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"Works for me," she once again gave in to me for a final time.
Walking out of the door I turned the corner and saw a mass of robots all eyes on doors and ventilation, I smiled.
"Okay you're the stealth master, tell me how we let them know we're here without them seeing us," I asked her in a whisper.
"Why would we do that?" she answered.
"In my trips here, they've learned 2 things about me, which I kept consistent in case something like this came up. Whenever I'm sneaking, I like to hide in the vents, and I like all out confrontations with enemies stacked against me. So if they think it's only me here, they're going to mass the robots together where I usually come out, in there control room where most the information I seek is going to be, and they're going to check the vents as best as they can. If we know where they are and what they're doing, we can slap them on our way behind their backs." I explained.
"You're brilliant, give me a second to show you heading into a vent, and do what you want from there." She smiled ready to create her famous illusions, but something didn't seem right about her genius plan.
"No, they'd suspect a trap, because I've never been seen going IN to the vent, only coming OUT. Show me slipping behind boxes, because by the time they get back there, I'm usually in the vents then."
"Good thinking," she closed her eyes and glowed a little bit. Then I saw me run out of her chest, and a commotion started up as they checked around the crates.
"My turn to show talents," I whispered.
Closing my eyes, I mentally shut all senses off until I was numb, except for my ears. Reaching in with the Force I heard their conversation.
"Shut off ALL ventilation shafts, and flush the plasma through it! And send in a cam bot." He added as footnote.
I heard the metallic, "yes sir." And nodded to her.
"Stay ahead of me, go ahead and go left. Stay flat against the wall. Stop at the door, their will be robots coming in about 45 seconds while sweeping the room so we gotta move fast." I instructed her and pushed her out of our corner.
Feeling the rush I get when in stressful situations I knew I was back to where I belong. My mind freed itself and became one with the force, taking the limits away from my ability. I put my left hand on my light saber and followed her out crouched low. We reached the door in about ten seconds. I got in front of her and began to work.
"That was 10 seconds, give me a count down." I said briskly and put my hand on the door controls.
"35, 34, 33," she started breathlessly.
I pulled the cover off quickly disconnecting the screws and cords with a small blade of Force.
"30, 29, 28," she turned to make sure nobody noticed us.
"You're sweating. This your first mission?" I asked without looking back at her.
She shook her head continuing her count and grabbing my shoulder, I got worried. "20, 19, 18."
I turned and saw a robot patrolling the corners to spot anyone, such as us.
"Breathe," I said. "Keep counting he's unimportant. Don't kill him they keep track of all active and inactive robots."
"15, 14, 13," she started to sound like she was hyperventilating. I got a little shaken at how close I was cutting it. It would've been easier if I didn't have to keep assuring and instructing her. But I was enjoying her reliance and couldn't wait to see more of her abilities because I'd just found my first partner. Sensing that the robot was about to spot us, I created an invisible ball of Force, I sent it towards the vent plate across the room and it fell down attracting all the robots.
"Once they lose interest over there, they'll be sweeping a lot faster." I said turning back to the door. "Forget these."
I pulled out my light saber, and ignited the glowing blade. I cut through the overhang above us. I wrapped her in a blanket of force and lifting her into the hole, cutting her count off.
"Alright that's enough," I said. "Cut a big hole in the wall you're facing."
She went to work quickly and had it done in one and a half seconds, giving me plenty of time to Force jump to the hole and lift myself up.
"Beautiful job," I said as I stood up.
We found ourselves in a blue-lit tunnel that had smooth walls and curved, I wasn't sure of where it went and if it stayed big enough to walk in, but I had known that it was here.
"Great, now where are we?" she sounded out of breath.
"Calm down, you shouldn't be so worried," I walked ahead of her ignoring her questions.
"I'm sorry, but I don't usually get that close to being caught. I'm always a mile ahead," she said assuming she was sweating from nervousness.
"That's training, we can only simulate so many Droids." I
whispered. "Breathe girl, you're hyperventilating."
"I'm
asthmatic," she said.
"Shouldn't matter," I said shortly focusing on watching what was around the curves.
"That's sensitive," she sounded calmer and her personality took hold again, now that she was sure she could ensure we weren't caught personally.
"Fine," I said holding out my hand. "Hold my hand."
I could tell she rolled her eyes by the way her breath came out short and huffy. She grabbed my hand, which I noticed was really was sweaty, and I realized it was also getting hot in here and the air was thick, causing her difficult breathing.
"How long have you noticed it's gotten warmer in here?" I stopped worried about what this place was.
"Since we got in here." She answered.
"Next time tell me," I said sensing ahead as best I could while we turned back. "We gotta get outta here. They've probably flushed plasma down here too. Go back and make sure you don't get seen, tell me all possible ways out, other than the door and vents. I'll stop the plasma."
"You're gonna what?"
"Gonna need that information, go before I lose focus."
She turned and jogged down the tunnel and I saw her turn into the hole she cut. I hoped she'd checked if it was clear to drop down. I shook my head at the shape of her beautiful body and turned back the path ahead of me, which had turned orange, and grew continuously redder. I reached behind me with telekinetic powers and brought the piece of the wall Raena had kicked in. I dropped it in front of me, and I was lucky she'd cut it so big. It almost took up the whole tunnel. I extended my senses to see if there was any space around the tunnel frame. The plasma was now visible and I felt myself getting to the extremes in temperature. I found what I was looking for, and pulled the Force powers back to me as hard as I could. The tunnel creaked, and rocked, and groaned until the shell of the tunnel gave way and collapsed stopping around the chunk of steel I had levitating in front of me. I smiled, turned around and sprinted back to the hole where the makeshift "door" had been. I jumped into the space and put my legs out pinning myself between the walls to hang there. I saw Raena waiting for me, pinned up against the edge of the wall, breath held. She saw me and pointed to the air in front of her indicating there was another approaching Droid. It appeared the effects of my trick had worn off. I pushed up, with a scissor movement of my legs, tucked my body into a ball, and caught myself right at the edge of the hole, upside-down and held my hands out. She grabbed my hands and I yanked her up into the air. I hear her sharp intake of breath and she lands on my legs balancing with perfection on my calves. I see the droid walk into the corner and spot the panel I ripped off. I mentally scolded myself for leaving clues to our presence. I tapped into their com-system again and heard him tell them that I'd been here and must've managed to get through the door somehow hiding the detection of the door's opening. This lightened my heart, until I heard the false tone in his commander's voice.
"Good, then plasma should have killed him, because there's a service shaft on the ceiling in that hallway. Call off the search," then on a different frequency I heard additional instructions by another voice. "Him and his girlfriend must be around here still, find them!"
"Yes sir."
I walked up the side of the wall with my hands until I became a down-facing human platform.
"Raena they're faking on us, they know we're here, they know the plasma didn't work, and they know there is two us," I said quickly. "What's the word on exits?"
"Umm…only one, they're moving crates out of here. We've got to get in one and they'll get us out of here." She said.
"Ideas?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I can get in, but they're too small for you." She sighed hopelessly.
"Perfect, find your way in to one." Hiding the note of despair in my voice, I dropped off of the wall and hung upside-down again. "Jump."
She jumped and I caught her by the waist and lowered her back onto the ground. I dropped and landed on my hands and flipped back onto my feet.
"I'll make sure nobody notices you." I say.
"Okay…Um, don't let anything explode." She said.
"Easy," I smiled at her staring into her hypnotic eyes.
I reached a hand up to rub her soft, silky smooth cheek but she backed her face up and I pulled back embarrassed. Then she kissed me on the cheek and turned off running. Dazed for the first time in my life since I fought Trance I stood rooted to my spot for a second. Then I was snapped back into battle mode by a mental sting from the Force and I sprinted out after Raena.
"Wait here." I stopped her.
I ran to the end of the wall and ran up the side pushing off to the stack of crate, my eyes set on the overhead beams. I hit the side of the crates and pushed back off and up, knocking down the stack opening a couple from the impact, making Raena's job easier. I hit the wall and pushed up and off one final time reaching my hands and pulling up onto the bar. I tapped into their communications again as I swung under bar. I let go of the bar flipping over 3 consecutive bars, and caught another one. I continued to the end of the rows of bars and caught the bar. Then something in their conversation caught my attention.
"SIR! We've found him swinging on the fuel poles," I looked down to see a Droid pull out a gun.
"Get him!" I heard an angry tone on the other end.
Shots rang out and me and I knew I wasn't doing very well as they were loosening the beams above me. As I swung under the final bar, I hit the wall and pushed back off pulling myself up onto the beams overhead.
"Guys, you wouldn't want to make anything explode," I said stopping the shots while thinking quickly.
"Why?" I heard the lead Droid answer.
Stunned I hesitated; this showed a definite intelligence and I had to think. Then I flashed back to when I listened in on Raena complain to the masters: "I'm afraid he might cause an eruption."
"Your little toy might erupt." I answered hoping it was something like a bomb.
The other Droids looked at their leader and he nodded signaling I was right and they would need a different course of action. Unsure of what it was I braced myself upon the rickety beam. Then I heard a jet firing up and I saw the droids all rise up after me simultaneously. I was worried again at their new abilities and intelligence. I hoped they didn't have any extra speed but didn't risk multiple attacks because they could probably coordinate better than simultaneous individual assaults. I guessed this by their unified rise after me. As soon as the first one landed, I spun and kicked him in the chest. Another jumped at me from behind, while I saw another out the corner of my eye, catch his partner, and I knew I would have to be careful. I fell to my stomach and pushed up flipping onto my feet kicking the jumping Droid back. And three other Droids caught him also. I smirked, I'd found that with intelligence they lacked a certain ruthless asset and left themselves open. Only I wasn't sure if it was compassion for allies, or defense against flying objects. So I had to test their reflexes. Hoping they would discern the difference between operating and broken counterparts I grabbed the next Droid in a headlock. Rolling over his back, I twisted his head off and kicked it to another approaching Droid. To my dismay, it ducked the debris as I threw it and confirmed that they could tell when an ally was dead or alive and it was most likely a signal to make the decision of save or avoid. This would make the battle considerably more difficult, but I was sure my light saber was still an unneeded weapon.
I went back into action and kicked the leaning "corpse" of the Droid at the Droid that had ducked his partner. I flipped sideways landing on another Droid, shutting it down on contact, and jumped forwards with a sidekick into another Droid. I jumped straight up into the air twirling stopping myself with a wall of Force, to take a look around and counted about 10 Droids left. I reached into my cloak, and drew intending to finish my work quickly. I began to spin, propelled by the Force; I ignited the blade and began to tear through Droids with ruthlessness to nearly match Shomari. As I neared the last Droid I smirked to myself, my masters had been wrong; the detection of my presence wouldn't cause a problem. I'd stopped any explosions, and I got to slaughter the droids. I extended my arm for a final slash through the miniscule army, and was instantly lucky I'd extended myself because I was stopped: by another light saber. I looked up expecting a Dark Jedi, but saw only a Droid, and my eyes followed the blade to the handle to his hand. I was confused beyond belief. I had hoped it'd been because somebody had stabbed him from behind, but I could've sworn Yoda hadn't seen this before. I jumped back and attempted to hide my shock by cockily putting my light saber away. As soon as the Droid came in with its "light saber" I noticed the dim glow, and it was either turned low, which I doubted, or it was a weak imitation of a light saber. I created a ball of destructive Force inside the Droid, exposing my unique talent, and snapped my fingers causing to it to explode internally. Then I closed my eyes and tapped into their communications mentally, hoping to catch a hint of where Raena was.
"Sir, the docking room has been annihilated." I heard from a Droid.
"Damn! Where's the girl?" came the voice I'd been hearing the whole time.
"We don't know sir, she was last spotted in the docking room." Answered the Droid.
This lifted my spirit knowing she hadn't been found, or it might have meant that she'd been trapped in the cart. I dropped off of the beam landing on the tallest pile of crates; it tipped over and I fell down with it letting it smash and I saw a corpse roll out, eyes rolled in the back of it's skull and body turned sheet white.
"Oh my god!" I gasped suffocated from the stench and fear.
Then my mind flashed and I saw a beautiful woman curled in the same position. I got dizzy with nausea and fell to one knee as I heard tortured screaming. I spit out the vomit that'd risen up and stood up to my full height again and began to take off where they'd carried Raena. Suddenly, from around the corner of one of the crate stack, a red light saber blade flashed out in front of me, one quarter shorter than my single blade. It was the one person I knew could help me in this situation.
"You're walking into something you have no clue about," I heard a quiet, dangerous voice say.
Taking hold of his saber's extension chip I reversed the polarity with a snap causing the blade to retract until he cut off the power. I flipped it back the second he cut it off so it didn't come back out.
"How have you been Déshawn?" Shomari holstered his weapon.
"Not as well as you clearly, tell me what you know."
"Obvious more than you, otherwise you wouldn't be here," Shomari scolded my lack of knowledge.
"The council told me nothing but to keep undetected. And about the Jedi powers that have been dying and reappearing within the Federation HQ. So you wanna tell me what happened to our victim over there?"
"The living Force," he held his hand up, as if he was choking somebody, to my throat without touching me, "sucked right out of him."
His emphasis on the word "suck" made me dizzy again as I thought back to the beautiful woman I'd just seen.
"How," I said sitting on a stray crate.
"Not sure, but Lance has some little gadget that does this for him. And he's using the stolen powers to energize some weapon of his. It's sort of like a 3rd Death Star, only it's based on molecular disruption, so no type of shield can withstand it without an equal counter attack that'd cause an explosion of epic proportions."
"Then we need to get Raena quickly," I said turning and heading towards the door she was carried through.
"Raena? Anything for her," he said smirking.
I stopped. "Why?"
"Cause you're clearly infatuated."
"Lead the way little brother."
"Just be sure to never show that kind of weakness again, even when you're alone."
I didn't deny it because he was right, so I followed him out the door.
"Deuce where is the main command room, not the control panel."
"Not sure, I can find out in the control panel," he said turning to the right away from me.
"Tell me the second you know. I think Lance would want these powers next to him," I said. "So he can't allow screws up like Taelin to give them away."
"Right although my bet would be the weapons sector for quicker powering." He added a third confusing option.
I turned left and headed down the hall hearing one of his light sabers ignite. I stopped short to see if he needed help. Only if the second one activated would I go back. I didn't hear it for a while so I continued forward pressed against the wall. Seeing a Droid run past with a crate on it's back I followed. I slipped into the room where they were dropping off the crate. I saw that all of them were filled with bodies, and nearly threw up again. The Droid went down the metallic stairs into a big pit where the bodies were piled out of all the crates and burned them. I sat down thinking of how Raena would have gotten out, in hopes she was smart enough to know to get out sooner. I went into her mind plotting her escape.
She's inside sealed in tightly. She would probably cut the bottom out, with her light saber. Wouldn't work, she'd trip the droid. Maybe she sliced out the side and dove out of it past the railing. Her reflexes were quick enough to catch it. Maybe, but these situations messed with her. No, she'd made it. Then she waited until the way was clear. Wait, they came in one at a time yet they'd left in a group.
This stopped my reasoning. I slipped out of the door pulling the hood of my cloak up to hide my face. I saw the hallway that it'd come from and sprinted down it praying it wasn't a painful death she'd come to. Sensing for her familiar soft presence I was lead above me. Stopping I grabbed my light saber and waited until she'd passed me, then I cut open a hole in the ceiling. Pulling myself up enough to see I saw her crawling away towards the disposal area.
"Get out of here, don't you remember they're flushing plasma down the tunnels and vents!" I whispered harshly as I felt the room get hotter and the tunnel turned orange.
She started to say "oh yeah" but I dropped out of view and cut a hole, right below her, in the plate wide enough for her to fall on a platform. I caught her as it fell to the ground. Thinking quickly I sprinted back from where I came from and turned right towards where Shomari went. Then I tapped into his mind mentally and lifted Raena into the air again with a blanket of Force.
"Deuce where ya at?" I thought.
"Hmm…just got in, what's up?" he answered casually.
"Gonna need that info quickly, plasma coming around the corner. Had to cut Raena out of the tunnels that were getting flushed."
"Great thinking, why not collapse the tunnel again?"
"Ran into it huh? Didn't have time."
"Fine, the weapons division has the, 'Force Jar' as they call it, which is off to your left. Should be easy enough to find from there. Can sense it easier." Shomari answered quickly.
"Thanks."
Cutting off our connection, I dropped Raena to the floor and wrapped my right arm around her waist and pulled her with me to the left.
"Déshawn what-"
I cut her off and jumped across the flow of plasma that had dripped into the hallway. As soon as I'd cleared it, with Raena tightly hugged to me, I tucked my head in, making sure I absorbed the impact for Raena, I rolled onto my feet almost tilting forward and falling again from the extra weight.
"Wow," she laughed pushing her hair back.
"You're nice and light," I smiled at her, at a loss for words.
"You know, I'm warming up to you."
"Wonderful," I commented.
We continued down the curving hallway until it eventually straightened out and I stopped remembering Shomari's instructions. We walked down the multi-door hallway. I sensed nothing until I reached a split and I felt the "Force Jar" everywhere. I hesitated.
"Raena something's wrong." I said worry lightly lacing my voice. "It's everywhere."
"What is?" I'd forgotten no other Jedi could pick up on our conversation.
I gripped the steel handle of my light saber. The feeling grew in my chest as my eyes widened and it turned to pain. Then I heard a weak cry by my side.
"Déshawn," Raena clutched her chest I saw a painful tear roll down her face. "God it hurts."
My eyes grew wide as I realized what was happening; what ever it was that stole a Jedi's Force was attacking us. Taking a hold of Raena I pushed her to the end of the hallway softly. Then anticipating her return to my side, I blocked the hall off isolating me from her. I fought back, purging my body of the pain with a painful groan as I created a shield of Force within me to drive it out. Then I saw a form walk out of the door directly ahead of me, clothed in a brown cloak he advanced showing no facial features above his chin. A hand rose and I choked on the rope of Force around my throat. I heard Raena's anguished screams as I rose off of my feet, being hung by an invisible means. I thought of how to break his concentration, but the form penetrated my mind painfully bursting the shield; with an effect similar to glass piercing your skin from inside, I felt blood rise up in my lungs while the machine once again began to take control of me again.
"Air."
I felt a few seconds from death, as my mouth filled with salty liquids. I grew desperate, and had to take the one choice I didn't want. I heard Raena's pleading for me to let her in stop. And she rushed in, pink light saber ignited, at the form. His red light saber met hers and I was released, which was all I needed. I got up to my knees and as soon as Raena and my unknown opponent broke the struggle I stepped in between them. My cloak swirled out behind me covering Raena from his view. So he changed to the one opponent offered to him.
"Leave now," I forced Raena back with mental shoves while telling her. I didn't have time to wait for her decision. I had no confidence in her combative abilities and I'd already failed by giving away our position.
He jabbed his blade at my ribs but I was too skilled open handed for any easy attempts although I could tell he was warming up. I leaned back, sucking in air, causing him to miss at his full extension. He went into a combo swinging horizontally at my neck, then a sweep at my ankles, and finished upper cutting for chin. I ducked the first shot easily, then jumped slightly, to avoid overextension, and flipped backwards, pushing myself with a blast of Force to dodged the last blow. While in mid-flip I pushed off of his chest and landed the flip perfectly spreading my left hand out showing the open palm. It was time for me to become offensive.