Shadows of Heroines and Heroes

.:Seeing Double:.

Kail was awake, but he kept his eyes closed, instead using the Force to scan the room he was in. There were two other life forms and both were strong in the Force.

In fact, he could sense a great many Force energies in the building. This was strange since he was no where near as powerful in the Force as Rick or Kinraar, and neither of them would normally be able to sense Force powers outside of the room they were in.

He turned his scan to himself. He'd been stripped of his weapons, and was no longer in his robes. Instead, he was only wearing a pair of pants.

Kail opened his eyes, turned to the two guards and gathering the Force into his hand, he unleashed a blast of Force power in a wave of energy.

The guards had obviously not been expecting the attack, or they would surely have been able to stop it.

Kail stood and searched the room. He found some clothes in a footlocker at the end of the bed, a red tunic and some beige pants, and some rope and a small vibrodagger in a plasteel container in the corner.

Dragging the guards toward the back of the room, Kail cut the rope into separate lengths. He used some of it to tie the guards up, and then attached the rest of it to his belt. His mother had taught him that anything can be made into weapon, and he was beginning to appreciate those lessons.

Sneaking out of the room, he held the vibrodagger tightly in his right hand, his left hand hovering around the rope.

Cautiously, Kail found his way through the building and managed to locate a computer console. Looking around, he found a stack of unused datapads in a box.

Kail smirked as he swiped one of the datapads and turned back to the computer and managed to hack in and download the building layout to his datapad, and that made his pathway a little easier.

He turned away from the console with the intention of heading straight to the exit of the building when he ran head-on into someone.

Both Kail and the other boy were knocked to the ground. Kail looked into the face of the boy, and suddenly had the feeling he was looking into a mirror.

They had exactly the same face and the same white blonde hair colour.

Only the other boy had his hair cut extremely short like all the other male Derallians. And his eyes were green, not blue.

"What the-?" Kail started, but the boy clapped a hand over his mouth, then held a finger to his own, telling Kail to remain silent. When Kail nodded, the boy relinquished his hold over Kail's mouth, and signalled for him to follow.

Kail was led back down the halls and then into a side passage that led to a spiral staircase. The other boy pulled out and activated two glowrod and tossed one to Kail.

The two teenagers crept down the stairs; they both excelled in stealth skills so avoiding detection was easy.

When they had finally reached the bottom of the stairs, the teenager turned around to Kail and spoke.

"Now we may speak. If the guards had heard you, they most certainly have placed you under arrest." Kail was stoic.

"Okay, first thing's first." A dramatic pause for good measure. "How the hell do you look like me?" The boy shrugged.

"Of that, I am unsure. What's your name? It may help me come up with an explanation." After a second's hesitation, Kail obliged.

"My name is Kail Raner." The other teenagers' eyes widened in shock.

"Raner?" He looked away for a moment, his lips curving into what looked like a not-quite-believing smile. He turned back to Kail. "My name is Jaden Raner. My mother is Serene Raner."

"My father is Biggs Raner."

"Serene's long lost brother is no longer lost it seems." Jaden smirked. "He was taken with the last Master to be trained as a Jidai."

"Jedi." Kail corrected.

"Yeah, whatever. So, if you're Biggs' son, and I'm Serene's son, then that makes us cousins." Jaden said. Kail nodded.

"It's a small galaxy. So, er, why exactly did you bring me here?" Jaden's smirk disappeared and was replaced by a thoughtful look.

"It's a long story."

"As far as I know, I'm not going anywhere." Kail said, taking a seat on the cold floor. His cousin sat down next to him.

"It started not long after your father and the old Master's daughter, Revan, were taken by the Jidai-"

"It's Jedi!" Kail whispered tersely, annoyed now.

"The old Master fell into depression at losing his only daughter. The rumours were that the depression drove him away from the Light Side Deralia was once covered with. He began to delve into the Dark arts and then he took an apprentice."

"Who was Revan's mother?" Kail interrupted as Jaden shrugged, not answering his cousin's question.

"She was once a beautiful young woman, the daughter of a powerful white-witch. But the old Master polluted her thoughts and twisted her into a tool of the Dark Side."

"And she was-" Kail tried to ask but Jaden ignored him again.

"Now she is gathering all the powerful Force users to her, and hoping to squash the light off Deralia forever. According to my mother, only three Force users remain between the Master and complete domination of the city, and then the planet."

"Jaden!"

"Yes?" Jaden asked.

"You keep ignoring my questions!"

"I didn't ignore them; I just didn't answer them. Because I don't know the answers..." Jaden said.

"Okay." Kail took a deep breath. He'd only known his cousin a few moments, and already he was becoming frustrating. "Do you know who the three remaining Force users are?"

"Yes, I do." Jaden said. Kail waited for a moment.

"Well? Who are they?"

"Oh, right." Jaden said. He seemed to have not noticed that Kail's question had also held a second question. Most people would think that, but Kail had pulled the same trick dozens of times; the two of them were obviously more alike then he first thought.

"The three Force users are an old woman named Tennenia, or Nia; a girl named Paige and, er-" Jaden trailed off. Kail closed his eyes, gathering the Force around him. He opened his eyes, but only half, using a technique Visas Marr had taught him.

What he saw amazed him. Not only was Jaden surrounded by Light Side power, he was practically swimming in it.

Kail shook himself out of the way of sight, seeing normally again.

"It's you, you're the final Force user!" Jaden nodded.

"The three of us have gone into hiding down here. The Master has made two failed attempts to abduct me, and there have been several attempts on Nia's life. Thankfully, Paige has avoided his notice for the moment." Kail stared at his cousin in shock, and rested his head on his knees.

"This Master of yours, does he live here?" Jaden did not answer, only giving his cousin a scathing look.

"No, Jaden, listen to me!" Kail's eyes and face shone with desperation. "I'm not alone here, my friends and I crashed on Deralia, there are eight of us and we're all force users." Jaden paled.

"This is not good, not good at all."

As if to accompany his words, a tremor shook the building twice as thunder rolled above them in the sky and lightening flashed.

The Master had returned…

Rick led Kinraar, Kevin and Kail down the streets. Padme walked at the back of the group; Torne and Rain were walking behind Rick, and the droids were in front of Padme.

"Rick, look out!" Padme shouted. A bolt of lightning, guided by the Dark Side of the Force, had struck through the sky toward Rick only to be cancelled out by a second bolt of electricity emitting from Alison's hand.

Rick turned back to look at Alison. A lot of people may have thought it strange to see a Jedi use Dark Side Force powers, but Revan and Jolee had taught them that a Jedi did not need to fear the Dark Side, but rather, to feel the Dark Side, call upon its power and let the influence pass through them.

Rick was only ticked off because Alison was out of the ship.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He shouted.

"Thank you so much for saving my hide, Alison." Alison said in a mocking tone. "Oh, that's no trouble at all." She glared at him. "And before you start, I feel absolutely fine."

Rick narrowed his eyes, but he did feel that she was completely recovered. Normally, he would have found this suspicious. However, after everything he'd learned and everything he'd seen, he'd grown into the fact that the Force could do a great many things.

Kail looked up toward the ceiling.

"My friends." He whispered.

"What?" Jaden asked, his face betraying little emotion as to what he was feeling.

"I told you I wasn't the only one, my friends are in danger up there!" Kail stood and began to run toward the stairs.

"Kail, you can't go up there!" Jaden shouted, but his cousin had gathered the Force and focused it into his legs, and was now speeding up the stairs almost faster then the eye could see.

Kail reached the top of the stairs and quickly opened the door. He was met by four guards, four unconscious guards.

Not caring how they had gotten that way, he continued his rush through the hallways of the building, quickly finding the exit. Then, when he was outside of the building and stripped of its protection, things started to go wrong.

As soon as he'd stepped out onto the street, he felt a dark presence approaching him. He turned around, and saw a tall, dark robed figure walking towards him.

Kail would have given up a lot to have his lightsaber with him; especially when the robed figure ignited a crimson saber.

Kail detached the rope from his belt and prepared for an attack. If this, person wanted to hurt him, he'd being putting up one hell of a fight first.

As the figure grew closer, Kail spun the rope and cracked it like a whip in the figure's direction. The rope-whip, guided by the Force, dodged the attack from the lightsaber and encircled the figure's wrist.

Kail had intended to pull on the rope and hopefully disarm the Dark Jedi, but his plans were ended when the Dark Jedi did the pulling. And Kail felt the rope twist in his grip, and then it had twisted around his wrist like a snake, ending in a tight knot.

He tried to untie it but the rope twisted up as he brought his other hand toward it, and he had to pull it back to keep from having both his wrists tied.

"Well, that was much easier then I thought." The Dark Jedi hissed.

"It isn't over yet!" Kail whispered. He narrowed his eyes, and the crimson lightsaber was ripped from the Dark Jedi's slackened grip. Kail held out his free hand and caught it, then quickly cut himself free.

"Look who's unarmed now." Kail said, smirking a little.

"Well, it certainly isn't me!" The Dark Jedi held his arm out next to him, and two more lightsabers seemed to appear out of nowhere into his hands, both igniting.

Kail's eyes widened in horror as the Dark Jedi rushed toward him. He held up his one lightsaber to block one attack, but he still expected to feel the searing pain of the second lightsaber.

It never came, there was just the hiss of two lightsabers meeting then parting.

"About time you showed up!" Kail said as he and Padme worked in unison against the Dark Jedi.

It was no longer two lightsabers against one. Now it was three lightsabers against two.

The two crimson sabers and one blue saber were blurs in the air as they beat the Dark Jedi back. Padme and Kail moved as one, striking, blocking, slashing, and stabbing.

Then the Dark Jedi suddenly propelled himself into the air with the Force, not even making the physical effort to jump into the air. He did a back flip and landed a few meters out of reach of the lightsabers.

Then he unleashed a Force storm upon the two teenagers. They tried to catch the lightning in their lightsabers, but the lightning quickly overpowered the sabers and shut them down.

Once again, Alison was there behind them and using her own Force lightning to block his.

Padme stood and joined her own Force lightning with Alison's and they started to use the lightning to give the Dark Jedi a long and painful death.

Then the Dark Jedi began to cackle evilly. He held up his hands and with sudden and unexpected power, the lightning was blasted back at the entire group.

"Why is it, everywhere we go, we seem to upset someone?" Kail questioned from his bed, sensing that Rick had regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw Rick sitting up and looking over the beds. Rick suddenly sat up.

"Where are Padme and Alison?"

Kail also sat up, maybe a little faster than he should have. But he didn't care. He looked around the room, but he could not see Alison or Padme anywhere.

The two boys heard a door open, and Rick's mouth fell open when Jaden walked, frowning at them.

"Oh, er, you're awake. I am guessing that you've discovered the disappearance of your friends then?" Jaden asked.

"Where is Padme?" Kail demanded, in a way he had not thought he was capable of.

"I'm afraid that when the Dark Jedi rendered you all unconscious, she took those two with her. It is likely she will try to turn them to the Dark Side and make the strongest her apprentice."

"Then we have to save them!" Rick said, trying to get up. However, his body had still not recovered from the thousands of volts of electricity that had coursed through it and he almost fell flat on his face.

Luckily for his pride, Kail was strong enough to use the Force to catch his friend in a Force grip and lifted him back onto his bed.

"I agree we must save them, but rushing up to the mountain palace at only half health is suicide." Kail said.

Reluctantly, Rick agreed, and he lay back down to rest. Kail, however, turned back to look at Jaden. He was no longer feeling the half hearted excitement about learning his family was bigger then his mother, father and half-sister.

He was now feeling a sense of foreboding, and he felt like something was pushing him away from Jaden.

Then Kail's body suddenly jerked and he saw something in his mind's eye. Padme, fighting him, no, it was Jaden! Everything was black and white except their blood red lightsabers.

The vision ended and Kail was left shaken. Force visions were never something to be relied on, but something about this one was trustworthy. It had been too realistic to ignore.