Ukai ran down the maze of corridors, using what little ability he had to tap into the Force to guide his way as he ran towards the holding cells.
For most of his life, Ukai had grown up hearing stories of the great Ukai Ikkei, legendary Jedi Knight and Grand Master of the Jedi Order, one of the strongest who ever lived. While his grandmother had lived her whole life praying he would one day return to her side as he did when they were younger, she never got the chance to do so when she passed away after battling a long fight with cancer.
Ukai thought his grandfather was a man without any ties and would do anything as he pleases without fearing the consequences. While he never had a chance to meet the old man, while he was hovering his ship over the ruined Jedi Temple, he could almost feel the man dying below him, sadness filing his heart despite how he had never met him before.
He never fared well either in terms of his family issues. When his grandmother had been left to raise his mother on her own, his mother had learned to become a skilled pilot and mechanic, teaching the tricks of the trade to her son. As a young girl, she had met his father, a man who never so much appeared in his life as long as he had lived and had a baby with him. The man never came back to claim her and left her to raise Keishin on her own.
Despite both woman having been abandoned by their lovers, they never stopped to think about how disastrous their love lives have been, instead focusing to nurture their child and survive in the galaxy that had so much to offer, and to take. When Ukai was a teenager, his mother lost her life when her ship blew up during a freighter chase, carrying precious cargo from the mines. During her final moments, he could feel her calling out to him, her voice speaking in his mind as she whispered how much she loved him before she died.
The Force was one of the things that lead Ukai to blame for all the misfortunes he had. His grandfather wielded to the Force and abandoned his grandmother because of it. His mother had learned a bit of the Force and while it gave her an edge on the field, it also placed a higher bounty on her head if anyone could kill her when she was out on a mission. Ukai never wanted anything to do with the Force, always trying his best to remain as far from it as he could, although it always came back to haunt him.
"I may not be a Jedi, but I do know this. The Force is present in all of us, inside you and me. To wield it is a gift not many people possess, and we should be glad we had it choose us out of so many beings in the universe."
"Ma, you really believed in that, did you?" Ukai murmured as he turned the corner, his feet taking him down a tunnel where a few Stormtroopers stood guarding the door. He quickly shot them down with his blaster and hooked up his decryption device into the panel, the numbers to unlock the panel slowly working their magic into it as the door slid open, a feeling of dread washing over Ukai as he stepped into the holding facility.
Despite not using the Force, he could still feel the choking feeling of being cut off from it. The emptiness of the space left a gaping hole in his gut, sucking out the meaning of life itself from him as he steadied his blaster, walking down the corridor as he peered into the cells. Not many of them had people inside but those that did contained Jedi of all colours and creed. Most of them were slumped in their cots, their eyes devoid of any emotion and feeling as they tried to call out to the Force they served. Some of them mumbled to themselves, Ukai wondering if they had finally snapped after being disconnected for so long when he passed by a cell with two men inside.
One of them had a stump for a hand, his other hand curled into the hair of the younger man lying asleep in his lap. He looked around his mid twenties and when his eyes opened to look at Ukai, Ukai gulped at the intensity of the owlish eyes looking straight into his soul, gold meeting brown as the man whispered, not wanting to wake up his companion but still loud enough for his voice to bounce off the silence of the cell.
"Are you here to kill us?"
He sounded so sad and desolate Ukai wanted to get to his knees and weep. Seeing how the Jedi looked like without their power, protectors of peace now dragged through the dirt and forced to take sides made him forget about his hatred for the Force. It wasn't the Force that brought all the misfortunes in his life; it was the people who wielded it.
"I'm here to bust you guys out," Ukai hissed as he aimed his blaster at the keypad, shooting it as the door slid open, the man's eyes widening ever so slightly as his companion stirred.
"Get your shit together. I'm going to free the others," Ukai hissed as he continued to free the others. Most of the Jedi were too drained to even mutter a word as their doors popped open, some of them remaining as they were as he ran past. Some however, stepped out of the doors the minute they opened, the determination in their eyes to take back what was theirs lighting up the space as they bowed to Ukai.
"Hey hey, don't go bowing to me like that. I'm just a trader who happened to get mixed into Jedi matters," he muttered as the man from earlier walked up towards him, his companion lurking behind him as he held a hand for him to shake.
"Name's Bokuto Koutarou but you can call me Bokuto. Any idea where we can get our asses out of here?" the golden eyed man from earlier asked, his spirit returning into him as he took in the air of freedom from the cage.
"Hey don't look at me. My job is to just bust you guys out and that's that. Although there might be an armory around here somewhere," he whistled as one of the larger Jedi grunted, his lack of eyebrows throwing Ukai off ever so slightly as his companion nodded.
"Aone's right. The armory should be in this facility close to where the Training Pit is. I believed we saw it as we were passing by yesterday."
"Good. We can get our weapons and kick some assess on the way out. I've been reving up to get back at them for what they did to my arm, although I think I should still be ok fighting with my left," Bokuto grinned as his companion sighed, "Don't take it too fast, Bokuto-san."
"Come on, Akaashi! We're being busted out of prison! Have a bit more happiness will ya?"
"Come on, we better get you guys out of here," Ukai said as he dug into his backpack and flung some spare blasters he had picked up from the Stormtroopers he put down not long ago. Futakuchi grinned as he checked the blaster, Aone doing the same as they arranged themselves in a small tight group.
"We'll keep the rear. You guys get our weapons and rain hell on those idiots who imprisoned us like animals."
…
Master Sawamura and Master Sugawara tiptoed the best they could towards the Training Pit, their backs against one another as they held their lightsabers in hand. Without the light of their blades to guide their way, Master Sawamura was beginning to feel like this was a bad idea in trying to confront the Knights in this manner as Master Sugawara whispered to him.
"Don't worry, Daichi. We got this."
That lifted his spirits ever so slightly when he heard a familiar voice booming from the Training Pit, Master Sawamura sighing at how Kuroo always liked to make a grand entrance when he heard the sound of twin blades being ignited and someone laughing as they leaped below when a familiar face turned to look at Master Sawamura.
"Master," Kageyama whispered as Master Sawamura's throat went dry, relief washing over him at how his apprentice was safe but at the same time, fear for the man who was standing over him, his hand moving to unclip a black lightsaber from his belt as he glowered.
"So you're the one who trained Kageyama. No wonder he couldn't reach his full potential."
"Say that again Ushijima and I swear I will knock your teeth out," Master Sugawara growled as he ignited his blue lightsaber, Kageyama's eyes widening as Ushijima said, "Go, boy. This is a fight between masters."
"Kageyama, listen to me! We've come here to bring you home and I promise you, we will forgive you for everything that happened so far."
"Master… I can't. I killed Grand Master Ukai. There is no way I can go home now."
"The Jedi Temple isn't your home. We're your home, your family. We will always accept you no matter what you have done. Tobio…" Master Sawamura whispered as he saw his Padawan's lip wobbling as his legs slowly began to inch forward when Ushijima pressed a button on his side, Kageyama plummeting through a now present hole in the ground as it swallowed him up.
"No more distractions. If you think you can make Kageyama into the man he deserves to be," Ushijima growled as he ignited his blade, red bleeding into the darkness as he smirked, "You will have to go through me."
…
"Master!" Tsukishima cried out as Master Kuroo grinned, his eye staring straight at the man who had slaughtered innocent younglings and Jedi. He could almost feel the madness radiating off Tendou as the man licked his lips, his eyes wide and laughing as he unclipped a lightsaber from his belt as he crowed.
"Oh, aren't you the guy I battled with on Yavin Four? You looked so tiny down there, I couldn't recognize you."
"How about I have a rematch with you?" Kuroo grinned as he ignited his yellow blade, the colour matching Tsukishima's blonde hair as the man grinned, "I don't think so. You're not worth my time."
"Kuroo, let's start now so we can finish this quickly," Master Kenma yawned as Master Kuroo grinned as Tendou cocked his head.
"Feisty aren't you? How about I give you what you want?"
He laughed as he stepped of the ledge and plummeted into the pit, his robes billowing around him as he ignited both ends of his lightsaber and spun in the air. Red met yellow as both Jedi slammed their blades into his, both of them in perfect unison as Tendou whirled, flashing his lightsaber with insane speed as they kept up with it.
"Not bad," Semi whistled when the doors leading to the Pit opened to reveal a group of Jedi he vaguely recognized from apprehending at the Temple, the bald one's eyes locking onto Tendou immediately as he growled.
"You," he whispered as he ignited his lightsaber, his eyes on fire as he roared, leaping through the air to slam his blade into Tendou, who barely managed to bring his up as he yelled, "How dare you kill Kiyoko-san!"
Tendou laughed.
"You think I wanted to kill that woman? She was so pure and full of light, it would have been so fun to corrupt her. I didn't have the time to do it though so that was the fastest way."
"Come on, Ryu! Let's finish this bastard!" Nishinoya yelled as he barreled into him, both boys nearly knocking Master Kuroo and Master Kenma off their feet as they charged, not caring if they got the way in their battle as more Jedi flooded into the ring. Two of them wielded Sentinel staffs, green light pulsing through it as they helped Nishiniya and Tanaka in their battle, blocking Tendou's strikes as he tried to go in for the kill.
Semi sighed as he turned to his apprentice, who had been crouched beside him the entire time as Shirabu lifted his head, clicking his tongue.
"Guess I have more work to do now," he growled as he leaped into the pit, his twin lightsaber lighting red as he faced off Master Kuroo and Master Kenma.
"You better go down quickly. I'm getting tired of having overtime."
…
The clashing sound of blades didn't register in Tsukishima's ears. The world around him seemed to be fuzzy as he watched his Master battling a Knight with Master Kenma, both of them moving and out in perfect unison as Master Kenma cleared a path for Master Kuroo to strike. Ever equipped with his cat grin, Master Kuroo attacked with everything he got, his blade whirling through the air as he aimed for Shirabu, the Knight's face getting ever so annoyed as Yamaguchi's voice cut through his mind.
"Tsukki! Tsukki! Hey, stay focused!" he yelled as Tsukishia finally jerked out of his thoughts. That's right, they were in a battle, this was no time to sit down and contemplate his life…
As Yamaguchi tried to haul him to his feet, Semi stepped into the ring, discarding his cloak as he reached for his lightsaber, his face impassive as he looked at Tsukishima without so much batting an eyelid at Yamaguchi.
"You could have been so much more, a cross between man and machine. Instead you want to cling onto your past self which was so useless. I should have ended your life instead of saving it," Semi growled as he ignited his blade when the sound of dual blades lighting up filled the air as well.
Yamaguchi stood in front of Tsukishima, shielding him from Semi's view as he gripped his shoto blades, green flashing in front of him as he growled, "I will protect Tsukki, the way he has been protecting me all this time."
He yelled as he charged, Semi repelling his lightsabers without much effort as Yamaguchi yelled, pushing the man backwards as hard as he could as sweat beaded down his neck.
"Tsukki. You have protected me enough. Now, I will protect you," he growled as he went in for the attack, swinging his blades in unison as he hammered down on Semi as he felt a kick in the stomach. He gasped as he was thrown back, Semi's hand still outstretched as Yamaguchi barreled into a hard chest, turning up to see Tsukishima, whose eyes looked close to filling with tears as he growled.
"Now isn't the time to act cool, Tadashi," he murmured as he straightened him up before igniting his own blue lightsaber. Yamaguchi smiled as they stood beside one another, Semi whirling his blade before bringing it to hang high above his head in attack position.
"Now this might be interesting," he murmured as both Padawans charged as one.
…
"Hey hey hey! We got out lightsabers back! I'm so glad they didn't just decide to throw them into space or something!" Bokuto hooted as he picked up his lightsaber with his left hand, Akaashi trying not to look at his right arm that was now missing a hand, the sleeve flapping to cover the grisly wound as Bokuto turned to return Akaashi his blade, the same one he used to kill a Padawan not long ago.
"If I continue to kill the others, you won't kill Bokuto-san?" Akaashi whispered as Tendou grinned.
"Of course. A promise is a promise. Now, go provide some entertainment for us, will you? I'm getting bored."
"Hey, Akaashi! Snap out of it!" Bokuto roared as Akaashi's head jerked up, his Master's eyes swirling golden as he pointed a finger straight his chest before jabbing it hard.
"None of this is your fault, alright? We will get out of here and make things right so don't worry about the past Akaashi. No matter what happens, you're still my apprentice, got it?"
He spoke with such honesty and fearlessness as Akaashi felt tears welling up in his eyes, his fingers curling around his lightsaber as he reached to hug his Master, who seemed stunned Akaashi actually hugged him as he whispered, "I will protect you, Bokuto-san. No matter what."
Bokuto opened his mouth to say something when a dark figure strode towards them, a bob of hair bouncing on top as Goshiki appeared, a slightly annoyed look on his face as he groaned, "I thought I made sure the guards were there and everything but now they're gone and the cells look pretty empty… eh?! How did you guys get out?!"
He had only seemed to notice them standing in front of him with their weapons as Akaashi wondered how the boy had even managed to become a Knight of Shiratorizawa given how blur he was when Goshiki sighed.
"Guess I just have to bring you guys back in. Master Ushijima may not like it that I failed to keep an eye on a few prisoners, but…" he grinned as he ignited his red lightsaber, the humming sound of it filling the air as he twirled it lightly between his fingers with ease, "he doesn't have to find out you escaped."
Akaashi stepped in front of Bokuto, his blade already ignited as Goshiki charged, raising his blade towards Akaashi's head when the sound of another lightsaber lighting up hummed behind Akaashi. Goshiki cried out as yellow pierced his side, a growl escaping his lips as he leaped back, Akaashi's eyes widening at how Bokuto had missed cutting through his own side by inches as his Master grinned.
"I can't be a Master in the Jedi Arts without being able to fight with both hands, right?" Bokuto grinned as he clapped his hand on Akaashi's shoulder, his apprentice sending him a small smile as they got ready to fight.
"Come on then, let's fight this guy, Akaaaaashiiii!"