10. Alixen and Alex
6th day,10th month,standard year 24933
We're leaving. We're on the ship home. Tahl's gone somewhere else. She knows when I like to be left alone.
Just when I was writing the last entry, Master came in. He said we were leaving.
"But..."
"The parties have reached an agreement." he said in his elegant voice. "There's nothing left to do here."
I so nearly said "What about Alixen?" but the Force screamed at me "No!". At least, I think it was the Force.
"Pack your things." Master said, and bizzarely, I wanted him to put his hand on my shoulder, and tell me Alixen was fine and nothing would happen to her for what she did. But of course he didn't. So as soon as he left, I ran out and downstairs and through countless corridors (They call this a house. It's more like a castle) and then I stopped next to a portrait, one of General Kossa in a heroic pose. The Force told me to take it down.
I carefully unhooked it from the wall and put it on the floor. There was a door behind it.
Go down there the Force said.
I opened the door. Another corridor lay beyond it. The door at the end had a light under it, and that was the one I ran towards.
I heard Alixen's voice.
I saw the blood on the door and the walls.
And although it was stupid (these past few days have really been days for doing stupid things) I opened the door. It opened easily. It was a huge, huge room. Alixen, Kossa and some guards were right down at the other end. They didn't see me.
Kossa held a stick in his hand.
"Was anyone with you at all?"
"I said NO!" Alixen yelled.
"No-one? No family member? No strangers picked up from the streets?"
Alixen cursed at him. "No."
There was a crack and Alixen moaned.
"Alixen Risus." Kossa said. "Is that really your name?"
"Yes." She was broken.
"And this was entirely your own doing?" He gestured to something- a charred mess in the corner. It was a bomb.
"Yes, I did it myself. It should have killed you. One day, something will, and I'll spit in your face when I see you in hell."
The guards mades 'Ooooo'-ing sounds and one of them kicked her.
"Firey little wench, this one." Kossa said. He waved his hand, oh-so-casually.
"Go on, then."
One of the guards pulled out a blaster. and pointed it at her.
She saw me then. She smiled. Then there was a 'zing' noise. It could have been the sound of my lightsabre turning on, or the sound of a speeder zipping past, or the sound of metal hitting metal. but it wasn't. It was the sound of Alixen being put to death.
I was out of there before they could see me. Back to my room. I told Master about the hidden corridor- and then he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Well done, Padawan." And then he was off.
I think the Governor got arrested, or something. Something happened, anyway. But I don't know. And I can't make myself care.
I told Tahl everything, though. She squeezed my hand, and we sat in silence, and then said "Alex."
"What?"
"Shouldn't we find him?"
"We have -what, twenty minutes at best. Maybe if we ran, really really fast...."
It was silly, but we ran out anyway. Before we were very far away from the house, we ran into Alex.
He looked at us, we looked at him, and then he turned away. He walked. He kept walking and didn't look back.
"Alex!" Tahl yelled.
He didn't answer her. In fact, he started running, and was gone in a matter of minutes.
We didn't have time to run after him. We watched him go.
*****
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