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"I wish you were wrong," Raena bowed her head.
"Why?" Johan said. "Other than the obvious reasons."
"Because, then we are dealing with another Sith." She sat down with an exhausted sigh.
"Well, I truly hope you're wrong," I told Raena. "Because that means I didn't kill the master, and I only took out two apprentices."
"That doesn't make sense," Raena looked at me. "What kind of Sith keeps two apprentices?"
"I didn't take them out at the same time," I sat next to her. "But the second apprentice was as powerful as most Sith Lords. I shudder to think if I'm powerful enough to handle the Sith Lord."
"We are powerful enough," Raena walked up next to me and laid her head on my shoulder. I took the cue to wrap my arm around her, pulling her close to me as she sighed in worry. "What can we do?"
"I'm not sure, everything seems so unclear to me right now," I honestly told Raena.
"Do you think Shomari can help?" she asked me looking up hopefully.
"I don't want Shomari in this fight." I told her. "Sith Lords aren't known for the number of light saber battles they get in. Sith Lords are feared for their knowledge of the Dark side of the Force. I doubt Shomari's knowledge of the Force in general would save him."
"We'll get through this," Raena assured me again.
"She right, sir." Johan added the "sir" after he realized he sounded a little disrespectful interrupting our conversation.
"Speaking of 'sir'," I said standing up. "I feel the need to renounce my position as your commander. Raena is in charge now."
"What?" Ambassador Tressle rushed up to me. "You can't leave, not in these circumstances."
"Relax Ambassador," I started.
"Nora." She corrected me.
"I don't plan on going anywhere Nora. I just don't feel the I deserve these responsibilities," I told her solemnly.
"Same old Déshawn," I heard a disgusted voice behind me. "You slip up once, and all of a sudden your 'not responsible enough' or you 'don't deserve to be in charge'. You're just this big sacrificing hero."
"Shut it," I growled warningly, my back turned to my verbal assailant.
"The truth of the matter is," Shomari continued.
"Quiet," I spun around facing him, anger welling up, despite my training.
"You're afraid. You're scared you can't handle it, so you just honorably denounce your position like the corrupt officials in the Senate," Shomari walked up into my face without slowing down his relentless accusations.
I snapped, and swung a right fist across his face knocking him backwards into a wall. He smiled through the blood leaking down his mouth and came right back at me. I caught his fist, and bent it back towards him, the tension of his wrist turning a direction it wasn't made for caused him to drop to one knee in an attempt to relieve the pressure.
"I am not afraid." My voice had a tinge of self-conviction in it that seemed to prove Shomari's point.
"Prove it to me," he swept my feet out from under me, in a spin that seemed to put his arm in more pain, until I fell. He got up swiftly and stood over me in a more menacing fashion than the one I had just displayed. "Lead us to victory Blazin."
Nora Tressle's nervousness was well suppressed, in a way that impressed even me. She sat at the table with a calm demeanor as her known enemy stared at her with clear hatred. Her fingers were gently interlaced with each other, and resting on the table nonchalantly. Her only security detail was Shomari and I. However, Jeidal Astor, the Naboo ambassador, came wit a security detail that reached the maximum allowed: 9 men. I wasn't sure why so many bodyguards were allowed, but I couldn't argue. Jeidal was a humanoid alien, his only distinguishable features being his fanged teeth, blood red eyes, and eccentrically shaped head. Jeidal seemed to be focusing his energy into trying to make Nora explode with the mere thought of his wish, but was failing miserably, as she didn't even look ruffled in the slightest. The building was designed exactly as the blueprints had told me. A smooth, steel dome shaped building with enough room to hold no more than a few hundred people, simply because it was supposed to be a spacious, but private, room. However, I'd learned something from the blueprint that had made me worry more than I would have if I'd not seen the blueprints. The first anamoly was that the building was built out of thousands of 2 foot by 2 foot slats. Normally a smooth building such as this one would have used 4 pieces at the most, but instead it had a lot of decently sized pieces. I normally would have written this off as simple creativity, except there was a powerful motor below it. The motor was lying in the ruins of an old temple that used resemble the one Johan and I had gotten attacked in, and that the ambassador had hid in with Raena. The conclusion of the motors purpose that I had come to was disturbing, and caused me to continually look around and use the Force to tune my ears outside of the building. The motors, as I had deducted, were used to open hidden slats in the dome to let fresh air flow through the sealed building, so that it didn't get suffocating inside. This made me wonder what creatively twisted uses the motor could be used for. I had Raena guarding it however, and I was sure that she would keep it well protected until I could give her reinforcements if necessary. I heard someone clear their throats causing my mind to stop wandering and immediately snap back to attention. I looked at Shomari signaling at the disclaimer on the table that said both security details felt the building secure enough to hold the negotiations in.
"Hurry up and sign," Shomari told me.
I waved my hand over the datapad letting the Force complete my work for me. I went back to scanning Raena's mind and the area around the building. I faintly heard ambassadors Nora Tressle and Jeidal Astor begin to argue. In truth it was more of Jeidal loudly disagreeing with every reasonable proposal Nora offered. Then I felt a spark of surprise from Raena that peaked my interest. Then I felt her presence slip away momentarily as she usually did in preparation for battle.
"Shomari," I whispered in a harsh undertone.
"I know, go check it out," Shomari centered himself behind ambassador Tressle and gripped both of his light saber blades.
I slipped away into the shadows of the dimly lit room. It wasn't hard, even for someone who wasn't very skilled at hiding his presence, because the room had one light, and it was shining on the table with Jeidal still not trying to be very agreeable.
