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Chapter Fourteen.
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"So nice to finally meet in the flesh."
Aiden sucked musty breaths through grit teeth and pressed his hands into the seems of his pants to stop the trembling as he stared up at Dooku. "I don't know what the blazes is happening, and I don't care. Your pet psycho is trying to kill Barriss. Call her off now, or I don't do a single thing for you anymore."
Dooku faintly smiled. "I assure you, slicer, if Miss Sing were trying to kill your friend, she would already be dead."
Aiden's brow lowered. "You ordered her?"
"It wouldn't do for the young padawan to see us speaking and learn of our partnership, now would it?"
He pressed his teeth together. "Call her off. Now."
"Miss Sing will disengage your friend as soon as you and I are safely away from this... establishment."
Aiden followed his gaze to the back door of the Chance Lounge, the faint hisses and snaps of lightsabers clashing together still filtering from inside.
"I suppose you could say Miss Sing is waiting on you."
He exhaled and closed his eyes. I'm gonna destroy both of these bastards... "Fine," he ground out. "Let's go."
A twitch of the mustache. "Not just yet."
The slapping of boots on duracrete faded closer, and two patrol troopers swept around the neon-washed corner of the Chance Lounge, blasters pointed toward the back exit. Featureless lenses snapped toward them, and white armor froze in the green glow.
A heartbeat passed, and Dooku raised a mild eyebrow.
The stillness broke like a snap, and rifles clattered against armored shoulders, one of them pressing a finger to the side of his helmet. "Dooku is on Coruscant! Repeat, Dooku—"
Dooku raised a hand, and a blinding flash exploded forward, blue tendrils crackling through the haze. The tendrils arced across the trooper's bodies, lashing blue fire that etched dark canyons through pearl armor like melted wax.
Burned ozone mixed with the sickly-sweet melding of plastic and flesh as screams tore from inside their helmets, and then all at once, everything was silent except for the ever-nearing sirens in the distance.
Aiden stood frozen, lips parted despite everything in him telling him to close his mouth, hold his breath, and just run.
"Now we may go."
Dooku still stood at the top of the ramp leading into the shuttle, not a hair out of place or faltering of the gaze. "Miss Sing has expressed interest in learning such things. Of course, such things are best practiced on living targets. Perhaps a young padawan who was captured because her friend wouldn't do as I say?"
The stench filled and twisted Aiden's stomach, and he swallowed. "I'm coming," he said quietly. "Let Barriss go... I'm coming."
Another twitch of the mustache, and Dooku extended an arm toward him, beckoning him to enter.
Aiden scrubbed his palms against his pantlegs, and glanced at the door of the Lounge as he ascended the ramp.
Something glinted for a fleeting moment on a distant rooftop beyond the neon. But before he could flick his eyes to it, a dull thunk whispered against the ship's hull and the ramp closed behind him, plunging the rows of seats lining the cabin into darkness.
Dooku walked to the cockpit. "Make yourself comfortable, slicer. We've a long journey ahead of us."
He disappeared into the shadows of the threshold, and Aiden looked at the seat closest to him and released a shaky breath he hadn't known he was holding.
Feels like it's been going on forever, already.
OOO
The searing, red blur streaked down on her through the shadows of the corridor.
Barriss lifted her saber, and a crashing jolt rattled her bones from her aching wrists down through her shoulders pinned against sticky floors that seemed to grab hold of her and urge the ghost above to land the killing blow.
Aurra drew her arm back once more, eyes set like fire, and Barriss tucked her free leg and rocketed her foot into the specter's ivory chest.
Aurra's breath exploded out of her, and Barriss shoved her hand forward, the onyx hem of her sleeve flapping.
Aurra launched back as if picked up and thrown down, and a grunt choked out as she smacked into the floor.
Barriss rolled to her feet and threw her hand forward again as Aurra lifted herself up and locked narrowed eyes on her.
Aurra's own pale hand shot forward, and the haze permeating the corridor rippled around her even as her feet stayed rooted in place, ponytail whipping behind her head as her lips tilted. "You're a one-trick-pony, aren't you?" She chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "Doesn't work so well when someone knows how to push back, does it?"
The old fire embered the first of its presence beneath her discipline, and Barriss gripped her saber with both hands and slid into a ready stance. "I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve. Come here and I'll show you."
Another chuckle. "You've spent too much time with the slicer. Jedi don't talk like that." A communicator on her belt chirped once, and the tilt of her lips grew. She shifted her footing, angling the tip of her blade toward Barriss as armored footfalls echoed closer further inside the lounge. "It's been fun, princess. Have a nice death."
She lunged, and Barriss arced her saber into the path of the red streak.
Aurra pivoted at the last second, batting her saber aside, and rammed her shoulder into Barriss' sternum with more force than was possible.
Pain burst through her chest, and her back smacked into the corridor wall with a metallic clang as her strength faltered for the shortest moment. Dots swam in her vision, and the specter's footsteps raced for the exit.
Blast! She grit her teeth and scrambled to her feet, devouring the ground separating her from Aurra with pounding steps.
Aurra waved her hand at the door at the end of the darkness, and gears grinded as light pierced through the widening gap. She slipped through the opening into the haze.
A blaster shot cracked, and the haze flashed like a blink.
Barriss' heart jumped, and she charged through the gap after her, saber raised defensively across her body.
Aurra stood still as a corpse in the fog, facing away from her.
A charred hole still smoldering gold around the edges burned through her back.
Barriss slammed to a halt, lips parting.
Slowly, Aurra scraped sluggish feet across stained duracrete as she turned around, mouth open, and fixed a shell-shocked gaze on something above and behind Barriss.
And through the murk, on a rooftop in the distance, a shard of light struck the lens of a rifle scope tucked under a wide-brimmed hat. The lanky hand holding the rifle reached up and racked the charging bolt once, and the figure disappeared behind the edge of the roof, swallowed by the haze.
Barriss gripped her saber tighter. "Bane..." What was going on? There was no sense to this...
A gasping exhale broke behind her, followed by a muted thump.
Aurra lie flat on her back, head lolling, sucking in strained breaths.
Barriss' mind flashed back to the Lounge hall. Aurra's communicator beeping once. The smirk that tilted her lips after. Running away, rather than finishing her while she was down...
Realization struck her like cold weight. It had just been a distraction to separate her from Aiden.
Aiden! She spun around and looked desperately for any sign of where he might have gone, and something drew her gaze to a black shuttle fading in the distance, like a black speck calling out to her.
Something about the ship settled like an uneasy weight in her belly, and she touched her bond with him. 'Aiden, are you alright? Where are you?'
Silence filled her like a growing cavern.
'Blast it, Aiden, answer me.'
The wail of sirens cut through her, and she stood in place for a painful moment, looking between the shrinking shuttle, the dying bounty hunter, and the growing sirens.
Blast it... Whether he couldn't hear her or he was choosing not to answer, she was out of time. She released a breath and shook her head. "Stay safe, Aiden. I'll find you."
Her saber winked out with a hiss, and she hurried to Aurra's side. There was more than one path to the same destination. That communicator beep in the Lounge hall was a signal—Aurra knew who took Aiden.
Smoke weaved up from the charred exit-wound smoldering through an alabaster chest, stinging Barriss' eyes. "Can you hear me?" she said.
Aurra's eyes fluttered, but focused on her, hatred and pain clashing for dominance in her gaze.
She ignored the hatred. "Your speeder must be close by. Where is it?"
Pale lips that trembled slightly curled into a sneer.
Barriss glanced down at the blaster wound. "Your aorta is singed. Not enough blood is making it to your brain. That's why your limbs are getting heavier." She locked her eyes on her once more. "I'm a Jedi Healer. It's too late for a doctor to save you, but I still can.
She gestured toward the incoming sirens, and the Lounge where troopers still swarmed inside. "But not if we both get arrested here. If I can't escape with you here and now, you're going to die."
Fiery eyes stared back at her. Finally, reluctantly, they flicked toward an alley across from the Lounge.
Barriss' chest untightened slightly, and she snaked one arm under Aurra's shoulders, and the other under her knees, and lifted her up, dashing for the shadows of the alley as voices spilled out of the Lounge's half-open door.
Always a breath away from disaster.
In the alley, a plain airspeeder sat nestled between two dumpsters spilling their contents onto the ground.
She lay Aurra down in the back seat, and hopped behind the controls.
Red and blue light flashed down through the alley, and her head snapped up as a patrol shuttle descended like a vulture, and a blinding light pierced down on her from a mounted searchlight condemning her in its glow.
"Remain where you are." An artificially amplified voice squawked through the ship's speakers. "You are under arrest."
Or less than a breath... She pressed her lips together, and ignited her saber.
The shuttle angled toward her, and she drew her arm back and hurled the blade up through the fog.
The azure glow spiraled through the haze, and she swept her hand in a long arc, the blade tracing the path her hand etched in the air. The tip of the blade sunk into the belly of the shuttle and seared a golden trail straight through the housing for the power-distributor.
The light piercing down on her cut out, plunging the alley into darkness as the ship gave a hard shudder and the illumination of its rear thrusters flickered.
The hot metal of her saber hilt smacked into her waiting palm, and she slammed the accelerator forward.
The speeder launched, and the alley blurred and fell behind her along with a steadily sinking patrol ship as troopers spilled out of the back door of the Chance Lounge, blasters barking.
Blue streaks zipped past her head, and she ducked with an oath and shoved the controls forward, diving low through the murky jungle of spires and platforms until the shrieks of blaster bolts faded away with everything else.
A moan gasped out from the back seat, and she chewed her lip, glancing back at the specter.
Whatever color Aurra might have once had underneath her pale skin was long gone, draining out with each wheezing breath.
She gripped the controls and released a breath of her own. Focus. Think. She needed to get out of sight, and find somewhere to work on Aurra, or her best chance of finding Aiden was about to die in the back seat.
What seemed like an eternity of weaving randomly through dark spires, watching behind her for any sign of red and blue, and the fog finally gave way to a dilapidated pile of durasteel and neon that might have once been an apartment building. A massive outline of a darkened star bled across the side of the building in running, black paint.
She pulled the speeder into the darkest corner, and killed the engine, looking up at the crumbling rust and blowing out a breath.
Good enough.
It would have to be good enough.
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Palpatine sat in his office, composing notes for his statement, answers to questions that would be asked, comments to inspire the right questions to be asked.
The time had come to begin hammering the first nails in.
His communicator beeped, and Bane stood in miniature before him. "Aurra's outta the picture. I'm trackin' where His Royal Highness is takin' the slicer."
A slight smile touched his lips as he made a note to contact Tarkin concerning certain items that needed to be retrieved moving forward.
Bane crossed his arms. "I still think you shoulda let me take out the slicer. Aurra packed a mean punch, but the slicer's skillset makes 'em even more dangerous in a way."
"Precisely." Palpatine continued typing on his data pad. "There will always be another hired gun, but an opportunity such as the slicer does not present itself often. He will be very valuable in the days to come; he will continue to draw breath until he has served his purpose."
Bane grunted. "And what purpose would that be?"
Palpatine looked at him.
"Mine."
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Dooku ushered Aiden through the shadows of the unmarked building, leaving the shuttle behind on a hidden landing platform. A door loomed at the end of the corridor, and the durasteel slid away, spilling a faint blue glow out into the darkness.
Aiden swallowed, and Dooku pushed him into the room.
Display screens cut blue shards through the otherwise pitch room.
He swept his eyes across the displays, and breathed against the pounding of his heart. "What is this place?"
"This place will be the downfall of our dear Chancellor."
"It looks like if hell got a tech upgrade."
Dooku's hand settled heavily on his shoulder. "I'm sure your Jedi friend finds your comments very entertaining." The hand squeezed, fingers digging painfully into his flesh. "But the time for them has passed."
Aiden grit his teeth, and Dooku continued. "From now on, I will speak, and you will act. I will order, and you will obey. And if you ever again deliver an ultimatum to me like the one you delivered outside the Lounge..."
Three small tendrils of electricity burst from his fingers, and fire ripped through Aiden's body like a shot.
"Agh!" His knees gave out from under him, and he collapsed in a heap, Dak's data pad stabbing into him, pressed between his back and the unforgiving duracrete.
Dooku stood over him. "Your friend will be the one who suffers for it. Are those simple enough terms for you to understand?"
Spasms rocked through Aiden's chest, stuttering the breaths he tried in vain to suck in, and he pinched his eyes shut and nodded.
"Good. Then let's begin with a simple order. Empty your pockets."
He grit his teeth, and reached a shaking hand into his pocket, pulling out Barriss' old communicator and dropping it to the floor.
Dooku raised his own hand, and the device flew up to meet it. "An excellent start. Is there anything else?"
Dak's data pad pressed into Aiden's back as he stared up at Dooku, and his mind raced. Can't lie. Dooku was a Jedi once, he'd know a lie just like any other Jedi would. But if the bastard found Dak's pad and saw what was on it...
Another spasm rocked through his diaphragm with a painful hitch, and he coughed, Dooku's words echoing after in his mind. "Your friend will be the one who suffers for it."
That couldn't happen to her. This couldn't happen to her.
He set his jaw and locked his eyes on Dooku, and shoved both hands into his pockets, grabbing the inside of the fabric, and yanking them inside-out.
He held his tongue as Dooku glanced down at the turned-out pockets hanging from his pants like dog-ears, and the corner of a mustache lifted.
"Good..." He tucked Barriss' communicator into his cloak, and the shadows of the hall swallowed him as he walked without so much as a glance back. "Rest while you can, slicer. The future is uncertain for us both."
The metal barrier grinded back into place, and Aiden's head thunked back against the floor as a pained gasp passed though his lips, the data pad sitting quietly underneath him.
"You're telling me."
END CHAPTER