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Inside the shrine the Force swelled through Syntas as she concentrated on destroying the Record. With it came pain at destroying such a treasured object with the Force. In fact destroying anything with the Force terrified her, but there was no other way. The tablet grew hot in her hands, becoming a blinding white. Finally when she felt she could hold it no longer it crumbled into a fine silver dust, trickling through Syntas' fingers.
She drew a sobbing breath, clutching her hands against her. The Force faded away as well. Outside she could hear a struggle. Vaguely, she remembered the sounds of a light-fight going on outside the shrine. A huge scaled lizard, Cradossk, her mind prompted was struggling on the ground with Fett. It was easy to see the Trandoshan was winning. Blood ran from Fett's arms where the lizard's claws hard reached him around the armor.
Cradossk forced his arms forward as Fett's grip weakened, reaching for the injured hunter's throat. The last several days flashed before Syntas' eyes, she saw Fett, and the way his eyes followed her, and the moment their eyes had met on Nar Shaddaa. The scene in the clearing faded from her view until all she saw was an ocean of fire that was the Force.
Fett gasped for breath as Cradossk's clawed hands inched closer and closer to his throat. Then a scream tore the air and lightning shot over him into Cradossk covering the Trandoshan's body in flickering blue lightning, throwing him away from Fett. The bounty hunter looked up at the source of the lightning, stunned. Syntas clutched the stones of the shrine for support, the last of the lightning fading from her outstretched hand. She took a step toward him as he let his arms fall to his side.
"Fett…" then her eyes rolled back in her head and she crumpled onto the shrine's stone steps.
Fett tried to roll over to go to her, but the pain in his arms spiked through his mind making coherent thought impossible. He shifted his arm; fingers groping for the blaster he knew must be lying next to him as he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Then the world tunneled down into darkness.
The next thing he knew a dark cloaked figure stood over him, Vader. The Dark Lord's voice was as harsh as Fett's own, "You destroyed the Record?"
Fett managed a small nod. Most of his concentration went into remaining focused on Vader's words.
"I was too late once again. Crissc will pay for this. The girl?"
"Nothing… Jedi programmed coordinates into… her… hired me… to destroy…" His voice failed him.
"Strange, I sensed an amazingly powerful amount of the Force here. I was sure…" Lord Vader spoke to himself looking at the Syntas' limp form.
"The Record did…" Fett desperately tried to draw his attention away.
"It is possible. Though even if it was her, there doesn't seem to be much left now. You destroyed something very valuable to me. I don't appreciate having things I want disintegrated bounty hunter." The entire force of the masked face turned back to Fett.
"I will leave you here to live or die as you chose. It is a fitting punishment. Test your skills bounty hunter." He turned away from Fett, his cloak swirling behind him. A squad of clone troopers, their armor now slightly modified to go with their new name turned to follow him. Fett would have laughed if it hadn't hurt so much. To be abandoned by a squad of clones, identical to himself!
He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again the sky was dark. He forced himself to roll over, staggering to his feet. His head spun with the loss of blood, but there simply was no other choice. He managed a few steps before his vision blacked out and he nearly fell.
He made it to where Syntas lay, so still he was afraid. He fell to his knees, far from graceful, but he didn't have the strength for anything else. He touched her face gently; he could see that she was still breathing slowly. Carefully he lifted her up with his better arm. Syntas moaned, her eyes fluttering.
"Wake up. We have to get out of here." Already the creatures were testing the edges of the clearing now that the Record was gone and the defenses down; they would be ready to eliminate whoever remained here. Syntas allowed him to pull her to her feet though she was obviously unaware of what was going on. Fett wasn't sure who was leaning on whom as they made their way back to the Slave 1. He fervently thanked whoever controlled their fates that it wasn't far. His universe was reduced to making one step after another over the fallen branches and trees in the darkening forest and making sure the woman he held didn't fall.
An eternity later the Slave 1 appeared in a gap between the trees. They staggered towards it. Fett's father had told him once that if you were strong enough you could do impossible things. As they fell through the hatch into the Slave 1, Fett believed him. He left Syntas on the bench, closing the hatch behind him before staggering to his own bunk. He did what he could in the way of bandaging the wounds on his arms, which bled sluggishly before collapsing. He would have preferred to wait until they were safely in hyperspace leaving this world behind before sleeping, but he had done enough impossible things for one day.
What neither had seen as they made their way slowly back to the Slave 1 was another form pulling itself to its feet in the clearing. Cradossk's whole body ached from the lightning that had thrown him off Fett. His hands shook even to remember the look on the Jedi woman's face as she directed it at him. He limped through the trees towards the Blood Fang. As long as she was with Fett he had no desire to pursue the other bounty hunter. The Sith-spawn who had gotten him into this mess however… Cradossk made his way slowly through the forest, cheering himself by imagining horrible ways to kill Quatar.
In Syntas' dreams an ocean of fire roared around her, nearly drowning out the spark that was her life. Finally it slowed to a trickle and then disappeared, leaving her exhausted, but letting her slip into a normal sleep. Strangely though, tears slipped from under her closed eyelids, a grief without a name, after the ocean disappeared, leaving her alone. But not completely, her mind reminded itself, presenting her with the picture of a battered figure in mud coated armor pulling her to her feet.
Author's Note:
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Just one more chapter folks, which is too bad, because this fic has been really fun!
Ryko Sill: Yep, I'll update again in a week or so, and after that I'll be working on a new Fett fic! Any opinions on what it should be?
Grand Admiral Gin: Thanks! Only one more chapter! It makes me so sad...
TriGemini: Of course she does, the relationship wouldn't be interesting if it was any other way.
butthead2000: You are rather odd at times, and NO that was NOT slash. I don't write that stuff. I think having those two together would sort of put a dent in his relationship with Syntas anyway, so I don't think it'll happen. Bu you could write a fic on it. ;)
Infamous One: Don't worry; I don't think Fett's going to be much of a dancer, so you have nothing to fear.
Grand Admiral Thraawn : Hey, if you start posting fics, especially Fett fics ;) , e-mail me! I'd like to read them (and of course review too!). Also, your guess about my gender was correct. I'm not worried, there can't be that many cyber-stalkers roaming about. With Vader, I think of it being as a way of toying with them, a sort of revenge/understanding kind of thing. *shrugs* And with Crissc, there are only so many information sources out there and the Empire's still a bit new yet at this point, and of course it's just Vader, not the entire Empire. I don't think he cares about breaking a few rules. And nice to meet you too! There seriously ought to be more Fett-fans, he's great!
Stargirl : Wow! What can I say? Thank you! Only one more chapter in this fic, but I'm thinking of following up with a sequel that takes place almost immediately after. Do you think that'd be good?