Chapter 25
Aspyre saw as the old Jedi pressed a few keys on the control panel near the energy shield, clicking very slowly and patiently as he explained to her why there was a large energy shield in the middle of the forest.
"This thing was placed by Czerka in order to protect their operations here from the more… vicious animals found deeper in the Shadowlands. A rather ingenious plan had the animals not found a way around it. It managed to keep the big ones away, but many of the smaller ones simply climb the trees and cross over it."
"Mmm…" Aspyre simply responded uninterested at the facts Jolee was telling her. The old man noticed her lack of interest and grumpily snorted at her before pressing a few more keys and turning it off. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but this place is not safe, at least not for us. We haven't slept at all since we came down here, and we have only had a few hours of rest, the animals seem intent on driving us out."
"Why shouldn't they? You're trespassing on their home" he scolded them as he crossed the energy shield.
"What about you?"
"Me? I have been here longer than most of them, if anything they're trespassing on my home."
"How long have you been here?"
"Hard to say, probably twenty years or more, time seems to slow down when-"
Aspyre saw Dustil grab lift Mission on his arms and jump out of the way as a huge pack of Kinraths jumped forward at them, legs and appendages ready to strike at them. Aspyre jumped up and was very surprised to find Jolee up in the air at the same speed as she was. Clearly age had not had its toll on this man. As they rose in the air one of the insects jumped up at them, trying to sting their feet, but with a swift cut from her red blade, Aspyre sent the beast scurrying, and earned a questioning glance from Jolee, before she clipped it and pulled out her blue staff, igniting both ends as they dropped back to the ground. A few more Kinraths tried to sting them, but they only managed to lose a few legs in the process. Dustil, still carrying Mission, kicked one of them in the face before the Rutian girl shot it at point blank range. The last few beasts scurried away quickly from the group, desperately to return to their hideout after the failed attack, which was rather unusual as Kinraths were extremely stubborn when they begun an attack, usually even if they were overwhelmed they would keep fighting.
"Something's not right" Jolee said quietly as he closed his eyes.
"Hiss" a soft noise came from behind them.
"Oh" was the only sound Aspyre could make as she turned around and saw what had made the Kinrath flee away in terror.
00
Carth had secured the perimeter for the seventh time that day, T3 had the ship prepped and systems ready to go, just like he had ordered him and Canderous had finished installing the new power packs to their blasters and was now tinkering with the swoop again. The same procedure had been repeated for the last two days, and Carth was getting sick of it.
"Any word from them?"
"Not since fifteen minutes ago that you asked me" Canderous shot back with a very irritated look on his face, one that slightly brightened Carth's mood.
"Let me know-"
"If she calls, I got it, Republic!"
00
Aspyre ran through the jungle, jumping over fallen logs and sliding under those that were too tall, she jumped up tree trunks and kicked off them, hoping to lose her pursuer. She saw a clearing right in front of her and decided to avoid it, as it would have the advantage there. She quickly ran around it and saw Dustil and Mission keeping up with her, although the latter was panting heavily and struggling to keep up. She looked to her right and saw Jolee as well, running even faster than them despite his age. The four of them ran as fast as they could and did their best to not look back at the hideous sight that was chasing them at full speed.
"We have to split up!" Jolee yelled at them once they had crossed around the clearing. "It'll chase only one of us; the rest can then kill it!"
"When?" Aspyre yelled as they crossed over a few rotten logs, which the beast simply smashed like they were twigs and kept chasing them.
"Now!" Mission said as she saw how the path conveniently split into three, each separated by a very thick wall of bushes and thorny vines. She immediately took the right path, and she was more than slightly shocked to see Dustil run into the middle path next to Aspyre. The old man took the left path, the one farthest away from the monster, and because she had incredible luck the humongous Anakkona decided that the bright blue girl running a few feet away from it's mouth was the most delicious treat of the four. Mission did not even had time to yell for help before the beast stopped following her and began climbing a tree next to her, rising into the canopy and losing itself from her sight. Not willing to take any chances, Mission kept running until she arrived at a rotten log, and retreating into the safe haven, she got her comlink out and was about to call Dustil and yell at him for not coming with her when a huge green mouth crashed right next to her, making her scream in horror as the rotten log gave way. Mission frightfully opened her eyes and she felt all the blood rush away from her face as she saw a large, but proportionally small eye looking directly at her, as if peering into her very core. She tried to talk into the comlink, but only air came out of her clenched throat, she tried to move away but her legs were shaking too much and she had no control over them, she then tried to draw her blaster, but her hands refused to move, completely entrance by the snake less than a meter away from her.
"Hiss" the beast went as it licked the air around it, and immediately recognized the delicious Twi'lek next to it. "Hiss!"
"Ah… ah… ah… ah" was the only sound coming from Mission's throat as she slowly began to crawl away from the snake, she was almost halfway out of the log when the beast moved, faster than Mission had thought possible for a beast that size to move. The head of the green snake disappeared and came crashing down where she had been less than a second ago, making her scream again as she managed to stand up and run away.
The snake recoiled it's head in pain and hissed loudly at her before it began chasing her again at full speed and now very irritated at the little blue moving snack, furiously smashing logs and crushing bushes, destroying nests and ravaging all life around it, completely intent on getting it's prey. It moved it's muscles at the same speed regular snakes did, but it was so massive it covered the same ground Mission did running at full speed. The green beast opened it's mouth and revealed the massive fangs hidden inside, each larger than the size of Mission's legs, glistening and almost trembling with the desire to unleashed the deadly poison they carried, not that it was necessary, a single bite would be enough to eat the tiny being in front of it, but better safe than sorry.
Trying to keep the tears from clouding her sight, Mission ran through the never ending woods, ignoring the sight of Kinraths, Tachs and any other animal she saw, focused completely on keeping herself away from the monstrous snake behind her, who hissed and growled at her, as if taunting her. She saw another log, this one much smaller and much sturdier than the rotten one, and she quickly hid behind it, hoping the snake would pass by, not noticing her. The Rutian Twi-lek jumped over the fallen log and curled up in a tiny ball, and for a second, she felt a tiny amount of relief as the monstrous behemoth passed next to her. Her relief was short lived though, and she soon saw with the corner of her eye as the green muscles stopped moving for a few seconds, before recoiling and heading her way. She froze, every single muscle in her body stopped moving, her heart barely kept pumping blood, her lungs almost stopped changing oxygen into carbon dioxide, and even her stomach stopped digesting her breakfast. She had never felt so much fear in her life in a single moment, but watching the gargantuan snake next to her, slowly lifting it's head in the air, as if to give her a better view of her killer, made her feel more afraid than anything she could possibly begin to comprehend. She watched every inch of the beast. She admired the sturdy green scales that covered it's upper body. She inspected the muscles on it's jaw as it slowly opened it, revealing the hidden fangs once again. It grinned at her, the snake actually grinned at her, a sick, sadistic, grin, and for a split second she thought it was going to eat her for the pleasure of killing her, not because it was hungry.
"Please" she feebly pleaded without moving as she closed her eyes, to what, and for what, she was not sure, maybe she prayed to some celestial deity above to save her, to kill the snake, or at least drag it away, maybe she prayed for Aspyre to show up and kill it, maybe she prayed to see Dustil one more time before she died, maybe she was just going insane with the huge injections of dopamine and adrenaline filling her brain. She took a deep breath, well deep considering the circumstances, and it took her a few seconds to realize that the Anakkona had not eaten her yet. Extremely cautiously, she opened one eye and slowly lifted her gaze, travelling through the muscular form of the snake and landing on it's massive head. It was still grinning, but it was not moving. It would occasionally shoot it's tongue, but it did not moved. Mission stayed still, petrified would have been an understatement, to say she looked like carved out of stone would have been more accurate, although still far from reality, with time rock would crumble into dust, but Mission was standing so still, so quiet and so firm, that millennia could have passed and she would remained in that position, her survival instinct overruling everything else.
For how long the two beings remained at a standstill in that place of the Shadowlands, just waiting for the other to move, nobody knows for sure. For how long did the air currents sweep around their bodies, slowly caressing them in a vain attempt to relax their muscles, it is impossible to determine. For how long Mission just stood there, watching her own life pass before her eyes, watching every single traumatic moment, every single happy experience, every single scary instance, although they all paled in comparison to this one, every last second she had been with Dustil, every day she had spent with Big Z, every funny conversation she had had with Aspyre, every fight she had gotten with Carth, every second of hearing Canderous' war stories, every last moment of playing Pazaak, and even all the times she had spent listening to Bastila's lectures, nobody will ever know. What is known is that the Twi-lek girl matured years, entire decades in that time, she became much wiser, she appreciated the little things she had passed by as mundane before, like breathing, she understood many things now, she was finally able to let go of her teenager egocentrism and understand her companions even better, she understood Malak a little bit better, she was able to see many flaws in the political system of the galaxy, she was able to understand things that had baffled her before, that she had dismissed as boring or uninteresting. Mission Vao grew during those seconds, minutes, hours; she grew to a great extent. And then the last tiny part of her that had not let go of her past, the tiny part that held resentment for her brother, the last minuscule and insignificant fiber that still hated Griff Vao ceased to exist, and Mission Vao died.
"I wonder where I go. Is there really an afterlife? Never growing old, never fading away, never worrying about anything… I hope it's true" was the dying girl's last thoughts.
00
Aspyre saw with horror how the snake crashed through the foliage and chased after Mission, licking the air around it noisily. She felt a cold, damp fear rising in her throat, and she pushed herself to her limits without using Force Speed. She would have loved to focus on her legs, but the damn Shadowlands had so many obstacles, so many things they had to dodge or cut or crash through, that using it would be suicide. Hell, they have been able to outrun the Anakkona in a second. Dustil ran even faster than her, his worry extremely apparent in his young face.
"It-"
"I know!"
"We have t-"
"I know!"
"There's no way to-"
"I KNOW!" she yelled at the boy as her brain raced at speed that placed even Dustil's sprint to shame. She inspected the massive wall of vegetation between them and their friend and a few feet away she noticed a place where it seemed only slightly thinner, not by much, but it was their best shot. "There!"
Dustil ignited his red blade and began hacking and slashing wildly. In a slightly more controlled move, Aspyre took out both of her lightsabers and ignited all three blades before she hacked at the vegetation, slowly but surely opening up a path through. A few seconds later they heard Mission screaming, a high pitched shriek that carried pure fear into their hearts, and cursing loudly, Dustil fired a bolt of lightning at the forest, igniting the vines and setting the whole thing on fire.
"Dustil!"
"No time!" the boy yelled as he jumped through the ring of fire before Aspyre followed her. She landed right next to him and she looked to her left, where a massive trail of destruction led them to where Mission was. The two Jedi were now free to enhance their legs with the Force, thing they did as soon as they realized the snake had cleared most of the path for them. The two blurs raced down the Shadowlands, crashing against anything that stood on their way and jumping over those few things they couldn't, and they finally reached a point where the destruction stopped. Looking directly ahead they saw a single fallen log that had somehow escaped the butchery the Anakkona had done, but what really drew their attention was the massive Anakkona looking down at the log. It was big, even by its species' standard, it had to be over forty meters long, and about six wide, it's black pearls shining even in the darkness that surrounded them.
"Slowly now, we don't know where Mission is" Aspyre cautioned the boy, but shaking his head and turning his lightsaber on again, the boy charged and fired another bolt of lightning at the beast, who recoiled in pain and let out a shriek of agony as it thrashed it's head around wildly, crashing against entire trees and bringing them down, and making their ears bleed with the amount of decibels the scream reached. The beast opened it's eyes and locked them on Dustil, who was in the middle of jumping up to slice at the snake's head, and shaking it's head, it slammed it against the flying boy, and sent him flying across the Shadowlands. Aspyre started moving to help him, but the Anakkona locked on to her and raced towards her, knocking away the single log in the process. Aspyre jumped up against a nearby tree and rose in the air, coming face to face with the beast, concentrating with all her might before it closed it's jaws on her, she managed to find the animal's shatter point, and with a swift move she made the beast calm down and forget it's hunger. The snake closed it's mouth in surprise, confused at the fact it no longer had the desire to eat the tiny being in front of it, and after remaining still for a few seconds, was overwhelmed with the desire to go back to it's home and sleep for the rest of the day. Without even waiting for her breath to return to normal, Aspyre quickly jumped up again and located Dustil, getting up and slowly making his way towards her.
"Where is it?" he asked her as soon as she was within his shouting range.
"I sent it home."
"You didn't kill it?" he asked her, extremely surprised at her response. Aspyre shook her head and the boy let out a sigh. "So it lives to hunt us yet again."
"It only was hunting us because it was hungry, relax, it'll eat a few dozen Tachs and it's be full. It'll have no reason to hunt us."
"I still would have preferred to kill it. Where's Mission" he asked as he held his side in pain.
"I can sense her, but I can't see her" she said before her comlink went off. "MISSION?"
"I'm here" a dead voice came from the other side.
"Are you okay?" she yelled at her. "Where are you?"
"By the log" was the only response. Aspyre and Dustil ran at full speed towards the downed log, and found Mission still cuddled into a ball, looking at infinity despite the beaming grin in their faces.
"Mission!" Dustil yelled as he crouched near the girl and hugged her tightly, although she did not return the embrace. "Are you okay? What's wrong, are you hurt?" he added when the girl did not respond to him and merely stood up and walked back down towards where the snake had gone. Dustil and Aspyre exchanged worried glances before the two of them followed her and stared at the girl cautiously.
"Mission? Is something wrong?" Aspyre said as she laid a hand on the girl's shoulder, which she swiftly, but not harshly, brushed away.
"Mission... I've never liked that name" she said in the same dead tone as she looked up at the trunks of the trees. "It's all so stupid, you know?"
"What?"
"Fighting Malak, the Jedi order, Bastila, my brother, this… quest to find the Star Forge… the living conditions in Taris, the slave trade going on right here, the Sith, the Republic's inability to defend itself, having to rely on people like you… It's so stupid."
"Mission, what are you saying?"
"I never liked that name" the girl repeated as she directed her dead eyes at them. "Everything could be solved so easily you know... just give up."
"Give… what?"
"If everybody simply accepted Malak's rule, there would be no need for fighting, there would be no need for him to rule with an iron fist, but nobody would ever question him… He would remove the Republic's faulty political system and he would bring everything under one flag, which would stop the discrimination against other races, because they would all be slaves under Malak, or whatever force was in control. As for Bastila, you seem to be doing fine with Canderous… We really should just give up…"
"Mission what is with you?" Dustil said as he grabbed her shoulders and stared into her lifeless eyes, shaking her and trying to get some response from her.
"Just give up, Dustil; it's the easiest way for everybody."
"You're starting to sound like your brother" Aspyre said, appealing to the hatred that the girl had, but even that failed to gain a response from the Twi-lek.
"And look where he is now, safe in Tatooine, instead of almost been eaten by a snake, or killed by wookies or Kinrath or Sith soldiers or Dark Jedi or smugglers… he has an easy life. He has always been the smart one."
"She's just shaken up" Jolee said as he climbed through the foliage and walked towards the group.
"What?"
"Do you know what happens to a Twi-lek brain when it's scared?"
"No, what?"
"It releases monstrous amounts of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline, just like human brains do, but because their brains are not concentrated like ours are, the effect is even stronger in them, scare a Twi-lek enough times and he'll shut down one day."
"Oh" Aspyre guiltily said as she recalled the time she had yelled in her ear. "How many times?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know that? I barely know the girl as it is! But she's young, she'll be fine… I think. But she's in no condition to fight, much less follow us, maybe you should take her back to my place, and wait for us there" he instructed Dustil, who after receiving silent approval from Aspyre nodded, picked Mission up and began running back without saying a word. "Relax, by the time we return she's going to be back to her bright cheerful self."
"I hope so" she muttered as she turned around and followed Jolee even deeper into the jungle. It was a quiet trip, no longer did they encounter any animals, as most had been driven away by the noise created from the Anakkona, and they easily made their way into the heart of the Shadowlands. There was a large clearing, and a very tall figure towered under the roots of a tree, angrily wielding a very thick double bladed sword. "Is that Freyyr?"
"Yes, that is him, although I'm afraid that the years he has spent in isolation might have driven him mad, mad with grief that is."
"Grief?" she asked Jolee as they slowly approached the grey haired wookie.
"Yes, he-" Jolee began, but was interrupted yet again when the wookie roared in anger at the sight of the two humans walking towards him and charged towards them, true fury in his eyes.