46. Of Hatred, Revenge, And Bananas
*****
We stepped out of the cupboard. We were standing in a perfectly ordinary-looking building.
"There'll be a guard at the door," Lieson whispered. "And my mother...she likes to spy on me. She might be around."
"What if she is?" I whispered.
"You work that out."
We started moving slowly.
"What's the Breathing Bridge?" Amiri asked.
"You don't want to know,"
"I do."
"Fine. Underneath this place there's a network of tunnels. That's where my mother lives and operates her hopeless bunch of terrorists. The Breathing Bridge is a torture device."
"Oh," Amiri said, in a weak and tired voice. "That."
His voice softened. "Yeah. It's named after a place in an old story my mother used to like. The Breathing Bridge was the bridge between life and death."
Amiri nodded. I wondered if Lieson was trying to keep her mind off her wounds.
We inched our way round a corner (I was half dragging Amiri) and we saw a trapdoor in the middle of the corridor.
"That's the exit from the torture chambers. No-one will be there now," he said, with a grim little smile. We went past it round another corner. The place was like a maze.
"How far to the exit?" I whispered.
"Not long."
Amiri spoke up again. "Drekka...that woman...your mother...why does she want to hurt the Jedi so much?"
"Where to start? She doesn't want them interfering on this planet, she thinks they have more power than they deserve...but I think the main one is that a Jedi killed her mother."
"Really?"
"Her mother was a murderer. She deserved it. She was killed far away on Tatooine, and when my mother heard she vowed revenge." Amiri gave a small start.
He led us round a few more corners, and then suddenly stopped in front of a door.
"Wait here," he ordered. He opened the door and dodged inside. There was the sound of him rummaging through cupboards, and then he emerged, holding my lightsabre in his hand.
"Here," he said, handing it to me. "I saw her put it in there earlier. I couldn't find yours, though," he said, looking apologetically at Amiri.
"S'alright," she said.
"The exit's just around here."
We followed him, and found ourselves opposite a large wooden door.
"They just don't make terrorist headquarters like they used to," Amiri said, with a tiny grin. I was still holding her.
"Well, this door's locked, outisde this door there's a field, and in that field there's a couple of swamps, and a few thermal detonators..." He grinned. "Don't worry, my ship's outside. We can fly right over it."
I nodded. "I'll cut through this, then."
"Better do it quickly."
I activated my lightsabre and it buit into the door. I started cutting through, making a hole for us to climb through. I'd almost managed to move the blade around in a complete circle when I felt the sharp pain of a blaster bolt in my arm.
"Ow!"
I turned around, and Amiri and Lieson did too. Drekka and three guards were standing there. All were holding blasters.
"Oh, Lieson," Drekka said sweetly. "How would you like to die?"
"In a way that ensures I take you with me," he said, his voice as hard and cold as ice.
"Oh, Lieson," she said again in a sick singsong voice. "You like to read, you like to study, you must know what the gods do to those who kill their own family. The greatest crime of all, spilling blood that is your own blood, burning flesh that is your own flesh..."
"Shut UP!" And he dived at her. She was knocked to the ground with a horrible thud. The guards opened fire.
"Get the girl!" Drekka shrieked, jumping up with blood on the back of her head. "Kill her!" Then Lieson punched her, and she staggered back against the wall.
Amiri dodged blaster bolts desperately. She would never do it without a lightsabre...and everyone seemed to have forgotten about me.
"Amiri!" I shrieked, and I threw my lightsabre to her. She grabbed it, and started fighting for her life. I was left weaponless. I started pounding the door, hitting the bit where I'd cut with the lightsabre. If I couldn't do anything else I could at least make us an exit. I felt a blaster bolt coming towards me.
Amiri dived, only just managing to deflect it safely away. It shot off to the left, and hit one of the guards firmly in the chest. He fell to the ground. Amiri stopped for a second, frozen. She'd killed. That was enough time for a guard to smack her around the face with his blaster, making her, too, fall to the ground.
I gasped. Without daring to give myself time to think, I calling my lightsabre from her hand to mine, and stood over her. They shot at me, I deflected the bolts back, and one of them fell. I slashed forwards and took the other one's blaster arm off. Then I started slicing through the door once more.
Drekka and Lieson's battle was still raging. Blood was pouring down both their faces, and they both wanted the other dead. And...they were family. I wonder if I'd have felt the same as I did then if they weren't.
"Lieson," I yelled uneasily. "Just leave her. Come and help me!" I'd managed to make a hole in the door wide enough for us to get out of. Lieson didn't hear, or if he did he didn't want to. He slapped Drekka around the face once more. Her blood on his hands.
The only guard still alive reached for a fallen one's blaster with his remaining arm. Lieson saw, and he spun and kicked him round the face. The guard stumbled, and then fell over too.
That one second delay gave Drekka the time she needed. She grabbed Lieson, and slammed him into the wall. She pulled a knife from her pocket.
"No!" I said, and ran towards her. She glared, stuck her hand out at me...and a Force-push sent me flying backwards. I fell at an awkward angle, and pain shot through me.
Drekka glanced at her hand. "I...used...IT," she said in a whisper. "I'm sorry! I am! Forgive me, mother!"
She raised her eyes to the sky. I grabbed one of the blasters lying on the floor and threw it to Lieson. Before I could move or blink, he'd shot her in the head. She sank to the floor.
Silence fell.
"Let's go," Lieson muttered. "We carried Amiri through the hole in the door, to the ship, and out of there.
*****
I'm not entirely sure how to write this next bit.
We flew back to the capital of Zorgan. I spotted the building where the rooms that we'd been staying in were, and we landed outside there. Amiri had woken up on the journey there, but she'd soon lapsed back into unconciousness.
I carried her, and we made our way up to the building. But before we got there, I saw Master Dooku running towards us. His face was lined with worry.
"Master!" I yelled. He quickened his pace, reached us, and looked down at Amiri.
"What did they do?" he whispered furiously.
"She needs a Healer," I said.
Master turned to Lieson. "And you? You're her son, aren't you?"
"I am," he said.
"The most elite member of her little gang."
There was a flash of light...I know it was green, but in my memory it's blood-red...and Lieson suddenly fell. I gave a yell. My Master led me, still carrying Amiri, away. I could barely speak. "Why did you..."
"He's a member of Drekka's gang. They captured and tortured you. He captured and tortured you..."
"He helped us escape! And he killed his mother! You...you can't just leave him lying out there...you shouldn't have done that..."
There was shock in his eyes for about a moment, and then it was gone. "He was still a member of the gang."
"You shouldn't have killed him!"
But he would say no more on the subject. We took Amiri to our room, and called a Healer.
-----
And when she was better and heard the next day what had happened, she was furious.
"He saved us! He didn't have to save us, but he did! He killed his mother so she couldn't hurt anyone else! Why did you kill him?"
"I didn't know all this when I did," he said quietly. "I didn't think."
"That's no excuse!" She was getting hysterical. "Why did you kill him?"
"I had to..."
"No you didn't!"
He wouldn't look straight at her. "After I saw what had happened to you, I...I wanted to."
"Oh, you WANTED to?" she yelled angrily. "Well, guess what, occasionly during boring political negotiations and stuff I rather WANT to jump on a table and scream 'Bananas for everyone!', but DO I DO IT? NO!"
"Amiri, I would like you to calm down."
She paid no attention to that. "Kanak...you killed him. Maybe not entirely in anger...you didn't go that far." Her eyes were softer now. "But you did."
"I know."
And silence fell on the rest of that day.
*****