-- Chapter 21: Mourning and Crystal Feelings --

Mia and Torne raced down the path way to the hut that had set off the fire alarm in the computer system. She knelt in a passage off to the side and gestured for Torne to join her as they crouched in the shadows watching for anyone to leave or enter the area.

They did not wait more than one minute before several figures stumbled out of the doorway, two hauling a fighting figure as well. He was resisting with effort, but obvious no match or at least not in the right condition to resist the tormentors. His muffled voice grunted and let a shriek loose in anger or frustration.

Mia jumped out of the darken passage before Torne could stop her. Swearing to himself as her roughspun cloak slid off his fingertips, he rushed after her, pulling out his lightsaber, even though he didn't have the Force.

It would still cut and hurt if he hit anything with it, and make him look the part of an opposing figure.

Mia leaped to the attack the two closest to her while, Torne turned to deal with the two other assassins, struggling with their hostage or companion, whoever he may be.

He swung his lightsaber up and to the left, cracking an arm and stabbing through the taller assassin's throat.

Torne grimaced in grim understanding that the wound was fatal, deftly spinning to kick the dagger one of the assassins had dropped and sliced the man's throat.

Not pausing at the horrible gurgle and spray of blood exploding from the dead man's throat, Torne turned and levelled his lightsaber at the remaining two figures.

"Surrender, if you want to live!" He called out as he faced the last two remaining assassins; Torne couldn't see where or how Mia was doing in the darkness, he only hoped that there was no one else left.

Mia slinked out right up behind the assassin who had grabbed the other weakly struggling man and holding up a long wicked looking dagger.

"A bor shenarive! Nevaris de coope le meeth… Shui nora u chany!"

The man cried out and Torne shook his head, how he wished Alison or her sister and mother where here right now. They might be able to piece out what this man was saying, but his intent was clear enough.

Either he killed whoever was his hostage or let him go…

Torne brought up the lightsaber again to try and intimidate the man, when suddenly he sagged and blood dribbled out of his mouth, shock registering in the yellow eyes as he fell forward.

Mia looked at Torne who nudged the killed assassin, "if there's more like him, the alarm needs to be sounded."

Mia nodded and looked back to the hut, "the others are fine now. I pulled them to safety. I'll get help and we can take them back to Alison's hut. It's more protected than here."

Torne shook his head, "no… not if Alison's secret is to be kept a secret, Mia… Take them to my hut and we'll be better off there. Kail won't be able fight-"

"Padme is dead, Torne." Mia interrupted abruptly, staring into his eyes. "Knife wound to the back, pierced the heart directly. She bled to death."

Torne took in a deep breath and shuddered, "thank the Force; it wasn't you…" he thought but pulled Mia into his arms and crushed her to his chest instead. "Damn." He whispered, "Damn."

Mia kissed his cheek and then hoisted the rest of the boys onto a sled that she had uncovered earlier. Torne picked up Padme's body in his arms and looked the pale face; at least Padme had found peace now.

He hoped that she had for her sake.

Rick woke up in the darkness as a cool cloth was placed over his eyes. He grabbed at the hand instinctively as another smoothed back his hair. "It's good that you are awake now, how do you feel?"

Rick frowned as the hazy memories jumped around in his mind at hyper-speed and then everything came back to him.

"I… I'm fine now." He paused, "I think…"

The voice spoke again, relief in it. "What do you remember?"

"Padme…" Rick's voice turned hoarse as he sat up, "she was hurt."

"Yes, Padme was hurt. How badly was she hurt?"

"You saw her wounds, why don't you tell me."

"No," Rick swallowed as a tear slid from his eye and down his face, "that'd mean that I would have to admit that she is…"

The voice spoke again, "that what? I won't know until you tell me, young Ordo."

Rick drew in a shuddering breath, "that she is dead. Are you happy now!"

"No, we still have a war to fight." The woman stood up and left him, "you and your friends… should they wake up are to stay here no matter what you hear or may feel."

Rick was about to move when he saw Kail and Kevin the room with him on the beds, Kail deathly pale and Kevin looking slightly better.

Rain was restless as she tried to sleep so she gave up and left her hut. Strange that she hadn't seen Padme recently, but Rain figured going to find the wayward zabrak, half mandalorian would only result in interrupting Kail and Padme in an embarrassing moment.

She started to get out of her bed, but her sleep-fogged brain did not register that she was sleeping in a hammock and this resulted in landing on the dirt floor of the ground.

She spat out dirt from her mouth and listened to the night around her, and watched as the orange glow of light played over her hut wall…

"Wait… there shouldn't be an orange glow…" Rain thought, as she scrambled over to the hut door and threw it wide open. Yells and screams as torches carried by people were to be seen.

The lights, screams, and flashes of light caught on metal clicked in Rain's mind as one. War, they were fighting a battle in the village. "Kinraar!" Rain shouted grabbing her weapons and cutting the wookiee's hammock with a swipe of her vibrodagger.

"You better have a good reason for doing that, little one." Kinraar growled as she glared up at Rain who tossed her weapons onto Kinraar's chest and pointed out of the door, "fighting, we've got to help."

Kinraar didn't argue as the two girls raced out the door into the thick of battle. They were needed, whether the village wanted their help or not.

They where Jedi…

Alison lay awake in her hut, listening to the screams of men, women, and the youths as they fought, fell wounded or died. She clenched her fists in annoyance, staring up at the ceiling of he darkened hut. Mia had threatened to tie her to the bed and bolt the door.

Mia had done both that, except she had left two blaster pistols, one blaster rifle, and a long-sword in case their 'guest' woke up and proved violent or harmful to her.

Alison heard the patter of feet and some grunts before the door to her hut slammed opened and Torne stumbled through backwards, blood running down the side of his face in a jagged cut.

Alison pulled up the blaster pistol and blasted a hole through his assailant's face. Torne slammed up against the wall and relaxed briefly, glancing at Alison and their 'guest.'

"I see Mia made good on her threat," he told her, grinning as he wiped the blood off his forehead in vain.

"Shut up and give me access to the computer grid. I saw the gun turrets on the way in here, I can reprogram to fire on the enemy."

Torne blanched, "no way, you could hit the villagers or us! I'm not going to do-"

"What do you suggest?" Alison retorted in annoyance, "The war won't stop until we show the people that their knowledge of the Force is wrong. We can't even frigging use it on this planet!"

Torne glanced at her and sighed, giving into her fierce determination; "all right then. But be careful, I'll guard the door and our 'guest.' Good luck."

"Okay," Alison nodded as she typed cryptic codes into the datapad that Torne had tossed her, hooked into Mia's computer terminal, linking to the entire computer database.

Mia looked up as she crashed into Rain and shouted above the roar of battle, "Have you seen your brother? We got separated in the fight!"

Rain pulled Mia up, "not to long ago. He got pushed into a hut and then stayed there. I'm assuming he's okay, I saw his assaulter killed by a blaster shot."

Suddenly the turrets on the village wall whirled to life as they fired, bursts of plasma and blaster fire shot through the night, blasting away weapons from the Garcia and killing a few in the process.

Ten minutes later an amplified voice echoed over the PA system.

"Attention! Everyone will throw down their weapons and surrender to the Villagers. The leader of the Garcia will report to the flag area, where Mia and Victor to negotiate the release situation with the Leader of the Garcia."

An impressive display of holographic images of snipers around the village encampment dispelled any thought of rebelling.

Rick rolled over. Whatever he'd been dreaming, it hadn't been pleasant. After a moment of thought, he remembered what it had been: Kail, bowing down before someone or great power: a Force witch; Rick remember she'd been called that.

Only after remembering that did he realize Kail was not laying down, though there was a few spots of blood every here and there, which was obviously a trail the Echani boy had left. Rick tried to stand; if Kail had gone out in search of Padme…well, he could let him find her in the condition he was in.

But he was obviously not fully recovered from the gas grenade (how Kail had managed to move was beyond him), and could not move without falling over. This happened twice before he decided to get back into the bed. Which was when a thought occurred to him: he remembered once he'd seen the Lady Revan use some sort of Force technique to move part of herself away from her body. Maybe…

He closed his eyes, focusing on…on what? He focused on himself, tried to picture two of himself. Then he tried focusing on Kail, then focusing on the Force itself.

Nothing.

"Damnit, Kail!" He shouted, punching the bedside table. His body jerked as his thoughts drifts between Kail and Padme, and he fell into a comatose state.

Kail staggered through the battleground that had used to be the village compound. Everyone was so busy fighting they didn't seem to notice one lone teenager staggering through the battlefield. He wouldn't have cared if either side had noticed he was unarmed. Right then nothing mattered to him.

He made it to his destination: the Morgue. He weakly pushed the door open, where he found dozens of dead soldiers. But he wasn't looking for a soldier; he was looking for a girl.

And he found her. Her clothes had been cleaned, as had her wounds. It didn't matter to Kail, she was dead, and that meant wounds no longer bothered her.

He spun around suddenly, his Echani sense picking up another life form behind him. At first there was only a faint glow, and then the glow expanded till it became Rick.

"How…?"

"Something Revan taught me." Rick examined himself. Everything was the same, except his skin was deathly pale, and his eyes were not quite as coloured.

"Revan 'taught you'?" Kail asked. "I thought we weren't able to use the Force here?"

"Maybe this particular power isn't a Force power." Rick suggested. "Like your Echani sense, it isn't humanly possible, and yet you can do it here without the Force."

"Sensing is one thing, projecting yourself away of your body is another thing entirely." Kail snapped. Rick held his hands in defence. Kail murmured an apology, and then turned back to Padme's body. "Why did they do it, Rick…?" He asked. "Why did they have to come after us?"

Rick had no answer.

There wasn't any.

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