The CorSec port was bustling with activity when Alamys Jorka set his ship down on one of the landing pads. Once the ship had settled down fully, Leevar Halcyon quickly walked over to welcome the Jedi Master. Nodding at the taller man, the Corellian motioned for him to follow. Side by side they walked toward the portmaster's office, where a cryobox carrying the remains of the lady was already waiting to be brought aboard Jorka's ship.

"You should leave right away," Leevar told the other Jedi quietly. "If you go now you will drop your pursuers far more easily, and the body will be safe on Coruscant."

"While that is true, I want to find out exactly who is trying to get at that body. I have a feeling that my suspcions might be proven wrong."

To Leevar's surprise Alamys almost sounded guilty. Not something the Corellian Jedi had come to associate with the Jedi Master who seemed to live so strictly to the Jedi Code's rules. Apparently Alamys had suspected someone else, and if that suspicion proved wrong he would probably go and aplogize to whoever he had suspected. Leevar shrugged.

"I still think you should be careful. At least allow me to make the transfer if anything happens to you. We must not let this weapon fall into the wrong hands."

"Done," Alamys replied and the two men clasped hands. "Have your people at Coronet's port watch out for anyone asking after my ship. You'll see, they will try to track my rented speeder next." The Jedi Master hesitated. "I hope I am not endangering your family with this. I could never forgive myself if anything happened to your wife and son."

"Let that be my problem," Leevar growled, his protectiveness roused. "What are you planning to do?"

"They won't dare steal the body outright, they will try to capture me and make me yield control over my ship."

Leevar's brows rose high. "And you are sure you can handle them? How many are we talking about?"

"Just two."

"Just two!" Lowering his voice again the Corellian urgently bent toward the Jedi Master. "Two 'dark forces'? I assume you know the theory. There are always two, a – "

"Master and an apprentice, yes," Alamys finished for him and stopped in front of the portmaster's office door. "I know, Leevar. I have met the apprentice already. He is inept, to say the least. As for the master," he hefted the handle of his lightsaber meaningfully, "I am a Jedi, Leevar Halcyon, and that does count for something, don't you think?"

Your confidence, obviously, the Corellian thought to himself, but merely nodded at his companion. And yet he had to admit that Alamys Jorka seemed competent enough, very sure of himself and his abilities. Additionally, he was among the more powerful Jedi of the Order, and reportedly a reknowned swordsman. Leevar had done his homework once Alamys had left him at CorSec Forensic Department. Alamys Jorka could handle two Sith. With a great deal of luck.

Traffic had been packing the streets thickly on their way back to the port, and while Sidious again had schooled his patience, Nexus had resorted to a non-stop rant directed at the impassively listening droid-driver. Sidious ignored his master's heated speech studiedly, and instead tried to come up with a scheme that would deliver Inyo Di'vitt's body into their hands without revealing their participation in the matter. The best case, of course, would be to surprise the Jedi who would transfer the body and simply divert his ship's course so he would never arrive at Coruscant. But it would take more than Darth Nexus' yacht to bring a ship out of hyperspace, so they needed to take control of the Jedi's vessel here, on Corellia. Nexus had already thought of that, and yet Sidious had a feeling that they were overlooking something.

When the cab finally drove onto the rotunda in front of the port, Sidious was fist to get off the speeder, with Nexus close behind. The Whiphid, towering over everyone else in the vicinity, threw a casual glance around, then nodded in the direction of a young human male, who seemed to be waiting for someone. "This one," the Sith Master said in a low voice. "I will await you at the rental berths."

"Yes, master," Sidious answered, pitching his voice equally low, then purposefully made his way over to the man Nexus had pointed out. He was shorter even than Sidious, barely into his twenties, dark-haired, with a faint stubble of a beard covering his chin and cheeks. Brown eyes looked up inquisitively, when Sidious joined him. "Excuse me, perhaps you can help me."

The youth nodded slowly. "Of course. What can I do for you?"

"Pehr, is it? Yes, Pehr, you can do something for me."

The boy frowned. "Hey, how'd you – " He fell silent at a slight gesture of Sidious' hand.

"You will listen, and obey," the Sith Lord whispered, driving his mind deeper into the young man's awareness, pushing through untrained mental shields with practised ease. "You are looking for Jedi Master Alamys Jorka, from Coruscant. You have a message for him from Leevar Halcyon, Jedi Knight. It is urgent. You will consult the dockmaster or one of his assistants and ask for Master Jorka. They will not know where he is, but you will ask if you can wait with his ship. Once you know where the ship is you will come back to me. Now go."

He watched the boy leave and vanish around a corner, before he followed. No doubt the dockmaster would not tell Pehr where the ship was located, but while Pehr distracted the office staff, Sidious could find out by himself. And if anyone came asking questions, all leads would turn toward unfortunate Pehr. From a safe distance Sidious watched Pehr as the boy tried to get the attention of the various beings on duty in the dockmaster's office. Heightening his sense of hearing and directing it toward the conversing men with pin-point accuracy, Sidious was able to overhear the short discussion.

"Master Jorka, eh? Sorry, boy, but Master Jorka has already left."

"I have a message for him, from Leevar Halcyon," Pehr said again, in a monotonous voice. "It is urgent."

"Yes, son, you already said so. Now, if you would excuse me?"

Leaving Pehr standing forlornly in front of the office, the man vanished again. Sidious unconsciously balled his right hand into a tight fist. Gone. Gone! Had he left Corellia? Or had he simply decided to relocate his ship? The easiest way to find out would be to see whether he had rented a speeder, and if so, if he was still using it.

As it turned out, Alamys Jorka was indeed still on planet. He had rented a speeder very early in the morning, upon his arrival, had moved all over Coronet, apparently, and now, as evening fell, the speeder was headed toward the city limits, and Sidious knew exactly where he was going. The former city dump, where construction workers had found Inyo Di'vitt's body.

"We will confront him there," Darth Nexus explained calmly. "Chances are that he thinks himself all too clever and will try to trick us." His mouth widened into a broad grin. "He will soon learn that he won't get very far with that."

Two hours later, with night covering the planetside fully, they had reached the construction site. Carefully, Nexus and Sidious made their way onto the site, and soon they stumbled across a deserted speeder. So, Alamys Jorka was still here, waiting for them, undoubtedly. The man was either a total imbecile or else very confident in himself. Knowing the Jedi, Sidious opted for the latter. Up front a vast hole had been dug into the ground, undoubtedly it would house the fundament of the building later on. Sidious raised his head, trying to assess the size and depth of the pit. Beside him, Darth Nexus was studying the construction site intently. There was no trace of Alamys Jorka.

"Ah. Tomb raiders," an unfamiliar voice announced suddenly from behind them.

Sidious' head snapped around, his blue eyes narrowing as he watched the shadows resolve into a tall figure, face hidden by the hood of his cloak. The Jedi. He saw his master begin to smile as the giant Whiphid turned toward this adversary, but Jorka did not even bother with a verbal confrontation. Thrusting out his left arm he swept Nexus off his feet with a blast of power that made Sidious' teeth rattle. Without breaking stride the Jedi closed the distance toward the Sith apprentice, activating his lightsaber on the go. It had a white blade. Sidious barely had enough time to bring up his own weapon, and he cautiously took a step back to gain more room. He almost fell into the pit at his back, before he became aware of the danger. Growling softly, he attacked.

The Jedi Master side-stepped him elegantly, and the hood of his cloak fell back, allowing the white light of his blade to illuminate his face, which was as hard and cold as he remembered. Sidious set his jaw grimly, realizing that this would not be easy at all. The man was certainly powerful, and a skilled warrior. To his left Darth Nexus had sat up, but still seemed dazed. Jorka spared the Whiphid a quick glance, then nodded at Sidious.

"People tend to underestimate the role of the apprentice," he said, and moved in fast for another attack. "They tend to forget that he will be someone younger, faster and more impulsive. A dangerous combination."

The man was a swordsmaster, which was easily apparent once Sidious found himself retreating again and again, barely able to block the other's slashes. It was a game the other was playing, if only he knew what it was aiming at! Sidious felt positively triumphant when he saw Darth Nexus rise from the ground, with the Jedi's back turned toward him. Yes! If he would strike now –

Jumping high, the Jedi Master sommersaulted above Sidious' head, just as a blast of dark power came careening toward them. The apprentice took one good look at his master's rage-marred features, then quickly brought his free hand up in a blurring gesture to deflect the blast and divert it upward. It hit a construction skeleton that came crashing down hard, but Sidious had already moved away, hoping to have trapped that damn Jedi. Jorka came at him covered in white dust, but otherwise unharmed, and again Sidious found himself on the defensive. The eerie calm with which the Jedi fought was somehow frightening. But then the snap-hiss of another lightsaber being ignited caught his ear. So, Darth Nexus had finally decided to interfere.

"You will be honored to die on my blade, Jedi," the Whiphid declared in a low growl, then moved in from the side, while Sidious aimed a stab at Jorka's middle, seeking to drive him into Nexus' path.

Surprising both master and apprentice, the Jedi let himself drop on his back and aimed a kick at Sidious' ankles, that saw the apprentice fighting hard to keep his balance. The Whiphid, his bulky form already in motion, gave a bellowing grunt as he tried to stop his headlong plunge – ineffectively – and pushed Sidious aside with brute force. The younger Sith flew into a stack of planks, but Nexus did not waste any time and his purple blade came down hard on the Jedi still lying on the ground.

Blocking the blow, Jorka rolled around and let Nexus' blade stab into the ground, before he rose and brought his own lightsaber up. It caressed the Whiphid's stomach ever so slightly, leaving the stench of charred flesh and a very angry Sith Master. Backhanding the Jedi Master, who was too late to move away in time, Nexus roared something in his native tongue. A curse, Sidious thought coolly, as he darted underneath his master's arm and struck at the momentarily distracted Jedi, who was still reeling from the massive blow delivered by the Whiphid's muscle-packed arm. The block the other managed was too weak to prevent Sidious' blade from finding its mark.

Yes!

With an audible gasp Alamys Jorka turned away, one hand flying up instinctively to cover the side of his face. Sidious pressed his advantage, and stabbed the point of his blade at the other's flank, yet found that he had underestimated the man badly. Bringing his lightsaber up again, the Jedi pivoted on his heels quickly, rammed his elbow into the shorter Sith's ribcage right underneath his shoulder blade, and Sidious dropped to his knees with a groan, his right side paralyzed for just a moment. He could hear the sound of the white blade as it swung around, could see its trajectory before his inner eye. In the last possible moment he managed to duck out of the way, but the Jedi simply halted his weapon and aimed a short cut at the Sith apprentice's back. It grazed Sidious' left arm as he rolled around, frantically trying to escape.

But the Jedi Master had dismissed him already and was moving in against Darth Nexus. The Whiphid's face was fixed in a ferocious snarl, and he stood with arms spread at his sides, like a wrestler ready to meet the enemy's charge. Sidious summoned his strength again and jumped up from his position on the ground, stalking the other two combatants intently, waiting for an opening that would allow him to interfere. The Jedi's white blade came down hard on Darth Nexus' purple one, and the human retreated immediately, avoiding the backslash delivered just as forcefully by the Whiphid Sith Master. With a dizzyingly quick set of jabs and cuts the Jedi moved in again, and Sidious' felt the hairs on his back stand up when Nexus screamed out loud, and the handle of his lightsaber flew into the night sky in a wide arc. It landed in the pit at his back, lost from sight. The Jedi aimed a kick at the Whiphid's midsection and his boot connected with a solid thud, that saw Nexus staggering backward, small eyes nearly bulging out of his head in surprise.

Yet Sidious had waited for exactly this to happen. For a moment, standing on one leg, the Jedi was precariously balanced, and instantly the Sith apprentice aimed a Force blow at the man's back. It lifted Jorka right off the ground, yet, impossibly, he managed to twist his body around in mid-flight, landing in a half-crouch, facing Sidious. He attacked at once, driving the Sith apprentice back again. But this time Sidious was prepared. He did not try to offer a counter-offensive, he merely tried to keep his adversary occupied, while he picked up several wooden planks with the aid of the Force from the heap his previous little accident had left, then sent them at the Jedi's taller frame, seeking to distract him. Reacting with grace and speed, yet without ever taking his eyes off Sidious, the Jedi Master started an elegant dance with the planks, shearing them into pieces with his blade, before he flung the shrapnel at Sidious in turn.

The speed with which the man managed to assess his position, situation and to evaluate the best and most effective response to an attack was unbelievable. It was all Sidious could do not to get caught in that hailstorm of sharp wooden splinters. When it ceased at last he found that the Jedi had already engaged Darth Nexus again. Now it was the Whiphid's turn to fend off the Jedi's attacks, and to Sidious' satisfaction he proved as inept at that as his apprentice. Suddenly, with a roar that bore testimony to the Sith Master's anger and frustration, Nexus charged at the Jedi, throwing all caution over board. Sidious had no idea how the Whiphid avoided the cool, methodical defensive barrage the Jedi employed, but the next moment the Jedi was flying through the air and crashed into the remains of the construction skeleton that Sidious had wrecked earlier.

Moving at once, Sidious stabbed his blade into the downed Jedi Master's midsection, stopping short of boiling the man's intestines. They needed him alive, after all, to tell them where he had hidden the body. Jorka, who had been struggling to get up, dropped back to the ground like a sack, his agony filling the night with a very sweet song. Sidious smiled, then gestured leisurely to call the handle of his adversary's blade to his hand. He attached the weapon to his own belt and stood guard over the Jedi, while Nexus made his way over slowly, his heavy bulk making the ground vibrate with each step he took.

"So," the Whiphid hissed. "You have underestimated the apprentice after all, little Jedi."

"Yet it was the master who defeated me," the man shot back in a slurred voice, and carefully propped himself up on one hand.

Only now could Sidious marvel at the little masterpiece his own blade had burned into the Jedi's face in an earlier exchange. The blistered wound ran from the outer corner of his left eye down and across the corner of his mouth in an angry red line. It almost split the man's chin in two. Once he had reached the two men, Nexus brought his still activated weapon down without warning, and the Jedi fell back with a scream as the lightsaber burned across his chest.

"Take care that the master does not kill you," the Whiphid cautioned the human coldly. "Where is the body?" he continued, the tip of his blade hovering dangerously close over the Jedi's eyes, threatening to blind them forever.

There was no way Jorka could escape that threat, with his back and head pressed firmly against the ground. Yet he kept remarkably calm. "Safe. You won't get it."

"You are overestimating your chances, Master Jorka," Nexus declared contemptuously. "You will return Inyo Di'vitt's remains to us, where they belong."

The Jedi Master smiled. "Really? I don't think you can make me."

"Then you do not know very much."

Taking his cue, Sidious flopped down to sit cross-legged on the ground. It was always a pleasure to watch a master at work, and if there was one thing Darth Nexus excelled at, it was the deft use of his lightsaber as an instrument of most exquisite torture. So Sidious sat there for the next two hours, to watch and learn. Sometimes, when Nexus granted his victim some time to rest, Sidious would idly contemplate their situation. During one of those breaks he speculated that the Jedi's first name was actually Tyreenese. Tyreena was a Rim world that seldomly was even mentioned on the major star charts. The Tyreenese were organized in a strict, hierarchical society, as far as he knew. Sidious wondered what part this Jedi would have played on Tyreena, had he remained there, which would have spared him a lot of torment, certainly.

Alamys – the name a variant of Alamar, the blue sun of Tyreena, Sidious thought – was certainly tough. Any other time Darth Nexus would have managed to crack his victim within the first thirty minutes. But the Jedi Master simply endured the torture, gritting his teeth while sweat poured down his face and drenched his body. The night air was thick with the stench of charred skin and burned flesh. By the time he passed out there was not much left of the Jedi Master's clothing. Darth Nexus straightened from his victim and gestured toward the unconscious Jedi.

"Pick him up. We will take him aboard our ship for now. He will yield the body's location soon enough."

The Halcyon homestead was enjoying a quiet evening right up until the point where Leevar found it unbearable to keep still any longer. He rose from his seat on the couch abruptly, drawing his wife's concerned attention, but he was gazing only at Neeja, who had fallen asleep at play and lay curled up in his little corner, breathing deeply. Grimacing in disdain, Leevar turned his head to gaze at his wife.

"What is it?" she asked, putting her hands in her lap, waiting. "Trouble?"

He nodded. "I fear so, yes. I warned him, repeatedly, but he would not listen."

"The Jedi Master?"

"I can sense something, something dark, very powerful. No matter how hard I try I cannot find Alamys' presence. I fear the worst."

His wife rose anxiously and rounded the table to come to stand in front of him. "Leevar, I do not want you to put yourself in danger over something that is not your business," she told him urgently.

"But I have made it my business, love. I have to go and bring that ship to Coruscant." When she paled he wrapped her in his arms and held her tight. "You could move in with your parents for the time being," he suggested quietly. "I do not think they will try to harm you, but I will alert CorSec to protect you too."

"But I want you to stay," she whispered, tears sliding down her smooth cheeks. He kissed them away.

"I will be back," Leevar answered with a tiny smile. "I swear."

Holding her for a while longer, Leevar broke the embrace at last and went over to kiss the crown of Neeja's head gently. With a fond smile he straightened again, then went upstairs to don his Jedi garb and retrieve his lightsaber. He would make a stop-over at CorSec headquarters to alert them as to Alamys Jorka's disappearance, then he would proceed to the CorSec port where the Jedi Master had left his ship. He was not entirely sure whether Master Jorka was dead or simply a captive, perhaps he would be able to free himself, even, but that did not matter. If his suspicions concerning the body were true, Leevar had to get it to Coruscant under any circumstances.

He knew very well that whoever was hunting after the body had no scruples, May Calvar's inexplicable death proved that, and if they were what he suspected them to be, they might try to take his family hostage to get him to return the body. Leevar stopped in front of the family's speeder, undecided. What if he instead tried to take on those two himself? He shook his head no. Impossible. Taking his family with him was not an option either. With a wistful look back at the house, Leevar boarded the speeder. One step at a time, and he would reach his goal eventually. He still had another option, and one he would consider seriously. If the Sith were tracking Jorka's ship, he would send the ship off, but keep the body and relocate it to another vessel. Yes, that would be the easiest solution. Smiling to himself, Leevar put a bit more speed into his vehicle, driving hard toward Coronet's city center.

TBC