PART 3

An Unwelcome Surprise

He shoved the thoughts aside again. The words "He shall be executed at first light." echoing through his head.

Blood was pounding in his ears as he neared the village. The screams had died down upon his approach. "This would have been much quicker if you had brought your land speeder" he told himself. His breath burned his throat as he neared exhaustion. Finally Verbal broke through a tree line and could see the village roughly 1000 meters in front of him. He stopped and listened intently. He could hear nothing now. Verbal knew that all that meant was everyone in the village was either dead or too injured to make any noise. He could not tell if the Jedi was still there.

Verbal stood for a moment catching his breath before carefully making his way toward the village. He headed strait towards a large guild hall on the edge of town closest to him. He knew that was the safest way into the village. The hall would partially cover his walk to the village so he would not so easily be spotted.

As he got closer he got a whiff of something strong in the air. So strong he could almost taste it. "Burnt flesh" he told himself. A smell he had experienced before, but not as strong as this. "How many have you killed" he asked quietly.

Verbal made it behind the hall without seeing anyone at all; he just hoped no one had seen him. He crept slowly around the side of the hall so he could get a look into the village itself. When he worked his way to the front corner he saw the first body, an unarmed woman that had been cut nearly in half. Then he saw another body, and another.

He crept around to the front of the hall and found a statue that would help him stay hidden. The guild hall stood at the end of one of the main roads that led right to the city hall. The bodies of men, women and children lay scattered everywhere. "But who?" he asked himself, "Not even a dark Jedi is capable of this."

A scream broke the silence from somewhere near city hall. "NO!"

Verbal left the protection of the statue for a better view. What he saw made his blood run cold.

A young man, no more then 16 years old ran from one of the side streets onto the main avenue. "WE'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU!" he screamed as he ran stumbling for his life, "PLEASE-" the young man was cut off as a Jedi wearing a dark cloak flew from the alley way he had just run from. A blue saber ignited in mid air and the Jedi's whole body twisted as its blade whipped through the young man's body, cauterizing the wound as it cut through. The young man fell to the ground; torso and legs landed about 3 meters from each other. The blue saber instantly disappeared as the Jedi landed in a roll and sprung to its feet graceful as a cat.

"These attacks were unprovoked, why would anyone do this?" Verbal asked himself. "Perhaps I should find out."

Verbal stepped into the middle of the avenue as the Jedi dusted off its cloak. "JEDI!" he screamed.

The Jedi looked down the avenue at Verbal. The blue saber ignited again as the Jedi began running towards him. Verbal watched the Jedi come, black cloak billowing in the air as it gained speed. Verbal saw no face, just a black cloth protecting its identity. The Jedi was traveling like a bolt of lightning towards him, never had he seen any creature move so fast, not even a Jedi.

The Jedi was upon him almost instantly, Verbal spun to the ground swinging his leg to try and knock the Jedi off balance but the Jedi just hopped over and swung its saber downward at him. Verbal barely rolled out of the way as the saber scorched the earth just inches from his head. He recovered to his feet quickly ready for another attack but the Jedi kept moving towards the opposite side of the guild hall that Verbal had moments before crept from.

Verbal gave chase. The Jedi made it around the corner of the guild hall and verbal heard a speeder jump to life. Out from around the corner of the hall the Jedi sped on its speeder and strait at verbal again. The blue saber sprung to life again as the Jedi stood and prepared to strike again. Verbal dropped and rolled out of the way, he reached into his cloak and pulled out his old vibro knucklers and sprung back to his feet. He took aim and threw the knucklers at the assailant. The Jedi looked back at Verbal just in time to see the knucklers spinning like a whirlwind, only meters away. The Jedi went to grab the knucklers out of the air but miss calculated and got its finger nearly sliced off. The knucklers fell to the dirt and the speeder turned at the city hall and sped away from the village.

Verbal kneeled and listed, making sure the speeder did not change direction and return. After a few moments the sound of the speeder faded completely. He stood and walked to where his knucklers had fallen. On the blade was exactly what he had hoped to find, fresh blood. He picked them up and headed towards city hall. At city hall he found a map of the city. He located the med center and headed that way.

"Let's find out who you are," he said to himself.

Verbal walked to the med center passing roughly 50 dead bodies on the way. When he stepped inside he located the hospitals medical droid and switched it on.

"Greeting Doctor Harrison- you are not Dr Harrison-" the droid began but Verbal cut it off.

"I believe your doctor is dead, you are going to help me find out who killed him and the rest of the villagers." Verbal told it.

"Of course sir," the droid replied.

Verbal gave the droid the blood sample from the knucklers and the droid promptly went to work analyzing the DNA.

A while later while meditating Verbal was approached by the droid. "Sir," he said, "I have the results."

Verbal jumped to his feet and took the data pad the droid handed him. "This is impossible," he said staring at the data pad.

"Sir, I assure you my analysis is correct-" the droid began but was cut off.

"Where is your comm?" Verbal asked the droid.

The droid indicated a bank of computers in the corner. Verbal went and sat down and opened a comm link to the only people he knew he could trust, those who took him in after all he had was taken from him.

The comm crackled to life, "Verb, where the hell have you been?" it was Phoe.

"Phoe I need you and Alaera to run a DNA scan through your contacts and get me any information you can." Verbal replied.

"Sure thing buddy, who is it?" Phoe asked.

"Transmitting you the information now." Verbal said, "Stand by."

Verbal inserted a wire from the data pad into the comm and pressed a button.

A moment later the comm came to life again. "Verb, we just got the info," it was Alaera this time, "This DNA sample is from Zonia."

"I know," he replied trying to hide the emotions he got when he heard her name spoken aloud.

"Verb… Zonia died almost 3 years ago by your own hand, why are you sending me this?" Alaera asked with great concern in her voice.

"Zonia's still alive," he replied, "Somehow… she is still alive"