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"Déshawn?" she walked next to me, leaving Jabba in a silence.
"We have to leave," I said slowly. "We're in danger."
"In danger?" she didn't sound as worried as I thought our situation deemed.
"The Master," my voice was not my own. It sounded hazy to my own ears, "mourns his Apprentice."
"Then we must go," Raena said turning to leave, but stopping when I didn't move. "Now."
I glared a Jabba, reaching out with the Force I took a hold of his mind. Waving my hand I spoke a suggestion to the, now, hypnotized Hutt.
"We never spoke to you," I said before joining Raena in her flight.
We ran quickly, both of us boosting our speed with the Force, and reached the door out of Jabba's quarters quickly. We burst out of the doors but stopped in a sick horror when we realized the farmer that had driven us here, was dead. His was lolled back on the headrest of his speeder. Blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth, a sure sign of internal injuries, and he seemed to have lost weight. I shuddered at the sick stench of his corpse and fresh blood, and gingerly walked up to his corpse. Raena was trailing, unwillingly, behind me, and I felt an intense urgency rolling off of her in waves.
"He's near Déshawn," she said. "We have to move on."
"I must know something," I answered her stubbornly.
I held my hand out, gathering the Force within my body, and coated my hand in a Force-sensitive glove. I laid it on his forehead and read his last thoughts. I was confronted with a mural of intense pain, despair, fear, and anger. I felt my stomach lurch in horror as I saw a shrouded figure in front of me, with a shriveled hand extended towards me. I felt my stomach and chest collapsing inwards as an invisible force crushed my body. The same force wrapped around my sides and reached to my back, pressing in as easily as a drunken patron at a bar would a soda can. I was suffocating as my lungs were closed up…I took my hand off of his forehead and stepped back gasping for air from the intense vision.
"Oh my god," I gasped, sucking in as much air as I could.
"What?" Raena sounded concerned.
"His death, it was horrible." I gathered myself, mentally releasing my nausea. "You're right we must go."
"That's pretty pointless now," Raena hung her head.
I hesitated, "you're the one that said we had to leave."
"Look as his blood," Raena gestured towards the crushed man. I avoided turning my eyes from her. "It's fresh, he's too near for us to run since you stopped. We'll have to fight him."
"Quite right you are, young Jedi." A hoarse voice cackled from behind us.
I spun quickly, drawing my light saber without igniting it, and scanned the area when I don't immediately see the source of the sound. Suddenly I sense a wave of immense Dark power. I look up to the origin and spot my target. He was a tall figure, about 6' 4", and shrouded completely in a cloak that only revealed his burning orange eyes. He flipped from the roof and landed across from us, on the opposite side of the speeder. He waved his hand, and I felt another sickeningly powerful wave of Dark Force come crashing down on the speeder. I shielded my face from the spray of blood from the corpse, and looked at the scene before me. It was horrified by what I saw, and took several steps backwards. He'd crushed the speeder, with the man inside of it, until it was nearly flat enough to not even trip over. A twisted smirk curled onto his face and he walked over the speeder in a slow approach on Raena and I.
"Deuce where are you?" I mentally called out.
"Arguing with a shop keeper, why?" I thought I heard a tone of agitation.
"Come to Hutt's," I thought distressed.
"You know," Raena started. "You should really be angry with Jabba."
"Don't try to talk your way out of this Miss Colonya," the Sith Lord hissed still walking upon our retreating position.
"Why?" he persisted. "I'm getting a very good price."
"You want to clean up our parts when this Sith Lord finishes with Raena and me?" I responded sarcastically.
"You had no problems with the Sith earlier." He waved off my plea.
"What would you do if your apprentice was killed?" I followed up.
I felt our connection cut off and I took it to mean that Shomari was now rushing towards us at top speed. I stopped when our backs touched a wall, and found us cornered. The Sith Lord let out a hoarse and dry laugh, and he held out his hands, fingers pointed towards the pair of us. I felt a rise in his already formidable power and my eyes grew wide. I covered myself with my arms again, but found it to be a pointless defense. I yelled in agony as bolts of lightning ran through my body, frying my insides, and I was lifted into the air. He threw me across the ground, and I hit hard sliding into a building. My entire body sizzled, and I saw smoke visibly rising off of my body, my head throbbing from where I hit the building. I started to push myself up shakily, but the Sith Lord seemed to have that in mind already as I was lifted into the air, helplessly and hung there.
"You should know better than to kill an apprentice of Darth Brogan." He hissed at me. I could sense the rage coursing through his veins, and I almost felt guilty for killing him, even though I know it was the only way.
With a slight turn of his palm, my body flew back into the building I'd just come from, and I was slammed into it again. This time, I fell face down, so I was able to catch myself, somewhat, in a push up position. I watched my blood drip onto the ground, as I painfully pushed myself onto my feet again. I saw that he'd already turned from me and was now going for Raena. My eyes got wide in horror as he raised his hands and began to electrocute her also. She screamed in bloodcurdling agony for several moments before he stopped to talk. I gathered the Force to myself, letting my anger and horror abate into the calming power, and drew myself up straight.
"Brogan!" I shouted in a menacing tone, which got my job of attracting his attention, done.
"That's Darth Brogan to you." He hissed turning from Raena and advancing on me in anger.
"We," I started ignoring Raena's frantic signaling behind him to stop. "Aren't finished."
He held his hands out, but this time I was ready. I gathered my powers into an absorbent shield just as he let loose another blast of electricity.
"NO!" Raena's screams were pointless.
I caught his powerful bolts of torture in both palms of my hands, and let them be absorbed by the Force and wasted forever. He increased his intensity and my eyes got wide as he began to shoot more lightning than I could absorb. The result was one bolt getting through and tossing me back into the building. I put my feet out, stopping my impact into the wall and jumped back off facing him again.
"You're tricks are nothing special." He laughed in a croaking and hoarse voice.
I cracked my knuckles in a determined fashion. "And your power is insignificant to me."
"Why you!" for once, his voice was strong and clear.
I waved my hands in a beckoning gesture, "let's try that again."
"Very well," his hands rose again.
"Raena, get out of there!" I heard Deuce's thoughts as he contacted Raena. I smiled; involuntarily hearing his telepathic messages meant he was close.
He threw out a huge spark of lightning, the biggest one he'd thrown at me yet, and I caught it in the same manner as before. He yelled in a rage as he gave it as much as he possibly could. However, I simply continued to draw on the Force and gave my shield more power, and soon he had burned himself out. He stopped, and I closed my hands around the last bolts of his electricity, holding them there for a second, then pushed my hands back out at him, and returned his own lightning to him. Unprepared for such a counter attack, he was hit and flew backwards into the wall crashing down in a heap. I noticed Raena finally nod and get to her feet shakily. I rushed over to her and held my hand out. She took it, and I let a healing flow of Force run from me into her as she finally stood up to her full height.
"Déshawn," she started in a guilty voice.
"Go," I cut her off. "I'll be fine."
"But…"
"I love you," I put my finger to her lips silencing her one last time. "I'll come get you as soon as me and Deuce are finished here."
She grabbed my hand, taking my finger from her lips, and kissed me passionately for several moments, until I heard the sinister cackles of Darth Brogan recovering from my blow.
"Hurry," she almost whispered as she ran off, disappearing easily.
Darth Brogan flipped from the hole he'd been tossed into and landed behind me. I turned to find him standing extremely close to me. I felt uncomfortable for I wasn't sure how fast he could move and my reflexes, though very quick, weren't likely to save me from much. Then he drew his light saber and held it out to me. I took a few steps back, and ignited my own blue light saber blade.
"Well, young Jedi. It seems that we have reached a draw in our battle of powers." He taunted. "You are brave though, for no Jedi has ever crossed light sabers with me."
"Then you have yet to meet a true Jedi." I answered in a measured voice. The back of my mind screamed doubt however; as I was pretty sure he could have killed me before if he wasn't so intent on playing with me.
He moved in powerfully, he wasn't extremely fast, but his heavy blows were hard to recover from. I blocked the overhead strike, and fell to the ground from the force. I rolled as his blade pierced the ground where my head used to be. I leapt to my feet deftly and ducked under his angered swing, and flipped backwards. He started to rush in aggressively again, but he paused when a figure in a black cloak slid to a stop between us. I smirked as Shomari ignited both of his light sabers, and shrugged his robe off of his shoulders. Darth Brogan immediately forgot his pause and moved in quickly at Shomari. He easily spun away, avoiding the powerful strike, but it seemed he was ready for this. As soon as I was in his clear pathway he flung out a wave of Force slamming me hard against a concrete wall, blurring my vision. Suddenly I felt a flash of heat move from my waist down. I couldn't move quick enough, my body being battered already, and I was pinned under the falling debris. I yelled in pain, as the large objects came clattering down on me. I felt a tingling sensation in my legs as the blood flow was cut off and my mind was numbed with pain. Through my hazy vision I saw Shomari engaged in intense combat with Darth Brogan, too preoccupied to provide me with any aid. I closed my eyes and meditated a moment, when I sensed a spike of pain from Shomari that snapped my eyes open. I saw Darth Brogan's light saber pushed through my younger brother's shoulder.
"NO!" I shouted in shock and anger, ignoring my own predicament.
Shomari's eyes got hazy from the pain, but he still managed to let off a wave of Force, that separated him painfully from Darth Brogan. He dropped both of his blades and fell to one knee, his left hand trying to stem the flow of blood. My fury grew exponentially as I lifted the tons of debris from my back, as easily as it had fell on top of me. I threw every chunk at Darth Brogan who easily dodged every piece. I light both sides of my light saber and came at Brogan powerfully. In the first few seconds of our combat, I quickly learned how Shomari had gotten so injured. Brogan had powerful movements that I would normally use to my advantage but it was almost impossible to get him off balance. In fact, the Sith Lord's movements were so quick; I found his defenses almost impenetrable. After several attempts on my part, I finally stopped before I wore myself out in my anger, and decided to fight with my mind as I'd learned to do. I stepped back, holding my light saber across my body in a defensive position. My mind freed itself from the limits of my body, and merged with the Force, making nearly any thought of my own a reality. I felt almost immortal in this state. Brogan seemed to sense this as his lips curled into a sneer, and he rushed in. I saw his stab at my throat a split second before it happened, and I leaned back prematurely dodging his blow miles ahead of it. I sliced at his waist as I was ducking his deadly swing, and he flipped over it, just barely keeping his body attached. I spun around slicing at his ankles a split second before he landed. He tried valiantly to avoid it, but he was too slow and lost one of his ankles in an agonizing yell. He roared, hopping on his only lower limb, and I tried to not grow sick from the sight of his amputated foot. He turned to me; his fiery orange eyes now tinted red, with a vengeful look, and threw a blast of lightning at me. I blocked it with my light saber, backing it with another Force shield until he grew finally stopped. I holstered my light saber and held out both hands to Darth Brogan. The Force flowed out of my palms in snake like waves, wrapping around his helpless form, tightening like ropes around his body. I lifted him into the air, and let him hang vulnerable as I walked around his body looking at my younger brother's painful face as he looked at me from down on his knees. I drew my light saber, red blade extending out slowly and I walked back around my opponent who I could feel mentally fighting off my bonds.
"Please, spare me." He began to beg. "I can grant you powers you've never dreamed of."
"You mean the ones I've just overcome?" I asked, looking over my light saber blade interestedly.
"You," he hesitated on his argument. "Are more powerful than me."
"Clearly," I heard Shomari's bitter laugh.
"You could use my teachings to rule the universe." He laughed.
"You know," I tossed my light saber into the air. "My mom told me I shouldn't take on excessive responsibility."
I caught the light saber and sliced through Darth Brogan's waist, severing his torso from his legs. I dropped his bloody corpse to the ground and holstered my weapon. Immediately I jogged over to Shomari and held out my hand to help him up.
"Still burns?" I asked.
"Mildly," he answered in a would-be steady voice.
"Hold still," I commanded. I held my hand out to his wound and let a calming flow of Force out as it healed the gaping wound. I stopped after a few moments satisfied with my work.
"Thanks," he said.
"I owe you." I responded, waving off his gratefulness.
"How so?" he raised an eyebrow.
"You kept me from losing Raena." I said.
"We're family," he responded. "You won't lose anything if I can help it."
Suddenly we both stopped, I felt a dim wave of heat pass through my entire body, warning of impending danger.
"Bounty hunters?" I growled frustrated.
"Most likely." He answered.
"This is definitely going to put a taint on my hopes of searching for clues about mom." My fists clenched.
"Don't worry," he patted my shoulder. "I'm on it."
"I should be helping you!" I yelled.
"It's okay, Trance and Senator Amidala are still arguing your case in the senate."
"Trance is helping her?" I laughed. "He'll have the whole Federation after us soon."
"He's actually doing quite well," Shomari chuckled with me as he turned to leave me on my own against the mass of Bounty Hunters coming.
"Raena, where are you?" I telepathically called to her.
"On my way back, are you okay?" she seemed worried.
"Yes, but someone's going to have to sweep up Brogan," I arrogantly responded.
"There's bounty hunters on the way Déshawn," Raena warned.
"I know," I calmly told her.
"I mean, they're right behind me." She thought.
"Ah, do they know it?" I thought back to her abilities.
"No," she told me, suddenly by my side.
"Then let's move quickly." I grabbed her arm and we were off.