Chapter 37: Rescue
"You know what to do if I fall, yes?"
Avaryss glanced over at her companion. Ensign Holli, once again in her Talz form nodded.
"I know," the changeling answered, her voice buzzing through the alien proboscis. Despite her alien appearance, Avaryss could still see concern her crewmate, she practically radiated it through the Force.
The Sith almost smiled.
It was…cute that Holli was concerned about her, but that did not change the fact that the plan they had agreed to needed to be carried out, it was for the good of the Empire after all.
Avaryss had no desire to see all she had worked for end because some thugs had gotten lucky and killed her. Holli's role in all this would ensure that her hunt for the conspiracy would not die with her.
If she did die, Holli would surrender immediately. She was to claim that she was a Talz enslaved by Avaryss and heap many blessings on the thugs for setting her free. Avaryss hoped that whoever was coming would accept this, and offer no further violence against her comrade.
From there, Holli was to wait for the right opportunity to contact Taya or the rest of her crew. Whatever happened, she was determined to see that those who killed her joined her in death. From there they were to report back to her master, hopefully he would not lose interest in the investigation. Hopefully he would see it through to the end.
Not that Avaryss intended for him to enjoy his victory for long. A while back she had arranged for Beric to discover the truth about what had happened to their family, provided that she was no longer around to tell him.
Even in death, she intended to make sure that Lord Feer eventually answered for what he had done. She would not be there to see it, but…
The knowledge of it alone kept her warm on a cold night, and on Hoth…it was very cold.
You are not dead, yet, the darkness whispered in her ear; do not be so quick to give up on life.
She had not, but at the same time, only a fool did not prepare for the future.
She and Holli had done what they could to gird themselves for this fight.
Hopefully, it would be enough.
IOI
Holli had done what she could to give them an advantage. The first thing she had done was try to alter the transmitter signal, draw the attention of any Sith forces currently active on Hoth. She had been at it for about ten minutes when she finally stepped back cursing.
"No luck, my lord," she growled, "it doesn't have enough power or range, and even if it did, we are probably well within a jamming field right now."
Holli shook her head.
"We're on our own."
Avaryss nodded, but at the same time did not give up. There was more than one way to get a message out, especially when one was Force sensitive. She reached out into the darkness, reaching out with both her mind and her heart. She had hoped to contact Taya, given their past and the…intimacy they had shared, it should have been easy to call out to her friend, to call for help.
Once again, she was thwarted.
Something was…wrong on Hoth. The deeper that Avaryss went into the Force, the more and more she felt it. It was…was…well…she was not exactly sure what it was.
It felt like someone ha lit a light in the void that was the darkside. It felt like there was some well spring of light side energy that was limiting her connection to the dark.
She had never sensed anything like it.
This planet was a graveyard, the site of a great battle from the last war. It should have been steeped in the dark side, her powers should have been enhanced her, yet, they were being limited by…something.
She had no answer. She could not even speculate what was causing it, and sadly, she did not have the time.
The enemy was coming; she could sense it, a drawing sense of menace.
They needed to be ready. She and Holli both needed to be.
As they had prepared, Avaryss had found herself looking at her ally with new eyes. What she had learned had changed the way she saw the engineer.
As Holli had readied herself for battle, doing her best to weaponize what she had salvaged. Avaryss used the Force to make the necessary repairs to her lightsaber. The weapons components floated before her as she used telekinesis to check her weapon for any damage. She had done this many times before.
By now, she could assemble and disassemble the lightsaber with her eyes closed, using nothing but the Force.
It had been her master's will, and she had excelled at this exercise.
"This weapon is your life, apprentice," Darth Feer had told her once, "It is not enough to simply know how to use it, you need to know its functions as intimately as you know your connection to the Force.
To that end, in the first two months of her training, he had had her take the weapon apart and put it back together again, and again and again. First using her hands, and then using the Force. One of her last tests had seen her bound and tied to a chair. She had had only ten minutes to reassemble her weapon and free herself before her master set three wild tukata on her.
She had passed that little test, and now she stood prepared to face this latest one.
The lightsaber and her Force powers were not only weapon here however.
She also had Holli, and she wished to know exactly what that meant. She questioned her engineer, trying to grasp exactly what it was she had to work with.
"I don't suppose you could turn into a giant beast and scare our enemies off?" she asked the changeling.
Holli chuckled.
"That would be nice," she replied dryly, "Sadly, I can't do it; my abilities are limited to forms close to my own size."
The engineer sighed.
"I can make myself slightly larger or smaller, but that is not the easiest of trick, it is often like flexing a muscle, I can't keep it up for long."
Holli glanced at her.
"What about you, my lord?"
"Me?"
Holli nodded.
"I've seen you do some amazing things. Isn't there some spell that you could cast? Couldn't you win this fight before it even starts?"
It was a good question, Avaryss thought, unfortunately, it was not that easy.
"I know many spells," she confessed, "Many rituals, but they take time to prepare, and that is a luxury we don't have."
The Sith shook her head.
"Besides, anything I cast could be just as lethal to us as it could be to our enemies. No, Holli, I'm afraid we are going to have to handle this ourselves."
"So be it," the engineer said picking up a piece of ship's plating she had salvaged.
The plating used on the shuttle was pretty sturdy, capable of easily absorbing a shot from a blaster or carbine. Avaryss had used the Force to bend the plating into a more useful shape.
Holli, now in her Talz form, was now wearing that plating, the two of them had managed to fashion a crude breast plate, greaves, and helmet from the salvage. The Talz may not have been the most blaster resistant creatures in the galaxy, but Holli and Avaryss had done their best to change that.
Now armed with both her sidearm and carbine, Holli looked like an alien fighter ready to make war.
She had also managed to find some detonators that survived the crash. It would have been better if they had had some explosives to use with them, but the triggering charge still made a pretty good bang, or so Holli claimed. The engineer managed to rig them to some metal struts she had salvaged; she now had nine very nasty throwing spears with explosive tips. The arms of a Talz were quite strong, and throwing such weapons might just give them the edge they needed.
It was likely they would need every edge they could find. She felt their enemies' arrival before she heard them, saw the snow blowing in the distance.
Avaryss smiled.
This is when the fun begins, she thought.
Let them come.
We are ready!
IOI
Their attackers arrived on two large land crawlers. The ungainly vehicles rumbled over the snowy surface, their wide tank treads chewing up the snowy terrain. The first looked to be a troop transport; she could sense many different minds, all radiating a sense of cruel eagerness.
They thought this fight already won.
They would realize how wrong they were.
The second transport was likely what had brought down their shuttle. Where the other had an armored canopy protecting the passengers, this transports back end was a plain flat bed. Mounted in the center of it was a large rocket battery, likely salvaged from one of the wrecks that had fallen on this world. It was both a different color and design than the crawler that it was mounted on.
At least we will not have to hunt this scum down, Avaryss thought.
They don't realize it, but they have delivered themselves into my hands.
The thought made her smile.
These creatures had come here to die.
She sensed no fear as the crawlers ground to a halt. Thirty armed thugs began to leap from their vehicles, armed with a mix of blasters, slug throwers, and edged weapons.
Avaryss' hand dipped to her hip, to her repaired lightsaber.
She was actually looking forward to a little blade upon blade action.
From the rocket launching crawler a voice rang out over a loud speaker.
"YOU! YOU BY THE CAVE! LOWER YOUR WEAPONS, WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"
Avaryss watched as the outlaws spread out. They stayed just far enough back that they were out of range, that Avaryss could not simply leap into the middle of them and start carving them up.
A pity, she thought, but not unexpected.
Clearly these creatures knew their business, it would not save them, but it would make such matters interesting.
"I am Avaryss of the Sith," she shouted, using the Force to make her voice carry, "And I am your death."
She smiled wickedly.
"Make your peace with the Force."
She sensed a mix of nervousness and amusement from the outlaws. They knew enough of the Sith to be wary, but they still felt that the odds were in their favor, and they were…mostly.
It must have concerned the one on the loudspeaker, because his next words were not addressed to her.
"YOU…TALZ! YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO TAKE THIS WOMAN'S ORDERS! SHE IS DEAD IF YOU LOWER YOUR ARMS YOU WLL NOT BE HARMED!"
Avaryss almost laughed. She had hoped that the thugs would make that offer.
Holli made a show of lowering her blaster.
"YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE ANIMAL!" Avaryss spat, "TRY TO RUN AND I SHALL CUT YOU DOWN!"
Holli raised her weapon again, no doubt convincing their attackers that she had been cowed.
Good, Avaryss thought, it will help sell Holli's story if I fall.
She tried to guess what was going through the criminals' minds at that moment. They were certainly facing down an odd pair. Avaryss all in black with her thermal suit and black hooded cloak cut an intimidating figure. Holli in jury rigged battle armor, her grey fur slowly turning white from the blowing snow.
Avaryss drew her lightsaber from her belt, but she did not ignite it, not yet.
It was a standoff; she did not intend to be the one that blinked first.
The thugs continued to spread out, trying to surround her. Holli had set a few surprises for them if they tried to go in back of the cave, she was actually looking forward to seeing them try…she…
"LAST CHANCE, SITH!" the man on the loudspeaker cried out, "SUBMIT OR…"
KAAH! BOOM!
The rocket carrier vanished in a ball of white hot flame! The flash was so bright that Avaryss' chemically damaged eyes were momentarily blinded. A series of smaller explosions followed as the rockets within the launcher decided to explode as well.
BA-BOOM! BA-BOOM! BA-BOOM!
The explosion had thrown her enemies into disarray, the ones closest to the carrier had been knocked down, the ones farthest away opened fire on the Sith and her ally.
It did not save them.
The carrier explosion was just what Avaryss had needed.
She lit her blade and leapt.
She was among the outlaws before they could retreat.
The slaughter began.
Cries of anger and disbelief rose up only to be cut off as Avaryss' blade found head and limb. She used the Force to pull the pin from grenades on the outlaws' belts, and pushed them into their fellows when they detonated. She sent blasts of Force lightning, at those foolish enough to try to fall back and surround her anew.
She distantly heard the sound of a blaster carbine. Ensign Holli covering her. To her right she saw a walrus-faced thug take one of Holli's special spears in the chest. Avaryss flung him back with the Force and he exploded next to two of his comrades.
She laughed as the darkness rose and swirled around her. So much death, she drank it in. It was a heady sensation, the dark side swirled like a hurricane, and she reveled in each death.
As she fell upon another group of thugs she noticed a blur behind them. A shadowy shape that was much more than it appeared.
Avaryss smiled.
They were not alone.
It seemed that someone else had heard their distress call.
Too bad for the outlaws.
The troop transport rumbled to life, its treads churning up the snow as it reversed. All around the vehicle surviving thugs fled, trying to reach it before it left them behind.
Avaryss was not in the mood to let that happen.
They are mine, she thought.
I shall kill them all!
She spotted one of the stragglers, skinny human with a cyborg eye. She raised her hand and sent a jolt of Force lightning crackling towards him.
It never reached its target.
A lightsaber found its way into the lightning's path, absorbing the energy.
"They are retreating Sith," one of her rescuers shouted.
"That's enough!"
Avaryss snarled.
It was not nearly enough!
She saw another thug, this one a Twilek. She flung her lightsaber at it, and again her attack was blocked, another lightsaber flashed out, thrown with equal skill, it turned it blade away, sending flipping end over end towards a snow drift.
"It's over Sith! I said ENOUGH!"
Avaryss reached out with the Force and pulled her weapon to her.
She caught the blade and turned with a snarl on her lips.
How dare this one stand between a Sith and her prey!
At last her rescuer had stopped moving, he stood before her, his blade lit and humming, the violet light of it casting dark shadows on his face. Even clad in a parka and thermal suit, Avaryss recognized him immediately.
I should have known, she thought.
She had not felt his approach, just as she had not felt it on the wreck.
She smiled evilly.
"Jas Dar Bynn," she said bowing slightly, "What a pleasant surprise."
The Jedi master smiled as returned her greeting, the slightest of nods.
"Hello again, Sith," he said dryly, "We need to stop meeting like this. Tongues will start to wag."
Avaryss' smile turned sly. The memory of their last encounter, and her master's punishment for it, was still fresh in her mind.
That was all the Jedi's fault, she remembered.
Now, at last, she had a chance to pay him back for it.
The fight had stirred her blood, she was eager to spill more. Plus, given their first meeting, she was more than eager to make the Jedi Master her next victim.
The sound of crunching foot steps behind her momentarily distracted her. She nearly brought her blade out and around, but stopped when she realized who it was.
Holli, still in her Talz guise stopped just short of her mistress and saluted.
They are retreating, my lord," she buzzed pleasantly.
"The day is ours."
Not yet, Avaryss thought, not yet.
Jas Dar Bynn still draws breath.
She did not care that he came to her aid. She did not care that he had likely saved her. He was a Jedi, an unpredictable and dangerous Jedi.
The Empire would be better off with him gone.
She started to advance, her sword still in hand, eager to see the matter done.
Master Jas stopped her with a smile, that and a glance over his shoulder.
"Are you alright, my young Padawan?"
Avaryss paused; she had not realized that another Jedi was there. She…
"I'm fine master," the young man called back, "Few scrapes and burns, but that is it, I'm…"
He paused mid-sentence as Avaryss turned.
In that moment her entire world changed.
He…
She…
They…
Oh my!
They had never met, the Padawan and her, not in the flesh, but she knew him, had she been left blind and deaf she would have known who he was, the Force sang to her, a song as familiar as a lullaby sung to a child over and over again.
He was…taller than she remembered. Like his master, he was clad in cold winter gear, the thick grey parka doing little to hide his broad shoulders. His goggles were pushed back up onto his forehead, giving her a clear view of his face.
The two of them stared at each other, the Force curling between them, entwining like a pair of mating snakes.
It was light and darkness mixing together…two parts of a single whole.
They were a whole that had finally been restored, their close proximity awakening their old connection.
If Master Jas recognized it, he did not show it.
He smiled slightly.
"Padawan," he said, "Allow me to introduce you to Avaryss of the Sith, she was the one that I encountered searching for Shyra Viel on the Wreck."
The boy nodded, as tongue tied as Avaryss, perhaps not truly believing what he was sensing.
She understood; she could not quite believe it either.
"Lord Avaryss," Master Jas said, "Allow me to introduce my Padawan learner, Fenn Shadowstone."
Avaryss blinked.
Fenn, she thought.
He…he was here.
Her dream friend, she had found him, or rather, he had found her.
At last, she thought.
You are here, she thought.
There was so much she wanted to say, but her voice had left her.
He was here.
She had never felt so strange…so...drawn.
You are here.
She smiled.
You found me.
A/N: More between Avaryss and Fenn next chapter. Before we go I have a question for you dear readers. I've been thinking of doing a fan fic with both marvel and dc characters together, in a world where some villains have become heroes, and vice versa. Would anyone like to hear that story, if so, let me know in a review, until next time dear readers.
DG