Chapter IV- Dark Conspiracy

The next day, Alan and Lana found themselves staking out the suspected hideout of the Trax'max-chil assassin clan. It was a simple, unmarked warehouse,not truly capable of evoking any kind of suspicion from the locals. Calling upon the force to aid her, Lana used passive meditation to try to find a safe way into the building.

Alan meditated as well, as to keep his mind clear. Clasping his lightsaber tightly in his hand, he focused upon his role as a Jedi guardian- to combat evil. As a guardian he had to attune himself to his blade; he was one with his lightsaber and they flowed in perfect harmony during combat.

Alan meditated upon his training. Master Tor had schooled him in the deadly art of Vaapad- a lightsaber technique which had been created by Master Mace Windu. Only the most skilled Jedi could learn the difficult technique, which featured an aggressive nature that treaded dangerously upon dark side practices. Alan's extreme dexterity and devotion combined with tireless training from both his master Tor and beneficiary Windu had brought him to master the technique at the tender age of eighteen.

Becoming adept in Vaapad, Alan decided to take his skill and mastery a step further by adopting a double-ended lightsaber as his weapon of choice. Double-ended lightsabers had occasionally been used for training, but were otherwise known as weapons of the Sith. Both Tor and Mace had cautioned the then-Padawan about using such an aggressive weapon. Despite their cautions, Alan continued his training and grew to master the double-ended lightsaber, able to use it both in lightsaber sparring and real-life combat situations.

"I think I might have found a gap in their defense." Lana said.

Alan nodded and followed her. The two of them made their way around the back of the building into an alley. The two Jedi stealthily made their way in through the back side of the building.

There were a number of random boxes, mostly just stacked to make the building appear as though it was an average warehouse, but Lana knew better. She took her saber and cut into one of the boxes. It contained a number of inactive explosives. Permacrete.

As she continued to examine the payload contained in some of these storage boxes, Alan signaled to her that someone was coming. Eleven people entered the warehouse from the main entrance- six Humans, five Rodians and two Twi'leks. A well suited bunch, they were each fitted with sturdy, customized armor and carried numerous tools and gadgets in their utility belts. These must have been the Trax'mar-chil assassins.

"I'll get to the office to the other side of the room." Lana whispered. "There's bound to be some information there."

"Go then." Alan clasped his lightsaber. "I'll deal with them."

Alan stepped out from his hiding place and confronted the eleven men. The twelve men each faced Alan, forming something of a semi-circle before the Jedi.

"What the hell?" One of them asked. A look of anger was etched upon his face. "How'd you get in here?"

"Excuse me, but this is private property, 'mate. You're just gonna have to scurry along now."

Alan's expression turned glum as he eyed each one of his opponents. "Do you know how much time you can get for six counts of murder?"

"Oh so yer some kinda cop, on our tail, are ya?" A man clad in red armor erupted in laughter. "And you decided to try to bust us with no backup, eh?"

One of the Twi'leks interrupted with a few words in Huttese, "You fool, that's no cop, that's a Jedi!"

"Yeah, Jacob, that was a real stupid thing of you to say. Only Jedi carry lightsabers."

The Twi'lek spoke again, "I suppose we're just going to have to get rid of him, then."

"You don't want to fight me, I'm powerful." Alan waved his left hand, calling for a bit of force persuasion. "You want to lay down your weapons and surrender peacefully."

"I, eh, think yer right." Red armor said. "I mean look at em! He's a Jedi. He IS dangerous."

"Jacob, 'mate, you're a bloody coward. You think I've never fought Jedi before?"

A blue blade extended from each end of Alan's lightsaber.

"What in the bloody hell?!" The assassin stared at Alan's double-ended lightsaber, astounded and shocked. "That's not a lightsaber!"

The Twi'lek growled. "Enough talking, kill the Jedi!"

Vibroswords were drawn, and the eleven assassins attacked. The Twi'lek swung against Alan. Alan blocked with his lightsaber, half expecting it to slice clean through the Twi'lek's vibrosword. It didn't, however, and the vibrosword simply slashed against Alan's lightsaber.

Alan scowled. "Cortosis weave. Smart."

With that, he unleashed his skills upon the eleven assassins. The twin blades of his lightsaber hummed and roared as the swung about, deflecting and blocking various assaults from different vibroswords. Alan used the full arsenal of his body- kicks, punches, tosses, and even head butts- to keep fight his opponents off.

Lana watched in awe as Alan fought off his eleven attackers. His mastery of lightsaber combat was a wonder to behold. Granted, his foes were assassins, not Jedi or Sith, but they were still very skilled swordsmen putting up their best effort to defeat the Jedi Guardian. It was unfortunate for them that their great effort yielded no positive results.

Lana slipped past the fight as Alan continued to exercise vaapad on his assassin attackers. Reaching the door to the office at the other end, Lana searched her belt for her security slicing device. She quickly activated the device and hacked the door lock. The door easily slid open and she made her way inside the office. She was not prepared for what faced her on the other end.

Alan beat down the last of his opposition. All eleven assassins lay scattered across the floor. Some of them were missing limbs, others had sustained singe wounds from Alan's lightsaber, and others had just been battered into submission with kicks and punches.

Alan deactivated both ends of his lightsaber and turned to the office. Lana came walking out of the office, her hands empty and her lightsaber lying on the floor. A Zabrak followed her, holding a pistol in his right hand and a thermal detonator in his left.

"Jedi scum! Did you think I would roll over to your raid?" The Zabrak shouted. He pressed his blaster pistol against Lana's head. "Try something stupid, and the girl dies." He shook the thermal detonator in his left hand. "Try something very stupid, and we all die."

Alan's expression remained blank and emotionless. Inside, however, he felt the pinch of fear, the fear of Lana dying, begin to build. Alan instantly realized just how absurd such a fear was, and fought it back just as soon as it began to build. He had been through this scenario dozens of times during his training.

"You don't want to kill me." Lana said passively. "You want to deactivate your thermal detonator and drop your weapons."

Alan grinned. This was one exercise he would not have to repeat- for the time being at least.

"I- I don't want to kill you." The Zabrak deactivated the thermal detonator and dropped his weapons.

Lana stepped away from the mesmerized Zabrak and next to Alan. She then reached out with the force and called her lightsaber up from the floor and into her hand.

"Now, who are you?" Lana asked.

"Vasak B'remorechin." The Zabrak responded as if he had been drugged with truth serum.

"Are you the Trax'ma-chil clanmaster?" She stretched out her influence upon the Zabrak. Such complete mental domination is normally frowned upon by the Jedi council, but Lana's pride deemed it to be appropriate here- she had been caught off guard by the Zabrak's thermal detonator gambit, and would not allow him to get away with anything else.

"No. I'm the vice-clanmaster"

"Can you tell me what were going to do with these permacrete explosives?"

"We were going to bomb the ruling council here on Crevasse City, and the Famed Greven Shopping Center."

"Who hired you?"

This time, the Zabrak yielded no response.

Lana reached out further with her powers. "Who hired you?"

There was still no response from the Zabrak.

Alan stretched out with his own powers of force persuasion. "Who hired you?" Lana asked a third time.

"Nu... Nute Gunray." The Zabrak finally caved under the mental pressure from the two Jedi.

Lana scowled and Alan displayed a concerned frown of his own. The two of them knew what this meant. Nute Gunray and his Trade Federation were members of the separatist movement. If word emerged that he ordered these attacks, it would have dire ramifications upon the delicate situation in the Senate.

"Were there any other terms to your contract with Nute Gunray?"

"He said there was an open bounty senator Amidala's, and he would pay a large lump sum to us if we brought him back her head."

More evidence to further damn the Trade Federation Viceroy.

"You Jedi are too late." The Zabrak had gathered the strength of will to speak out of turn. "We might not be able to fulfill all of our objectives..."

"If you cannot complete all of the work assigned to you, then why do you do any of it at all?" Alan asked. "Nute Gunray won't pay you for incomplete work."

"We are rogues, and for the longest time, we served only the golden credit." The Zabrak paused. "But now I see beyond money. Count Dooku is a visionary. Nute Gunray is his supporter and I became their agent. The separatists will form a new government- a government where my children won't have to grow up to be rogues."

"Do you truly believe that?"

"Yes, the Republic breeds only corruption. Count Dooku has revealed to me the truth- a single man of evil has come to dominate the senatorial proceedings!" The Zabrak rambled. "You cannot stop us. Our best assassins have already been dispatched to Naboo to kill the senator, and at least one of the two targets will be destroyed in the name of the separatists."

Lana scowled. "No." She said to herself in denial. The Force could not have misled her. "That- That's not possible."

Alan kept his focus on the assassin clanmaster. "Which target is going to be destroyed?!"

"No!" The Zabrak roared defiantly. Alan's demands and force persuasion could no longer affect him. "I'll not be a slave to your mind tricks any more! I've served my purpose, my daughter lives on!" The Zabrak pulled out his backup- a mini blaster pistol- and turned it on himself. Alan tried to stop him, but it was too late. The pistol fell to the floor with a loud clatter, reinforcing the dark finality of its owner's death.

"We have time." Alan searched the Zabrak's corpse, finding a datapad along with an assortment of other weapons. "There are only two possible targets, I'm sure we can find the bomb before it goes off."

"No." Lana replied hollowly. "He wouldn't have voluntarily told us about the bombs unless he knew they'd go off before we found them. We need to evacuate."

Alan nodded in agreement. He snatched the comlink from his belt and raised it up to his mouth. The device then clattered to the floor- Alan had dropped it, and his normally cool expression degenerated into shock. His gaze met Lana's. She felt the disturbance as well. The two Jedi could sense a thousand screams of terror and pain. The Greven Shopping Center had just been annihilated.

"No..." Lana whispered. "How... How could this have happened? Why didn't I see this coming?"

Alan embraced her.

"It just doesn't make any sense. I meditated upon this for two hours yesterday." Lana's speech slurred as she spoke each word with a hurrying, nervous delivery. "And I didn't sense any of this. I even told you that we had time- that they weren't going to strike..."

"It's not your fault, Lana." He said trying to console her.

"Three thousand people dead. I failed them."

"Lana, if you're going to punish yourself about something, punish yourself for something you've done, not something you haven't."

Lana nodded, sincerely taking what he said to heart. She hugged him again, and when she pulled away, she realized that blood had been gushing from his stomach spilled onto her robe.

Alan gazed dumbly at the blood smeared on Lana's robe before looking to the gash in his stomach. "What?" The Jedi Guardian looked confused, as if he had somehow been immune to the pain from that flowing wound. "Damn vibroswords."

Lana sighed, and then smiled light heartedly before placing her hand upon his wound. "You need to take better care of yourself." She called upon the force to seal his wound. "I don't know what I'd do if you got diced up."

"And I love you too..." Alan grinned, but his grin quickly faded away as he eyed the Zabrak's corpse. "But I don't know what we're going to do."

"We need to report this to the council."

Alan began to analyze the datapad he had scoured from the Zabrak's corpse. It contained little more than a roster of Trax'mar-Chil and a list detailing the current job of each member. He noted that two specific members on the list had been sent out on an active assassination mission against senator Amidala. They were Zam Wesell and Dragoon Noré.

"Take a look at this." Alan handed the datapad over to Lana. "I think Naboo might be the best place to go now."