AN: Part 8 will begin posting Monday, January 9th
.***.***.***.***.
Kori strained and struggled to breath beneath the weight of concentration it took to hold the Inquisitor mid-charge.
Perfectly still in the opening stance for form one, she didn't plan to fight the young man. Years out of practice, and never a front line warrior besides, she knew that her strength lie in the Force.
And it was through the Force that she knew just how dangerous her opponent was.
Young for a Jedi Knight, but not impossibly so, he was a red headed man with furious golden eyes. About average in his connection to the Force, he suffered from that all-consuming and over-eager flush of the dark side. Enraged yet tired, something ancient follow him. A dark blot on the Force, the young man carried an unmistakable shadow with him; a long past battle with a long forgotten reason.
Wielding an over-long saber than no doubt held two blades, he only had one ignited for his charge. Sure as anything that he would be a beast to face in battle, Kori reached deep to redouble her efforts.
So focused on keeping the dark Jedi paused, Kori almost didn't notice a set of LEDs peering over the young man's shoulder.
Completely disconnected from the odd ebbs and flows of the Force, BD had no idea what had brought Cal to a clattering halt.
But he was sure that he recognized the Jedi they had been searching for.
Standing as still as Cal, Kori barely managed to spare a glance and a word to the little droid, "Whoa, there. Stay back, little guy."
Rocking an antenna back at making a quick look to one of Cal's hands as it managed to move an inch at Kori's being distracted, BD considered his options.
A few distant clatters from the hurried rebels echoed out of the darkened house. Kori tried not to let them or the droid be a distraction.
A task she was quickly failing at as the explorer droid crawled down from the dark Jedi's shoulder.
"Hey!" Kori looked down and then back up as she felt her grasp around the red haired Imperial slip, "Pppsssttt! Back up!"
Now standing perfectly between the two warriors, BD beeped out a simple question.
"What?" Unsure if she were more confused by the content of the question, or by the fact that the little droid had asked in the first place, Kori's grip slipped.
Cal's hand came forward by half a foot.
Then it stooped.
BD didn't mind it as he asked again.
"I'm not plotting anything," Kori breathed out as quickly as she could manage, the dark Jedi inching forward as she did
The little droid considered that answer before asking about the rest of the rebellion.
"They just want to be free."
Mulling over that answer and then looking back at the still-trapped Cal the little droid raised a foot, scomp-link cracking at the end of it.
"Oh no. no, no, none of that."
BD hopped forward.
"Stop it!" Kori warned. Cal's back foot came off the ground.
But the tiny droid persisted, gripping the crackling electricity against Kori's leg.
Yelping and throwing herself backward just as her concentration broke, Kori narrly avoided Cal's suddenly active lunge. Half clamped onto Kori's leg, BD went flying backward, rolling a few times as he hit he ground.
"BD!?" Cal came down a fraction less sure in his attack as he was suddenly aware of the droid's missing weight.
Taking advantage of the moment's distraction, Kori retreated to just inside the villa's main hall. Not sparing an instant, she wretched the door shut just as the inquisitor stood.
Popping back up, BD scampered back to his familiar place on Cal's shoulder.
"Thanks buddy," half sure of what had just happened, Cal looked to the building's aged doors.
Not reinforced, but heavy enough that they would surely slow him down, Cal grumbled as he raised his saber. Plunging the crimson blade into he this metal surface, he shouted over the hissing sound of his work, "Kori Jenussa! I know it's you in there, and I know Saw is in there too!"
Slowing a tick to try and listen for a response, Cal went back to work as he heard nothing but a frantic clatter from inside the building.
"If you two surrender, I can try to let the rest of the rebels off easy!"
Half way through the door, Cal heard nothing in reply, though the hairs on the back of his neck went on end.
Recognizing the promise of a threat, Cal moved on blind instinct as he twisted the hilt of his blade. Stepping away from the door, he left half a saber sticking out the thing while he brought the other blade up to defend himself.
Blindly reflecting a hastily shot plasma bolt from the roof, Cal realized he had forgotten about the sniper on the roof.
Guess we're doing this the hard way.
Looking into the darkness where the shot came from, Cal wretched the other end of the saber free from it's place half way through the door. Backing up from the building, and then making a semi-blind charge through the night, Cal made for a lower part of the roof.
Meeting a few well-placed shots as he went, the inquisitor effortlessly parried the plasma as he went. Throwing the shots back against a pergola's support beams rather than the hidden shooter, Cal created a clear path to the roof.
Taking running jumps and Force-propelled leaps, the Fourth Brother was half way up the building when he managed to slap at the communicator on his wrist.
"Jorge! I found the rebel base." Cal deflected a shot from the roof top sniper, "I can clear it myself, but we'll need a couple of teams to comb the fields. I think they're running away again."
Hearing nothing besides the huffing Inquisitor, Jorge wasn't sure he wanted to know how bad the situation was to leave the young man winded. Saying nothing for the worry, he simply replied, "Rodger, I'll get a gun ship to your coordinates."
Only half realizing that his comm must double as a locator, Cal didn't spare much time on the thought before landing on the villa's flat roof top. Scarcely a second after touching down, the whole place seemed to come alive with blaster fire. Suddenly needing to deflect fire from all around, Cal stalled as he spun his sabers in a blur. Firing semi blind in the gloom and unable to see past the glow of his own blades, he wasn't sure if he hit anyone.
But he was sure of the sudden arrival of a Force-heavy presence on the roof.
Not seeing the tale-tell green saber blade, Cal tried to split his attention between the barrage and desperate attempt at locating the Jedi.
So he wasn't ready to deflect a sudden heavy wave that came through the Force.
Suddenly launched back from the roofs edge, Cal found himself tumbling through the air, only managing to continue his flurried defence against the blaster fire from deeply ingrained training.
Dropping over the edge of the building and out of the line of sight from all but the forwardmost snipers, Cal had a moment's reprieve as he landed and looked back to the roof.
"Really!?"
Kori stood at it's edge, looking down at the shouting Inquisitor.
"Come down here and just fight, you coward!" Cal held his sabers wide.
"No!" Kori shouted, lighting her saber to make a visible signal to the hidden rebels. With a gesture of the glowing green blade the shots began again.
Crossing his blades to deflect the barrage once more, the Fourth Brother grit his teeth. Two can play this game.
Running to the side, Cal only stopped once he found some cover from the rebel fire.
Left in a sudden silence as the fire stopped, Cal knew that they were reloading to begin anew once he re-appeared.
They won't get that chance. Cal told himself as he took a deep breath.
Knowing better than to try and calm himself now, the Inquisitor opened himself to the fear and the rush of battle coursing through the rebels' minds. At first seemingly like a confused cloud of terror and rage, the darkened villa became a focused thing.
A dozen discrete points of apprehension sat on the roof – snipers waiting with baited breath. Three people appeared at the rear of the villa, pulse racing as they waited their signal to finally run – probably pilots sitting in ships. Tens, Dozens, maybe a hundred, men an women hurried about, gathering the wounded that could still walk while half a dozen dull points barely appeared to Cal, made noticeable only because of a dull pain that pulled at otherwise unconscious bodies.
The Fourth Brother recognized a familiar presence, calmer than the others, but simmering with a fury that he hadn't noticed the first time they met. Drawn to Saw but forcing himself to look beyond the tempting target, the Fourth Brother tried to pick Jenussa's location in the fray.
Such a big thing, her presence was hard to see.
Oh well. She can't have gone far.
Anything but calm, the Fourth Brother felt for the people on the roof. Drawn to the tense front line, he tightened a hand. Goading the Force to close around the fighters, Cal suddenly yanked them forward.
Whipping around and out of his hiding place, the Fourth Brother made an unchallenged dash across the yard. Most of the rebels dazed from their sudden drop to the ground, none got a shot off before meeting a quick end at the Inquisitors blade.
Half way up the downed pergola, Cal felt Kori's gaze on him once again.
Ready for her tricks, he ignored the Jedi and reached back to the remaining rebels on the roof. Pulling them forward, Cal felt the tiniest hint of pressure from the Jedi before that feeling snapped away, her attention taken by the need to keep her companions safely on the roof.
Landing on the roof and immediately dropping concentration on the rebels, the Fourth Brother took a couple rushed steps.
Feeling the Jedis attention once more, he repeated his feint of pulling at the rebels. Once again the Jedi prized their safety over her own.
Kori knew what the dark Jedi was doing.
Back and forth, back and forth, their contest continued, the dark Jedi's slow progress between Force driven contests forcing Kori to pick between leaving the rebels for dead or fighting for all of their lives.
Ignoring a creeping dread, Kori brandished her lightsaber.
An instant later the Fourth Brother was upon her.
Taking an off balance step back to steady herself, the Jedi put all of her body weight into a deadly blade lock. Two hissing red sabers grinding against her own, it was impossible to see the rest of the darkened roof past the blades jittering lights.
Seeing nothing but the dark jedi's face in the harsh light, even Kori was taken off guard by a sudden shot from one of the remaining rebels.
Left to deflect of die, the attack man spared a saber to protect himself.
Out from some of his weight, Kori slid to the side, shouting at her friends under attack as she went, "Get out of here!"
Not sure if they heard her or when they would begin to move, Kori swung back around to face the young man. Widening her stance, she made a Force propelled shove.
Cal buckled slightly, stuttering a step but otherwise primed and ready for the Jedi's predictable attempt at a shove. Knowing his opponent was powerful but easily distracted, the Fourth Brother made a calculated toss of one of his sabers.
Breaking concentration to dodge, Kori rolled to the side an instant before the blade cleaved through the place she had just stood.
Earning a seconds repreave as he waited for his blade to return, Cal overhead a slight commotion from the back of the building.
Between his check of the place and a few recognizable sounds, he knew what was back there, Ships.
"BD, go make sure those don't take off."
At first surprised to be asked of something other than a stim, the little droid perked up before scampering down Cal's back and over the roof.
Just as the little droid hopped out of sight, Cal looked back to the now empty roof.
"I know you're still up here!" he didn't.
Connecting his sabers back into a staff, Cal began a slow circle around the villa's flat roof, "Unless you ran away again," he struck out at a pile of boxes, sending shards of the wooden crate and the grains inside it clattering across the floor.
Earning no response, Cal waited a tick before plunging the end of his blade into the roof.
Guiding the thing in a wide circle to cut a hole through the stucco building, the Fourth Brother was sure that he'd earn another hasty attack just before breaching the building.
Top saber half turned and ready to break away from the bottom one, Cal had a sinister thought in his head, But this time, I'm ready for it.
.***.***.***.***.
"Rodger, I'll get a gun ship to your coordinates."
Jorge didn't get a reply, Cal… Cal?
Looking up to the blackened living room, Jorge saw his troops, the hostages, and Agent Manse through an infrared lens.
Ah, son of a…
Deciding not to spare a moment on an explanation, and worried what the one true rebel in the room might do with the information, Jorge said nothing to them before keying his comm back to the town.
"Point Alpha, this is Sergeant Kendima. Fourth Brother's personal squadron."
"Sergeant, this is Alpha, go ahead."
"Fourth Brother is requesting air support, gunship for insurgent clean up."
"Rodger that," came the relaxed operator voice, "over."
Ending the call with a click, Jorge moved his attention back to the darkened room.
But a worried thought picked at the sergeant, Damn it Cal, what kind of hell did you walk into that you're asking for back up?
.***.***.***.***.
A blazing green saber swept through the air in an impossibly tight arc.
Knowing it had to be coming, Cal deftly twisted his weapon, breaking away half the blade to parry Kori's.
What he didn't expect was a plasma bolt hidden in the sabers shadow. Fired an instant after the blade was thrown, it had been impossible to see.
But it told Cal that he had two attackers.
Rolling to the side in the face of a second shot, Cal watched the flying blade return to it's owners hiding place. Making a mad dash, and deflecting a few shots as he went, Cal went through a series of crates rather than around him in his attack.
Crashing through the wood and grain he made a blind strike through the haze. Ears filled with the hissing of grain dust hitting his saber, the Inquisitor found his mark.
Standing in the plume of dust they found themselves in a blade lock again.
"Cal Kestis!" a familiar voice, spoken with a slight wheeze, yanked the Fourth Brother's attention from Kori.
"You've fallen very far, my friend." Saw shouted again, his voice growing slightly closer.
Glancing over his shoulder, Cal couldn't quite make out the rebels shape through the dust.
Sure that he was low on time before Saw could see enough to fire again, Cal kept most of his attention on Kori. Though consumed with his own misplaced need for justice – or maybe revenge- against the notorious insurgent, Cal kept his focus on the Jedi.
She noticed, "Cal?" Kori wasn't sure if she had heard the Inquisitors name
His slight look of shock at hearing it from her said that she did.
"Cal," Kori began again, "I don't know what the Empire told you, but it doesn't have to be like this."
Recovering from the slight emotional shock, Cal grimaced, lessening his pressure on the blade lock a fraction.
Thinking that maybe, just maybe, her attack was having a moment of doubt, Kori kept on, "Hey, that's right. We can talk this out."
The dust settled slightly more.
Kori went on, "I'm going to take a step back. You do the same. Okay?"
There's my opening. "Okay."
And so the Jedi did just that, stepping back and releasing the Fourth Brother from their blade lock.
For a second, Cal did the same. Turning slightly as he did so that his body was facing the rest of the roof.
But then the dust settled.
And he could see Saw.
Rebel not caring for whatever truce the Jedi though she had negotiated, he fired his blaster. In the same instant, may the one slightly before, Cal wretched the other half of his blade out of the roof.
Leaning back, the Forth Brother dodge the shot.
Thinking he would be dodging an attack from Cal's direction; Saw began to move.
He did so just enough to have Cal's second blade graze him in the side rather than cleave him in two.
Staggering a step and making a soundless scream at the saber wound to his side, the rebel teetered to the edge of the roof.
"Saw!" Kori shouted.
Giving her not time to recover, Cal collected his second blade and made a fresh charge.
No hope of talking her way out of this now, Kori readied a defense.
.***.***.***.***.
BD-1 hopped and scampered from one set of crated to the next. Well below eye level, the little explorer droid even thought to dim the lighted display of his visual receptors as he crept down a storm drain and to a bustling courtyard below.
Rebels, maybe a hundred of them, rushed in and out of the house, some of them dragging along the wounded while others desperately tried to pull supplied out of the doomed villa.
BD only minded them enough not to be seen.
Three ships, tightly clustered sat in the clearing.
Starting with the largest one, BD tried not to think about what he was doing.
The rebellion was the enemy after all, and Cal was his friend. The fact that the little droid was surrounded by pained and fearful people, some of them barely old enough to fight at all was of little consequence.
Or that's what the little droid told himself as he arrived at the largest ships undercarriage.
That's what his program was telling him after all. The rebellion was a force for chaos; that's what all the newly uploaded data in his processor told the little droid.
That's the knowledge he clung to while he began pulling fuel lines from their sockets, as he began splicing and depowering whatever relays he could find.
.***.***.***.***.
Cal made a controlled roll out of a forced tumble.
Uprighting himself, he threw both blades in different arcs before running to close the freshly opened space between him and Kori.
Worn down, exhausted, and only keeping up the fight rather than fleeing for the lives in the house she was trying to protect, Kori huffed and struggled with each one of the Fourth Brother's offensives.
"Cal!" She shouted again, trying to keep the young man off kilter as she deflected one of the spinning blades.
The inquisitor caught it, charging forward to attack the jedi at the same time his other blade contacted her own.
"Cal, stop this! Saw told me about you."
The Fourth Brother made a low kick to sweep Kori's legs out from under her. Half falling, she rolled to the side just quick enough to catch a fresh attack from Cal before she had returned to standing.
His opponent half on the ground, it was only a matter of time now.
But still Kori tried talking, it was the only thing she had left, "You freed those wookies, that's all we're trying to do on Qillura."
"I don't see any slaves here." He made a slow final approach.
"Free people from the Empire! I mean. The people here are scared, you know what that's like!"
Stopping, but glaring at the Jedi, Cal would make his final move when she tried to stand. An indefensible and slow maneuver, he didn't really care to listen to what she was saying while he waited.
But she still tried, "They just want their lives back. No more impossible quotas, no more working to death in the fields."
The hairs on the back of Cal's neck stood on end.
"They just want freedom. Liberty. To live! You remember before the Empire, I know you do."
"Oh, I remember," Cal spoke mostly to himself.
"It was better. We were free."
Cal's voice came out in a hissed, something between grunt and a yell as a near electric shock raced over his skin, "When have we ever been free!?"
The dark jedi's emphasize on 'we' felt like a physical blow.
"Tell me!" The Fourth Brother shouted, "Tell me when we were free!"
No knowing what awful though she had loosened in the young man's mind, Kori scrambled to her feet.
"Was it when the Jedi Order took us as children?"
Only half way standing, she bared her blade in defense.
"When they taught us how to fight?"
Cal came down with a crashing blow.
"Taught us not to feel?"
Hand numb, exhausted, Kori's saber clattered to the side.
"When?!"
Cal huffed, one hand at his side while the other brandished a single blade a scare inch from the Jedi's chest.
"When?" he nearly whispered.
Tired, desperately tired, Kori said nothing as she looked the Inquisitor in the eye.
And he said nothing as he plunged his saber through her gut.
Falling the rest of the way down, the Jedi was a lifeless thing. Fought to the point of exhaustion and then keeled over with a desperate plead that they both hand onto the past, the Fourth Brother found her a perfect metaphor for the Order that he swore he'd never let raise again.
Standing straight, Cal reconnected his blades and made for the edge of the roof. A few desperate sounds – mostly that of a hopelessly grumbling thruster – bubbled up from below. Coming to a place where he could look down at the fleeing rebels, Cal found one ship leaking smoke, while another limped into the air.
And the rebels saw him too.
Only looking up with a shout, followed by hasty blaster fire.
Sweeping his staff to easily deflect the uncoordinated attack, the Fourth brother watched the barely-able-to-fly ship wobble as it hovered over the courtyard. Loading ramp still half down during its desperate attempt to flee, Cal made a calculated decision.
Backing up before making a running leap to the thing, he misjudged the distance on the teetering ship.
One hand wrapping around the hydraulics for the loading ramp, he dangled halfway off the machine and over the yard.
Deflecting a few shots, and being completely missed by others, Cal swung in time with the confused ship. Twisting in and desperately pulling himself upward, the Inquisitor deftly vaulted upward as the ship dipped down. Landing with a flourish on the slowly closing ramp, he was met with a terrified series of rebels.
Some of them opening up with blaser fire, some of them desperately scrambling for the cockpit, none of them were a match for the rampaging Inquisitor.
Cutting this way and that, there was no room for them to flee. A cramped transport, the best the could do was try and dogpile their attacker.
And it worked, for a second, the pilot gunning the ship forward as fast as it's damaged engine would allow. Thrown backward, all the people living and dead crashed Cal against the wall.
Snarling with a fresh rage, Cal made a Force propelled shove. Calibrated fro the life and death struggle with a Jedi, it was stronger than Cal meant. People and crates, and who knows what else went tumbling forward and crashing through the open cockpit door.
What hit the pilot, Cal didn't know.
But he did know that his back suddenly crashed against the ceiling.
And then his shoulder hit the wall.
And then a blaster went off, ricocheting around the metal tube and causing the ship to fall groundward once again.
.***.***.***.***.
"IDT-A10 to Point Alpha."
"This is Point Alpha, go ahead."
"We are over target, requestion orders."
"Deferring to the Fourth Brother, patching him through now."
Then point alpha's operator pause, and the gunship pilot paused.
And a long silence stretched over the comm.
"Point Alpha to Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother, come in?"
Silence.
"Fourth Brother?"