Disclaimer: We ( zazabelle and draksisreborn) own nothing but our OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Please review and enjoy this latest installment.
The shadow raised the glass to her lips.
She enjoyed the burning feeling as the liquid slid down her throat, but she pointedly let the darkness within swallow the giddiness of the drunken state, leaving her with only the fleeting moment of calm. She'd sated that pit within for the time with her offering, but the drinks were never enough…never enough.
The shadow stood, her long dress rustling, as she sensed a presence approaching. She let her hand slip away from her now empty glass, and left it to the air. It hovered for a moment before being guided back over to the counter space in her private quarters.
The door to her room slid open, the dim lights from the hallway casting colors of gray into the shadow's room. As well as the shadow of a creature with horns.
"Aemay," The shadow spoke with her sharp but flowing accent, "Have you ever heard of knocking?"
"Yes." The Zabrak woman responded.
The shadow did little more than shake her head; she was used to the girl doing as she pleased, "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere, Inquisitor?" she added sarcastically.
"Yes." She responded again, "But I lost the target once they left the spaceport in Nar'Shaada and their movements have been irregular so I came back to collect Myros for his assistance tracking the youngling…"
The shadow sensed the pause in her voice, "...And?"
"I believe there's someone with her. Another sensitive." Aemay pressed a button on her wrist comm and an image blinked to life from the holo-projector in the center of the room, "He's old enough, mistress, to be one of the fallen."
The image was of the youngling with odd markings, accompanied by a Mandalorian from the looks of the armor, and a human male with blonde, slicked-back hair. The three of them appeared to be walking past a slum-located alleyway. The shadow flicked her finger and a button on the projector's console clicked, beginning a scan of facial recognition. The shadow noted that nothing popped up on their database for possibly surviving Jedi or apprentices, but the screen did read a match in a different category.
"Cenden Sondron, Imperial nurse… and you say he's Force-sensitive?" The shadow asked.
"Yes, mistress. Is this going to be a problem?"
"No." The mistress of shadows said as she turned, "In fact, this makes your job much easier."
Her attention flicked back to the screen as another match came up in the facial search.
"Was this image taken on Nar'Shaada?" She asked Aemay.
"No mistress. This was taken back on Tiss'sharl. I would've taken my opportunity on Nar'shaada if the youngling had left the ship. Why?"
"Because a match just came through the Holo-network on Tiss'sharl's bounty. It's not a public bounty, looks to be a personal quarry, but it seems as if someone else is hunting this little mercenary group." The mistress of shadows mused, "You find this hunter, you'll find his prey," she turned to the young assassin, "And our own person of interest shouldn't be far behind."
Aemay nodded before the shadow continued, "Do not waste Myros' time with this. It's one child. Use the talents that got you this position in the first place."
As she spoke, the mistress strolled up to Aemay. The shadow's piercing yellow eyes met with Aemay's light brown ones. She'd remembered a time when she'd had color in her own eyes, and thoughts behind those eyes. Maybe there'd been ambitions there too but it had been so long since she'd heard a voice calling her forward towards purpose. And even longer since she'd listened to that voice.
She hated Aemay.
Aemay hated her.
That's the way it would always be between mistress and assassin, yet they'd never do anything else but loathe eachother out of fear of punishment from someone who knew what to do with hate much better than either of them did.
"Be careful my dear. Come home successfully." The shadow said as she lifted the young girl's chin.
"I will. Thank you." Aemay left the shadow to once again become invisible in the darkness.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nek's feet pounded down the ship's corridor, his split shadows growing about him in the red lights lining the wall of emergency backup power as he ran for the engine room.
The entirety of the 'Raving Titan' vibrated like a tuning fork that had been struck by a hammer, as the ship's hyperdrive had been knocked out as it was attempting to jump. It was a wonder that hadn't been blown to pieces…
"NEK. HOW'S IT LOOKING DOWN THERE!?" Soron's voice blasted through his comlink just over the sound of the buzzing ship.
"WORKING ON IT!" Nek yelled back as he half-slid half-jumped down the service hatch ladder to the lower levels of the ship.
"GET US OUT OF HERE! AND HAS ANYONE SEEN VIS!?" Soron continued, but Nek didn't respond.
A horrible smell of smoke and water vapor filled the engine room compartments as the ship attempted to cool the overheating hyperdrive but couldn't quite compensate for the heat and pressure build up in the engine compartment, he'd have to first relieve the pressure before the cooling system could attack the overheating in the engine and make it's way to the hyperdrive…
Nek scrambled to one of the overhead compartments for his wrench set, yanking open the metal cupboard,
An arm fell out.
Nek shrieked and jumped back in surprise only to find the arm attached to Vis.
"VIS!? YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK."
The girl had squeezed her small form into the tool's cupboard; her freckles were shifting about in a frenzy of colors and her wide eyes were filled with terror, "NEK. IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN. We're all going to dddiiiiieeeeee…" She lamented as she tried to shrink herself down even further into the tube-shaped metal cabinet.
Nek climbed up onto the stool to look inside, "We're not going to die! I just need to get to the wrenches back there!"
WHOOSH- TING!
He was knocked backward off the stool as a wrench suddenly flew out of the cabinet and struck the engineer straight across his face.
"Ahhhh," Nek hissed as he rubbed his jaw and picked up the wrench, "Thanks!"
Taking deep breaths to calm his shaking hands, Nek tightened the wrench around some bolts holding the cooling system together. Prying several of them off, more smog mixture proceeded to explode from the holes of the damaged coolant system but it wasn't enough…
Suddenly a shadow loomed behind Nek. Moving through the smoke, a soft blue glow permeated the gloom. Nek jumped as a metal claw grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.
BX slammed his three-fingered hand in between the slats of the coolant tube, prying the sides apart and allowing smog to now pour out of the system, relieving the pressure in the engine.
Nek watched as the droid then proceeded to stride towards the control screen and tapped the screen a few times, evidently redirecting power from the engine to the hyperdrive. Not exactly what Nek had been planning on doing but it worked just as well and just as fast. Maybe faster. The engineer squinted suspiciously at the droid, observing BX as he contacted Soron telling their captain they were safe to jump. The blue light now dulling in the droid's chest.
The ship lurched and the control panel near BX flashed the signal that the hyperdrive had been activated. Lights flickering, and they jumped to hyperspace.
In the now quiet and not battle ridden path of in-between space, Vis' cries could now be heard over the still vibrating ship. Nek took a step towards the cupboard where she hid, but BX was already there. Opening the doors, the droid looked inside.
"See? We didn't perish as you suspected." BX's deep metallic voice rumbled.
Vis sniffled and smiled.
"You know, this reminds me of when Soron found me. Except I had been hiding behind a ventilation system panel…" BX explained as he helped the girl climb out of the small space and, surprisingly, began to recount the tale of when and how Soron had discovered him in an old Separatist ship.
After their encounter with the bounty hunter Cad Bane, BX had needed repairs so Nek took it as the opportunity to install the data table design into BX's chest, including wedging that old lightsaber in there. Now they could access information from the holocrons back on Vis' temple moon using their orb. Nek didn't really know how it worked, he'd just installed it, which worried him for several reasons.
Ever since the installation, BX had been acting… Well in technical terms, Nek could only describe the behavior as weird. It was still BX. He talked in the same way, responded to questions in the same way, still had his compulsions when things weren't organized right, there was just this extra… something to it. Like BX but more, alive?
Nek figured it maybe had to do with the kybercrystal possibly interfacing with BX's original system? He'd meant to ask Cenden or Vis or just run his own tests, but that's hard to do when for the past week and a half you've done nothing but almost die.
Beebs had not made any idle threats. For the past week (weeks according to the various planets and star systems they'd been across) the crew of the Raving Titan had been on one smuggling mission/money retrieval after another with some of Beebs' more… difficult customers. So far, their crew handled everything from the ground. With Cenden's foresight and Vis' ability to see where people had been, they'd been able to successfully locate everyone they'd needed to and "persuaded" everyone without involving Vis or endangering their ship… Until today.
This last client was VERY set on keeping their dues out of Beebs' reach AND they had ties to the mining guild. The aerial attack on The Raving Titan had been a surprise even to Cenden's grasp of foresight. And Vis' warning of, "Something's going to happen," wasn't exactly helpful.
Nek's wrist comm blinked with an incoming message, "Hey Nek. How's everything looking down there?" Lerti's voice came through slightly garbled.
"As good as it can look after that whole mess of a grab and go." He responded looking around the compartment still swirling with smog.
"BX reports that you were, quote 'No help at all.'" Lerti said with a smile in her voice even through the static that was breaking the message slightly.
'Odd.' Nek thought, 'That sounds like interference… but there can't be interference while we're in hyperspace.'
The thought wasn't a deep revelation, just a quick passing observation that was instantly replaced with a dozen or so other thoughts immediately upon conception.
"Of course he reports that because he did my job for me, but you don't hear me complaining," Nek snarked, looking over where the droid sat with Vis, the droid listening to her talk sullenly at the floor, her freckles a deep blue. "By the way, I wanted to talk with Cenden about BX, is he still at the lower gun?"
His question was instantly answered as Cenden came over the comms, "Please tell Vis to meet me in the upper deck training room."
"We only have one training room Cen." Lerti responded.
"Now, please." The way Cenden said "please" made Nek think it hurt something inside Cenden to say it.
Vis obviously overheard the conversation and rose tentatively from her trench coat bundle on the floor to hurry out of the room. This left Nek alone with BX.
He watched the droid for a few moments, trying to see something more. A difference in the way he moved, a difference in the way the whine of his operating system sounded in the silence, a difference of… anything.
Slowly, Nek reached out his hand the way he'd seen Cenden and Vis do when they were attempting to feel something. He closed his eyes and focused. 'Feel something… Feel, anything. Come on Nek.' He urged himself.
Wait… Maybe he did feel something? A change in environment? Like…
Nek jumped as he opened his eyes and BX stood right in front of him. The enormous commando droid was looking down on the small Devorian man, seeming to observe him the same way he'd been moments before.
Nek blushed, "Uh, hey BX. How've your system functions been since I installed the data table?"
BX cocked his head, as if he didn't understand the questions before his head gave a slight twitch, "Systems have been functioning properly." Was the only response he gave before he turned and strode towards where Vis had ran off.
"So when Force stuff happens you're allowed to act all weird and distance, but when I do that I need 'to pay attention and stop daydreaming'? Pssf." Nek said to himself with a roll of his eyes and got back to work on the engine.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Vis! Pay attention and stop daydreaming!" Cenden snapped at me.
All of the little threads I'd been stringing between people on the ship suddenly snapped back to my mind with enough "force" to actually cause me to wince, "Sorry…" I mumbled. He knew that's not what I was doing. I just couldn't believe everyone was alive! I was sure something was happening today that was just going to be the pits…
"Vis! Again!" Cenden snapped one more time as I realized he'd been talking to me.
"Sorry." My vision snapped back to the sparring room we stood in on the ship's upper level where I'd been receiving my lesson in combat and Jedi-stuff from Cenden.
"Stop saying sorry just do it. Listen or leave, don't pretend to be here if you're not."
"Do or do not?" I said recognizing the frame of reference.
"Yes. You know that one do you? Well then you probably recognize this one: 'Fear,"" Cenden emphasized, "'Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.' Fear, by its nature is one of the greatest roots of evil actions as it causes one to focus only on the desire to survive without thought to the Force's will. Emotions cloud sound judgements in general, but especially fear. Which is why your actions today cannot happen again."
Something twitched inside me, "But I have good reason to be afraid of being a ship UNDER ATTACK! My entire family died in a fiery crash! And I'm not scared of me getting hurt! I'm scared of you guys getting hurt!"
From the look on Cenden's face, I knew I'd said the wrong thing the moment it came out of my mouth. Thinking back, I remembered from a lot of the studies I'd done in Jedi philosophy that they valued the whole "feel nothing and be one with the Force" thing a LOT. And seeing as my freckles had turned the bright mixture of yellow and red, I was NOT doing a good job with that.
"Sorry. Wait! Not sorry! I mean I am sorry, I'm just I'm not saying it again! AH!" I tried to shut myself up.
He sighed, "We'll talk about that later. For now, Lerti? BX? You can come in now." Cenden said, sensing their presence outside the door.
As Lerti walked in she looked kinda… embarrassed? Why? Because she'd been caught listening in? She should've known by now Cenden was good enough to know that! I actually hadn't noticed Lerti so much as I'd heard the little song the kybercrystal was playing from inside BX's chest. The little bit of crystal liked his new home and it was nice to hear the song!
"Alright Vis. We're not shifting schedule just because of a little attack on zhe ship. We'll be continuing to practice fighting techniques without weaponry. Remember to gather the Force around you as you move, it will help your movements be quicker and more precise." Cenden explain for the thousandth time as if my guide hadn't totally helped me kick his butt back at the temple!
Lerti took position in front of me.
That's when the world started swimming a little around my vision as my adrenaline suddenly spiked again after having lulled a bit from ALMOST DYING just a while ago!
I took a breath.
My hands waved slowly through the air and my guide pulled in, swirling through my mind and muscles and then settling over Lerti and her mind and muscles. I felt her body tensing and relaxing with each breath.
She felt familiar with the stance, and it was odd to sense her sensing me in her own kind of way, seeing my stance and movements, and attempting prediction.
Lerti was supposed to try to hit me in three different ways and I was supposed to use any of the stances Cenden taught me to block or attack. Despite Cenden's thousand-reminders streak, I could already sense I'd need a thousanth and one more of those pointers.
'I may have kicked his butt once, but I'm pretty sure you're just letting me learn this one on my own, huh?' I thought to my guide. It was annoying to know you were going to lose before we'd even started.
"Ready!" Cenden called.
'Shouldn't think like that.' I thought as I crouched lower.
"Set!"
'Don't think. Just react.'
"Go!"
My body swelled with the Force.
I spun about where Lert's fist sliced through the air. My shoulder undamaged.
'She'll spin, her leg will knock me down. Don't let it hap-'
Lerti spun and her leg hit me clear across the chest.
The world around me went gray and fuzz for a moment and panic spiked through me as the wind was knocked from my lungs. I felt the Force gather about me to console my defeat. I felt it attempting to put air back in my lungs as I wheezed and attempted to smile.
"I- I knew that would happen…" I pushed out of my compressed lungs from my place on the floor.
Lerti reached down to help me up and I felt the bruise forming on my chest even through my armor chest protector I had donned as she helped me to my feet .
"Knowing somezing in advance doesn't mean squat if you can't react to it." Cenden chastised, "We're going to try somezing else." Cenden ushered over BX.
"BX is going to try to hit you."
"Cool." I responded.
"You will follow zis pattern: right, left, duck. Right, left, duck. With this knowledge in mind, you can focus only on reaction rather than prediction."
I nodded. We'd practiced these movements before and despite BX being an enormous… metal, killing machine… Well Cenden thought I could do it, so I can! It makes sense to practice against commando droid models too! BX said he was designed to be able to fight Jedi! ...Wait.
"Alright! Take your positions." Cenden commanded. I fell into stance and BX did the same.
'The little song in his chest washed over Vis and she found her voice attempting to imitate the sound flowing about her head.'
I shook my head and I noticed I was humming. It was the hum of one of those songs that didn't exist. Just something that danced into my head every once and a while…
"Ready!"
'Focus. Right, left, song. nO! Dodge!'
"Set!"
'Right, left, duck! Rightleftduck. Riledu.' I was humming again.
"Go!"
The Force swirled about me as I exploded into action.
BX held nothing back as he swung.
Right, left, duck. Right, left, duck.
The pattern did not fail and neither did my mind. I resonated with the movements and somewhere in the distance I could feel Lerti's surprise and Cenden's approval and Soron's annoyance and Nek's boredom, and Chol's sadness…
I hummed the sound as I moved, I flowed with the movements. I was finally here.
The sound suddenly became deafening in my ears. The sound of the kyber.
'Rightleftdodge. Rightleftdodge. Riledu. Riledo. Hello.'
My face was impacted.
Cool spike of metal pounded through my jaw and I sprawled out on the floor.
I blinked in surprise but couldn't even cry out in pain… It wasn't fair! I was in the zone! I'd been distracted by that voice! ...A voice. Where did that come from?
My vision finally cleared and I saw Soron walking by the training room talking into his commlink. He felt concern for me and stress towards the voice on the phone, "Yes, Beebs, we got your quarry and we're heading to the next rendezvous point now," he covered the commlink with one of his clawed hands, "Hey guys? Could you put some pillows on BX's claws or something? Thanks. Yes! I'm still here!" He said as he moved on.
I heard a hiss slide between Lerti's teeth, "I'll go get some ice."
"And apparently we also need pillows." I could hear the eye roll in Cenden's voice.
I gave a raspberry sound in defeat, and winced at the stinging warm pain in my face.
The cool night air flew past me in chunks as I cut through it's invisible ranks. The lightsaber I'd found back in my temple sputtered and spurted in my hand. The cracked kyber inside it's hilt pumped light to the blade like the beat of a heart. That's what all kyber felt like to me though, heartbeats.
I was standing on the flat roof of The Raving Titan.We were on some planet called Sicemon, which I was told was also called "the grass planet" as most of its surface was covered in rolling hills of tall grasses, even in the northern and southern hemisphere. We were here waiting for Beebs' guys to rendezvous with us and go to our next mission.
After Cenden's training session which consisted of BX giving me the experience of an extreme pillow fight against a droid, I'd decided to come up here to get grounded again. No space travel for five years and suddenly I was a professional star-system jumper was not great for the ol' noggin.
It felt odd to be on my own with my guide in this moment. I'd been so involved with my new crew, adventuring around the galaxy that I'd forgotten the feeling for a time. The feeling of focused loneliness, and some part of me knew it wasn't healthy, but I liked that version of loneliness. There was a good version to every bad feeling. That's what it felt like anyway… There was a balance.
'I'm not afraid of the ship crashing. I'm being… shrewd! Yeah, that's a good word. Shrewd. Purposeful fear focused on avoiding a problem.' I thought to myself as I continued the practice of pretend fighting.
The Jedi didn't believe in fear. Well emotions in general. Using the Force out of fear, or anger or surprise would be wrong… But what if I use the Force just 'cause I'm happy?
'I'm happy to be here with my guide and it's happy to be here with me! Right?' The Force swirled about me in agreement. I laughed and spun about at the response, my lightsaber making a green arc of color about me. Slowing down, I left the saber;s hilt retract and I stared off into the inbetween, watching the invisible Force swirl about existence in waves and ripples. Dancing about like the wind.
"What was that warning all about today?" I asked as I reached out and ran my fingers through my invisible friend. "I know it's hard to communicate sometimes, or sometimes it's best if I just figure out stuff for myself but this felt important! Was the attack on our ship the important thing?"
In the dark, starry sky, I felt my hand enclosed around another invisible something; a feeling. The Force handed the feeling to me like a grandma handing over a precision family heirloom; a little bit of the future.
I sat down cross legged and began to unwrap the feelings-ball in my hands. I don't really know how to describe any other way that that. In the in between space where your eyes can see nothingness and your feeling look like colors, I pretended to unwrap a package from the Force.
I watched my freckles shifting about in colors, and I watched a lot of red, yellow, and purple. Anger, fear, and questions. But about what? Best to play it out.
Igniting the lightsaber again, I stood and swung the blade about in the air to get a feel for some characters.
The Force swirled around something behind me. A person.
I squeaked and spun around to face my sneak-attacker. My lightsaber switching off.
Soron.
I breathed a sigh of relief, "Hey Soron! Wassup?"
The ol' captain was standing a ways off still next to the hatch to the roof, so he probably hadn't been standing there long.
He shrugged, "Nothing, just coming to check on you," he walked over and I could see him squinting in the darkness, "How's your face?"
"Eh it's fine! It was cool getting punched by a robot! Besides, in the heat of battle, there's no time to worry about bruises, only victory." I said that last part like some old war veteran whispering dramatically about his days in the field.
Soron chuckled at that and looked out over the moonlit horizon. Probably noticing how the grass under the planet's one moon kinda looked like rolling waves, or maybe not. It's hard to tell sometimes how other people thought about stuff.
I liked how Soron treated me. He acted like… well kinda like my mom. He genuinely cared about me and my well-being which I imagine wasn't normal coming from a hardened mercenary, and based on how the rest of the crew acts around me. But I would get to them. They'd be happy and laugh at my jokes just like him, and it'd be great!
He looked back down at me, "You closed the blade."
"Huh?"
"Your lightsaber," he pointed down at the hilt resting in my hand, "When you thought you were under attack, you closed the blade, why?"
"Uhhhh, well I didn't want to hurt you?"
"You didn't know it was me."
"I didn't want to hurt anyone?"
"Good."
At that he smiled and I smiled back. Why did this feel like what I expected Jedi training to be like? Deep conversations about nothing that would equate to something later?
"What was she like?" I said as I sat down, "Your sister?"
Soron sighed and sat down next to me. He'd told me about her after Nek had mentioned it in passing. It made sense that the captain had some ties to another Force-sensitive considering his interests and beliefs.
"She was… incredible. She was by far the alpha twin, but we kept each other in line. We were a great team, and she never left me out of anything. Despite her calling to the universe and her abilities in the Force, she always included me."
"Did she teach you to talk like that?"
"What!?" He laughed.
I felt my freckles turn light red, "I mean, all deep and stuff. Ya know, 'cause she was Force-sensitive?"
He let out another deep laugh, "Ha! You know, despite my lack of abilities to use the energy of the universe to chuck people across the room, I do consider myself to be very Force-sensitive!"
"Really!? Why?" I asked with genuine interest. This was so cool.
"Well, because I pay attention." he shrugged, looking out over the fields again, "I'm sensitive to the planets I visit and the flora and fauna they produce. I'm sensitive to the glint of stars, and the glow of suns. I'm sensitive to the feelings of other people around me, especially if they want to kill me. I pay attention to things, just like you do. And all of those things are connected to the Force. So, yes, I consider myself to be just as Force-sensitive as my sister ever was, just in a different way. And in the same way that you're connected differently." He concluded by closing his eyes as a breeze blew through his words, carrying the thoughts along the currents of wind.
"Wow… You're much better at this." I responded also closing my eyes.
Without even needed to ask what that meant, Soron replied, "He's that bad, huh?"
"No… He's just the tough love sort of teacher, without the love part."
"Any idea on why he's like that?"
"Eeeehhhhh no. Everytime I start playing out his story, my brain starts feeling all blocked. It's like he can sense when I'm trying and gets in my head which is annoying that the Force lets him do that to me." I said while giving a stink eye to the air.
"Well then, maybe your guide doesn't want you to know him in that way yet. Maybe he needs to tell you himself…" he paused, "Vis?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you trust Cenden?"
The question hung in the air for a moment as I tried to sort out how to respond to that.
"Um… Yes? Well I mean, I trust all of you guys right? Enough to have barely known you and get and on your ship and let you put me in danger and stuff!" I responded firmly.
"Yes, true, but do you trust him? As an individual? Not as our group, but just him?"
"Well… I think so. I dunno. There was this thing I sensed when I first met him and he blasted me across my temple 'cause I was winning our fight. It felt, angry? Or ashamed? ...Why are you asking anyway?"
"Just making sure I guess. You're apart of my family now and I want you to feel comfortable with whatever and whoever you're dealing with. Even if that's another family member." Soron affirmed.
"Dangit. You're just the best. I don't even know you, and you're like the coolest grandpa I never had."
"Grandpa?" Soron mused.
"Fine fine! Great uncle! My point being I wish you were the one teaching me how to get beat to a pulp and not Mr. Grumpy-Angry Man."
"I don't know how much Force stuff I could teach you but how's about I teach you some hunting strategies sometime, Shistavenian style?" Soron said as he leaned back on his arms.
"YES! I'D LOVE THAT! WH-"
My words cut off as something twitched in the Force just as Soron's head also suddenly shot up and peered into the horizon. Small flashes of light could be seen coming from over a hill in the distance. They disappeared as quickly as they'd been seen, but somehow the wind began to feel different.
The breeze picked up again and Soron stood. Nose to the air, his superior sense of smell working in time as he began to search for something on the breeze. A pit dropped in my stomach as my guide swirled about me in warning. Everything around me became very loud, and it felt like everything was moving about me.
"My guide says something's happening. I think it's one of those bad-somethings." I watched as he didn't respond but continued smelling the air. After a moment he flashed his commlink on.
"Chol, we're about to be ambushed, get the engine's prepped." Switching his gaze towards me he snapped, "Vis get inside now."
"Okay!" I didn't argue as I stood and began to scramble towards the hatch.
"What!?" I could hear Lerti's voice come through the comm, "Are you sure it's not just Beebs' guys here to get their quarry?"
"I'm not sure. But I smell a lot of smoke off in the distance, smells like burning fuel but it's far enough away not to be seen. This isn't an Imperial controlled planet and there's not a town around us for miles. Beebs' men may have been stopped from reaching us I don't know! Something's up and I'm sure it's-"
The sound of a ship suddenly appeared over head. The wind whipping around us as a blinding spotlight suddenly shone down from above. 'The ship had been cloaked?' I wondered as I made it to the hatch and opened in.
Looking back I realized Soron wasn't moving, but he also wasn't armed… Wait. Where's my lightsaber?
I heard the blade ignite and sputter in Soron's hands, the glow of green becoming like an aura around him. He took up a stance similar to what Cenden had shown me and squinted up at the light. Above the sound of the whirring engines I could hear Soron reconnect his commlink.
"Lerti, it's something else alright. And you're not going to like it. I think it's him. Is it time for running, or revenge?"