Lost Dog
Anakin are bored, after agreeing with their benefactor to teach him the art of Sith crystal making, Darth Maul merely suggest Anakin to practice his meditations. Of course, after spending half a day, he start to fickle, and sensing both Maul and Xanatos are gone to the bunker across the planet, he decided if he can have some fun with things around him. Yesterday, he tries to torture the little Jedi pup again with his force lightnings, using weak, but painful current to maximize pain, while trying to damage the Togrutan as few as possible. Maul already said that it could be useful for future interrogations and torture, but alas, he seems to a bit overloading his power, and the Togrutan pup are knocked unconscious, so he must end yesterday's fun times, in favour of simply tweaking the Droidekas and several other stuffs available to him.
So, this morning, he tried to fetch the poor little Togruta again, he already fed her, and she should be ready for more torture sessions, but much to his surprise, he did not sense anything from her. He was afraid if his little pet was dead already, and he was frowning upon what will his mother said when she heard that he kills his pet. Ok, he swears that he can imagine his mom being angry with him over killing a little kid, but hey, at least he doesn't enslave her, isn't he? Better check the cage and clean up the...
"Wait a minute, did the pup escaped?" asked Anakin to no one in particular after he see the cage was pried open, but he sees no obvious breaking out occurred in that particular balcony, could the pup already dead crashing down? Asked Anakin to himself after looking down from the balcony. He cannot sense anything out of place, but he did feel some sense as if he was being watched.
"He is alone master, what if we take him as well? That will made them more willing to accept me as Jedi don't you think?" whispered Asajj Ventress while carrying the sleeping Ahsoka in his arms.
"And what if his master and his father sense his distress? You must learn that not all things can be done with brute force, Asajj..." said Ky Narec, while gesturing to Granta Omega.
"Master Narec is right, we better out of here and inform this to the Jedi authority before..." said Granta Omega, but much to his surprise, he sensed that seven heavily armed assassin/sentinel droids of unknown build enter the balcony while the Sith-Boy start to say his orders.
"Good to see you are all here, listen guys, I has personally tweak your powers and you should already get the benefit of increased intelligence, so can you help me watch my back?" asked Anakin to one of the seven droids.
"YES MASTER ANI, AT YOUR COMMAND" said the simultaneous robotic voices of the droids.
"UE3M1, scan this area with thermographic radar, and report the anomalies to me, UE3M2, scan this area for satellite mapped electromagnetic influences, the rest of you at ready positions." said Anakin while the two droids bent themselves and start to do their command functions.
"ANOMALY FOUND, PROCEEDING WITH IDENTIFICATION PROCESS." said the first droid and the second droid simultaneously, and with that, they start to do synchronized blaster barrages to the offending point behind the balcony partitions. Forcing the infiltrators to dodge the deadly bolts while diving further down below the structures.
"Follow me guys!" said Anakin while whipping out his currently purple lightsaber (stolen lightsaber of Mace Windu, not yet modified), and jump downwards following the last known position of the infiltrators, while the droids also jump down along with him, helped by their anti-gravity thursters.
"Cih, I must report this to Maul and Xanatos, but..." think Anakin while two lightsabers, one blue and one green appears and start swatting the blaster bolts back to the droids, resulting in two droids down.
"Crap, Jedi!" said Anakin while tried to have a clear sight with his new enemies. He saw three persons standing... no four if he count the Togrutan pup inside the arm of a young man armed with a heavy blaster pistol, while in front of them, he saw a young, bald woman with pale white skin standing with green lightsaber, as well as a rather old or at least middle aged man, with dark brown hair and blue lightsaber.
"Asajj, Omega, you two must escape, I will buy time for you!" said the old man, but the bald woman replies.
"No, he just a kid with some droids at his back, we have our chances, master Ky..." said the bald woman, readying her position.
Anakin tried to gauge their strength in the force, the old man are actually pretty average for Jedi, and the bald woman are sightly stronger, but still far behind his potential. Anakin was puzzled though, with the young man carrying blaster pistol, as he cannot sense his force signature, but it seems as if a void was in his place, certainly not your usual non-force sensitive, but also somewhat off... perhaps he was actually the most well trained of them? But why he hold blasters not a lightsaber, but, wait a minute, the Jedi doesn't have any rules forbidding them to carry blasters, don't they? so he could be another Jedi as well, picking ranged weapon to support his comrades from afar it seems. So Anakin decides to not doing rash actions and trying to play it safe, he knew that Xanatos should be already on the move to help him, but he cannot really rely on him at this point.
"Be careful, his power is beyond what I have seen in my life..." said Ky Narec, but the impatient Asajj Ventress just jump and charge at Anakin, who replies her with a force lightning, sending her hurtling back toward the balcony, nearly make her fall to her death if not for the young man grab her at her way down.
"Hmm, good, three Jedi shrimps trying to play with me... guys, switch your weapon to slugthrowers and shot them!" said Anakin, and after hearing the word 'slugthrowers', the Jedi quickly duck and run for cover, before they are riddled with slug-holes.
"You can't hide from me!" said Anakin with his lightsaber blazing, he then jump into their hiding position, only to meet a blue blade locking with his, and before he tried to follow up with another attack, he suddenly aware of a blaster bolt heading toward him, and forced to deflect it away.
"Listen brother, I don't know what father think of you, but you better surrender and follow us peacefully. Whatever he promised to do with you is a crime, and you shouldn't be..." said Granta Omega, but Anakin quickly replies by sending a force lightning, forcing Ky Narec to cover him to deflect the sith lightning, while Asajj Ventress, who still struggle to stand, trying her best to jump and dodge the rapid fire slughtrowers directed at her position.
"Oh? So you're... my older brother, isn't you? Well, dad said you're hating him... if only you..." said Anakin but Granta Omega quickly cut him with his words.
"I did not hate my father until he suddenly turned to be actually alive and all the time lying with my mother. As I learned more about his criminal enterprise, I start to think that the Jedi was right to bring him down... listen, I did not know who your mother are, but there is a good chance that..." said Granta Omega, but Anakin only rolled his eyes up while thinking something in line of 'sentimental guy'.
"Oh please, I'm a Sith Lord and you are nothing, so die!" said Anakin while start his barrage of Sith Lightning again, clearly made Ky Narec nearly exhausted blocking it, and...
"Omega! Asajj! ESCAPE! DO NOT MIND ME! YOU MUST ESCAPE WITH THE YOUNGLING!" said Ky Narec while trying his best to buy expensive time for the others to escape.
"No Ky... we will." said Asajj Ventress, but Ky Narec sending her something with the force that made her tearfully run from the scene, followed by Granta Omega, while the droids trying their best to gun them down with slugthrowers.
"How noble you are... thinking that your sacrifice will be useful?" taunt Anakin while calmly go toward him.
"Ah, at least I die defending my faith in the Light. You still have chance young one... redeem yourself!" said Ky Narec while suddenly he spot a danger to the escaping group, and he leap to the droids, ignoring the Force Lightning currently striking him, and brave his way to block and destroy the five remaining droids, despite sustaining many mortal wounds in the process.
"Ah, my droids! I tweak them for a day and you destroy them!" said Anakin angrily while intensifying his force lightning, Ky Narec did not resist the attack and he dies, smiling while whispering his last message to his Padawan, Asajj Ventress.
"Damn... attention, the..." said Anakin while he sense a small starfighter took off and escape from the planet's gravity well, while he can do nothing but watch.
"Don't worry about the pup, sonny, I can bought you a new one if you want..." said Xanatos who just arrive in the scene with some droideka reinforcements.
"No... not that... but..." said Anakin, but...
"Maul is still focusing in our lightsaber projects... but I do never think that my own security system can be infiltrated by them... speaking of which, this is interesting..." said Xanatos.
"What?" asked Anakin, a bit annoyed with Xanatos' coy tones over the recent breaking in.
"Hey, cheer yourself up sonny, at least you got another Jedi to increase your count of victims... what is interesting is I cannot really sense my own son... it seems that while I tried to hide my own force signatures using Yslamiri, he has a natural knack for force stealth... If I did not really sensed it at the last moment, I will think he is a Force-Blank." explained Xanatos.
"But still... that's my..."
"No, nothing is your fault today sonny... at least you tried the best and they still blindside you..." said Xanatos, dismissing Anakin and overseeing the wreckage before calmly go back to his personal quarter.
"At least they strike before Lord Thulu do his Jedi visit to your compound, if there are two groups of them, I don't think anything good about Vader will left... he might have re-captured by the Jedi..." said Darth Plaqueis via the commlink.
"So, while the Jedi tried to infiltrate my fortress with Thulu in group, my son gather some wayward Jedi and successfully do the same thing? Albeit with the cost of one old man?" said Xanatos.
"I honestly never foreseen about your son's involvement... But still, we will do our plan with some major changes. I want to inform Lord Thulu, but he was too close with Yoda to be safe, so..."
"Should I let Maul outside, cancelling his meditation in favor of manpower, what about..."
"No, I believe Lord Thulu will be smart enough to stall the other two for achieving anything significant, he won't kill them unless really necessary though, and it will only for the sake of revealing yourself to the Jedi. I suggest you to help Vader train his force powers, so he can be more attuned with the Force..."
"Hmm... alright, now you saddle me with a child while my real son go to the Jedi's side..."
"Remember our agreements Xanatos..."
"Alright, alright, Lord Plaqueis... I will do your bidding..."
"Good..."
Space, after the escape from Telos IV:
Granta Omega sit uncomfortably in the pilot seat, while Asajj Ventress just weakly sit at the copilot side. The young Ahsoka Tano was already sleeping and given emergency medications, but they are still unease along their way to Corustcant.
"I just hope that Master Ky was right... I can get another Jedi to continue my training..." said Asajj Ventress softly.
"I too, I just hope the Jedi will heed our warning... we should..."
"Master Ky asked me to meet with Master Dooku and ask him to complete my training..."
"I wish you luck, because..."
"And I am more concerned about the poor little girl... she was malnourished and physically abused... I can't believe a boy this young could be so sadistic..."
"Perhaps..."
"According to Master Ky, that was because of the Dark Side upbringing, he sternly warn me against emotional revenge, especially killing in anger if I want to stay in the Light... he warned me using the last of his strength in the Force..."
"I am sorry to hear that... so..."
"Please forgive me, but I think I am tired already and I need to sleep... I can't think what should I say when we arrived in the Jedi Temple..."
"Rest well, Ventress... I can maintain my cloaking field until we are in the safe hyperspace... where they can't really locate or pursue us directly..."