Sorry it's been a while. Work's been cutting into my writing time and I'm also head over heels for Steven Universe. I will also be starting an online class soon and that may affect things as well.

Happy New Year y'all.

Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

Rouge gagged on the smell of rotting meat as she descended into the Sarlacc. There were corpses in varying states of decay lining the walls. They were held in place by more of the fleshy tentacles.

There was no light in the pit. The beaked jaws had shut behind Rouge, cutting off the sunlight. She navigated via echolocation. The bouncing sound waves informed her of another tentacle reaching for her and she swerved to avoid it. The was a pool of liquid below her, acid no doubt.

Rouge paused as she heard a new sound. Rhythmic squishing. It sounded like… someone was walking around down here. The squishy footsteps got closer.

Then Rouge saw a glittering green light. It could only be the Chaos Emerald. It was moving, and the footsteps were coming from the same direction.

Roger sent out a high-pitched call to learn more about this unknown person. She wasn't too worried about being heard. She could barely hear her own calls over the sound of the Sarlacc's hearts thundering in the darkness.

The footsteps stopped. The light moved back and forth. A human, waving the Emerald around to try to see better.

Rouge moved closer, sent out another call, planned her trajectory…

"I know you're watching me!"

Rouge jerked back in surprise, but he wasn't yelling at her. The human turned and began savagely punching one of corpses on the wall.

Clearly this human was deranged, but this distraction afforded Rouged an opportunity to snatch the Emerald, so she went for it. Rouge grabbed the Emerald and began to fly away.

"Light thief!" The man screamed and fired a grappling hook at Rouge.

It tangled around her legs and he reeled her in as she struggled to kick it off. He ripped the Emerald from her grasp and kicked her in the face. Stunned by the blow, Rouge went limp.

She came to her senses at the sound of a knife being sharpened. Rouge tried to move but found that the grapple line was now wrapped around her arms and wings as well. She tried to calculate possible escape routes. All of them required that her wings be free. The only way out was to fly. Rouge wiggled against the rope, but it had no give.

"You're one of them!" The man suddenly spat. "You're working for him!"

"Who's him?" Rouge asked, figuring that her only remaining option was to talk to him.

"He… he wants the Emeralds. It's my job to make sure that he doesn't get them."

"Do you mean Sidious? Because I'm against him too."

"That doesn't matter. You won't be alive for that much longer. Only one of us can survive in here, and it will be me!"

Rouge tried not think about the implications of that statement, combined with what it probably took to survive in here. "Or… we could both escape this place!"

The man broke into hysterical laughter. "Escape? No one ever escapes!"

"I can fly us both out of here if you just untie me." Even in the darkness, Rouge knew he was looking at her suspiciously. "We're on the same side. We both want to keep those Emeralds from falling into the wrong hands."

"It's safer to keep the Emerald down here, away from him."

"He'll still come back for it eventually. He'll just keep sending robot drones until one of them returns with the Emerald." Rouge pointed out.

"They won't as long as I'm here to protect it!"

"And how much longer are you going to be able to live down here?" Rouge challenged. "How long until the lack of sunlight drives you to turn that knife on yourself?"

A pregnant silence told her that the thought had crossed his mind already. "…Fine. But the Emerald stays with me."

He stepped closer, and Rouge saw his face clearly for the first time. "You're… a clone?"

His face twisted in rage. "No, I'm not! I'm not like them!"

"Then you must be… Boba. Shadow told me about you."

"Shadow is gone. He's Sidious now."

"And we need to do something about that."

"Like what?"

"We can use the Emeralds to stop him, but we need all of them." Rouge explained.

"If anyone can stop him, it's the Jedi. I was supposed to warn them. They're probably dead now."

"No, they're not! There's one waiting for us right outside."

"And how do we get outside?"

"I'll fly us out."

Boba took a long look at Rouge's wings. "It won't let you do that. It never lets anyone do that."

"Just trust me, okay?"

He freed her, and they went out to the middle, directly beneath the mouth.

"Now we just need it to open…'

Boba gave a manic grin. "That's the easy part!" He took out his knife and plunged it into a fleshy wall.

The creature screeched in pain. Rouge grabbed Boba's hand and flew upwards as fast as she could. They emerged into the sunlight only to be snatched by a tentacle.

"See! I told you it wouldn't let us!"

"PETRO!" Rouge screamed.

Petro ran up to the edge of the pit and reached out with Force to pull them to safety. But the tentacle refused to let go. The Jedi threw his lightsaber and severed the tentacle, allowing Rouge to at last get away.

They landed safely on the ground away from the pit. Boba had his hands over his eyes.

"Ahhhh!"

"That's Boba?" Petro stared with wide eyes. "How is he still alive?"

"I don't think I want to know. But how did you know it was him?" Rouge questioned.

Petro pointed. "That's what's left of his ship. It looks like he was shot down."

"It must have been Sidious."

"Sidious!" Boba suddenly shouted. "Where is he? Can't let him get the Emerald!"

"He also said he had a message for the Jedi." Rouge said in hopes of distracting Boba.

"The message. The message… He's coming. He's coming and he has a plan!"

"What is his plan?" Petro asked.

"He wants him to create someone. He… Heeeeee… He will pay."

"What are you talking about?" Petro cried in exasperation.

"SIDIOUS!" Boba shouted. "He put me in there! Because I know."

Petro sighed. "This is taking too long." He proceeded to touch his fingers to Boba's forehead. The former bounty hunter slumped over, unconscious.

"So, now how do you plan to get answers out of him?" Rouge asked.

"By fixing his brain."

Petro began swirling his hand over the sleeping man's face chanting what sounded like random nonsense. He stated pulling dark clouds from Boba's head while Rouge watched with interest. When Petro was done, he tapped his forehead again and stood back.

A few moments passed, and Boba suddenly sat up straight. "What? Where? Huh?"

"Welcome back to sanity. Now, can you answer our questions?"

"The Emerald! Where is…!" Boba searched himself frantically and relaxed considerably when he found the Emerald still in his possession.

"You said you had a message, what is it?" Petro asked impatiently.

Boba turned serious and stood up. "I have a message from Doctor Eggman."

Boba was hanging out in Jabba's Palace. He watched with no small amount of intrigue as Shadow and Eggman walked in. No one had seen either of them for fifteen years. Back then, Shadow was the biggest deal in the entire galaxy and then he just disappeared without a trace. And now all of a sudden, he shows up here.

They walked right up to Jabba.

"Jabba. I have an… offer for you. Now, you run the biggest criminal empire in the galaxy. But you still have a lot of competition. How would you like to be the only criminal empire in the galaxy?"

Jabba's protocol droid translated a question. "What do you want?"

"Straight to the point, I see. Very well. I want weapons, resources, secretly delivered to the Mandalorians. I also need you to be able to assassinate certain targets when the time comes.

Jabba narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You say you'll eliminate my rivals, but it sounds like you want to become one."

"Oh no. I will not be a rival, I shall be an ally. The criminal underworld will be yours to rule. The empire I wish to rule is a bit more… legitimate."

"Before the Great Jabba the Hutt makes any deals with you, he requires you to destroy the Pikes."

"Very well, I will return in four days. Until then, my associate with stay here with you. I recommend keeping a careful watch on him."

Shadow then turned and walked away.

As soon as he was gone, Eggman started begging. "Save me! He's gonna kill us all!"

Jabba motioned for Boba to come over. "The Mighty Jabba asks that you watch his new guest until Shadow returns."

And watch him he did. It was the easiest and most boring job he had ever been hired to do. The Doctor just sat at his desk, furiously scribbling down notes, occasionally ripping a page out and tearing it to pieces. It looked like he was trying to come up with some sort of escape plan. But since none of his plans made it off the drawing board, there was nothing for Boba to do. The only form of entertainment he had was watching the Doctor slam his face on the table in frustration.

After three and a half days, Boba was so board he barely even paid attention anymore. This apparently caught the Doctor's attention.

"You don't want to be here, do you?"

Boba tilted his head in Eggman's direction.

"Wouldn't you rather do something else? Something exciting?"

"I'm here because I was hired to do a job."

"But what if I gave you a better job? One that's much more… rewarding?"

"You think you can pay me better than Jabba does?" Boba challenged.

"Well… technically I don't have any money."

Boba turned his head away again. "Then we have nothing to talk about."

"Listen, have you ever heard of the Darksaber?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I can get it for you."

Boba turned to face him again. "You have it?"

"Well… no. Sidious does."

"Isn't he dead?"

"No. He was the one talking to Jabba. Not Shadow."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"He used some weird Force thing to steal Shadow's body. And now he plans on taking over the galaxy. But I have plan to kill him. And after he's dead, I'll let you keep the Darksaber.

Boba thought about this for a minute. "So, you want me to kill him?"

"You? No, you'd never beat him. We need the Jedi to kill him. You need to tell them that Sidious has returned. That he's stolen Shadow's body. That he's after the Chaos Emeralds. And speaking of which," Eggman pulled out an Emerald tracker. "There's one on this planet. I need you to find it and keep it away from Sidious at all costs. The more of them he has, the harder he's gonna be to kill. So, after you find the Emerald, warn the Jedi, you come back and rescue me. By that point, I will have discovered more of Sidious's plan and come up with a way to destroy it."

Boba was quiet, contemplating the job offer.

"Doesn't that sound better than sitting in the corner, staring at me all day?"