Ambush

~*~*~

"We are going to starve to death," Jag moaned, sighing as he ran a hand through his short, sweat-soaked hair.

"Don't be ridiculous," Jaina chided softly, trudging along behind him through the path in the underbrush. "We can survive for about a week with no food at all. At least we're bringing back something."

"That little thing?" He exclaimed in anguish, pointing to the small animal dangling from her hand. His stomach had been growling loud enough for her to hear all morning and there was no doubt that he was ravenous. "That measly animal is probably a hors d'oeuvre for our feline friend back there!"

"He'll have to learn to live with less until his ribs heal. So will we," Jaina said with a melancholy sigh.

"I say we keep on hunting," He replied gruffly. "It's no use coming back to camp with so little to eat."

"We'd have more to eat if you learned how to be lighter on your feet!" She accused wryly. "You keep on tromping around the jungle, scaring all the game away!"

Jag frowned back at her and wished he could find his tongue to utter something blistering in her direction. He would have no such luck. Her dark mocha eyes looked playfully up at him and made his insides do that weird flip flop he'd grown used to feeling when she was around. "Perhaps Your Holiness might give me a few lessons on moving with grace?"

"I never said you didn't move with grace," Jaina answered with a shocked smile. "You grew up in an imperial culture. I'm sure they taught you how to carry yourself properly. That's part of the problem. You're marching around like a soldier instead of a predator sneaking up on his prey."

"I'm sorry. I will try to be sneakier in the future," He whispered softly, reaching out to brush his fingers against the small patch of exposed skin on the back of her neck.

Jaina almost jumped out of her boots from the sudden caress and shivered violently. Her immediate response after shock was one of anger. She whirled around to remind him that flirting with the goddess was a breech of protocol but her lips were abruptly captured in an arduous union that was hot enough to melt durasteel.

'So much for protesting,' She thought, smiling inwardly as her tongue danced around lazily in the sweltering heat of his mouth.

"Mmmm, how was that for sneaky?" Jag asked as he finally broke the tight seal of their kiss.

"Not bad," She answered thoughtfully. "But I think you need a little more practice."

"I'd be honored if you'd give me that opportunity, Goddess," He whispered into her ear while grazing his lips against her cheek.

"Gladly," She muttered back eagerly as she pulled his mouth back down to meet her own.

~*~*~

"Are we sure of his whereabouts?" The young woman asked as she settled down into the copilot's seat of the passenger vessel. She peered at him curiously from under her navy velvet cloak with pale blue eyes.

Her companion didn't flinch. He didn't even move as he spoke from beneath the dark hood of his jedi cloak. "I am certain that we will find him in the place I have foreseen. He cannot leave. He is trapped, and waiting for rescue."

"Excellent," She replied coldly, staring ahead out the viewport at the blue and pink swirls of hyperspace. "That will make our job much easier, Uncle."

"I'm counting on it," The hooded man said sinisterly.

~*~*~

Dark green eyes were all that Anja had seen for the past half hour. He stared at her and she stared right back at him from the other side of the clearing. They both sat, their backs to opposite trees, and looked at each other strangely. Neither one of them knew what to feel, both about the situation and about the other person.

"Stop it," She ordered half-heartedly.

"Stop what?"

"Looking at me like that," She snapped, growing impatient with his naiveté.

"What else am I supposed to do?" He asked loudly, the guilty look returning to his face.

"You're the 'all-powerful jedi.' You should be able to figure that out," Anja said callously.

"Thank you for your stereotypes, but the fact of the matter is that I can't figure much of anything out lately, let alone this!" He growled with futility.

"I can't figure anything out either, thanks to you and your crazy theories that something happened last night!" She yelled back. "Why couldn't you just let it be Brodey's baby, huh? Stupid, insolent jerk!"

"All right then, it's Brodey's baby. Won't he be overjoyed to find that out! That STILL doesn't change the fact that things are different for us now," He said sternly, raising a dark eyebrow at her.

"In your dreams, Durron," She scoffed. "Things are just as hostile as ever. If you weren't so brain dead you might pick up on that."

"I was referring to the things that happened before we started bickering like stupid children once again. Deny it all you want, but I felt you open up to me last night. I felt some unusual sentiments coming from you this morning, and I feel the conflict in you now as we speak."

"The only conflict I feel right now is from being torn between different ways to hurt you if you don't shut up!" Anja threatened, her features tight and angry.

"Whatever," He sighed, finally tiring of her barrage of insults. "So, are we going to continue sitting here feeling sad or are we going to get breakfast?"

She gave him once last loathing glance before grunting as she got to her feet. Her hands went to her belt, unclasping the antique lightsaber she'd brought along and releasing the acid yellow blade so it completed its extension within a few centimeters of his nose.

"I wouldn't think about it if I were you," He warned, narrowing his eyes until they were nothing but dark slits.

"Or you'll what? Use the dark side on me? Kill me?" She asked mockingly, smiling as she watched his expression turn sour. "Get real, Durron."

Anja jumped as his foot appeared in the blink of an eye to kick the lightsaber's hilt clear from her grasp. It rustled uselessly through a patch of thick jungle grass before he called it up into his hand.

"I just did," He laughed with a mischievous grin. "Besides, I'm not going to let a lady in your condition near any dangerous weapons. You might hurt yourself."

"Kyp?"

"Yes, m'lady?" He asked in his best patronizing tone.

"I hate you."

"Good to know," He chuckled.

~*~*~

"Have you contacted our 'foot soldier' yet?" The young woman asked, not bothering to turn her head away from the datapad in her lap to look at him.

"Rest assured, I have taken care of it, as I have told you many times in the past half hour. Learn to relax," He muttered dryly from beneath his cloak.

"It's a little hard to relax when I'm convinced our plan is going to fail! If only we had more money, we could hire some real help," She snapped, pulling down the hood of her cloak and eyeing him with pure blue disgust. Her chin-length ebony hair had a wild, unkempt quality, contrasting strikingly with the smooth ivory skin of her contoured face.

"None of us have any money since the dynasty's fall. You know that, Sir'tesé," He said calmly, almost scolding her. "We have to make the best with what we can get."

"I know," She muttered gloomily. "I've just been waiting for this for way too long."

"As have I. He needs somebody to give him a major wake-up call, and I intend to give him the full treatment," The hooded man drawled with a deep chuckle.

Sir'tesé smiled at the thought, her blue eyes twinkling with marked anticipation. Soon it would all be over. Soon they would have him.

~*~*~

Brodey sat at the base of a tree in silence as he allowed the force to seep into him and mend his wounded ribs. The soothing sounds of the early morning jungle helped him sink deeper into a healing trance and he made good progress. His mind wandered onto other issues as he knit the cracks in his ribs and diminished the bruising in the surrounding tissues. The most urgent of these issues was the troubling dream from the night before.

'What does it all mean?' He asked himself. 'It's impossible for us to make the rendezvous unless we magically encounter a fully-functional ship in the middle of the jungle.'

Brodey mentally shook his head at the thought that the Yuuzhan Vong could have overlooked such an anomaly. Especially an anomaly of the abominable variety. He concluded that they would have destroyed any such ship months before.

'Then how am I going to meet with this person if I'm stuck on this rock for at least the next few days?' He questioned, letting the thought reverberate through his mind for a few moments. 'Unless. . .'

He broke away from his trance abruptly, his clear blue eyes bursting open. It all made perfect sense. The hooded man knew where he'd been even before Brodey received his message. No doubt he knew where Brodey was now. The man was coming to meet him.

'Jaina,' He said through the force, reaching out to brush against her mind. The response he got back was somewhat less than friendly.

'Brodey, not now!' She thought back, then paused. 'We're hunting!'

'Jaina, dear, I'm not exactly a master of basic, but I do believe that 'hunting' is not the word you're looking for,' He teased. 'I need both of you back as soon as possible.'

'Why, is something wrong?' She asked, the tone of her voice inside his head echoing alarm.

'No, but I have a feeling it will be,' He responded, spinning around hurriedly as he detected noise and motion from the brush surrounding the clearing. He moved his hand to his belt, searching for his lightsaber, but remembered he'd given it to Jag. 'Right now.'

~*~*~

"Hurry up, Kyp! I'm starving!" Anja whined, not satisfied with the length of time it was taking Kyp to start a fire.

"Give it a couple of weeks," He retorted smugly. "You won't want to even look at food after those hormones kick in."

"All the more reason why you should get off your lazy rear and start that kriffing fire!" She said, her annoyed voice sugar-coated.

"If the princess would just sit down on that rock over there and shut her pie hole then, and only then, might I start this kriffing fire!" He bellowed forebodingly.

Anja exhaled once before spinning on her heel and marching back to where the ship was slowly sinking into the surrounding muck. Kyp watched her retreat out of the corner of his eye as he concentrated on what he was trying to accomplish. It was a futile effort. The sticks were too wet from the previous night's random storm. He looked longingly at the dead animal they'd caught, wishing there was some way to quickly cook it.

"Anja, I don't think going back into the ship is such a hot idea. That thing isn't too stable right now," He warned as he shook his head and laughed at her for being so childish. "Don't sink Brodey's ship just because you're mad at him for impregnating you."

"I am not mad at Brodey, Kyp, and even though I know it's difficult for your puny mind to grasp, I'm not mad at you either," She said snottily, exiting the ship as quickly as she'd entered. Her hand moved up and down vigorously as she shook a can that appeared to contain some sort of liquid. "I'm just trying to save both of us by making sure we have something to eat."

"Oh? And you're going to 'save us' with that can right there?" He laughed scathingly. "That can, huh? Wow, that is funny! I never knew you were such a comedian, Anja!"

"Watch and learn, gungan-brain!" She answered wryly as she punctured a hole in the can with her utility blade and emptied its contents onto the pile of sticks and assorted brush.

"Wonderful, you've made the sticks wetter. Good job," Kyp said, rolling his eyes at her stupidity.

"Would you just watch? Jerk!" She exclaimed, smacking him on the shoulder.

She yanked the igniter from the jedi master's grasp, smiling evilly as she placed it near the sticks and thumbed the switch. The mound of kindling immediately burst into flames, leaving Kyp open-mouthed and staring.

"Behold, the wonders of hair care products," She said gleefully, pleased that she'd been able to one-up the great Kyp Durron.

"I never knew that being vain was so useful," He retaliated.

"I'm surprised that you haven't found all the uses for vanity. You know, since it's such an important aspect of your daily life," She said scathingly, narrowing her eyes at him. "Then again, I guess a man of your brain power might have trouble figuring those things out on his own."

"Well, thank you for enlightening me, both in the ways of vanity and in the ways of being a total and disgustingly heinous-"

Kyp winced suddenly, bringing his hands up to massage his temples.

"Go on," Anja said, waiting expectantly for him to finish the insult. "Disgustingly heinous what?"

"Trouble," He croaked.

"Is that the best you can do? You really are pathetic," She mocked as she cut a piece of flesh from the animal with her knife and roasted it above the blazing fire.

"No, I sense trouble. Something's happening to Brodey," He mumbled nervously.

"I swear," She said as she looked down sadly at the meat that could have been her breakfast. "One of these days I'm going to be the one who needs rescuing, that way I can get all of you back and interrupt your breakfast!"

"How nice of you," He replied with a disapproving glance. "Now, are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming," She sighed, throwing the piece of meat into the dirt.

~*~*~

"I couldn't have picked a better time to be unarmed and injured," Brodey muttered apprehensively as he dropped to a crouch. He braced himself for the pain but was pleasantly surprised to find it was gone. The healing techniques seemed to have done their job, for the most part, but he could tell that he wouldn't be doing back flips any time soon.

He held his hands out in front, extending his claws to their full length and hoping they might offer him some protection. He could find no evidence in the force of a creature even existing in the brush, aside from the sound vibrations that his sensitive ears picked up, and that worried him. There was only one organism he'd encountered that matched this description.

A Yuuzhan Vong warrior, in full armor, rose from the bushes as if he was following a telepathic cue from Brodey's thoughts. In his right hand he held an amphistaff; in his left, a coufee. He glared down at his prey with slits of obsidian for eyes, sizing him up before attacking.

'Brodey!' Jaina called to him. 'How are you holding up over there?'

'Oh, just beautifully, Goddess! I've got a Vong here who's looking awfully interested in dissecting my corpse. Perhaps your divine influence could get here a little faster and talk him out of it?' He suggested, his voice oozing sarcasm.

'I'm running as fast as I can! I'm not a member of a very fast species, if you remember,' She responded dryly. 'Try stalling him until we get there!'

'Ha! Try stalling him!' Brodey repeated in his own head with a snort. 'I wonder how you go about stalling a Vong warrior. . .'

He quickly drew himself up to his full height before the warrior could advance, hoping that he might scare the Yuuzhan Vong away. He swallowed back his disappointment as the other creature took a step forward. Brodey brandished his set of razor-sharp claws and flashed his teeth to show off his larger-than-normal canines, but nothing seemed to prevent the warrior's onslaught. His previous hunch was looking more plausible by the minute: This wasn't a random attack.

"Why don't you pull up a seat?" Brodey asked boldly, gesturing to an invisible chair at the edge of the clearing. "Breakfast should be arriving in just a few short minutes."

The warrior hesitated unexpectedly, a look of confusion on his mutilated face. It was quite possibly the ugliest set of scars he'd seen on a warrior. Most of the warriors he'd seen had organized scarring patterns, but this particular warrior had massive irregularities of the scar tissue.

'Is this guy even a warrior?' Brodey asked himself while watching the Vong attempt to control his amphistaff and fail. 'Why would anybody try and capture me with a fake warrior?'

He sensed it, albeit much too late. The hand coming from behind, reaching out to grasp around the base of his skull. He moved to counter but discovered that he no longer had control of his limbs. Brodey fell helplessly to the ground, his skeletal muscles paralyzed from the force attack. The final thing he remembered seeing, before he was wrapped in the dark shroud of unconsciousness, was the same dark-hooded figure and the silhouette of a hand coming down over his face.

"Is he still breathing?" Sir'tesé asked anxiously. "Please say no."

"You seem awful eager to see him perish," The hooded man commented flatly as he waved a hand over Brodey's nostrils, checking for steady breathing.

"Yeah, well, it's not like I have any warm and fuzzy feelings for the guy," She growled sardonically. "He did try to kill me, you know."

The hooded man sighed from under his cloak, and through the force she could feel him roll his eyes as he shook his head. "He was just a boy. When will you get over it?"

"Never," She said abruptly, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. "You of all people know how talented our family is at keeping grudges."

"Yes, and if I hadn't gotten over it then a young couple in love, my own daughter, would have suffered greatly," He replied softly, admonishing her.

"If you hadn't gotten over it then you daughter never would have married Narundi, that's correct. But then she would have never conceived that demon spawn who single-handedly drove our galaxy to ruin," Sir'tesé snapped, gesturing at Brodey's motionless form. "So, if you look at it from that angle, it's too bad you didn't keep your grudge."

"Never," He began as he advanced toward her, throwing back the hood of his cloak to glare at her with cold, blue eyes. "Speak of my grandson in that way again."

Cold fury shone in his eyes as a side of him she'd never seen before was revealed. She'd heard stories of her great-uncle R'aa'nlan's wrath from old friends of the family who loved to discuss the days before his reconciliation with Cel'aanaeus Narundi. She decided to back off since she didn't have a strong desire to witness his wrath first-hand.

"Let's get back to the ship. His friends will be returning at any moment, looking for him," He ordered quickly as he levitated the young man's body and took off through the underbrush with amazing speed. She obeyed instantly as she sensed the approach of two new beings.

Seconds later, Jaina and Jag arrived in the deserted clearing, panting hard from running the entire distance back.

"He's gone!" She gasped, not wanting to believe that a single Yuuzhan Vong warrior could even get the best of an injured Brodey.

"Somebody must have taken him away from here," Jag muttered thoughtfully.

"Of course they did!" She exclaimed. "He wouldn't go down without a fight. He must have put up a struggle against the Vong."

"That's the problem," Jag whispered darkly, his eyes narrowing as he continued to think. "There isn't any evidence of a struggle."

"So how would the Yuuzhan Vong take him away from here if there wasn't a struggle?" She asked, growing nervous as Jag slowly reached for his blaster, his gaze fixated on something in the brush.

"That's simple. The Yuuzhan Vong didn't take him. Someone else did," He replied in a chilling whisper that Jaina had to strain to hear.

"How do you know that?" She whispered back, reaching for the hilt of her own weapon and creeping along beside him as he moved closer to the edge of the clearing.

A screech of pain and a loud thump followed the accurate shot from Jag's blaster. Jaina's brow knitted in confusion as she watched him wade through the brush to the source of the sound. Curious to discover what he'd hit, she ignited her blade and followed cautiously behind.

"I thought so," Jag said with a nod as he stood above the wounded Yuuzhan Vong. "Just a decoy. Who do you think he's working for?"

"I'm not sure," Jaina muttered menacingly. "But I do intend to find that out."