"Oh man, you have got to be joking," Brodey
scoffed. "You're going to attack an unarmed man with a lightsaber?"
"I know better than to believe you're truly unarmed," She retorted, pointing her
blade toward him. "The dark side is full of deception."
"And you believe that trash?" He replied, cocking his head to the side and
smiling at her.
"I sure don't trust you," She said simply, cautiously eyeing his every move.
"Smart girl," Brodey laughed, igniting the dual bladed saber that had traveled
from his pack to his hand in the blink of an eye. He spun around quickly,
brandishing his blade in an effort to intimidate the girl. If she flinched she
showed no outward signs. Her concentration was fixated on his every move as she
moved into a fighting stance.
"Whenever you want your sound beating, feel free to attack."
"A jedi never attacks," She replied sternly, still waiting in a ready position
and sizing up her opponent.
"Please, spare me the lecture on what it means to be a jedi," Brodey hissed. "I
remember it well. Look at it this way, genius. I just attacked your friend
before you got here. Now, why don't you move your princess behind from that spot
and defend him?"
The young woman responded by setting her jaw and lunging at him, her blade high
in the air. She brought it crashing down against his aqua blade in an explosion
of sparks, pressing him into a defensive position. Brodey quickly dodged to the
side and turned her own attack against her, causing her to scramble to block his
next flurry of attacks.
"Is this a bad time to mention that this is my area of expertise?" Brodey
drawled arrogantly as he continued to overpower his substantially shorter
adversary.
"It doesn't matter," She snapped back. "I have more than a few tricks up my
sleeve."
"Yeah, come on Solo!" Screamed Wes. "Kick his sorry butt from here to the
Unknown Regions!"
'Solo?' He thought through his enraged haze as he stared at the girl who
was fiercely holding her own against him. The subtle nuances of the way she
carried herself, of the expressions on her face, and her loyalty proved to him
the obvious. This woman, the one he'd engaged in combat, was the jedi daughter
of Han Solo.
Han. The thought of the older man, his mentor, felt like a spike had been driven
through his abdomen. Brodey fought on but only with a half-hearted numbness, his
thoughts mainly on the horrible things he'd done when he'd let himself slip. He
imagined Han's look of disapproval when he found out that Brodey had squandered
all that the older man had done for him. It was frightening how identical the
Solo look of disappointment was to his father's. It was worse than the ghosts of
dead loved ones that haunted him through the force when he allowed it to seep
in. It was a real life reminder of what a failure he'd become.
He'd let his friend down. Han had called him "kid" and been like a father to him
when nobody else cared if he was vaped out of existence by the Vong. He'd let
his father down a second time. The self-loathing he felt sank like a durasteel
weight right down to the very core of his being. He'd allowed the dark side to
ruin one of the best things he had going for him and convince him that fighting
these people, his allies, was really worth it.
"No," He muttered simply, stepping away from her attack and disengaging both
ends of his lightsaber with a simple flick of his wrist.
"What is this, another trick?" Solo's daughter asked, out of breath. She stood a
safe distance away, still poised for his next attack.
"No tricks," He sighed, turning his back to her and walking away. His mouth was
drier than a Tattooine desert and if there was ever a time that he wanted to
curl his overly large form up into a ball in the corner, this was it. Instead he
fell into a chair to the side of the room and buried his head in his hands,
leaving the crowd of stunned on-lookers staring in wonder.
