Clink. . . clank . . . clink . . .
Hunter turned, yet again, to stare at the hallway behind him. He knew he would not see anything – he hadn't the last five times – but he still couldn't seem to make himself stop checking. The clattering and dragging of heavy chains had been following the group ever since their second entrance into the prison level.
Even after they'd hurried down the stairs to the level beneath the room containing the stone prisoners, the illusion had continued to follow them. Now, three levels below that, it was still maintaining a steady pace.
"Uh, Quinlan?" Wrecker whispered, casting a worried look over his shoulder. "It's getting closer. What do we do?"
"Keep walking," Quinlan said tersely. "It isn't actually following us."
Wrecker reached the base of the stairway and turned to look up as the sounds continued to draw closer. "It's . . . not?"
"No." The Jedi sounded distracted, like he was only half-listening. "It just sounds like it, because we happen to be in the main stairway and that's its normal route."
Vythia did not react to his statement, although she was close enough to have easily heard him.
Watch what you're saying, Vos, Hunter thought, shooting Quinlan a warning look that made him flinch in realization. You're going to give yourself away.
He wasn't sure what that would even mean, anymore, or if it really mattered. The Jedi was right about the illusion, though. As they increased their pace, the heavy rattling clanks became less and less audible.
Finally, even Hunter could no longer hear them.
Casting a quick look over his shoulder, Crosshair exhaled sharply. "You mean the moment we slow down, that thing's going to start catching up with us again?"
"No . . ." Quinlan hesitated between one stairway and the next, waiting while Vythia and Tech drew farther away. He lowered his voice. "It's got a limited – route, range of motion, whatever."
"But the illusion wasn't in the stairwell last time," Hunter whispered.
"Nope." Quinlan started walking again. "Because this isn't the same one."
Crosshair switched his rifle from one hand to the other. "It sounded the same."
"No . . . it didn't," Hunter realized. "There were no footsteps just now – only chains."
"Exactly." Quinlan eyed Vythia for a moment, then bit his lip and looked sidelong at Hunter as Wrecker slowed down, joining them. "Do you think she heard that?"
"Heard what?" Wrecker asked in a hoarse whisper.
"That idiotic slip of the tongue," Quinlan hissed back, seeming a lot more alert than he'd been so far that morning. "I can't believe – I could just about kick myself."
"Yeah . . ." Crosshair cast a pointed look at the steep stairway that extended before them. "But maybe you shouldn't bother."
"At least not right now," Wrecker agreed.
Quinlan rubbed his forehead.
"Vythia didn't react when you said that," Hunter said slowly. "But I can't imagine she didn't hear it."
Ahead of them, Vythia stopped to observe the next central room. Tech came to a halt beside her, hummed interestedly, and pulled out his datapad.
As the others drew closer, Tech said, "These runes look familiar – this one in particular. Perhaps I saw it in Lothal's temple."
"Hm . . ." Vythia leaned closer, studying it.
Tech compared a picture on his datapad to the rune, which was carved into the wall at eye level. "Yes, it is the same. Do you know what it says, Vythia?"
She traced the rune with one finger. "It is the symbol for the word hâsk."
"Ah. And what does hâsk mean?"
Her lips tilted wryly. "Anguish."
Tech glanced from the rune to her face and blinked.
"And no," Vythia went on, before he could ask, "I have no idea why it was carved into this particular wall."
She continued down the stairs, and the others followed. Quinlan paused to study the carving, and Hunter passed him with only a brief glance in the rune's direction. A few seconds went by before the Jedi's footsteps sounded behind him again.
"Hunter?" Quinlan said in a low voice as he drew even with him. "I've seen that rune before."
Hunter crossed the landing, turned, and headed down yet another staircase. "At Lothal's temple, you mean?"
"Yeah, but I also saw it somewhere else." Quinlan was repeatedly clenching and unclenching one hand against his side. "It was on the Sith dagger – the one Vythia had on her ship."
Something in his tone made Hunter wary. "What do you mean, had?"
". . . I think she's got it with her."
They continued down several more levels, pausing only to activate more of the strange green or white lanterns. Stairway after stairway, no one commented – not even when they passed a towering, multi-pronged structure that reached up to the ceiling of one of the central rooms. Hunter wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. It had been formed from a single piece of fluted white and black marble, and gave the impression of something reaching for the sky, only to be cut off abruptly by the stone above it.
Five flights of stairs after that, Vythia stopped on the landing and leaned back against the railing. "Let's rest for a moment," she said, pressing a hand against her side.
The others, except for Quinlan, glanced questioningly at her.
She responded with a faint shrug. "We just descended over four hundred steps. It is nowhere near similar to traveling over four hundred steps on level ground."
"Except in number," Tech pointed out.
Crosshair and Wrecker both turned to stare at him, heads tilted to one side.
"What?" Tech asked, removing his helmet. "It is true."
"Yeah," said Wrecker with a snort. "But that wasn't the point."
Tech blinked at him, utterly confused.
Vythia laughed. "I suppose I should have said that it is much more strenuous, not nowhere near similar."
Despite her light tone, she was watching Quinlan again – the Jedi, though, did not seem to be aware of this. He had stepped away from the others and was staring down the next dark flight of stairs.
What is Vythia waiting for him to do? Hunter wondered. Or does she just suspect he's more than he's letting on? But if she does, what's the point in her waiting for Quinlan to give himself away?
Crosshair glanced silently between Vythia and the Jedi, then sauntered forward to activate the lantern at the head of the new stairway.
Quinlan blinked and looked over, drawn out of his thoughts by the flickering green light, and Hunter said, "Any stormbeasts nearby?"
"Yes," Tech replied, typing something into his vambrace consol.
There was a brief pause.
"And you were going to tell us this when?" Hunter prompted.
"When it became relevant." Tech looked up. "There are three small groups of stormbeasts two levels below us, but they are nowhere near the center. Also, their behavior has been most erratic."
"What do you mean?" Quinlan asked, joining him.
Tech tilted the screen towards him. "They are traveling a good deal faster than any of those that we have run into so far – even outside of Trayus."
"Yeah, I see that." The Jedi frowned. "Maybe they're not sick the way the others were."
"Possible, but not at all probable," Tech said, flipping his screen closed with a quick jerk of his arm. "During my shift on guard this morning, I also noted that there were fifteen stormbeasts in the sixth level from the main entrance. Their pattern of travel was much more noticeable, as they were closer together – each of the groups was headed away from the center, but in different directions."
"Trying to escape something," Crosshair suggested.
"That is exactly what I theorized."
Hunter glanced at Quinlan, remembering how he'd been muttering something about 'presences' and 'there are two of them' the night before. "Escape what? Not us, surely."
"That would be highly unlikely. And I am not picking up anything else on scanners."
"Hmm." Vythia folded her arms, looking uneasy, then uncrossed them. "We should keep moving."
As they started down the next stairway, Quinlan said, "Stormbeasts wouldn't be trying to get away from an artifact."
"No," said Vythia. She had one hand around her whip handle. "I suspect that they are trying to escape whatever it is that has been weakening them."
"But they weren't running away when we saw 'em before," Wrecker said. "Does that means there's something else around, now?"
"If there is, I cannot locate it," said Tech.
Quinlan, who had been walking just behind Wrecker, nearly missed a step as he turned to glance questioningly at Hunter. He thinks he can locate it, Hunter realized. That must be what he was trying to do last night when . . .
He didn't know what had happened, really; Quinlan had stared at nothing for a full two minutes before suddenly gasping and jolting up to his knees – then he'd muttered a few half-formed phrases, looked scared, and ended by saying he didn't know what had happened. Hunter exhaled quietly. They were just lucky Vythia hadn't woken up during whatever that had been all about.
Either way, Hunter didn't think that for Quinlan to try and locate the 'presence' – whatever it was – would be helpful right now. It was nowhere nearby, and Quinlan would know if it intended to attack . . . or so he'd said.
When the Jedi glanced back again, Hunter caught his gaze, made a slicing motion with one hand, realized that he might not be versed in commando signals, and settled on giving his head a warning shake.
Quinlan hesitated, narrowed his eyes, then turned around and kept walking.
They passed through the level the stormbeasts were on without seeing or hearing a single sign of them. When Tech reported that all the creatures had gathered on the eastern side of the level, and 'appeared to be milling about', Hunter told him to check the western side.
"I have," Tech answered. "Nothing is appearing on scans."
Hunter frowned. Then what in the Force are those stormbeasts hiding from? Unless it's just an illusion or something . . .
Something about the situation was getting more and more irregular. Hunter wanted to suggest that they return to the level they'd spent the night on, and then move from there to the Phoenix as soon as the storm let up. But there was no guarantee it would let up before nightfall.
Hunter glanced up at the ceiling. After this long a storm, he had stopped being consciously aware of the lightning overhead. When he shut his eyes and focused, though, he could feel the continuous flickers. The storm had not only not abated, it seemed to be getting worse.
Definitely not a good idea to wait it out, he thought, trudging after Wrecker. We'll have to keep heading down . . . once we reach the main level, we should be able to make it through the storm to the Marauder, regardless of the wind.
"Tech," said Crosshair, and Hunter looked up. "Maybe you're not picking anything up because your sensors aren't strong enough. That was the case half the time we were in Adas, right?"
"True," Tech agreed, giving his screen a dissatisfied look.
"But – hang on." Quinlan thought for a moment. "You told me you were observing the stormbeasts on a level near the ground last night. How's that work?"
"I was tapping into the Marauder's sensors," Tech informed him. "At the time, we were close enough to the top of Trayus that I was still able to communicate with the shuttle's computer through the storm. That no longer appears to be an option."
"So we're back where we started," Wrecker said. "We've got inaccurate intel."
"Not . . . inaccurate, precisely." Tech slumped a little and put away his datapad. "I would say that we simply do not have intel at all."
"That will not matter too much," Vythia said. "From what we've seen, these stormbeasts are hardly a threat. As long as we pay attention, we should be fine."
"Weren't you listening at all?" Hunter asked. "We're not worried about the stormbeasts. We're worried about whatever it is that's been injuring them."
"I was listening," she answered, completely unoffended. "But the level we were on, with the stormbeasts, had nothing else present. If Tech is correct that the creatures were fleeing from something, then perhaps it was an illusion. I see no reason to suspect that there is some dangerous predator nearby – at least, not a physical one."
"Then – what?" Hunter glanced at her. "A non-physical one?"
"I could not really say." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head so that her long tendrils swished against her back. "I would imagine that the dark side would empower them, not weaken them."
Quinlan looked up suddenly. "Vythia . . . what would cause an absence in the Force?"
The Nautolan paused, ever so slightly, between one step and the next. "Why?"
"Because if those things – the stormbeasts, I mean – live on the dark side, they might be weakened by something taking it away. A few days ago, Tech was talking about these small animals . . . uh, Tech?"
"Ysalamiri," Tech filled in without blinking.
"Right. Those. Something about them blocking the Force. . ."
"Neutralizing, yes," said Vythia. "And you think that maybe there is something here that does such a thing. . . Hm. I suppose Nihilus' tomb would qualify, but – "
"Yeah," Quinlan interrupted, kicking at the thick reddish dust that coated the top of the next stairway. "Maybe his tomb is kind of – draining? – the stormbeasts."
" – I doubt that very much," she replied, finishing her previous sentence. "If that were the case, we would be feeling the effects as well."
". . . You sure about that?"
"I am not. I do know that when it came to Nihilus, the stronger in the Force something or someone was, the faster that person or creature was killed. The stormbeasts, being half-alive, would certainly take longer to kill than we would; but if Nihilus' influence truly extended throughout the whole academy, they would have been dead long ago."
Tech tripped, caught his balance, and hopped down the last two steps. "Presuming you are correct, Vythia, that still leaves the fact that the stormbeasts here have been severely weakened; not only that, but they do appear to feel threatened. And if you are right that illusions are not . . . aware . . ."
"They are not," she assured him. "They are simple trickery – they have the appearance of life, to some extent, but no awareness or ability."
"Then that means that there is something else, physical or otherwise, that is slowly killing the stormbeasts. I agree with Quinlan that Nihilus seems to be the most likely option for the – oh." Tech stopped short, halfway down the next flight.
"What?" Crosshair demanded.
"Nihilus. He was an alchemist."
" . . . Yes." Vythia's eyes widened slightly. "You think the creatures he made – the leviathans . . .?"
Tech stared back at her for a moment, then pulled his datapad out and started a new search.
Quinlan toyed nervously with his knife. "Tech? You've got no access to the holonet here. Just sayin'. . ."
"I hope I will not need it," Tech said, not looking up as he started walking again. "I have many resources already loaded onto my datapad. Before coming to Malachor, I uploaded several holobooks' worth of data on the Jedi and the Sith. That is how I found the legends about Nihilus. As for the leviathans, even a bit of knowledge about them might prove to be useful . . ."
He trailed off, and Hunter slowed his pace even further, walking beside Tech as he worked. Quinlan had also slowed and was now wandering down the stairs, hardly paying attention to where he was putting his feet.
Crosshair checked the central room as the next pillar lit up, then moved to activate the left lantern while Wrecker took the right. When Crosshair gestured, Vythia peered down the next stairway, signaled that it was clear, and started down.
A silent minute passed. Hunter was just thinking about how glad he was that they wouldn't have to go back up all these stairs when Tech said, "Found it!"
Everyone turned to face him.
"Oh. Hm." Tech scrolled down. "Once again, it appears that we will have to rely on legends and folklore. Here it lists the leviathans' abilities as being 'many and varied', but that most of them had to do with destroying Force-users."
"Huh. Well, that's not surprising," said Wrecker, then took off his helmet. "Wait, what about the Sith? They're Force-users."
"Were," Vythia corrected dryly.
"There are still some left," Tech said absently, still skimming through text. "Count Dooku, for one."
"Dooku?" she almost scoffed. "He only became a Sith because he disagreed with the Jedi."
Quinlan looked curiously at her and opened his mouth, then hesitated as though he were about to ask a question.
Hunter interrupted before he could say anything stupid. "Vythia – Wrecker's got a point. Why would even Darth Nihilus give creatures abilities that would kill other Sith? I mean, I get that they killed each other a lot, but –"
"Oh, the leviathans could control those abilities," Vythia said, pausing at the next landing to brush dust from the side of her skirt. "Tech, do your sources say anything about the extent of their range of attack?"
"It was also 'varied'." Tech quirked an eyebrow, probably peeved by so much inexact information. "It does say that their 'most unique abilities could only be employed on a non-Force-sensitive within sight of a victim'. That is peculiar – this report does not clarify the point, but it would seem to imply that Force-sensitives could be attacked at a greater range than that limited by sight."
Hunter exchanged a look with Quinlan, who was biting his lower lip.
"Ah. I thought as much." Vythia drummed her fingers against her whip handle. "I did read that they were unleashed on a large group of Jedi at one point. The details are unclear, but although the leviathans had great physical strength, they seem not to have needed it. Somehow, without even approaching the Jedi, they were able to utterly incapacitate them. The Sith could then simply walk through and kill their enemies at their leisure."
"Sounds like they fought fair," said Crosshair, and jumped down the last few stairs to the next landing.
Vythia smirked. "That is an interesting conclusion to draw, especially coming from a sniper and a bounty hunter."
"I don't execute people," he muttered as the central pillar burst into cold flame.
"Hmm . . . Not yet, maybe."
He glanced slowly at her.
Vythia raised an amused eyebrow and brushed past him. "If you were facing an enemy intent on destroying you, and that enemy was knocked down, it would be foolish to wait until they had recovered, wouldn't it?"
Crosshair didn't answer.
"You could take them prisoner," Hunter suggested, only half-listening. There was something distracting him – something close by –
He took off his helmet, shook his hair out of his eyes, and tilted his head to one side as he listened. He almost thought he heard a dry slither, a long distance away.
"Well, yes," Vythia admitted. "But Jedi were dangerous."
"Were?" Wrecker asked. "Aren't they dangerous now?"
Hunter gave his head a sharp shake. He wished everyone would stop talking for a minute – there was something moving, just at the edge of his hearing . . .
"They are nowhere near as dangerous as they used to be," Vythia said. "Not that they don't have the potential, but they lack the will."
Something rasped quietly over stones just as Quinlan said, "What are you –"
"Quiet!" snapped Hunter, jumping down to the landing. "Everyone be quiet!"
They froze, and Hunter lay flat, pressing one ear against the floor and shutting his eyes. He heard nothing at all for a long fifteen seconds . . .
Then it came again, that dry rasping sound as something heavy slid along on one of the levels below them. He stayed where he was for a full minute, tracking its direction, then got quietly to his feet. "Stay quiet," he ordered. "There's something else here, below us but moving upwards. Tech?"
Tech shook his head, eyes glued to his screen. "Still no results from either thermal or biosignature scans. I will attempt to detect motion only."
"Can you reach the Marauder's sensors from here?"
"No."
"Keep running localized scans. Whatever it is, it's on the opposite side of the academy, and it's big. I can't tell if it knows we're here, but –"
"Hunter." Tech stepped over, holding out his datapad. "The stormbeasts we recently passed – they are moving again."
"They're moving up," Wrecker whispered. "But it's still below us somewhere? They must be really scared of it."
Hunter watched the screen as one of the small red dots slowed, dragging far behind the others of its kind as they rushed for the stairways. It came to a complete halt, and then, from several levels above, they heard the shrill screech of a dying stormbeast. The next instant, the red dot on Tech's screen winked out.
"It can kill them from that far away?" Crosshair demanded in a sharp whisper, taking off his helmet.
A slow, cavernous bellow from beneath them vibrated the floor. Tech jumped and twisted to face the stairway.
Vythia put a hand on the wall as though to steady herself. Her black eyes swept the stairwell in both directions, then moved to Quinlan and stayed there.
Hunter followed her gaze. Quinlan was grimacing faintly, one hand pressed to his chest and the other to his head as he leaned sideways against the wall. Before Hunter could say or do anything, Wrecker flinched and grabbed at his helmet.
Hunter stepped forward – then a stabbing pain shot through his temples, and the stairway tilted beneath him. The next instant, he felt normal again; but no sooner had he straightened than Tech winced and almost dropped his datapad. Crosshair drew in his breath sharply, narrowing his eyes. Vythia wavered, then leaned back against the railing and gripped it with both hands.
For several seconds, no one moved except for Quinlan, who took a jerky step forward and stumbled down the next stair into Wrecker.
Vythia stared at him, eyes wide and face still, then turned to the others. "We need to hurry," she said in a low voice. "It knows we are here."
Another stormbeast screamed. For some reason, everyone glanced at Tech's screen – just in time to see another of the little red dots fade.
"A leviathan," said Tech numbly. "It is hunting."
"Not us," said Vythia. Her tone was returning to normal, now, and her fingers had unclenched from around her whip handle. "If it could have killed us just now, it would have."
Hunter pressed both hands and his forehead against the inner stair wall, feeling the tiny vibrations. Now that he knew what to look for, it was easier to pick out the large creature moving . . . it was going up the stairway, on the very edge of one of the outermost halls.
"Tech –" He hesitated in surprise as the thing continued up, moving slowly, through the very level they were occupying and on, up towards the top of the pyramid.
"I see it now," Tech said, pointing to a wavering, flickering indicator. "It is . . . even less 'alive' than the stormbeasts."
Hunter nodded and signaled for his teammates to form up. "It knows we're here, but it's ignoring us."
"We should still hurry." Vythia drew in a long breath and released it. "The stormbeasts are dependent on the Force to continue existing, so they will die easily. That is why it is hunting them, because it can kill them from far away."
Quinlan finally straightened, lowering his hands to his sides while Wrecker hovered nearby. He blinked slowly, then swallowed and said, "And when it's killed all of them, Vythia?"
"It might come for us." For a strange instant, her gaze seemed to turn inward. "But it cannot truly harm us unless it is within sight. We still have time – for now."
Hunter caught Quinlan's gaze and tilted his head towards the stairs. "We need to pick up the pace. Tech, try to keep an eye on the leviathan. Vythia, lead the way."
She nodded and hurried down the stairs, the others falling in behind her until Quinlan and Hunter were in back.
"We need to leave," Quinlan said. "The leviathan – it's the weaker . . . it's what attacked me last night."
"I figured as much." Hunter eyed Vythia for a moment. She still wanted to get into Darth Ghant's tomb, and short of stunning her and dragging her out . . . "Do we keep going, or not?"
The Jedi didn't answer for several long seconds. "I don't know. If we keep going along with her, and she trusts us enough that we can go through her to get to the Prince –"
"Is he that important?" Hunter shot a look over his shoulder. "We've dealt with monsters before, and maybe we could handle this one – but is the risk really worth what we're after? None of us know what that thing can really do, except to take you out."
Quinlan was quiet for a moment before smirking humorlessly. "And I said it was probably just a hemorrhage."
Hunter stared at him in realization, feeling like a complete idiot. "I – we thought it was the statues, because they moved, but it was a leviathan."
"Yeah." He sighed. "It was probably beneath the center of the main level, all that time; I must've woken it, and it moved the statues to get out. And it's been living on the stormbeasts all this time."
It was fully ten stairways later that Hunter spoke again. "Quinlan, last night you said that there were 'two of them'. Two leviathans?"
"Two presences. The other was a lot more . . ." He hesitated for several seconds. "I don't know. It was more alive, more deliberate? It wasn't a leviathan."
Hunter glanced over one shoulder. "Do I want to know how you know that, or are you going to say, 'it's just a feeling' again?"
Quinlan dragged a hand tiredly down his face. "Guess."
"You're going to say, 'it's just a feeling'."
"Not anymore, I'm not." He gave another heavy sigh. "Hunter?"
"What?"
" . . . I can't wait to get out of here."
It was fourteen-forty-six, two minutes later than the last time Wrecker had checked his chrono. He peered down the main corridor in both directions, unloaded and reloaded his blaster, glanced at Tech, who was once again accessing the Marauder's sensors, and returned to the others.
Hunter was tugging at a horizontal iron bar – Vythia said there was a door behind it, but it looked like it was right in the wall – while she stood behind him. Crosshair, who'd already tried and failed to open the door, was a few meters back, with Quinlan next to him.
"Still clear," Wrecker said, jabbing Hunter with an elbow. "Want some help?"
Hunter stepped away from the door. "Yeah," he said, sounding breathless. "You give it a try."
Wrecker hooked his blaster on his belt, gripped the iron bar, and pulled. Nothing happened – that was kind of weird, but he hadn't really been trying . . . Bracing his feet, Wrecker resettled his grip and yanked at the bar with all his strength, only to be brought up short with a sharp jerk. "Ow," he mumbled, surprised.
"Not as easy as it looks," said Crosshair, wandering over.
"Yeah, you'd know." Wrecker studied where the left end of the bar was set into the wall. It looked like Vythia was right . . . there was a tiny crack in the stone, and he could follow it up and around, all the way to the other side . . . "No hinges," he said to himself.
"You're pulling the wrong way," Crosshair commented, not helpfully.
"Hey!" Wrecker protested. "You pulled outward, too!"
Crosshair smacked his elbow and pointed up at the top of the outline. "That was before I actually looked. Try pulling up, Wrecker."
Wrecker frowned and peered more closely at the door. Sure enough, there was the tiniest amount of overhang at the top of the crack. Bracing his feet again, he heaved upward. He met resistance at the base – something was holding the door shut from the inside, but he could almost . . .
Crosshair joined him, but even their added strength couldn't break the lock. Wrecker looked over, ready to call Hunter and ask for his lightsaber, but the sergeant had gone to check in with Tech.
Wrecker didn't want to bother waiting. Crosshair wasn't strong enough, but maybe Quinlan . . . "Hey, Quinlan, can you help me?"
"Sure." The Jedi joined him and poked Crosshair out of the way. "Shove over, Cross. You're too much of a lightweight for this."
"Yeah," Wrecker agreed, snickering.
For once, Crosshair didn't come up with a response. Either that, or he was too busy rolling his eyes or something. Wrecker didn't really pay attention. He grabbed the bar again, and then he and Quinlan jerked up at the same time.
The door shot upward into the wall, so suddenly that Wrecker let go. "Whoa!"
"Uh . . ." Quinlan looked down at his hands, then at Wrecker.
Wrecker shrugged. "Maybe we'd almost broken the lock already."
"Broken it?" Quinlan muttered as Vythia moved forward. "I didn't feel anything break."
"Hey, yeah." Wrecker stepped back, looking up at where the door had slid neatly into the upper wall. "I guess that is kinda weird."
Hunter joined them, pulling out his flashlight. "Everything in this place is weird, Wrecker. Let's get that scroll and get out."
Vythia turned on her lantern. The yellow light glinted off something even more yellow in the back of the room, which was about six meters long by four wide. . . Probably more of those creepy statues with the weird eyes.
Wrecker turned on his own flashlight, then almost dropped it as Vythia jumped back with a startled gasp. It was a pair of eyes staring at them all, but the eyes were yellow, not gold – and they belonged to someone. It was a man, a red and black Twi'lek, who sat upright, facing them.
"Darth Ghant," said Vythia, in a small voice. "He is . . . still here."
Next to Wrecker, Crosshair let out a quavering breath. "He's – dead," he said, lowering his pistol.
"He . . ." Tech holstered his own pistol hesitantly. "He does not appear to be dead."
Quinlan and Hunter didn't say anything – they were just standing there, staring quietly at the staring, quiet corpse.
Feeling cold all over, Wrecker dragged his gaze back to the dead Twi'lek, and noticed for the first time that he was sitting in a throne with low armrests. He was dressed in a sleeveless, knee-length black tunic that was edged with gold. His legs and arms were a solid crimson, and his lekku were weirdly long and thin. The right one coiled around his neck and down into his lap like a snake, and the left lay along the armrest. Darth Ghant's left hand was resting on it, as though he'd been about to shift it aside . . . his right hand lay on the opposite armrest, facing up, and in it was the scroll.
"There it is," said Vythia at the same moment.
Wrecker looked at his teammates, but not one of them was moving forward to get the scroll. Crosshair had actually taken a step back.
Tech's datapad beeped faintly, and Hunter jumped.
"He is dead," Tech said, a bit more certainly this time. "But – he appears to be in a perfect state of preservation."
Still no one moved. Wrecker imagined himself walking into the room, picking up the scroll, and walking out. He could have done it, too . . . except that Darth Ghant was holding it.
"Okay," said Hunter under his breath. He sounded as though he were trying to convince himself to move.
Tech and Crosshair exchanged questioning glances.
Quinlan met Wrecker's gaze, stiffened, and shook his head vehemently. "I am not going to touch that thing."
"I will get it," said Vythia. She took a deep breath and handed Tech her lantern. "Just ensure that the door does not close behind me."
After taking a quick breath, she stepped fully into the room, hesitated, then walked swiftly over to Darth Ghant's throne. For a long moment she hovered her hand over Ghant's upturned palm and the scroll that it held. Then, with a quick, darting movement, she grabbed it and hurried back to the others. Despite her rapid breaths, Vythia looked almost excited as she left the crypt.
"That is the last one," she said.
"Good." Hunter's tone was short as he started down the hall. "Now let's get back to the Marauder."
"Agreed." Vythia followed, not seeming to notice Quinlan's wince as she passed him.
Wrecker was so glad to finally be getting out that he was probably a little rougher than he'd intended to be when he elbowed Crosshair. The sniper glared at him and stalked off after Hunter and Vythia and Tech.
Quinlan was still staring at Darth Ghant.
Wrecker tilted his head in confusion, then jabbed his shoulder. "Hey," he whispered. "You're not . . . seein' things again, are you?"
The Jedi backed away from the room, huffing a weak, insincere laugh as he gestured towards Ghant. "Just – that. He looks so alive, Wrecker."
"Yeah, but he's not." Wrecker cast the Sith lord a final glance and prodded Quinlan after the rest of the team.
It is November - and therefore National Novel Writing Month . . . which means I will be focusing almost exclusively on original fiction. However, I should be able to continue posting on Sundays, if all goes well. :)
