Chapter XXXII
Breathing heavily with anticipation, Riko held his saber defensively as he waited for the approaching army. Seeing the Jedi––all knights and padawans––form a bulwark, gathered together for a massive battle, he really felt like a soldier.
Maybe Dad wasn't wrong, Riko mused solemnly.
He glanced towards Jade, who seemed equally apprehensive. Riko resisted the urge to reach out to her telepathically, not wanting to pick at a healing mental wound. Instead, he halfheartedly kept his eye on the encroaching battle. He could talk to her later, right now they had to survive this.
"Strange," Val reported, retracting his rangefinder, "They're retreating."
"What do you mean?" Mar'ik asked.
"They're pulling back," Val explained, "Can you verify this, Artoo?"
"Dreet-Breet-Deet!" Artoo affirmed positively.
"They're running!" Paz Mar'al exclaimed.
"They're scared," added Padawan Jes Mrorgran. A red-furred Torgorian with a feline snout, Jes had been something of a bully during Riko's years training on Atarashi'ie.
"We can take them!" he roared, raising his blue-bladed saberstaff and baring his yellowing fangs, the latter of which stirred unpleasant memories from Riko's first day at the Temple.
Still, Riko felt some small measure of reassurance and relief. Relief which quickly gave way to suspicion.
"Don't let yourselves become overconfident," Bao said, apparently holding similar misgivings, "This might be a trap."
"If it is a trap, we can still escape it," Akarta Mae suggested, "We just need to get to their hangars."
"Dreet-Breet-Deet-Breet!" Artoo exclaimed from the console.
"All of them?" Riko repeated, shocked.
"Dreet-Breet!" Artoo replied solemnly.
"What happened?" Jade asked.
"The Shadows have sealed all hangars," Bao explained, "And they have raised a particle shield over the entire Temple. We'd have to shut it down before we reached their hangar." He gestured to Riko, Val, Lowbacca, and Jade, "Any ideas?"
"We could sneak back through the underworld," Riko suggested.
Riko couldn't help but notice a hint of disdain from Jade at his words. She didn't want to leave yet. Before he could ask more, she closed herself off from him.
In his reverie, Riko had zoned out for a moment. Bao was speaking to the entire army.
"We'll head for the lower levels," he was saying, "We'll make our escape through the wilds of the undercity. You'll divide into three groups of ten, led by myself, Master Lowbacca and Imperial Knight Akarta Mae," Bao gestured to the Wookiee Council Master and the Keshri Imperial Knight, "Join with the nearest squad leader and stay close together. Val and I will lead the way, along with Riko and Jade.
"We must be cautious," he finished, "Stay together. It is very likely that we are walking into a trap."
When they had built their temple over the Jedi ruins, the Sith made a great deal of effort to make their bastion into a crucible, redesigning the palace to place its occupants in a constant state of wariness by testing their physical prowess and mental resolve. Though the deadly training droids that once patrolled the halls and ambushed unsuspecting Sith apprentices had long since been removed, Bao couldn't help but feel as if he and the others were facing a similar trial, stalked by a different, deadlier opponent.
Following his lead, the assembled Jedi remained watchful and wary, keeping their blades ignited and staying close together as they navigated the Temple's surprisingly empty corridors, detecting no sign of their enemies, only the silence of the abandoned halls.
"Wait," Bao commanded, "We're not alone." The army ground to a halt. They were traversing through a cavernous, ornate hallway framed by fragmented columns. A corridor the size of a small street, too little space for this many Jedi to fight effectively in…
Confirming his suspicion, Bao extended his senses, and perceived the distinctive cloaks of several Jedi Shadows approaching the group.
"The Shadows are here!" Bao declared, "Stand firm!"
His words spurred both his allies and enemies. As the Jedi and Imperial Knights raised their lightsabers, a dozen hooded, cloaked Shadows charged towards the Jedi army, brandishing their weapons with fury.
"Stay with Artoo, Niner!" Riko commanded.
"Form a wall!" Bao ordered, causing the Jedi to take up formation against the approaching assassins. Moving to the front of the bulwark, Bao raised his own weapon.
The Shadows crashed into the wall of Jedi with the force of a stampede, striking with strength and speed against the less experienced knights and padawans.
Three of the Shadows––armed with blue, green, and amethyst sabers respectively––converged on Bao, jabbing, slashing, and thrusting their blades in an attempt to break through his defense, pushing Bao's speed to the limit as he struggled to meet blow after blow after strike after jab.
Together, Riko and Jade clashed against the enemy ranks, swinging their weapons against the closest Shadow, armed with a purple saberstaff. They attempted to push the Shadow back, with Jade attempting to overwhelm her opponent with a flurry of strikes while Riko snuck in jabs, slashes, and parried and blocked what few strikes the Shadow did manage to land.
But, the Shadow wasn't pressed up against the rest of the Jedi, as Riko and Jade were. Riko had to watch his fellow Jedi as much as he did his opponent. They were cramped into the hallway, a mass of bodies mere feet––sometimes inches––apart. And the Shadow exploited that weakness, every blow he made pushing Riko and Jade back, attempting to keep them cloistered…
"Knockout gas!" Bao yelled, "Push it away!"
Seconds after he issued his warning, a white haze began to fill the Temple corridor, and a sickly sweet smell filled Riko's nostrils.
Though Jedi were trained in breath control techniques that – in an emergency – would enable them to survive noxious environments for a time, many of the Jedi here were padawans who hadn't received that training yet. Riko himself hadn't learned this technique. He and the padawans might have minutes at best before the gas knocked them out.
"I'm gonna push the gas away!" Jade yelled. Riko nodded, raising his saber and electing to protect her and any other Jedi assisting in this endeavor.
Deactivating her lightsaber, Jade retreated to the heart of the formation. From her, Riko felt a wave of immense power, flowing within her and outward to touch the gas molecules in the approaching air.
Together, she and the other Jedi next to her channeled the Force to alter the course of the gas, causing it to swirl around the battlefield instead of sweeping through it.
"Use the gas to ward off the Shadows!" Riko suggested. Jade acknowledged and delved further into the Force, the storm Riko sensed within her mirroring the one she was forming around them.
The gas began to swirl more quickly and more loudly, wind bellowing Riko's hair and clothing as the air pocket became the eye of a hurricane. Bao, Lowbacca, and the other Knights at the edge of the pocket stepped back as the Shadows were overwhelmed by the microstorm that had manifested in their midst.
The Shadows then retreated into the swirling white mist, presumably realizing they couldn't defeat the Jedi army on their own.
"Is everyone alright?" Bao asked.
"We is okay." Riko sighed in relief upon hearing Niner's high-pitched voice. The droid himself sounded both excited and terrified.
Riko surveyed the motley army crowded in the air pocket. Val was in the rear, his rangefinder engaged as he surveyed the corridor. Jade was at its heart, maintaining the storm. Niner and Artoo stayed close to her, huddled alongside a cluster of younger Padawans. A wide-sweep sensor protruded from the astromech's dome and scanned the area.
"Dreet-breet-deet beet," he said with dismay.
"The entire floor's been flooded," Riko translated, "And there aren't any life-forms in the levels below us."
"The rest of the Temple must be bugged," Bao concluded, "A security measure, presumably."
"Looks likely," Val noted, "The underlevel exit's still eighty levels down. You think you can hold this air bubble for that long?"
Riko glanced towards Jade, knowing that this was taking a great deal of effort and focus for her and the others. The answer was clear.
"We'll have to get to the rooftop," he suggested, "The gas will disperse there. Emdee will have to land and meet us there."
"We still have the shield to worry about, kid," Val noted, "Which is why it's definitely a trap."
"Indeed," Bao's throat rattled, "Can we disable the shield generator from the rooftop?"
"Dreet-breet-deet!" Artoo was cautiously optimistic.
"The power source is several levels down," Riko translated, "But we can disable the emitter on the rooftop. If Artoo or I could reach it, either of us could certainly do it."
"Arggh," Lowbacca was clearly addressing Riko. Somewhat stunned and slightly awed, Riko really wished he could understand Shyriiwook.
"Lowbacca said he can help you," Val translated, "He's also handy with tools."
"Great!" Riko couldn't help but grin. His inner child leapt at the thought that the legendary Jedi hero Lowbacca was assisting him.
"Can the Nomad fit all of us?" Jade asked.
"It'll be a really tight fit," Val concluded, "But probably."
"It'll have to do," Bao replied, "This is our only option."
All was quiet as the army journeyed through the upper reaches of the Jedi Temple. The only sounds were the hum of their lightsabers, the thud of their footsteps, and the everpresent howl of the wind circling at the edge of the air pocket. The closer they got to the rooftop, the more likely Riko found it that they were walking into a trap.
"Niner," he whispered, "Stay behind me. Don't go outside until I've cleared the way, okay?"
"Okay," Niner's entire body rapidly rotated along the axis of his wheel in the equivalent of a humanoid nod. The droid was clearly as anxious as Riko.
Relieved that his brother would at least be safe, Riko glanced towards Jade. He knew that she was hiding something. Something to do with this place, he was certain of it. It wasn't just about her childhood. It was something she didn't wish to tell anyone else, some kind of goal she held.
Riko's stomach lurched as he started to piece it together. Jade was still badly hurt from what she had been through…
No. Jade was the most empathetic person Riko knew. There was no way she'd want to hurt – much less kill – someone.
Would she? As much as it pained Riko to consider it, that would explain why she was hiding it from him. Jade had been grievously wounded by Tau Skywalker's betrayal and Asharr's mental violation, and that pain might make her forget herself…
Through his bond with Jade, Riko sensed echoes of the pain of Asharr's torture, a pain he himself had felt a glimpse of as it had been inflicted…
The world froze as Riko pondered a horrifying question. What if Asharr was still alive?
Before he could fully process the implications of that possibility, he realized that they had reached their destination.
A cavernous hallway that terminated in a circular entryway, the dim lighting of the temple giving way to the vibrant night sky of Coruscant. Riko reignited his lightsaber, waiting for the battle to resume. He had to warn Bao…
"Incoming!" Val yelled.
Lightsabers hissing to life, the Jedi Shadows descended upon the group like a swarm of hornets. They were brutal and relentless, testing the Jedi to their limits as their blades clashed.
Yet the motley army held together, and pushed the Shadows back, gaining a foothold on the Temple rooftop.
Weaving through dueling pairs of Jedi against Jedi, Riko began to make his way across the rooftop to Bao, who held his ground against a trio of Shadows. The boy's approach turned the attention of one of the three, who met Riko's strike with a series of quick thrusts that the boy barely parried. Before Riko could adjust his technique, the Shadow batted his ember blade aside and landed a powerful kick on his stomach. Riko clutched his abdomen as his insides felt like they had been battered by missiles: clearly the Shadow had augmented his strength with the Force. Only a quick duck saved him from being decapitated from the Shadow's saber. Riko raised his blade to parry the Shadow's next strike.
Then suddenly the Shadow went stiff, and collapsed, an orange furrow cut into his back. Bao had saved Riko's life.
As the pain faded, Riko raised his lightsaber and joined his Master against the other two Shadows. They were more evenly matched here, this Shadow – a stocky Sullustan with jowls and beady black eyes – favored a less aggressive technique, allowing Riko to more easily parry and block his strikes. Beside him, the Twi-lek Shadow dueling Bao locked his blade with the Jedi Knight's, purple clashing and hissing as it met aqua.
Riko's opponent became more anxious, striking with greater force and less precision, his blows more difficult to block but easier to evade. Riko quickly understood what to do next, and swung his saber as if to strike. But as his opponent's green blade rose to block, Riko deactivated his own. Just as the Shadow's eyes widened in realization, Riko reignited his blade and cut through his opponent's wrist.
The Shadow dropped to the ground, staring at his stump and grimacing in pain. Riko was reminded uncomfortably of his duel with Jade when Asharr had possessed her.
He closed his eyes and let the schematics of his opponent's fallen lightsaber fill his mind. Once he disconnected the emitter matrix and power cell with telekinesis, he opened his eyes and turned his attention back to his fallen opponent.
There was no time to ask for his surrender. Riko instead grabbed his stun blaster from his belt and fired. As his opponent dropped to the ground, unconscious, he could only whisper, "I'm sorry."
His mind turning back to his suspicions regarding Jade, he turned towards Bao, who had finished off his own opponent.
"Bao," Riko said frantically, "I think that…"
Riko's words were silenced by a massive explosion that shook the ground and left his eardrums ringing. Turning towards its source, he saw the entrance from which they had came – one of the five towers that protruded from the rooftop – begin to crumble.
Niner! Riko sprinted back towards the collapsing tower.
"Everyone out!" Bao ordered, following him.
Around them, Jedi were either engaged with Shadows or fleeing the rubble. Riko made his way through the crowd, narrowly weaving his way through his own allies to reach his brother as the massive tower toppled, duracrete walls fracturing into pieces and windows shattering into shards.
"Niner!" Riko screamed frantically.
He was too late. The spire collapsed, the impact reverberating through the sacred structure, stirring up billows of dust. The remains of the fallen tower lay across the massive rooftop like a corpse, surrounded by mounds of toppled synthstone, bellowing flames, strewn fields of glass, and clouds of dust that burned Riko's eyes.
"Niner!"