Chapter Twenty Six: Containment
The NYPD converged on the hotel building responding to several disturbance calls. They pulled up in squad cars and undercover cars, emergency lights blinking and sirens blasting. They pulled up into the parking lot and stopped just short of a headless body on the ground.
Several officers got out of their squad cars, drew their weapons and slowly walked towards the hotel building. They slowly walked up the stairs to the second floor of the building.
When the officers reached the balcony of the second floor they slowly moved towards the middle room of the floor where blood was moving onto the balcony. When they reached the room and rounded the corner, several officers turned away out of the room and threw up.
The room was covered in blood and body parts. This was not a murder, it was a massacre.
Several black vehicles pulled up through the night into the parking lot and black suited men stepped out. They walked over to the detective in charge of the scene and pulled out a badge. "NSA, you and your men are to evacuate the premises at once" the suited man ordered.
"NSA?" the detective repeated. "What's the meaning of this?"
"I am Special Agent Smith" the man replied. "Under the direct control of the United States Government and President of the United States. You and your men are to leave this scene at once" he ordered in a harsh voice.
The detective reached into his coat and pulled out a cell phone. "I'm calling the captain" he put the phone to his ear. "Static?"
"We have to keep this situation contained so we've jammed all cellular phones" Agent Smith replied. "Now, evacuate now or we will have you and all your men arrested for obstruction of justice and insubordination" he ordered again.
The detective glared at the Agent but decided that he had no other choice. "We're leaving!" he called to his men. "Leave this scene to these guys" he indicated Agent Smith and his men.
"Pass this message to your officers" Smith added. "You and your men are not to talk about what you have seen here today. If information of this is leaked, we will personally come after you" he explained.
"Is that a threat?" the detective shot back.
"No" Smith answered. "It is an order, and a consequence should that order be disobeyed" he added.
When the police were all gone from the scene the Guardians moved to the room where the bloody mess was located. They started to take photographs and identify which body part belonged to which person. The floor of the room was now a massive pool of crimson blood.
"What'd we got?" a voice asked Smith.
"Sir" Smith replied saluting for a moment. "We have not yet been able to identify which organization the dead bodies belong to yet" he stated. "We are working on reassembling the bodies"
Rick bent down next to the head of the body in the parking lot. "This is the Jedi that took me to a run down hotel" he said poking the head slightly. "Pity, I kind of liked him"
Rick made his way up to the main scene and stepped into the doorway surveying the bloody mess. As he looked at the blood room a dark skinned man stepped beside him. "Palin" Rick greeted not taking his eyes off the mess in front of him.
"Quite a mess you have here" Palin said surveying the scene.
"Can you tell me which organization these people belong to?" Rick asked.
"Sith" Palin answered simply.
"All of them?"
"Yes" Palin answered. "Everyone of them is a Sith"
"Have the Jedi decided to change their game up and start hunting down the Sith?" Rick asked.
"No" Palin answered. "The Jedi are being of patients and who do not believe in mindlessly killing like this" he explained. "A Sith is responsible for this"
Rick turned fully to Plain. "A Sith?" he repeated surprised.
"Yes"
"Why would a Sith butcher his own like this?" Rick asked. "I knew they were selfish beings, but this seems like something that was possible, but highly unlikely" he explained.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand being a normal human" Palin replied. "The Sith seek power over everything else, if the price of power is killing your own kind, many Siths would do it" he explained. "However" he added quickly. "The Sith responsible for this has extreme power"
"How can you tell?"
"I can feel the dark side still fresh in the air" Palin answered. "It's strong, thick, and extremely powerful. One Sith was responsible for this, and that one Sith is extremely powerful and skilled" he said closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Perhaps one of the most powerful Siths aside from myself"
"If this Sith is as powerful as you say, then he must be killed" Rick replied looking back at the scene. "You're the most powerful in the force I have seen, Palin" Rick added. "I want you to hunt down this Sith and kill him before he becomes more powerful than you"
Palin glared at Rick. "I do not take orders from you" he snapped. "I have only helped you because I hate what the Sith have become. They have become foolish, arrogant, and too dependant on each other" he explained. "I feel like the Sith who did this may feel the same way as I do" he added.
"So you won't hunt him down then?" Rick asked.
"I will hunt him down" Palin assured him. "But I will do it because I wish to meet this Sith and talk with him"
"Sir!" a Guardian said walking up to Rick. "We have another massacre scene, all force sensitive humans in an apartment building that has collapsed" he explained.
"I see" Palin said more to himself than any other.
"What do you see?" Rick asked.
"This is not a quest for power this Sith is on" Palin stated.
"Then what is this Sith doing?"
"An extermination" Palin stated. "He's killing every single Sith"
"A Sith exterminating his whole kind?" Rick repeated. "Such bloodthirsty monsters" he walked to the stairs and back down to the first floor.
Palin stood in the doorway, his hand on his chin scratching his beard in thought. After a minute of deep thought he whipped around, his cloak flapping behind him and jumped down to the parking lot. As he walked past Joe's body he stopped only long enough to say. "Now you see your foolishness, brother" he walked off into the night and vanished.