang out from behind them. Evra fired blindly behind him, panicking as he activated his acid blue lightsaber and deflected incoming shots from surviving Dark Jedi taking potshots from the room he had been freed from.
Evra cursed as he spotted one of them pull out a single shot Merr-Sonn series grenade launcher.
He pushed the two out of the way of the lift, dodging the grenade as it slammed into the doors, wrecking the lift that had been called up.
He spotted a turbo-door exit to a set of stairs to their right. The entire area had caught fire. He could hear the Dark Jedi approaching.
Evra used the Force to hit the open button. Everyone scrambled to their feet and rushed into the flight of stairs.
As soon as he was through the entrance, the Doctor pulled out a strange, tube like device from his pocket. It was made of metal and a blue crystal was set atop it. He pointed it at the door panel and it instantly slid shut.
"That ought to buy us a few seconds," he said merrily and continued fallowing Evra.
"Where's that box thing of yours?" Evra asked hoarsely as he sprinted down the flight of stairs as fast as he dared.
"Nine floors down. It was as close as I could get without drawing attention."
"He likes to work for his victory, I'm afraid," Rose said apologetically.
As they continued rushing down the stairs, a Turbo door leading to another floor opened. In rushed a Dark Jedi, a young human man with a bald head and calligraphy like tattoos, brandishing a flak gun.
Rose tackled him, followed by the Doctor and Evra, overwhelming him. Evra used the butt of the weapon to knock the Dark-Sider out, who slumped against a wall.
"This way!" Evra shouted, recognizing it as the reception area where he had been captured, his heart growing sick as he rushed past the bodies of his fallen team. He spotted another Dark Jedi, this one a rodian dressed in form fitting black robes and wielding a red-bladed double-saber.
Evra fired the flak-gun at his chest. The spread-fire from the shot, demolished the Dark Jedi's guard and the top of his head came off.
"Gross!" Rose exclaimed.
"Happens all the time, Rose. We all gotta go some time," the Doctor stated grimly
Evra tossed him a blaster.
The Doctor examined it. "Never was much of a good shot."
"Consider this a learning experience," Evra grunted. "Down the stairs,"
The Doctor discarded the blaster as he followed.
As they made their way down the steps he and his team had originally made their way up, he couldn't help but reflect on how badly he had failed his team. It had all been a trap, and he had made such poor judgment it could almost be considered comical in another light.
He could never afford to be this incompetent again.
They continued rushing down the steps until they came across a black, messy, dried tar-like substance.
"Eww, what's that?" Rose asked.
Evra choked back his answer and continued running.
He spotted two armored Dark Jedi rushing up the steps to meet him, he shoved the Doctor and Rose back up, firing the flak gun with a free hand and clipping them both in the face.
The Doctor finally stopped at one turbo-door on the stairs.
"This is the floor!" he exclaimed, pulling out his strange metal device and pointing it at the door panel. It slid open instantly.
"What is that?" Evra asked.
"Sonic Screwdriver," the Doctor answered proudly. "For the times that locks just get a little too pesky."
What awaited them on the other side of the door was not the least bit welcome.
It was another mess hall. The TARDIS was in the middle-blocked by a five man squad of ragged looking armored Dark Jedi.
"Halt or die!" the leader barked.
"I got this," the Doctor told Evra, pulling out something from his jacket. It was small, square and made of leather. A wallet.
He flipped it open and strode out. "I have orders directly from your commander that we are to go free."
"Liar!" one of them shouted.
"Fine, if you don't believe me, then look here. That's his signature," The Doctor replied calmly, tossing his wallet toward them.
The human, a green Twi-lek man, picked it up and stared cautiously at the contents of the wallet.
"Why is he being let go?" the Dark Jedi asked suspiciously.
"Turns out he's a spy working for us. It was deep cover. I came to take him and debrief him," the Doctor lied calmly, hands still in the air.
"What were those explosions?"
"There was a second breaching team we didn't know about. Just barely got him out in time," the Doctor replied. "Can we go?"
The Dark Jedi still eyed him suspiciously. "What's this box here?"
The Doctor began to look cross. "That's a need to know basis. You want to take it up with your commander, while he's under fire, or should I?" he demanded.
"The Dark Jedi relented, lowering his active red lightsaber. "All right, you can go. Come on guys, let's back up the commander." The squad of Dark Jedi departed the mess hall, casting glares at a stunned Evra and fearful Rose.
"Haven't got all day, Evra!" the Doctor called out, picking up his wallet and heading into the TARDIS.
Evra and rose sprinted inside, where the Doctor then promptly shut the door. He stood still for a moment.
"Wait for it," he said with a slight smile, smoothing over his leather jacket.
"Wait for what? We have to get out of here!" Evra demanded.
"Just wait. Be patient..." he continued.
Finally, they all heard it.
"STOP THEM! THEY"RE GETTING AWAY!" Evra heard a Dark Jedi shout on the other side.
The Doctor held open his wallet. All that was inside was a rectangular, blank piece of gray paper.
"Slightly Psychic Paper. I never get tired of this one," he explained with an ear to ear grin.
Evra heard the drawing of lightsaber, heard them trying to scratch the outside of the TARDIS-and failing miserably.
"Those energy swords couldn't make a dent on their best day," the Doctor told Evra. "Let's get out of here, shall we?"
The Doctor went over to the center console, the blue generator pumping at the center glowing a soft blue as he began spinning wheels and pumping a handle back and forth, hitting switches.
Evra heard the TARDIS power up, felt the hum beneath his feet. He suddenly collapsed to his knees, his legs feeling rubbery.
Rose went over to him. "How badly are you hurt?"
"I'll live," he replied grimly.
"I'm sorry. About your team," she said.
"It wasn't your fault," he said, giving into the exhaustion a little.
"And here we are!" the Doctor said, stepping away from the console. "Go, on, get, some air, you two. I'm gonna be busy just a tad."
Rose nodded and helped Evra up. They walked out to a sunny meadow surrounded by giant, branching trees. White orchids were growing on them.
"Looks like Dantooine. But we were on Coruscant not a few seconds ago," Evra spoke detachedly. Normally, he might have been amazed, but considering that he'd just experienced his whole life and history being rewritten-miraculously remembering what had occurred-nothing could have surprised him at this point.
He collapsed onto the grass, and remembered how thankful he was to be alive. His luck had held. barely.
"So let me get this straight," Evra began, eating a piece of candy from Rose. (She called it a "Jelly Belly") "This guy you travel around with is the last of some ancient species that had mastered time and space travel. And he just goes around righting wrongs?"
"The wrongs seem to find him, really. I think he's just looking for a good time. But, we're our own boss, and don't have to take orders from anyone," Rose replied, sitting cross legged on the grass.
Evra was sitting across from her. she offered him another jelly belly and he took it, popping it into his mouth. "Sounds wonderful."
"So this other reality you're actually from...I know I'll said this earlier, so I'll say it again: It sounds awful," she said as respectfully as possible.
"It's no picnic, I'll say that much. But I live there. To be honest...despite what's happened...I'm wondering if I should stop Ptolemus. I mean, he made the decision to warp everything...but what gives me the right to warp it back?"
"You're right to question your judgment," the Doctor said from behind, stepping out of the TARDIS. "You'd be a fool not to. But it's got to be done. There's no way someone who uses that power will only desire to use it once. I'm amazed his use didn't destroy your universe outright, frankly. He must have a highly disciplined mind."
The Doctor sat down cross legged with them as well. "We have to destroy it. Only solution. But it has to be done in such a way that its destruction doesn't rip your reality in half. That means I have to get close enough to reprogram the thing with my Sonic Screwdriver, so that after one use, it'll disintegrate harmlessly."
"But where IS it exactly?" Rose asked.
"I've tracked its energy signature to within a heavily fortified structure on Coruscant called the Sith Temple." the Doctor answered.
Evra put a hand to his face out of exasperation. "I was just there this morning."
"It's probably heavily guarded. We're going to need a high ranking Sith, perhaps Ptolemus himself, to get past any defenses," Rose added.
"That's where Evra comes in," the Doctor replied almost jovially. "All I have to do his send us forward in time, say, six months? That'll get him sweating. He'll be so intrigued by your sudden reappearance that he'll have to see you in person himself."
"That's your plan?" Evra asked skeptically. "Just go missing for a while and hope he wants to see me when I get back?"
"Better than nothing," Rose replied helpfully. "Like Captain Kirk says, 'Risk is our business'."
Evra stared at her. "Captain Kirk?"
"Oh, right, you don't get Star Trek here do you? Pity. Really good show," she answered. She turned to the Doctor, holding out a jelly belly.
"No thanks," he replied wryly. "Had enough of those to last me a lifetime. My fourth, to be exact."
Evra stared at him. "Fourth life?" he asked in surprise.
"Long story friend, and it involves flamboyantly colored scarves," the Doctor answered, clearly embarrassed. He clapped his hands together in anticipation. "So, shall we get our little suicide mission rolling?"