"And you rescued him?" Carth stammered. "I'm shocked. Out of the kindness of your heart?"

"Ahem. It was business," Lal explained. "It was an enemy operation in Davik's territory. Unsanctioned, in other words. I tried to explain that to Zaalbar, but--"

Zaalbar interrupted with a short string of grunts that silenced Lal. Redness bloomed across her cheeks and she shrugged. "See what I mean?" she said. "He's an obstinate carpet."

Carth chuckled. "He's right though, Lal. Even if you did do the right thing for the wrong reasons, actions speak louder than words."

Mission nodded and smiled. "That's so…"

"Cliché," Lal cut in. "Wookiees are big on cliché. Anyhow, this just proves the pig-boys are working for the Vulkars."

"Davik would probably shut them down if he knew for sure," Mission observed.

"No Mission," Lal sighed. "Davik would just do an end run around the Vulkars and pay the pig-boys more to work for him instead. He does the wrong thing for the rightest reason of them all: business."

They all absorbed that in silence.

"Well, we uh…we need to get moving," Carth said softly. He headed towards the opening to the catwalk and peered out. "No light. Not even enough ambient light for my goggles. FlikStiks, people."

Everyone except Mission spent a second searching their pockets for their FlikStiks. With a twist, the chemicals inside the tubes crashed together and began shedding weak circles of cold green light. Mission, as a Twi'lek, had a natural ability to see in the dark. Not in complete darkness, but the glow from the FlikStiks provided her enough ambient light to see. The others hung them from belts or harnesses and headed out onto the catwalk.

In the dim light, they all chose their paths carefully, stepping gingerly and softly. But still the metal catwalk creaked and groaned beneath their weight. Along one side of the catwalk was a wall of cold, moist metal. Along the other side, darkness extended beyond the range of their FlikStiks. A thin handrail was all that guarded them against the yawning, stretching dark.

The air that rose up was thick and warm with a stench like sweetened rot; the stink of fruit gone bad, of yeast-sweet decay. But there was something else dwelling within that stink, something Lal couldn't quite pin down.

Mission hissed softly, "What is that--"

Lal grabbed her shoulder before she could say any more. In the dim light Lal put a finger up to her lips for Mission to be silent. Carth signaled a halt and glanced back at Lal and the others with a worried frown. Slowly, he pulled a second FlikStik from his belt, gave it a twist and tossed it over the rail.

It made a dim green sphere of light as it trailed slowly downward into the impenetrable black. As it fell, it cast its weak light across a rocky surface; a monolith composed of jagged humps.

And massive spear-like teeth. And arms as wide as tree trunks.

The figure watched the FlikStik fall with two tiny black eyes; watched it fall between the huge talons adorning its stumpy feet. Then, the Rancor glanced up at the railing and roared hungrily.

Zaalbar roared in alarm and all of them pressed themselves back against the wall. The Rancor's broad, flat head craned upwards to watch them, and viscous drool fell in long glistening ropes from its jagged fangs. It was the largest living creature Lal had ever seen, with flesh like stone and long powerful limbs. Its foreclaws flexed anxiously; a man could easily fit within those huge paws. Its tiny eyes narrowed and it slammed its foreclaws onto the floor. Thoom!

"At least we seem to have found a way around the thing," Carth whispered tightly in Lal's ear. "Come on…"

And then the Rancor reached up with a massive claw, tearing apart the catwalk before them as if it were paper. Lal yanked Carth back as he began to slide downwards towards the rent. He nodded gratefully and whipped out his blaster pistols. "So much for that plan…"

The Rancor reached up towards them and they had nowhere to run. Carth fired as the paw came near and the Rancor yowled in rage and pain, snatching its paw back to its chest. The Rancor passed back and forth beneath them, and tried again to grasp at them. Once more, Carth shot the paw as it came close. Again, it drew its wounded appendage back sharply.

Mission and Zaalbar began firing down on the creature, but its thick hide turned aside their shots. "Blasters are only going to make it angry," Lal cried out.

"Like it ain't mad enough already!" Mission protested, continuing to fire wildly down on the gigantic monster. "Maybe if we shot its eyes…"

Lal unholstered a blaster and took careful aim at the thing's huge head. She tracked across its skull with a line of fire that stitched right across one of the Rancor's eyes. It shrieked in agony and clutched at its face. As it writhed in pain, Carth jerked a thumb at the gap in the catwalk.

"I think we can jump it!" he cried. "Go! While it's occupied!"

Lal nodded and shoved Mission ahead of her. Mission stared doubtfully at the gap and shook her head. "Lal, I--" Lal shoved the girl so hard that she almost flew threw the air. Mission screamed and pushed off as Lal shoved her. She slammed face first onto the other side of the catwalk, and picked herself up.

"You next, Lal," Carth said, grabbing her arm and wrenching her forward. Lal easily cleared the gap and landed in a crouch.

Carth jumped across then, and nearly slipped down when he landed. Lal yanked on his jacket, pulling him up to safety. Zaalbar howled fearfully and shook his shaggy head.

"Come on you big carpet!" Lal cried to him.

Zaalbar yelped an insult in reply. But even as he did, he flexed his powerful legs to take a leap.

And the Rancor bashed the wall with a mighty fist, jarring Zaalbar from the catwalk. The Wookiee howled as he fell. He hit the floor and rolled, snarling in pain.

"Zaalbar!" Lal screamed, dashing back towards the rent. Carth grabbed her and held her back.

The Rancor loomed victoriously over the tiny form of the Wookiee. It snatched Zaalbar up and raised him to its jagged, slavering maw. Lal snarled incoherently and shoved her elbow into Carth's belly. He fell back, releasing her. She drew her vibroblade and thumbed the activation switch. With another scream of primal rage, she flung herself over the railing at the Rancor.

In a single motion devoid of any sort of active thought, she landed on the beast's skull and stabbed downward with her blade. The weapon hissed into the soft, pulsing flesh covering its wide nostrils and buzzed and whirred as it chewed through the monster's dense meat. The Rancor howled and swung its head backwards. Lal flew from the thing with a shriek and crashed into the floor behind it.

Zaalbar fell gasping and panting from its claw while the monster raged wildly about. It scraped at its head, trying to dislodge the blade stuck in it, still humming and grinding and tearing. The Rancor staggered backwards, spitting thick, black blood from its nostrils. Lal barely had time to roll to the side as a foot thundered into the floor where she had landed.

Lal!" Mission cried in terror. "Zaalbar! Watch out!"

The creature whipped around in drunken circles, hammering the floor with fists and feet. It slammed into the wall in a frenzy, throwing Carth and Mission from their feet on the catwalk. And still the vibroblade continued to carve away, throwing up wisps of greasy black smoke and gobbets of dark red. Lal and Zaalbar had to dance to avoid the creature's agonized frenzy.

"Damn it," Carth yelled at them. "Get outta there!"

Lal screamed back, "I'm trying!" and as she did, she stumbled over a pile of rotting carcasses. She gasped and fell on her bottom. Zaalbar roared a warning just as the Rancor turned and stumbled directly towards her. Lal scrambled backwards on her elbows, but couldn't move quickly enough. The Rancor slammed its head into the floor right in front of her, jarring her bones with the fury of the impact.

The sword, still stuck in its head, whipped towards her, and on instinct, Lal reached out and grabbed the hilt tightly. As she did, the Rancor stood up again and whirled around, spraying the walls with its blood. Lal clutched the sword hilt desperately, but got jerked and slammed around as the Rancor raged about.

Finally, she was able to plant her feet on the thing's skull. She drove down on the blade as hard as she could manage and felt the blade rip through flesh and meat and gristle. The Rancor jerked sharply, and a spray of blood hissed from the wound, splashing Lal's Slipsuit and cheeks.

As she hung on, she yelled at Carth to toss her one of his grenades.

"Wha--"

"Do it!" she screamed. She had no idea how she managed to catch the plasma detonator Carth hurled at her. Her mind simply wasn't functioning on a level she could understand. But the grenade landed in her palm perfectly. And she felt like a rider in a vehicle shaped like her own body, watching helplessly as she twisted the fuse control with her teeth.

She was moving on pure momentum, without any direction from her will or desire. She watched herself as she yanked the blade free; it had done so much damage to the surrounding meat that it felt like pulling the sword from a pool of water. More blood sprayed across her, this time accompanied by hunks of rubbery matter.

In the space between seconds, Lal rammed the fist holding the grenade into the ragged wound she had carved. And then, she let go. As the seconds caught up with her, as physical law caught up to her, the creature's frenzy hurled her into the wall. She hit hard and slid limply to the floor.

And then, she saw and felt nothing.

Lal dreamed the nightmare once more. She was submerged in it, and couldn't swim to the surface. There, in the watery depths of her mind, she saw a cold dark chamber that opened into the void of space. Standing before the void was a mountain painted red; dark red, the color of old blood. It was a man. Broad shouldered, powerfully built, sheathed in blood red. A heavy cloak spread from his massive shoulders and fluttered in the tides she dreamed.

Slowly, he turned his naked skull, and she saw that he had no mouth. Only a pair of white eyes burning like angry stars. It was him. He had found her in her dreams again. But this time, she could not seem to wake up.

He stared in confusion at her for a moment, his eyes narrowing as if his mind was struggling to recognize her face.

"It can't be possible," he rasped at her, his voice pounding in her skull like metallic thunder. "You are not possible!"

Suddenly, Lal bobbed to the surface, leaving her watery nightmare, leaving the mouthless one in the darkened depths. Her eyes fluttered and she awoke to the fetid reek of a Wookiee's breath. Zaalbar huddled over her, cradling her in his shaggy arms and crooning softly for her to wake up.

Lal coughed wetly, and felt a sharp blade of pain tear through her side. "I'm awake…" she groaned weakly. Zaalbar yelped happily and stroked her hair with his paw. She glanced around for the Rancor, and saw it laying still, a mountain of dead meat, missing a head.

"Lal!" Mission cried from above. Lal craned her head upwards to see the girl and Carth peering over the walkway down at her. "Are you okay?"

"That was one in a million, Lal!" Carth yelled. "Never seen anything like that…"

Lal tried to stand, but the pain in her side clenched down on her body. Zaalbar gently helped her to her feet. She clutched her arm to her side and tried to determine if she'd just cracked a rib, or if it had snapped entirely. Her head swam with the pain, but she couldn't feel anything grinding inside of her.

"Lal," Carth went on, "Me and Mission are gonna double back and find a way to get to you."

"Too risky," she gasped weakly. Zaalbar repeated her words loud enough for Carth and Mission to hear. "There are probably more Gammoreans back that way."

"Well, we can't get down safely," Carth told them. "And I don't see a way for you to get back up here…"

Lal glanced around the blood smeared chamber. Zaalbar pointed out a door at the far end. She saw it and nodded, leaning heavily against his shaggy bulk. "Odds are, there's a door at the end of the catwalk too…You guys keep going, and we'll try to meet up inside…"

"Lal…" Carth called down, "are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded, trying to durasteel herself against the pain. "Zaalbar…we have got to do something about your breath. It could wake the dead…"

Zaalbar chuckled and growled that it very nearly had done just that. He bent to retrieve his bowcaster. He also picked up her vibroblade. She flicked it on experimentally. It still hummed along well enough, even though the edge of the blade was scored with chips and nicks and scratches. And it had an odd rattle when she swung it.

"Still all in one piece," she sighed softly, sheathing the blade at her hip. She nodded her head the door and glanced up at Zaalbar. "Let's do this."

The Black Vulkars hadn't thought to put a guard on the door; they figured a Rancor was rather sufficient to the task. They had never imagined in a thousand years that someone would be able to kill the monster. Generally speaking, the only thing that could kill a Rancor was another Rancor. A bigger one. But their pet monstrosity was, in fact, dead, and its killer now hunted the beast's masters.

After the four of them had reunited on a stairwell, Lal decided to use her Randomizer to scout the place out. With any luck, she'd find where they were holding Selli. Lal didn't believe in luck, but accepted it when it was on her side. After she had worked her way through the shadows of the Vulkar safehouse, she had counted only six of them here. Four of them were playing Sabacc. One was in some sort of office, sitting behind a computer console, smoking Pakh. And one was standing guard in front of what looked to be a security door. Every so often, his head bobbed, as if he were drifting off to sleep and snapping back awake.

Her first main challenge was evading the security cameras that panned back and forth in most of the corridors. The Vulkar in the office, a Twi'lek, was probably keeping an eye on those cameras on his computer display. Of course, the more she thought about it, the more and more she began to doubt it. These Vulkars thought no one could touch them. They would never have imagined anyone could get past that pet monster of theirs.

But she had to be sure.

She pressed her commlink to her mouth and whispered into it. "Okay…I count six. I got four playing cards in the central chamber. One half-asleep on guard on the far corridor. And another in a control room. Be advised, we have monitor cameras. I'm going to neutralize the cameras. The rest of you can move up and take out the cardies on my signal."

"Affirmative," Carth replied. "We wait for your go."

Lal shut off her commlink completely. She crouched directly beneath the camera swiveling slowly above her. She waited until she had figured out the camera's pattern and then made a dash as it swiveled away from her path. She ducked around into an alcove and flicked her Randomizer on. Around her, the air turned to liquid. Anyone looking in her direction would see little more than the wall. But from her perspective, it was like swimming in a pool of murky water.

She waited for the camera to swivel away again, and then moved to the door across from her. The keypad showed it was locked, but Lal had developed a bit of a professional familiarity with these sorts of systems. A year ago, she'd been ordered…get close to a troublesome councilman. To simply touch him. Davik reckoned that would send the man enough of a message to stop poking into his affairs. She'd spent a week memorizing override codes from several design manuals she'd…acquired. It took her a moment to dredge up the stats for this model. A few seconds later, she recalled the master reset code which would send it back into a factory diagnostic mode. She pressed in the numbers and glanced up at the camera. The door hissed open and she slipped inside just as the camera swiveled back towards her.

The Twi'lek male at the computer console glanced up in annoyance, but immediately saw she wasn't one of his men. His lips curled back in a snarl and he reached for a blaster on the console.

Lal was already moving.

He got a hold of the blaster and lifted it up just as her foot crashed into his chest and slammed him backwards over his chair. He thudded into the floor with a gasp while she landed on his desk in a compact crouch. He reached out to grab his blaster and Lal fired herself towards him. She pounced on his chest and he froze in agony. The impact squeezed the air from his lungs and he gasped helplessly as she kicked his blaster away. She rolled him onto his belly and knelt over him, twisting his arm around his back until he cried out.

"I will break this if you offer me a problem," she whispered into the conical bone-plate of his ear.

"Hey…Lal Sideen…heh…no problems…no worries…What are you doing here, huh?"

She twisted his arm further, shocking him into silence. "I ask the questions."

"No problem…you know…that business outside the Daystar…that was…it wasn't me…"

"Kandon, right?" she hissed. "Kandon Ark. I've seen you sniffing around. You used to be an errand boy before Brejik came on, didn't you?"

"I…Brejik just…rewarded his friends is all…"

"Sure. Now I'm going to reward you, Kandon. I want you to give me Selli and I'll reward you with your life."

"Huh? Selli? What do you care about that skag?"

She jerked his arm a bit more and he gasped in pain. "Who's asking the questions here?"

"Hell! You are!"

"Right. Selli. I want her."

"Well, Lal…I…I can't do that…" he moaned, "business and all…"

Lal shoved his forehead into the floor, splintering his nose. "Would you like to try a guess at how difficult it might or might not be for me to do this without your assistance, Kandon?"

"Oh hell…no…okay, okay! Dammit, my nose! Alright, I'll help…just let me up, please, and don't hit me anymore!"

Lal sighed and decided to check him for any weapons. When she was satisfied, she rose and yanked him to his feet. She shoved him face first into the wall and stood back from him with her blaster aimed at his spine. "How many men aside from the other five I've already counted?"

"That's…that's all…how did you get past Fluffy?" he whimpered, bleeding freely from his nose.

"Fluffy?"

"Our Rancor!"

"You named your Rancor…" she shook her head in amazement, "Fluffy…Fluffy's not what I'm concerned about, Kandon. I'm concerned about Selli. She's who you should be concerned about too. You have a guard on Selli?"

"I….yes…"

"I want you to have him meet you here."

"Ah…" he murmured, "what should I tell him?"

"Tell him you bloody want to have a chat with him," she snapped.

He nodded weakly and turned to head for the door. She grabbed him by the back of his collar and slammed him into the wall again. "What are you doing, Kandon?"

"I was…I was going to go and…"

Lal rolled her eyes. "Idiots. You Vulkars are idiots, you know that? You dolts simply should not be allowed to take precious air from people who actually posses a bloody clue. Call him from your station, idiot."

"Oh yeah…"

She maneuvered him into his chair and sat down on the table beside him. "And Kandon?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know how many men I've killed?"

"Er…a lot?"

"And I'm not finished. If you screw up, you'll be the next one."

Kandon nodded, his lips trembling. He leaned forward over his computer and pressed a comm-channel button. "Uh…Freesa…g-get up here you…sorry son of a space slug! We need to ch--talk…now!"

"What is it this time, man?" Freesa replied on the comm. "I didn't do nothin'!"

Kandon held Lal's gaze fearfully as he spoke, "Just get up here, dammit!"

Lal nodded and reached over to close the comm-channel. She watched on the monitor as the Vulkar guarding the security door sighed and walked off. A minute later, the door hissed open.

"Hey, Kandon, your door is unlocked and--"

Lal shot him on the stun setting of her blaster. He dropped like a bag of stones. Lal turned her commlink back on and gave Carth the "go."

"Alright, Kandon. Let's move." She hauled him up by his collar and pushed him towards the door.

"Where are we going?"

"Idiot. To Selli. You're going to open the door for me."

Now that she no longer had to worry about anyone watching the cameras, Lal didn't bother hiding from them as she marched Kandon towards the security door. She would have preferred to keep her distance from him of course; if she'd had a credit for every time some amateur pressed a gun into her back only to lose it to her five seconds later, she'd be…well, she was already rather wealthy.

But Kandon, being a rather mediocre variety of scum, didn't have the presence of mind to think about taking her blaster, nor the skill to pull it off without getting burned down. But he still had the temerity to make a run if she didn't keep a short leash on him.

So, she walked him up to the door with her blaster against his spine and her other hand clutching the back of his collar. "Open it," she told him.

He sighed and keyed in the sequence on the keypad. His fingers trembled as he punched in the numbers. The door cranked open and Lal shoved Kandon inside. He stumbled and hit the floor face first, shrieking as his nose grinded against the ground. Lal glanced around the inside of the room before stepping inside. No one waited with a blaster, at least.

But she wasn't entirely prepared for what was waiting.

"Kandon…what have you done…"

Selli's broken and shattered body hung against the wall by a pair of manacles. Slashes and bruises covered every inch of her body. Her face was a pulped ruin of blood. The sensuous, long lekku had been burned. Lal lowered her blaster and went to kneel at Selli's side. As she did so, she realized her mistake.

On the floor, Kandon reached into his boot for a slim little throwing knife. She couldn't believe she'd missed it.

"You stupid witch!" Kandon screamed. "I'll kill you!" He cocked his arm to let the dagger fly. Lal was slightly faster, lifting her blaster and stroking the trigger.

Kandon's face disappeared in a gout of oily smoke and fire. He fell backwards and lay still. His dagger bounced off the wall beside Lal's head. Lal sat there for a moment, her eyes lingering on the dagger. She hadn't thought his aim would be nearly so good. But not good enough. In the distance, she heard blaster fire; Carth and Zaalbar taking out the Sabacc players…

She turned her attention to Selli and checked at her throat for a pulse. Weak and thready. She used her sword to slice through the chains at Selli's battered wrists, and gently lowered the girl to the floor. Selli gasped weakly, opening a single swollen eye to stare at her. "Lal?"

"It's okay, Selli," Lal soothed, pulling out a medpack. "You're going to be alright."

"They…I couldn't st-stop them…they…"

Lal pricked Selli's arm with a Syrette, and looked over the girl's wounds. The Vulkars had had a party. Pulled out all the stops. The girl would be lucky to survive. Heat flooded Lal's muscles, and she imagined herself killing Brejik with her bare hands. He would pay for this. There would be hell to pay.

But she couldn't let Selli die. She had promised.

"Selli…stay with me, honey! Your sister's waiting for you! The Beks are counting on you!"

Selli's eye fluttered open and her throat clenched. "Lal…I'm all…br-broken…I c-can't r-ride like th-this…"

"Selli, you'll be fine. Just let the Kolto do its job. We'll get you to a doc. I know a good one. He'll have you better than new…"

"Don't let Zaerdra see me like this, Lal," Selli gasped. "I d-don't want her t-to know…"

"Selli…you're going to be…okay…"

Selli nodded weakly and tried to smile. But her torn lips didn't work. "You came t-to s-save me, Lal…c-cool…"