14: Cut Adrift

Yomi's sharp voice rang out like a blaster-shot. "Just where in the HELL do you think you're going?" Kagura stopped and half-turned back. The Honorable First Mate stood framed in the Red Spirit's hatchway in silhouette, arms akimbo and bearing pissed. "You're wounded, in case you've forgotten!"

"Ah, it's nothing!" Kagura grinned heroically and slapped her stomach, only cringing slightly. "I'm just goin' out to get that part you guys need."

"Alone?"

"Well, of course! I'm the one who screwed up, right?"

"If all the Rebels are as stupid as you, it's no wonder you're getting creamed!"

"And I suppose you have a better idea?"

Yomi rested a rather large weapon across her shoulders and started down. "They know where we are now, so I'm not sticking around." Tomo followed in her wake, for once blissfully silent. When she turned to close the hatch, Kagura caught the light glinting off of her big, scared eyes.

"Wha-? but—you guys'll just get in my way!" As the ship finally closed up, they were plunged into complete, starless blackness. "Name me one thing that either of you can do to help me!"

Yomi cleared her throat and flicked her flashlight on. Kagura sighed.


Sakaki and her student moved swiftly through the dark forest. The only sound was the cool wind rushing between trees and Chiyo's panicked breathing. The Jedi could feel their situation growing steadily worse and the ominous feeling she'd had concerning Kaorin was solidifying, but she swallowed her foreboding and plunged ahead.

"Oh, no…" Chiyo suddenly whimpered.

Sakaki put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. Spreading through the woods before them were many pairs of small, round green lights—stormtrooper night vision goggles. Sakaki was interrupted in her counting as the girl started shaking. "There's… there's so many…" she whispered tearfully. "How can we…?"

Sakaki stroked her hair. "It'll be okay," she said firmly, "I'm going to take care of it." Then she knelt next to her student and continued in a different tone, "But I can't do it without you. I need you to be strong. Can you help me, Chiyo-chan?"

Chiyo sniffed and nodded. "You'll be with me?"

"Always," Sakaki replied, the promise tasting sour in her mouth.

The Imperial search party was well-equipped and fully prepared, but nevertheless they managed to suffer some pretty bizarre accidents. One guy had evidently tripped on a rock and hit his head on a thick branch twelve feet overhead. Another was pummeled into submission by the butt of his own blaster. Two more somehow fell into each other with tremendous force, the resultant crack of helmets making even distant troopers jump. More than a few found their way into a raging river, only to wash up bedraggled and confused miles away.

And through the night a patch of even inkier darkness drifted, noting the troopers' misfortune with detached amusement. Two of them! Nochichi couldn't believe his good fortune. Nanashi's companion was obviously very untrained, mainly along for the ride as his men fell one by one. A blank slate, this, a more-than-worthy replacement for his useless student.

But finally he had seen enough. Hidden from both eyes and the Force, the monstrous hunter slid towards its quarry.


"Are you sure it's this way?" Tomo whined quietly. The three of them had paused to rest about a quarter-mile out from the Red Spirit. Kagura hadn't wanted to, but she was beginning to develop a limp and it was proving to be a longer haul than she had expected. "Those guys fly in straight lines. They aren't paid to waste fuel," she explained patiently. "Their base of operations can't be much further."

Yomi had her hand cupped over the top of the flashlight, only letting light strike a small area of ground as she swept it slowly about them. Having spent their whole lives on civilized worlds or in vessels, the total darkness was unsettling to all of them. If only those clouds would break…

"Why are we running towards their base anyway?" Tomo asked. "How many Imperials are there? Oh, this isn't worth the ten thousand…"

"We can handle them," Kagura said dismissively. "Especially—"

"Shh! Sh!" Yomi gritted suddenly, clicking off her flashlight. Wow, Kagura realized, I can't even see my hand in front of my face out here. Damn! But what she could see was two pairs of night-vision goggles approaching, occasionally blocked from view by trees or brush.

"Over here?" one of the troopers asked.

"Yeah. It was really freakin' bright. Are you sure you didn't see it?"

Kagura slowly took aim at one pair of goggles. She would only have one shot at each of them. Her finger tightened…

"Hey, is that--?" before the trooper could finish, he was jerked off of his feet and slammed against the bole of a nearby tree. "Uhf!" The other whirled about, but saw nothing to shoot at before a rock hurled itself out of the ground and clipped his helmet violently. Of course, our heroines didn't see any of this, but they were able to figure it out from the motion of the night goggles and awful noises.

There was a moment of stunned silence. "What just happened?" Yomi whispered.

"That… would be my rival." Kagura holstered her blaster and set out again. "I don't know how I'm gonna beat that… oh, well. Let's get going."

Sakaki didn't particularly enjoy spreading mayhem through the ranks of stormtroopers, but she had to admit it was a lot more agreeable than blastering them or hacking them apart with a lightsaber.

Unsurprisingly, Chiyo hadn't yet gotten the hang of leaping from branch to branch in total darkness, so her role in this escapade was mainly "hide in a tree and don't get shot." That was just fine, though it made her wonder what exactly Sakaki needed her for. Was that speech just intended to keep her from cracking up?

But as Sakaki bounded through the darkness like a gothic Tarzan, she was struck by a sudden ill feeling; Chiyo was in danger! The Jedi twisted in mid leap and started back towards her student, every sense straining. But there was nothing. As she drew near, Sakaki called out, "Chiyo-chan, are you alright?"

"Yeah! Did something hap—?"

Then, with a horrible rending sound, the tree that Sakaki had been jumping to suddenly wasn't there. The Jedi didn't miss a beat, igniting her amethyst lightsaber and landing lightly on the ground some twelve meters below. She didn't even have time to get her bearings before her weapon collided with another in a great, buzzing crash.

She skidded backwards, blinking to get the vermillion flash out of her eyes. As her vision cleared, she saw the dreadful form of Nochichi advancing in the sanguine light of his own blade. "You…" was all Sakaki managed.

"It's been a long time, Nanashi," he greeted. "But it still isn't too late."

"F-forget it!" Sakaki's saber, nearly four feet long, hissed through the air as she pointed it towards the demon's face. Her voice leveled out as she continued. "I wouldn't join you then, and I won't now."

"What a terrible waste," Nochichi sighed. "When will you realize how weak this Light Side of yours really is?"

Sakaki stood silently at the ready. Seeing the Dark Lord of the Sith had set off a cauldron of emotions in her, and she couldn't afford to give any of them a foothold. A Jedi was serene, even in the face of death.

"You have a student of your own, now, I see." Chiyo cringed in her perch. "I have a place for her as well. Why be unreasonable? You have to realize that you don't stand a chance against me."

"If you strike me down," Sakaki countered with more confidence than she felt, "I will become more powerful than you can ever imagine."

"That's what your Master Kenobi said… before I killed him."

And that, as they say, was that. Nochichi jerked back and parried Sakaki's furious attack, his crimson blade easily catching every frenzied stroke. They parted just as suddenly, Sakaki taking a moment to regain her composure before the Sith Lord struck back.

As Chiyo watched from above, the proceedings took on an unreal aspect. Sakaki's grace, strength and skill shone through in her every move; her assault became an astonishingly beautiful dance that made it easy to forget that their lives were on the line. And this made it all the more jarring when their duel came to a sudden, brutal end.

Nochichi gestured with one of his flippers and the Jedi was yanked out of her attack and knocked viciously into a tree. The amethyst blade tumbled from her grasp and went out, leaving them bathed purely in red light. Sakaki stumbled to her feet, but a wall of Force pressed her against the trunk behind her.

"This has been fun," he said, "But I have no more time for you. Last chance, Nanashi."

Sakaki realized in horror that he'd been toying with her—at any point he could have reached out with the Force and snapped her neck. For an instant, she almost gave in, but… no. It just wasn't in her to surrender. She stared at him wordlessly as her lightsaber ignited itself and flew back towards her—

And clattered uselessly to the ground as Nochichi's blade slashed once. In an instant, all that remained was a deep score through the tree and her simple robes drifting to the ground. "Well I'll be damned," Nochichi said in surprise, poking at the robes with his lightsaber, "She actually did it!"

"NOOOOO!" The Sith Lord turned at the shrill cry, neither surprised nor particularly concerned. Nanashi's young student crashed to the ground, no doubt injuring herself, but heedlessly regaining her feet and igniting her own lightsaber.

"Blue…" Nochichi said, regarding her with fresh interest. This one reminded him of someone. "What do you think you're going to do to me?"

"I'll… I'll kill you!" Chiyo cried.

Darth Nochichi laughed. It was about the most horrible sound one could imagine, and it chilled the young apprentice deeply. It made her realize how futile her move to attack had been and how pointless it would be to stand against Nochichi now. She slowly extinguished her lightsaber and fell to one knee.

"That's more like it," Nochichi said, gliding towards her. "Now, who is it that you remind me of…?"

"Chiyo-chan!" The girl's pigtails swayed as her head rose. Was that…? "Run, Chiyo-chan, run!" She didn't pause to wonder whether she was just hearing voices in her head; the advice was sound enough. Chiyo sprang to her feet and tore away from the Sith Lord, ignoring the darkness, the forest, everything, just trying to put distance between herself and that awful red glow.

Unfortunately, she'd forgotten where the aforementioned raging river was, and sprinted headlong into it. Her gasp of surprise and confusion as she hit the icy water filled her lungs and she was swept away.

Nochichi drifted to the bank, contemplatively turning Sakaki's lightsaber over in his flippers. "Blue…" he murmured again. "I'll be seeing that one again, I think…"