Chapter 19: Jedi

She is stronger than me.

It was not an easy revelation to swallow, but there it was.

As Avaryss retreated before the onslaught that was this…this…whatever it was. She was forced to recognize that one simple truth.

The beast girl's speed was amazing, add the Force into that and it was almost unbeatable, it was all she could do to stay one step ahead of her opponent, one swing of the sword away from losing her own head.

Soresu saved her, at least for the moment, the other girl, despite her size, easily used the powerful strikes of Djem-So, but at the same time combined that with the speed and agility of the Ataru. Normally the two styles did not function well together, but this…Jedi-thing made it look almost flawless.

Avaryss was both impressed and shocked, and at same time barely managing to keep up.

She was quite literally fighting for her life!

Their blades locked. Avaryss glared into the Jedi's eyes. She tried to break the stalemate with a Sith spell, but her opponent sensed what she was doing. Unable to use her blade, the Jedi-thing punched her in the eye, breaking her concentration and sent her staggering back. The young Sith managed to recover before her enemy could take advantage, but once again she found herself back on the defensive.

Animal, Avaryss thought, that hurt!

Of course it could have been worse, she could have used her claws, if she had, that shot likely would have taken an eye.

A small blessing she supposed, probably the only good thing that had happened since this battle had begun. Plus, her eye hurt, and that served to enrage her, giving Avaryss access to greater power.

It would be enough; she would make sure of that.

Exchange thugs twice tried to intervene, and both times they were stopped, the beast girl pummeled the first group with a storm of telekinetically thrown debris, forcing them to run; while the second were driven off by Avaryss' Force lightning, that, and a vicious sweep of her lightsaber.

I will not be interrupted, Avaryss thought, I don't know what this thing is, but she will die spitted upon my blade.

The dark side is stronger. Today I prove that by slaying this…creature, it doesn't matter how strong the Force was within it.

It would fall.

The dark side WAS stronger!

Avaryss pressed her attack, and again her opponent rose to the occasion. She easily turned back Avaryss' strikes and met her aggression with powerful blows of her own, and again the young Sith was forced to give ground.

So strong, she thought.

This one is very strong.

You don't have time for this, her conscience chided, you are on a mission, not here to spar with some Jedi filth, kill her and move on.

For all you know the scum lord you need to speak with is getting away.

She doubled her effort. She slashed at a light panel causing it to shoot off both flames and sparks; the move surprised her opponent and caused her to lose a step, at least for a moment.

Avaryss struck back and…

A heavy blaster bolt blew the two of them apart.

Avaryss rolled and came up to her feet, her ears ringing despite her sonic dampeners.

She spotted the heavy repeating blaster cannon that three exchange thugs had set up; it continued to spit fire at her opponent. The beast girl fell back under the onslaught.

Now is my chance, she thought.

I can slip away and…

The beast girl threw her lightsaber, it spun end over end, a green saw blade directed both by the girl's will and the power of the Force.

It sliced not only through the canon's tripod, but the three gunners as well. All fire ceased as the bodies fell, the cannon tumbled from its tripod and fell with a long clang.

The Jedi's lightsaber returned to her grip. It had only taken her a matter of seconds to slay the gun crew and silence their fire.

Avaryss blinked.

So, the Jedi was not afraid to get her paws dirty after all, and as before, she had not felt a single tingle from the darkside within this…creature. The kill had been done for self-defense alone.

It was all the more reason that this…abomination needed to be destroyed.

Once again the two girls faced off, their weapons in hand. The Jedi-thing dropped into an Ataru fighting stance.

"Now," she growled, "Where were we?"

Avaryss sneered.

Jedi dog! She would die for her arrogance!

Avaryss advanced ready to unleash the full power of Makashi and the dark side on her foe.

She did not get the chance.

She brought her blade up and around and…

A wave of Force energy washed over her, it went through her Force-shield like it wasn't even there!

In that moment, she found herself paralyzed, caught in a stasis field. Even her mouth was frozen, she could not even cry out in rage!

She imagined the creature leaping towards her, its lightsaber overhead, she had been wounded by a lightsaber during her final trial on Korriban, she remembered the icy cold she felt when the blade cut her shoulders, but this would be no minor cut. The Jedi would not hesitate.

She knew it.

She was about to lose her head.

All her plans and dreams would end!

No, she thought.

NO!

I CANNOT DIE THIS WAY!

NOT LIKE THIS!

NOT…HELPLESS!

MASTER!

DADDY!

HELP ME!

If she could have moved, she likely would have wailed in horror.

Yet, the blade did not fall.

She waited for the Jedi girl to charge her, to end her life with a sweep of her lightsaber.

But…nothing.

It did not come, the beast girl was also frozen, a look of surprise on her face, its beast-like form changing back to a more human looking one.

What are you, Avaryss wanted to shout.

She had never seen anything like this Jedi filth.

She became aware of another presence, if the creature that she had been battling had been burning with a steady light; this one was as bright as a star. It was so bright that she dared not look at it, not through the Force.

She heard footsteps behind her, not the careful tread of a hunter, but the deliberate steps of someone who had no problem being noticed, and likely, expected to be.

The beast girl blinked, no longer did she look like a wild animal; once again she was simply a dark skinned girl with large brown eyes.

"Master?" she murmured.

Avaryss heard a heavy sigh behind her.

"Hello, child," a male's voice replied, "I do hope that the two of you are quite done."

The voice was familiar, she realized, though the strength of it was not, the last time she had heard this particular voice it had been slurring, a giggling mess.

Panic was replaced by a cold simmering anger, that and a desire to inflict horrible bodily harm on the speaker.

The man the girl referred to as master stepped before her. Had Avaryss had the use of her mouth, she would have snarled in fury.

It was him.

It was the man who called himself Jay, the drunk from outside, the one who had showed her the way in here. Though he still stank of cheap ale, he stood tall and proud. The being she had thought beneath her notice now radiated both power and a commanding presence, a presence that even her own master would have been made wary by.

He gave her a wry smile.

"Hello again, red blade," he said dryly, "This is a bit….awkward, isn't it?"

She glared daggers at him.

Damn you, she thought.

Damn you to the darkest hell!

He released his Force grip on the beast-girl, but not before pulling her lightsaber from her grip. He did the same to Avaryss, reaching out with the Force and plucking her weapon from her hand.

He clipped both weapons to his belt.

So he has claimed his trophy, she thought, now he would no doubt claim her life.

Coward, she wanted to shout, give me back my weapon and face me!

The Jedi Master seemed to have no interest in doing that.

He turned to her opponent, his expression, a bit weary.

"Vey is quite worried about you, Padawan," he said, "so much so that she thought it prudent to contact me."

He frowned slightly.

"I'm sure you know what kind of a risk that is?"

The girl gave him a chagrinned look, seeming more and more a young girl than a fierce warrior.

How could this creature have been testing me so? Avaryss thought.

She barely seems like anything now.

Looks, of course, could be deceiving, the girl was quite strong, and Avaryss had nearly paid the ultimate price for their battle.

The two Jedi seemed to have forgotten she was there, so little respect did they have for her. She was not even an afterthought.

Just get on with it, she wanted to shout, I've failed, failed, death is no less than I deserve.

You must live; a tiny voice in the back of her head seemed to say.

You still have value.

Your bloodline must not end with you.

The voice sounded like Master Adaz, but in truth it was likely nothing, her desire to fight on taking form, trying to rally her from her stupor.

Once again she tried to get free, to call upon the power of the dark side to free herself.

She found no success; the Jedi's power was too strong.

He is a Jedi Master, she thought to herself.

What did you expect?

"I had to come, master," the beast girl said.

The elder Jedi sighed and shook his head.

"I thought you had grown beyond this, Shyra. I understand your reasons for seeking out Darth Terrog, but this…"

"Terrog is not the reason that I came," the girl insisted, "I found it master, the transport that Master Vey and I were seeking."

"Then you should have waited," the master said, "Contacted Vey or another of the masters. You should not have gone in alone."

"There was no time, if I had waited, the transport would have been in Sith space before we could have done anything about it."

The Padawan paused, she growled, glaring at Avaryss.

"This one is proof that I was right. Terrog must have sent her to protect his shipment."

Avaryss felt her temper starting to rise.

A shipment, she thought.

That is what this was all about?

When the battle first began, she had thought this Jedi girl like the knight she had faced back on Taris. She assumed the girl was here to protect the plan that she and her master were unravelling back on Dromund Kaas.

It seemed that that was not the point. It seems that Terrog had baited a trap as they had thought, but not for the reason that they had expected.

It was all about some bloody shipment, Avaryss realized, Terrog must have known that these Jedi were after it, and decided not to soil his hands. He had used her, and her master, used them to deal with a Jedi annoyance.

Had Avaryss killed the girl, then whatever it was Terrog wanted protecting would be safe. If she lost, then Darth Feer would lose his apprentice, and Terrog would gain an advantage over his rival. The story that the cyborg had spun for her about the bacteria being stolen from here was probably not a lie, but was it was also not relevant, not in the face of removing a Jedi enemy.

Avaryss would have cursed if she could.

She hated the thought of being used.

The Jedi master stood before her, his expression curious.

How about it, Sith," he asked, "Do you serve Darth Terrog?"

She felt the stasis field around her weaken; she could at least move her mouth again.

Tell them nothing, the darkness within whispered.

Saying nothing would likely serve best, but at same time, it also likely meant that would only die in silence.

Where was the fun in that?

She smiled cruelly.

"Terrog is beneath our notice," she snarled, "It is to the Emperor and my master that I bow to. It is the Emperor's will that brought me here, not some mere Darth."

She laughed slightly.

"Count yourself lucky, you could have ended up facing the Emperor's Wrath. You would find him not as forgiving as I am."

It was a lie, of course, but one with enough truth wrapped around it to be believable. Avaryss did consider herself a servant of the Emperor, all Sith were after all. It was for the good of the Empire that she was doing this; The Jedi should sense no deception in her words, because they were true, from a certain point of view.

She was curious to see if the Jedi would pick up on the subtlety of that.

He crossed his arms over his chest, and gave her a cool evaluating the look, the Padawan kept her distance, still growling at her, but also more cautious than she had been during their duel.

The Jedi Master frowned.

"So you serve the Emperor," he said, "Very well then, what is it that the Emperor found so important to send one of his agents here?"

She only just resisted the urge to laugh.

Yes, she thought.

Fooled you Jedi.

Deception was a weapon of the dark side, every Sith knew that, but some lacked the subtlety to use it to the fullest.

One of her first lessons when she had arrived on Dromund Kaas was about the art of deception. Lies were valuable, Lord Feer had admitted, but sometimes, the truth could be far more fun. If you could twist the truth to serve your needs, that was a true sign of Sith mastery.

It was just as her master had said.

A silver tongue can often be as valuable and a crimson blade, apprentice.

It was that skill that she turned to now.

The Jedi could not know how deeply this business with the espionage droids had penetrated the Empire. The Empire could not afford to show weakness, not to one of its most powerful enemies.

And so she spun a story for him, one that was just true enough that it might be believed in total.

She told a tale of their great Emperor, who, in his infinite wisdom, had discovered this plot to bring down the Empire, a plot using droids with hidden programming, and that after a bit of investigating, that plot had led her here. She told of his desire to preserve the treaty, and the order and security that it brought with it, but at the same time she warned them of his displeasure, and his concern that other, less reliable lords, might seek to take advantage of this, use it as a rallying cry to declare war.

"Our master has no desire for war at this time," she said as she finished her tale, "We hold to the treaty that we signed. My presence here was merely to gain evidence against the conspirators of this cowardly attack, to deal with this matter quietly, before the rest of the Empire is forced to intervene."

When she had finished the two Jedi looked at each other. They were skeptical, she could tell, but at the same time, curious. Everything she had said was not an out and out lie.

There was enough truth in the story to make it believable.

"So," the Jedi Master said when she was done, "You believe that Boss Tynnes is a part of this plot?"

"More than likely a pawn," she said, "But even pawns can yield up useful information."

He nodded.

He turned to the Padawan.

The girl growled.

"I don't believe her," she spat, "I don't like the smell of her, and through the Force she is…is…"

The girl shook her head.

"She is animal."

Avaryss chuckled.

"Look who is talking," she said dryly.

She had felt the girl's anger starting to rise, only to feel it disperse just as quickly.

Avaryss was impressed.

Whoever had trained this one, they had taught her well.

"I understand your concerns, Shyra," the master said, "But at the same time, if there is even a chance this Sith is telling the truth, we must investigate. I will not let my apathy be the cause of another war."

He turned back to Avaryss.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Jas Dar Bynn, master in the Jedi Order. The girl is Shyra Viel, apprentice to my old master."

"I am Avaryss," the young Sith said, "I would say that it is a pleasure to meet you, but…"

The Jedi chuckled.

"No need," he said, "I understand completely."

I gave her an evaluating look, perhaps coming to a decision.

Finally, he nodded.

I will make a deal with you, Sith. The Padawan is not wrong about stopping this transport of Terrog's from reaching Sith space. We will help you reach Boss Tynnes, as sign of good faith, and as proof that we are upholding the Republic's end of the treaty, and in exchange, you will allow us to take Terrog's cargo with us."

Avaryss shrugged, or would have if she was not caught in a stasis field.

"It is finding who is behind this threat to the Empire that concerns me, Jedi. Terrog is nothing to me, you have a deal."

The Jedi nodded, and suddenly she found herself free again. She stumbled and took a deep breath, a sigh of relief.

Free, she thought.

Now…to get back to business.

The Jedi returned her weapon, she felt a fleeting desire to turn it around and plunge its blade into his chest, but resisted that urge.

Three blades are better than one, she thought, and besides, this would be a most interesting opportunity.

Her experience with the Jedi was limited it would be interesting to see these two in action, to be able to observe both their strengths and weaknesses.

Today, these two were stronger than her, but that did not mean it would remain that way forever.

One day, these two would pay for letting her go, she would be strong enough to destroy them both, but for now, they had their uses.

"Thank you," she said clipping her lightsaber back on her belt.

"Let us be off then, we should not keep this Exchange Boss waiting."