Parting
the foliage in front of him, Anakin searched the open area around him. There was not a single person in sight, but
just to be sure, he reached out with the force, finding nothing more than the
unintelligible life of the forest.
"Do you see anything?" Tahiri whispered to him.
He shook his head.
"I guess they figured nobody would be
crazy enough to try and sneak in the front door."
Anakin smirked at her. "Maybe,"
Unclipping her lightsaber, Tahiri
said, "we're not getting anywhere just sitting here,"
Anakin ran an inquisitive eye over
her. He was definitely rubbing off on
her, but he had not yet decided whether that was a good thing.
Together, they climbed out from their
hiding spot among the ferns and bushes, and dashed across the open space to the
doors of the building. They were locked
of course, and made out of a metal alloy. Nothing a couple of lightsabers couldn't slice through. As one, they ignited their humming blades.
"You don't suppose they'd just open
the door if we asked them to, do you?" Said Tahiri.
Anakin was going to quote her the odds
of that ever happening when an alarm thundered from the fortress. Someone must have spotted them and sounded
the perimeter alarm. Scrambling, Tahiri
and Anakin rounded a corner of the building to hide themselves. Making themselves as flat as possible
against the wall, they waited, hearts pounding. Several seconds passed but no one came after them. They exchanged confused looks before Anakin
peered around the corner in time to see the front doors swing open and hoards
of uniformed troops press their way outside.
Anakin whistled under his breath at
seeing all these troops being sent out to capture the two intruders.
Tahiri peered over his shoulder and
gulped.
The strange thing was they didn't seem
to be looking for them at all. They
were all taking off into the forest, seemingly fleeing the building. Overhead, the two Jedi could hear ships
blasting off and streaking towards space.
Puzzled, Tahiri asked, "what are they
doing?"
"It looks like they're abandoning
their base," but why, Anakin had no idea.
"Well, what are we waiting for, an
invitation?" Tahiri said before
charging around the corner, waving her lightsaber.
Frowning, he charged after her, coming
to the conclusion that her adventurous new attitude was definitely not a good
thing. One headstrong and impulsive
person in their relationship was enough. With two of them like that they were destined for trouble.
The fleeing troops spared the
intruders no more than a fleeting glance before ignoring them completely.
Before they even reached the open
doors, they heard a recorded voice speaking above the roaring alarm.
"Self-destruct is imminent in fourteen
minutes,"
The abandoning of the building
suddenly became as clear to Anakin as his instincts telling him he could not
wait for his brother. The place was
going to blow into a million pieces in less than fifteen minutes – with Jaina
and Zekk inside it.
Without a moment's hesitation, Anakin
and Tahiri plunged into the doomed building.
Running
through the secret corridor, Zekk used his lightsaber to see the path ahead of
him. His lightsaber casting moving
shadows off the walls as he ran. The
beating of his own heart was louder than the blaring alarm. Karsay couldn't be too far ahead of him.
With
the help of his lightsaber, Zekk could see an opening up ahead. When he reached it, he found it to be a
storage room of some kind. Old
equipment lined one wall, while stacks of crates were piled at various heights
all over the room.
The
faint danger sensation came too late for Zekk. A silhouetted figure leapt down
from the shadows of the crates, slamming full tilt into Zekk and sending him
crashing to the ground. Luckily, he
managed to hold onto his lightsaber, which allowed him to block the attacking
lunge from Karsay's own blade.
"I
knew your pride wouldn't allow you to just let me walk away,"
Panting,
Zekk managed to get back to his feet. "More like some unfinished business I needed to settle once and for
all."
The
air around them crackled and sizzled with the colliding of the two energy
blades as the two opponents spun around each other. Like a well-rehearsed routine, each would block the other's
attack only to come up with a counter attack that would also not get through
their foes' defenses. It went on like
that until a careless mistake on Zekk's part allowed Karsay to gain the upper
hand. Falling for Karsay's feint to the
left, leaving the entire right side of his body open for attack, made it easy
for Karsay to graze Zekk's unprotected shoulder before Zekk could recover fast
enough to stop it. Where the blade
touched him it singed through the fabric of his shirt and the skin underneath
it.
Crying
out, Zekk stumbled backwards, the scent of his own charred flesh piercing
through his nostrils.
Not
wasting a second, Karsay used the force to hurl his weakened opponent into a
group of wooden crates stacked together.
When
the debris settled, a disoriented Zekk shook his head to clear it. His previously injured ribs caused his
breathing to come in shallow gasps. Grimacing, he clutched his side with one hand and used the other to push
the broken wooden pieces off of himself. Most of the crates had tumbled harmlessly around him but a few had
managed to fall on top of him before breaking apart.
Hearing
ominous footsteps heading in his direction, Zekk quickly tried to collect
himself. Unfortunately, he had been
unable to maintain his grasp on his lightsaber this time and it had tumbled to
the ground out of his line of vision.
Karsay,
with his blood red lightsaber, loomed over Zekk. He extended the blade until the tip of it was so close to Zekk's
face that all he could see was crimson. He didn't dare breathe, afraid the slightest movement would bring him
into contact with the killer weapon.
Gloating,
Karsay said, "I've been waiting for this moment for so long, Zekk. And now you're mine,"
"Hey,"
called the female voice of Jaina Solo, "didn't anyone ever tell you not to
count your gorts before they hatch?" She stood no more than twenty feet from Karsay, with Zekk's flame
coloured energy blade blazing in her hands.
Zekk
should have known Jaina would never willing run away and save herself. She had too much of her mother and father in
her.
Turning
away from Zekk, who was not really in any shape to go anywhere anyways, the
Dark Jedi moved towards Jaina, deliberately taking his time. Jaina was not the same helpless target that
had been at his mercy minutes before. Now she was armed and looking to even the score.
Karsay
initiated the duel by lashing out with his lightsaber. Jaina, ready for it, blocked it with the
ease coming from years of intense training.
They
broke off, warily circling each other, waiting to see who would make the next
move.
"I
don't know what Zekk did to instill such fierce loyalty in you, but I can
assure you it's severely misplaced.
"You
talk to much," Jaina said, batting Karsay's blade aside.
Simultaneously,
they brought their blades crashing together. Each using all their strength, they continued pushing their lightsabers
together, trying to drive their opponent back.
Karsay
drove his blade forward. "So, Zekk's told you everything about his days as a
Dark Jedi, and yet you still respect him?"
Jaina,
not giving Karsay an inch, pushed back with equal force, "He told me enough,"
Karsay's
eyes gleamed. "Ah, so he hasn't told
you everything, has he?"
"Jaina," Zekk shouted to her, "don't
let him distract you,"
With
a broad grin on his face, Karsay said, "he's just afraid to let you find out
what kind of monster he is." Karsay
swung his mighty blade into Jaina's. "Did he ever tell you about our little mission to Kuat where we stole
several ships and killed the entire crew onboard each vessel? Or the time Lord Zekk ordered the
execution of one of his fellow Dark Jedi because he arrived late to combat
class?"
Jaina
tried not to falter or show that Karsay's words were affecting her. How could she trust this guy anyways? He was crazy enough to blow up his own
fortress – with himself inside it. He
would say anything to discredit Zekk because he hated him so much.
Taking
her silence as not believing him, Karsay said, "if what I say weren't true then
why isn't Zekk denying any of it? Do
you really think he would ever tell you about something he did that was truly
that despicable?"
Jaina
wanted to scream at him, tell him he was a liar, but she could detect no
falseness or deception in his tone, only the truth.
She
had been letting her mind wander, and was now being forced back by Karsay. Her scattered thoughts were weakening her
defense.
"He's
murdered more than enough people to fill a space cruiser," Karsay kept on,
continuing to prey on Jaina's distraction, "you think you know him but you have
no idea who he really is," he continued driving her back, slowing tearing down
her weakening defenses, piece by piece, until he slapped her lightsaber to the
ground. Jaina went to back up, but
found she was already up against the smooth surface of the wall. He could have finished her right then and
there, but Jaina remembered Zekk mentioning to her that he preferred to torture
his victims first, to remind them who they were dealing with.
Out
of options, Jaina did the first thing that came to her mind. With all the speed she could muster, she
dropped to the floor, swiping out with her right leg, knocking Karsay's feet
out from under him and he fell onto his back. Not standing around to admire her quick thinking, Jaina dashed to where
her lightsaber had fallen.
Just
as she reached it, voices started screaming in her head, memories flashing in
her mind that did not belong to her were overloading her senses. She sank to her knees, clutching the sides
of her head in agony. Images of death
and destruction were all around her, with Zekk being the central figure of it
all. Karsay was pulling some kind of
force trick on her mind, but the sensations were too powerful, too real
for her to block them out.
Powering
down his weapon, Karsay watched with sick fascination the way Jaina withered in
agony at the images he was sending her. Feeling her trying to repel his mind, he took the handle of his
lightsaber and smacked her in the side of the head with it to put her out of
her misery. Blood gushed out from her
head wound and Jaina dropped like a stone.
"Noooo!" Screamed Zekk's voice from behind Karsay.
Zekk
launched himself through the air, tackling Karsay to the ground. Wrestling together, Karsay fumbled for the
power stud on his lightsaber. Zekk,
seeing what Karsay was attempting to do, reached for the weapon. They fought for control of it, with the open
end of the blade pointed at Zekk's torso, ready to slice through his insides
the moment it turned on. Karsay rolled
on top of him, clawing at Zekk's face in an effort to get him to let go of the
lightsaber's handle. Zekk clamped his
teeth down on Karsay's fingers, drawing blood and eliciting a yelp of pain from
him. Using the temporary distraction to
his advantage, Zekk turned the handle of the weapon around so it was facing
Karsay's midsection. He ignited the
blade, and there was a gurgling sound as the lightsaber burned through the
muscle and tissue of the Dark Jedi's midsection.
A
look of sheer surprise at this turn of events crossed Karsay's evil
features. He looked down to see the
gaping hole that had been carved into him by his own weapon, and then looked
back up at Zekk. In a hoarse voice he
croaked, "you can never escape what you are." Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell onto Zekk. Dead. Shutting down the scarlet lightsaber, Zekk rolled Karsay off of him, who
crumbled lifelessly to the floor.
Zekk
laid there very still, a cold feeling settling inside of him. He had killed in self-defense, but could not
escape the fact that he had wanted to kill Karsay all along.
The
recorded voice announced, "self-destruct is imminent in six minutes,"
That
penetrated its way into his brain. They
had to get out of there.
He
rushed over to where Jaina lay in a crumpled heap with her eyes closed,
bleeding profusely from where Karsay had rammed her with the hilt of his
lightsaber. Tearing a piece of cloth
from his own shirt he made a quick compress to stop the bleeding, using another
piece of fabric to tie it around her forehead.
She
was breathing, but that was the only sign of life he could detect. Carefully, but knowing they did not have a
lot of time, he scooped her unconscious form into his arms and took off towards
the tunnel where they had come from at a speed even Tenal Ka would have been
envious of.
Five
minutes left.
"This
is ridiculous," Tahiri exclaimed, fending off another blaster bolt. "This place is about to blow up and they're
still trying to hold down the fort,"
Off
to the side and slightly in front of her, Anakin sent another blaster bolt
flying back and knocked a blaster out of one of the trooper's hands.
Some
of Karsay's more loyal troops had stayed behind to fight the intruders, despite
the constant reminder of piercing alarms and recorded warnings that came every
minute to tell them that self-destruct was inevitable.
"We
don't have time for this," Anakin yelled to Tahiri so she could hear him over
all the commotion. They were wasting
precious time fighting instead of searching for Zekk and Jaina.
Reaching
out with their minds, they sent inviting thoughts of sleep into the trooper's
minds. They encountered little
resistance; even those with the ability to use the force had not been properly
trained to resist the mind trick.
Once
they rounded a corner and were out of the trooper's line of sight, Anakin
planted a powerful suggestion in their minds that they needed to wake up and
get out of there, now.
With
that done, Anakin used the force to locate his sister, taking off in the
direction his senses were pointing to.
Four
minutes left.
Zekk
went unchallenged as he ran with Jaina in his arms through the ill-fated
building. Anyone with a shed of common
sense had already vacated the place.
The
fortress was like a maze to Zekk. He
hoped he was not going around in circles. He knew there must have been another way out of the secret tunnel Karsay
had led him to, but he did not have the time to search the entire area looking
for an exit he may never find. Instead,
he found himself running aimlessly through the corridors looking for a turbo
lift or a set of stairs to take him to the bottom floor. If he did not find a
way out of there soon, he was going to have to find a window somewhere and jump
down.
"Damnit,"
he swore under his breath, seeing that it appeared he was coming to a dead
end. He was about to turn around when
the closed doors of a turbo lift came into view. He raced towards it, feeling the familiar swoosh of air as the
doors slid apart when he approached them. Without waiting for the doors to close, he punched the button for the
ground floor.
"Come
on, come on," he muttered as the turbolift made its decent.
The
sound of a distant explosion shook the lift car. Zekk held onto Jaina tightly, while at the same time doing his
best to keep his own balance.
The
lift came to a sudden halt three floors from the bottom. Cursing, Zekk furiously pressed the button
to make the lift start again, but nothing happened. Placing Jaina on the floor, he took out his lightsaber and cut a
hole through the doors of the lift large enough for the both of them to fit
through. Before he finished slicing his
way through he started to smell smoke.
Picking
up Jaina, he rushed through the opening he had carved out and bounded down the
corridor. It was hotter here and the
stench of smoke was stronger. He rounded another corner before coming to a
skidding halt.
Some
of the explosives must have gone off early because the hallway in front of them
was in shambles. Bulkheads were flaming
apart, and large smoking holes were gouged into the walls.
They
could not turn back. It would take too
much time to head back to the lift and cut a hole through the floor and jump
down. Plus there was no guarantee the
floors below them weren't also on fire. This was the only way out. Zekk
could see a window not too far off, but the only way to reach it would be to go
through the burning flames.
It
did not look like he had much of a choice.
"Zekk!" Shouted a familiar voice, just as a flaming
bulkhead came crashing down in front of him and Jaina.
Tenal
Ka and Jacen had not even made it through the last of the forest when they
started hearing the blaring sounds of an alarm.
Coming into the clearing, they spotted
more than a dozen young men heading into the forest.
Tenal Ka seized his arm. He felt it too. Something terrible was about to happen.
Swinging Jaina over his right
shoulder, Zekk used his free hand to reach his lightsaber and slice the burning
bulkhead in half.
"Anakin, it's too late, get out of
here!"
But Anakin and Tahiri were too deep in
concentration to respond to him, and in a moment Zekk understood why. Slowly but surely, the path of flames to the
window departed into a clear path.
"Zekk, I don't know how long we can
hold it," Anakin said in a strained voice.
Zekk did not need anymore
prodding. He made his way through the
path they had created, generating a shield around himself and Jaina to deflect
any stray flames or debris. The shield
would not hold though, if an entire bulkhead came down on them.
The smoke was starting to get to him,
but he forced himself to stay on course to the window.
One minute left.
Concentrating as deeply as he was,
Anakin could barely hear the annoying alarm blasting in the background.
When
Zekk made it close enough to the window, he shouted back to them. "I can take it from here. Now get yourselves out of here!"
Seeing they had already done everything they possibly could,
Anakin and Tahiri backed up until they were facing a similar window. On the count of one, they broke through the
glass, gravity tugging their bodies to the ground, but together, they used the
force to cushion their fall.
Looking
around, Anakin could see no sign that Zekk or Jaina had yet jumped from the
doomed building.
No time left.
The
moment he took his first step towards the fortress, the earth rumbled beneath
Jacen's feet with enough force to knock him to the ground. Up in flames went the building in front of him,
sending scraps of shrapnel flying everywhere.
"Jaina!" He screamed, getting to his
feet and running towards the flaming building. Tenal grabbed him before he had gone two feet.
"Jacen, there is nothing you can do,"
He struggled against the hold of her
strong arms, tears stinging his eyes as he watched the building burn down in
front of him. He had almost lost all
hope when he saw three bedraggled figures, one of them carrying a fourth figure
in his arms, heading in their direction.
Letting go of Jacen, Tenal Ka and he
raced towards the group, expressions of relief and joy evident on their
faces. That was until they saw Zekk
cradling an unconscious Jaina in his arms, dry blood flaking on the side of her
head. Zekk did not look to be in much
better shape, but he could walk, though it looked as if it caused him great
discomfort to do so.
Coughing from the amount of smoke he
had inhaled, Zekk managed to say, " she needs medical attention,"
"The Lightning Rod is a five
minute walk this way," Anakin announced.
Jacen
noted both his brother and Tahiri's faces and clothes were covered in black
ash, but besides that and a few minor cuts and bruises they seemed okay.
They followed Anakin and Tahiri as the
two led them back into the forest to the spot where they had hidden their only
means of escape off this planet.
Once they had reached the Lightning
Rod, its crew noticed some additional scorch marks by the boarding
ramp. Some of Karsay's men had
obviously tried to make a quick getaway with the ship but had been unable to
break inside it.
Zekk
could care less about the blast marks, he had more pressing matters on his
mind. The health of Jaina Solo being
one of them.
When they boarded the ship, Anakin
headed straight for the cockpit, knowing Zekk wanted to stay with his sister,
while the rest of them headed for the lounge to see what they could do to help.
Tenal Ka took out a med-kit and
brought it over to where Zekk had placed Jaina lying down on a repulsor
couch. She was the most capable medic of
them – Ta'a Chume had made sure of that – so she began dressing Jaina's head
wound. Carefully removing the compress
that Zekk had placed there to stop the bleeding, she inspected the wound. It was deep but nothing a bacta patch could
not heal. Tenal Ka suspected the injury
may have caused her friend a concussion as well.
The two young men deeply concerned for
Jaina's safety stood nearby, watching intently as Tenal Ka attended to her.
Zekk felt the familiar hum of the
ship's engines and knew they had just lifted off. It would only take a few moments before the Lightning Rod
cleared Dundas' atmosphere and jumped to lightspeed.
He went to wipe some soot off his face
when a dark stain on his hand caught his eye. Blood. Jaina's blood from when
he had attempted to stop the bleeding of her head wound. He looked down at his clothes. Crimson colour stained his shirt from when
he had killed Karsay. He was covered in
blood and most of it was not his own.
"What happened in there, Zekk?" Jacen asked him.
Should he tell them everything? He wasn't sure if they would understand let
alone accept what he had done. He was
still having trouble letting the events of the past couple of hours sink in.
"Karsay and I were at the Shadow
Academy together," he began, "and he wanted to settle an old score with
me. When I didn't co-operate, he went
after Jaina, and then he decided to blow up his fortress with us in it. He took off and I went after him." Jacen glared at him and Zekk knew exactly
what the other Jedi was thinking. "I
tried to stop Jaina from coming after me, but she wouldn't listen."
Fuming, Jacen said, "of course she
wouldn't. Whatever gave you the
impression that my sister would just walk away from danger because you asked
her to?"
"Jacen, this was something I had to
do. Jaina knew that,"
"And you knew she would follow you,"
Jacen said hotly, pointing an accusing finger at Zekk. "This is all your fault. If anything happens to her…" he left the
unfinished sentence hang in the air and took a threatening step in Zekk's
direction.
"I would die before I would let
anything happen to her," Zekk said truthfully, "but what happened was an
accident,"
"An accident?" The veins on Jacen's neck were bulging out,
"she could have died because of your selfish actions. But I guess settling your score with Karsay was more important to
you."
"Don't you ever – "
"Enough, both of you!" Tenal Ka snapped, stepping in between the
two before they could get any closer. "None of this pointless arguing is going to help Jaina,"
She was right, but that did not stop
them form continuing to glower at each other for a little longer. Jacen backed down first. Muttering something incomprehensible, he
stormed out of the lounge.
"He is just concerned for his sister,
Zekk," Tenal Ka explained.
"I know that," he replied, staring
down at Jaina's unconscious form, "so am I,"