Disclaimer:
George Lucas = owner of Star Wars
Me = Bored teenager with way too much time on my hands.
See the difference? 'Nuff said.
*****
CHAPTER SIX
Del-Mon found himself in an old building. It was made of crumbling stone, and dust covered the bricks. Cobwebs were strewn about the corners. There was no furniture. Del-Mon assumed the building had been looted long before he got there. He turned, and saw that the thing that had been blocking the exit to the tunnel was a large databoard.
After looking around a moment longer, satisfied that there was no one in the building, Del-Mon pried the door open, as the controls were broken.
He stepped outside into an alley. It was dark and damp, filled with old trash receptacles and discarded items of no value. The buildings on either side were deteriorating.
Del-Mon quickly turned and walked out onto the streets.
He noticed right away that the streets were only about half full. Some people were still nervous about Atheist and Crixxian attacks.
Most of the buildings had marks and indents from blaster fire. A few looked like they had been bombed out. The vendors and shops were crowded, most people wanting to get supplies incase of a shortage because of the religious war that had been plaguing Crixxin for years.
Del-Mon made sure he kept his lightsaber hidden as he started to explore the streets of Crixx. He could see laser signs at the corners. They said nothing of the street names, but instead the buildings in that direction. Del-Mon was sure at least half of the buildings listed no longer existed.
He suddenly noticed one that read, "Royal Palace," and started walking in the direction it pointed.
As he wandered the desolate streets of the once flourishing city, he was suddenly aware of someone following him.
He stopped at a corner, pretending to read one of the laser signs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small band of five men, wearing battle armor bearing the Crixxian insignia. As the people around the Jedi noticed the men, they quickly and nervously began to get off the streets.
Del-Mon continued, knowing he could not lose them in such a thin crowd. He picked up his pace slightly and darted into an alley.
He then realized that the alley he was in was a dead end. There was a large plastisteel wall in front of him. He could have hit himself for not reaching out with the Force before he'd made the choice.
With his acute hearing, Del-Mon suddenly heard them drawing weapons.
Instantly, the Jedi whirled around, his lightsaber drawn and activated. He easily deflected the laser bolts, spinning and ducking swiftly the avoid those that he missed.
Del-Mon suddenly realized that as he continued to battle, more guards were coming, firing at him.
The Jedi felt himself growing tired. He knew he couldn't keep deflecting bolts like this, but there was no other way out of the alley.
Just as a laser grazed his shoulder, he spotted something black fly over his head towards the guards. It hit the ground, and bounced a few times.
Del-Mon instantly realized it was a grenade. He noticed a large receptacle to his left, and ducked behind it.
There was a deafening explosion, and debris flew past him.
As the dust began to settle, Del-Mon stood up and cautiously looked back and forth.
"Back here, Outlander," said a voice.
Curiously, Del-Mon turned around. He saw a group of three people, two men and a woman, perched atop the huge wall. They were all slightly underweight, and looked ready for anything.
The man who had spoken jumped down from the tall wall and landed harmlessly on his feet. His two accomplices followed, but they did not perform the task as easily and gracefully as their leader.
As they approached him, Del-Mon could sense determination and anger.
The woman had long black hair and dark eyes, and her companion was a young man, probably about nineteen or twenty years old. For such a young age, he looked very strong. He had blond hair that was slicked back and clear blue eyes.
"Since you were attacked by the guards, I am assuming you are not Crixxian," said one of the men.
"You have assumed correctly," Del-Mon nodded.
"Are you an Atheist then?" asked the man. He had one wild green eye, the other was covered by a black patch. His hair was brown and scraggly, and there was stubble growing around his mouth.
"No," Del-Mon simply replied.
"Then what side are you on? You have to be on one side or the other," said the man.
"I am neutral," Del-Mon calmly told the man.
"Neutral? How can you be on Crixxin and be neutral?" the man inquired.
"I am not native to this world. I have been sent on a diplomatic mission to try and stop the conflict," explained Del-Mon.
"Huh. That's not going to happen any time soon. Those Crixxian devils keep attacking us," commented the man. He turned to his two partners. "Search for their weapons. See if any were not destroyed in the blast," he said to them.
The two immediately opened up the backpacks they wore as they advanced to where the detonator had gone off.
"Who are you?" Del-Mon asked.
"I am Elias, leader of the Atheists. And you, O Neutral Sir?" he asked.
"My name is Del-Mon Wesia. I am a Jedi," he said.
"Yes, I figured that based on the way you used your weapon," Elias said.
The woman suddenly came up to his side. "We got four blaster rifles and several of their reloading cartridges," she announced.
"Good. We'd better get out of here before more authorities show up," Elias said.
The other young man nodded. Del-Mon noticed that he was carrying most of the equipment.
"Come with us. We can help you get to the palace," Elias said to Del-Mon.
Wordlessly, Del-Mon followed his three mysterious saviors as they left the alleyway after checking for more guards.
They walked along calmly, facing ahead and acting like nothing was out of the ordinary. All of the sudden, a voice cried out, "Hey! Aren't they Atheists?"
"Act casual. Keep walking," Elias muttered as they slightly picked up their pace.
"Hey, stop! You four, stop right there!" the voice yelled at them.
"Run," Elias said.
Instantly they took off, Del-Mon effortlessly following the other three.
"Get back here! Planet Security! Stop right now!"
"In here!" Elias called to Del-Mon after they had run a distance. He darted into an old building that looked like it had been bombed out, and Del-Mon followed.
They bolted up several flights of crumbling stairs before emerging on the roof of the building.
"Sari, you and Wid go first," Elias said.
They could hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs behind them. "Stop or I'll shoot!"
"You got it, Elias," said the woman, who Del-Mon correctly assumed was Sari.
Wid only nodded.
They both grabbed two long poles near the edge of the building, and then ran. They got the end of their poles on the roof of the next structure and jumped, allowing the poles to carry them to the other side.
"Our turn," Elias said, gesturing to the poles.
Del-Mon grabbed one of the poles and instantly ran towards the edge of the building.
The door to the rooftop burst open, and the officer that had been pursuing them came up.
"Hold it right there!" he shouted.
Blaster fire followed. The singing bolts flew by the group as they landed.
"Bastard," Elias muttered, directing the comment back at the officer. "Quick, keep going!" he called ahead to Wid and Sari as he was in the air.
Red singing bolts flew by them, missing them by fractions. Del-Mon could feel the heat from one as it narrowly missed his side.
The Jedi hit the ground running, and easily vaulted to the next rooftop. They continued at a furious pace until the blaster shots and the roaring of the angry officer finally died down.
Finally, they stopped and rested on an empty rooftop, Elias and Del-Mon next to each other, Wid keeping a vigilant watch, and Sari refreshing herself with some water from her pack.
Del-Mon thought it a good time to start asking Elias some questions he had been wondering about.
"Why did we just travel by rooftop? Don't you have another rout?"
"Yes, we have plenty of alternative ways we could have taken, but we find travel much safer if we go by the rooftops. The authorities are constantly after us, so we stay off the ground if we can. And we weren't close enough to any other rout to have gone there instead," Elias explained.
"Why are the police after you?" Del-Mon asked.
"They assume that anyone who is an Atheist wants to kill Crixxians. They're wrong. They probably wouldn't come after us if it wasn't for Antigod," Elias said.
"Antigod?" Del-Mon curiously asked.
"They're Atheist extremists, a terrorist group. They think all Crixxians should die. They're responsible for lots of the bombed out buildings you'll see around here," Elias briefly explained.
Del-Mon nodded. "What's wrong with Wid? Can he speak?" he asked, nodding in the young man's direction.
"No. We're guessing he was captured by those Crixxian rats a few years ago. They tortured him when they found he was an Atheist. At least we're assuming that's why they had him captive. We've drawn up the conclusion that that's how he lost his voice. We were going to spring one of our people from the cells, and we discovered Wid. He was just a kid at the time, probably about fifteen, and we knew we couldn't just leave him there. We got him out, and he never left us. He couldn't tell us his name, so we just called him Wid," Elias said.
Del-Mon nodded.
Finally they proceeded their vaulting for quite a distance stopping when they landed on a rooftop in front of a building that had to be the tallest one in the city, short of the palace.
"Can you make the jump to that window?" asked Elias, pointing to the window directly in front of them.
Del-Mon nodded. He backed up, and took a running leap, using the Force to jump higher. He allowed himself to do a quick somersault in the air. He easily cleared the gap and went right through the window frame, neatly landing on his feet in the other room.
He quickly stood aside, and watched as Elias, Sari, and Wid all followed him.
"Very impressive, Jedi," Sari commented.
"Thank you. Are all these buildings deserted?" asked Del-Mon.
"Most of them. This one is where lots of people who lost their homes stay," Elias said.
They filed down the narrow stairways, and came to the ground floor, Elias and Sari occasionally greeting some people they knew as they went by.
They exited the building and went into the alley immediately to the left. There was a large boulder resting next to the building.
"Wid, if you would," said Elias, gesturing to the boulder.
Easily Wid put his weight against the boulder and shoved it aside.
"Thank you. Guests first. Just wait at the bottom for us," Elias said, gesturing to the large, dark hole in the ground that Wid had uncovered.
Del-Mon lowered himself into the hole, and his feet found the rungs of a ladder. He allowed himself to rapidly descend and jumped off at the last two rungs.
Above him, he heard Sari and Elias coming down. When they were safely at the bottom, Wid came down, pulling the boulder back into place first.
"This way," instructed Elias. Del-Mon could barely make out his figure in the dim light as his eyes adjusted.
He followed them down a long, twisting, slimy tunnel. There was a pungent odor in the air. There were burning torches every few meters. Del-Mon was amazed at how primitive the lighting was.
"Elias, where exactly are we?" asked Del-Mon.
"The sewers," Elias called back to him. "We can go through the whole city with these routes, and no one suspects a thing."
As they trudged through the ankle deep water, Elias suddenly called, "This way, Del-Mon."
He saw Wid and Sari scrambling up another ladder. This one wasn't very tall. Del-Mon followed, and was happy to see that there was no more sewage water in the chambers he found himself in now.
They were in a large dirt room. There were bright glowpanels illuminating it. Several people were currently in it, talking and laughing, most of them armed.
All of the sudden, they all looked up and, several of them greeted Elias.
"What took you, Elias?" "We started to get worried!" "Did you bring anything?"
"We ran into some trouble with the Crixxians, but a grenade solved that. We got some blaster rifles and a bunch of reloading cartridges," said Elias.
Suddenly, a woman was standing directly in front of Del-Mon, holding a vibroblade to his throat. She had very long brown hair and green eyes.
"Who's this? Looks like a Crixxian spy to me," she sneered.
"Danya, stop this foolishness! He's not a spy, he's a Jedi Knight!" cried Elias.
"Are you sure? He looks like a spy," Danya suspiciously said.
Del-Mon calmly stood his ground.
Elias came forward and struck the weapon from her hand. "Are you deaf? I told you, this man is a Jedi Knight! He says he's neutral. If I catch you pull another little stunt like that, I'm not going to be very forgiving," he sternly lectured her.
Danya grabbed her vibroblade from the floor, frowning like an angry child.
"If you want to end this problem, Elias, I suggest you listen to me. We have the firepower and the numbers to wipe out the Crixxian religion once and for all. One day is all we need to triumph," Danya said.
"Danya, I've told you this several times before. I will avoid more bloodshed at all costs. The weapons we have are for self-defense if someone is attacked on the streets, not for your own personal use. We will not attack the Crixxians unless they attack us first," Elias said.
"Elias, this is what our father would have wanted," Danya said.
So they were siblings. Del-Mon was wondering why they looked so similar.
"No, Danya. Father would have wanted us to settle this peacefully, and he hated the Crixxians as much as you do," Elias confidently said.
Danya glared at him and opened her mouth to say something, but Elias raised a hand and cut her off.
"Danya, we will allow the Crixxians to attack us before we do anything. Until then, there will be no more deaths unless I say so. Come with me, Del- Mon. You can have something to eat and tell me what's been happening to you," said Elias, leading Del-Mon away before Danya had a chance to object further.
About an hour later, Del-Mon had graciously eaten a meal and told Elias what had happened to him during his time on Crixxin.
"Do you have any idea where my Padawan may be if he's alive?" asked Del- Mon.
"From the sound of it, he's dead. But if he's not, he'll probably be on Jadda," Elias said.
"Jadda?" Del-Mon inquired.
"It's one of the moons of Crixxin. Probably one of the only moons in the universe with an atmosphere. It's where those rotten Crixxians dump the dead Atheists and exile petty criminals," Elias said.
Del-Mon nodded, refusing to show his nervousness.
"What of my task? I was instructed by the Council to speak with the king and queen, but I'll never be able to get into the palace. I seem to be a wanted man," he said.
Elias thought a moment. "Well… I can't promise you anything, but we may be able to get you within the walls, but then you'll be on your own," he said.
"I don't care. I must get inside the palace. Such a beautiful planet should not suffer like this," said Del-Mon.
"All right. But first, it seems only fair that you help me with something," Elias said.
"Like what? I have been specifically instructed by the Jedi Council that I am not to take sides in this war," Del-Mon said.
"Don't worry about it. Sleep now. I will debrief you in the morning," Elias said. He got up and left the room, leaving Del-Mon to meditate and further assess his grave situation.
*****
So what did you think? Please review! Flames, like, no-like, I don't care! I'll read anything! I'm a review freak, I live for reviews!
George Lucas = owner of Star Wars
Me = Bored teenager with way too much time on my hands.
See the difference? 'Nuff said.
*****
CHAPTER SIX
Del-Mon found himself in an old building. It was made of crumbling stone, and dust covered the bricks. Cobwebs were strewn about the corners. There was no furniture. Del-Mon assumed the building had been looted long before he got there. He turned, and saw that the thing that had been blocking the exit to the tunnel was a large databoard.
After looking around a moment longer, satisfied that there was no one in the building, Del-Mon pried the door open, as the controls were broken.
He stepped outside into an alley. It was dark and damp, filled with old trash receptacles and discarded items of no value. The buildings on either side were deteriorating.
Del-Mon quickly turned and walked out onto the streets.
He noticed right away that the streets were only about half full. Some people were still nervous about Atheist and Crixxian attacks.
Most of the buildings had marks and indents from blaster fire. A few looked like they had been bombed out. The vendors and shops were crowded, most people wanting to get supplies incase of a shortage because of the religious war that had been plaguing Crixxin for years.
Del-Mon made sure he kept his lightsaber hidden as he started to explore the streets of Crixx. He could see laser signs at the corners. They said nothing of the street names, but instead the buildings in that direction. Del-Mon was sure at least half of the buildings listed no longer existed.
He suddenly noticed one that read, "Royal Palace," and started walking in the direction it pointed.
As he wandered the desolate streets of the once flourishing city, he was suddenly aware of someone following him.
He stopped at a corner, pretending to read one of the laser signs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small band of five men, wearing battle armor bearing the Crixxian insignia. As the people around the Jedi noticed the men, they quickly and nervously began to get off the streets.
Del-Mon continued, knowing he could not lose them in such a thin crowd. He picked up his pace slightly and darted into an alley.
He then realized that the alley he was in was a dead end. There was a large plastisteel wall in front of him. He could have hit himself for not reaching out with the Force before he'd made the choice.
With his acute hearing, Del-Mon suddenly heard them drawing weapons.
Instantly, the Jedi whirled around, his lightsaber drawn and activated. He easily deflected the laser bolts, spinning and ducking swiftly the avoid those that he missed.
Del-Mon suddenly realized that as he continued to battle, more guards were coming, firing at him.
The Jedi felt himself growing tired. He knew he couldn't keep deflecting bolts like this, but there was no other way out of the alley.
Just as a laser grazed his shoulder, he spotted something black fly over his head towards the guards. It hit the ground, and bounced a few times.
Del-Mon instantly realized it was a grenade. He noticed a large receptacle to his left, and ducked behind it.
There was a deafening explosion, and debris flew past him.
As the dust began to settle, Del-Mon stood up and cautiously looked back and forth.
"Back here, Outlander," said a voice.
Curiously, Del-Mon turned around. He saw a group of three people, two men and a woman, perched atop the huge wall. They were all slightly underweight, and looked ready for anything.
The man who had spoken jumped down from the tall wall and landed harmlessly on his feet. His two accomplices followed, but they did not perform the task as easily and gracefully as their leader.
As they approached him, Del-Mon could sense determination and anger.
The woman had long black hair and dark eyes, and her companion was a young man, probably about nineteen or twenty years old. For such a young age, he looked very strong. He had blond hair that was slicked back and clear blue eyes.
"Since you were attacked by the guards, I am assuming you are not Crixxian," said one of the men.
"You have assumed correctly," Del-Mon nodded.
"Are you an Atheist then?" asked the man. He had one wild green eye, the other was covered by a black patch. His hair was brown and scraggly, and there was stubble growing around his mouth.
"No," Del-Mon simply replied.
"Then what side are you on? You have to be on one side or the other," said the man.
"I am neutral," Del-Mon calmly told the man.
"Neutral? How can you be on Crixxin and be neutral?" the man inquired.
"I am not native to this world. I have been sent on a diplomatic mission to try and stop the conflict," explained Del-Mon.
"Huh. That's not going to happen any time soon. Those Crixxian devils keep attacking us," commented the man. He turned to his two partners. "Search for their weapons. See if any were not destroyed in the blast," he said to them.
The two immediately opened up the backpacks they wore as they advanced to where the detonator had gone off.
"Who are you?" Del-Mon asked.
"I am Elias, leader of the Atheists. And you, O Neutral Sir?" he asked.
"My name is Del-Mon Wesia. I am a Jedi," he said.
"Yes, I figured that based on the way you used your weapon," Elias said.
The woman suddenly came up to his side. "We got four blaster rifles and several of their reloading cartridges," she announced.
"Good. We'd better get out of here before more authorities show up," Elias said.
The other young man nodded. Del-Mon noticed that he was carrying most of the equipment.
"Come with us. We can help you get to the palace," Elias said to Del-Mon.
Wordlessly, Del-Mon followed his three mysterious saviors as they left the alleyway after checking for more guards.
They walked along calmly, facing ahead and acting like nothing was out of the ordinary. All of the sudden, a voice cried out, "Hey! Aren't they Atheists?"
"Act casual. Keep walking," Elias muttered as they slightly picked up their pace.
"Hey, stop! You four, stop right there!" the voice yelled at them.
"Run," Elias said.
Instantly they took off, Del-Mon effortlessly following the other three.
"Get back here! Planet Security! Stop right now!"
"In here!" Elias called to Del-Mon after they had run a distance. He darted into an old building that looked like it had been bombed out, and Del-Mon followed.
They bolted up several flights of crumbling stairs before emerging on the roof of the building.
"Sari, you and Wid go first," Elias said.
They could hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs behind them. "Stop or I'll shoot!"
"You got it, Elias," said the woman, who Del-Mon correctly assumed was Sari.
Wid only nodded.
They both grabbed two long poles near the edge of the building, and then ran. They got the end of their poles on the roof of the next structure and jumped, allowing the poles to carry them to the other side.
"Our turn," Elias said, gesturing to the poles.
Del-Mon grabbed one of the poles and instantly ran towards the edge of the building.
The door to the rooftop burst open, and the officer that had been pursuing them came up.
"Hold it right there!" he shouted.
Blaster fire followed. The singing bolts flew by the group as they landed.
"Bastard," Elias muttered, directing the comment back at the officer. "Quick, keep going!" he called ahead to Wid and Sari as he was in the air.
Red singing bolts flew by them, missing them by fractions. Del-Mon could feel the heat from one as it narrowly missed his side.
The Jedi hit the ground running, and easily vaulted to the next rooftop. They continued at a furious pace until the blaster shots and the roaring of the angry officer finally died down.
Finally, they stopped and rested on an empty rooftop, Elias and Del-Mon next to each other, Wid keeping a vigilant watch, and Sari refreshing herself with some water from her pack.
Del-Mon thought it a good time to start asking Elias some questions he had been wondering about.
"Why did we just travel by rooftop? Don't you have another rout?"
"Yes, we have plenty of alternative ways we could have taken, but we find travel much safer if we go by the rooftops. The authorities are constantly after us, so we stay off the ground if we can. And we weren't close enough to any other rout to have gone there instead," Elias explained.
"Why are the police after you?" Del-Mon asked.
"They assume that anyone who is an Atheist wants to kill Crixxians. They're wrong. They probably wouldn't come after us if it wasn't for Antigod," Elias said.
"Antigod?" Del-Mon curiously asked.
"They're Atheist extremists, a terrorist group. They think all Crixxians should die. They're responsible for lots of the bombed out buildings you'll see around here," Elias briefly explained.
Del-Mon nodded. "What's wrong with Wid? Can he speak?" he asked, nodding in the young man's direction.
"No. We're guessing he was captured by those Crixxian rats a few years ago. They tortured him when they found he was an Atheist. At least we're assuming that's why they had him captive. We've drawn up the conclusion that that's how he lost his voice. We were going to spring one of our people from the cells, and we discovered Wid. He was just a kid at the time, probably about fifteen, and we knew we couldn't just leave him there. We got him out, and he never left us. He couldn't tell us his name, so we just called him Wid," Elias said.
Del-Mon nodded.
Finally they proceeded their vaulting for quite a distance stopping when they landed on a rooftop in front of a building that had to be the tallest one in the city, short of the palace.
"Can you make the jump to that window?" asked Elias, pointing to the window directly in front of them.
Del-Mon nodded. He backed up, and took a running leap, using the Force to jump higher. He allowed himself to do a quick somersault in the air. He easily cleared the gap and went right through the window frame, neatly landing on his feet in the other room.
He quickly stood aside, and watched as Elias, Sari, and Wid all followed him.
"Very impressive, Jedi," Sari commented.
"Thank you. Are all these buildings deserted?" asked Del-Mon.
"Most of them. This one is where lots of people who lost their homes stay," Elias said.
They filed down the narrow stairways, and came to the ground floor, Elias and Sari occasionally greeting some people they knew as they went by.
They exited the building and went into the alley immediately to the left. There was a large boulder resting next to the building.
"Wid, if you would," said Elias, gesturing to the boulder.
Easily Wid put his weight against the boulder and shoved it aside.
"Thank you. Guests first. Just wait at the bottom for us," Elias said, gesturing to the large, dark hole in the ground that Wid had uncovered.
Del-Mon lowered himself into the hole, and his feet found the rungs of a ladder. He allowed himself to rapidly descend and jumped off at the last two rungs.
Above him, he heard Sari and Elias coming down. When they were safely at the bottom, Wid came down, pulling the boulder back into place first.
"This way," instructed Elias. Del-Mon could barely make out his figure in the dim light as his eyes adjusted.
He followed them down a long, twisting, slimy tunnel. There was a pungent odor in the air. There were burning torches every few meters. Del-Mon was amazed at how primitive the lighting was.
"Elias, where exactly are we?" asked Del-Mon.
"The sewers," Elias called back to him. "We can go through the whole city with these routes, and no one suspects a thing."
As they trudged through the ankle deep water, Elias suddenly called, "This way, Del-Mon."
He saw Wid and Sari scrambling up another ladder. This one wasn't very tall. Del-Mon followed, and was happy to see that there was no more sewage water in the chambers he found himself in now.
They were in a large dirt room. There were bright glowpanels illuminating it. Several people were currently in it, talking and laughing, most of them armed.
All of the sudden, they all looked up and, several of them greeted Elias.
"What took you, Elias?" "We started to get worried!" "Did you bring anything?"
"We ran into some trouble with the Crixxians, but a grenade solved that. We got some blaster rifles and a bunch of reloading cartridges," said Elias.
Suddenly, a woman was standing directly in front of Del-Mon, holding a vibroblade to his throat. She had very long brown hair and green eyes.
"Who's this? Looks like a Crixxian spy to me," she sneered.
"Danya, stop this foolishness! He's not a spy, he's a Jedi Knight!" cried Elias.
"Are you sure? He looks like a spy," Danya suspiciously said.
Del-Mon calmly stood his ground.
Elias came forward and struck the weapon from her hand. "Are you deaf? I told you, this man is a Jedi Knight! He says he's neutral. If I catch you pull another little stunt like that, I'm not going to be very forgiving," he sternly lectured her.
Danya grabbed her vibroblade from the floor, frowning like an angry child.
"If you want to end this problem, Elias, I suggest you listen to me. We have the firepower and the numbers to wipe out the Crixxian religion once and for all. One day is all we need to triumph," Danya said.
"Danya, I've told you this several times before. I will avoid more bloodshed at all costs. The weapons we have are for self-defense if someone is attacked on the streets, not for your own personal use. We will not attack the Crixxians unless they attack us first," Elias said.
"Elias, this is what our father would have wanted," Danya said.
So they were siblings. Del-Mon was wondering why they looked so similar.
"No, Danya. Father would have wanted us to settle this peacefully, and he hated the Crixxians as much as you do," Elias confidently said.
Danya glared at him and opened her mouth to say something, but Elias raised a hand and cut her off.
"Danya, we will allow the Crixxians to attack us before we do anything. Until then, there will be no more deaths unless I say so. Come with me, Del- Mon. You can have something to eat and tell me what's been happening to you," said Elias, leading Del-Mon away before Danya had a chance to object further.
About an hour later, Del-Mon had graciously eaten a meal and told Elias what had happened to him during his time on Crixxin.
"Do you have any idea where my Padawan may be if he's alive?" asked Del- Mon.
"From the sound of it, he's dead. But if he's not, he'll probably be on Jadda," Elias said.
"Jadda?" Del-Mon inquired.
"It's one of the moons of Crixxin. Probably one of the only moons in the universe with an atmosphere. It's where those rotten Crixxians dump the dead Atheists and exile petty criminals," Elias said.
Del-Mon nodded, refusing to show his nervousness.
"What of my task? I was instructed by the Council to speak with the king and queen, but I'll never be able to get into the palace. I seem to be a wanted man," he said.
Elias thought a moment. "Well… I can't promise you anything, but we may be able to get you within the walls, but then you'll be on your own," he said.
"I don't care. I must get inside the palace. Such a beautiful planet should not suffer like this," said Del-Mon.
"All right. But first, it seems only fair that you help me with something," Elias said.
"Like what? I have been specifically instructed by the Jedi Council that I am not to take sides in this war," Del-Mon said.
"Don't worry about it. Sleep now. I will debrief you in the morning," Elias said. He got up and left the room, leaving Del-Mon to meditate and further assess his grave situation.
*****
So what did you think? Please review! Flames, like, no-like, I don't care! I'll read anything! I'm a review freak, I live for reviews!