Star Wars: Return of the Sith

31: Showdown on Gamorr

By Nanaki

Gamorr

Seco didn't attack immediately, so Jerin had time to wonder if there was anything he could do to help Hetch. If he could summon up a truly massive Force Push, or otherwise incapacitate Seco for what would almost surely be just a few seconds, could he actually do anything that would make a difference? All he could come up with was using the Force to hurl Hetch toward the Justice, where Tenn and the girls could at least get bacta patches on that wound. But, injured as Hetch already was, that would be more likely to kill him than help. No, it would be better to draw Seco away and keep him occupied, so Hetch's own people could try to help him. As far as keeping Seco occupied went, Jerin had a few ideas...

He crouched down low, holding his lightsaber forward, but instead of charging ahead, he jumped backwards, as hard as his legs and the Force would let him. He landed about where he had hoped, skidding in the wet grass no more than thirty feet from where he'd left his helmet and jet pack. Even as he ran to retrieve his equipment, he held out his lightsaber with his left hand, expecting Seco to be dashing in to attack from that direction. Instead, he saw that Seco was calmly walking forward, not appearing to be in any particular hurry. Well, he was going to regret that lack of urgency.

Then, Jerin realized that there could well be another reason Seco hadn't pressed the attack right away. Even as he scooped up his helmet and hurried to put it on, he whirled around, expecting to see Negian coming at him from over the slight rise a few hundred feet away. Instead, there was only a small group of boars, milling around a bit in agitation. It seemed like they wanted to rush in and help their fallen hero, but were too afraid of what might happen to them if they tried. Well, Jerin was about to give them an opening. He turned back to face Seco as he put his gloves back on, and saw that, if anything, he was walking slower than before. No, there was no hidden strategy at work here, Seco was simply arrogant enough to let Jerin get all his armor back on.

Jerin tried to reach out with his senses and do a quick read of the area, just to see if Negian might be lurking close by. He sensed Seco and Tenn plain as day, while there were two weaker presences as well. He assumed one of them must be Hetch, while the other was most likely whichever of the girls on the ship was Force-sensitive. Or could it somehow be Negian? Negian, trying to hide his presence but not completely succeeding? No, that didn't make much sense. As Jerin hefted his jet pack back into place, he told himself not to jump at shadows. It was time to focus on the threat in front of him.

"All done? Fully kitted out now?" Seco asked smugly as he stopped about ten feet away. "I don't want you to say you only lost because you didn't have all your armor on."

"Oh, I'm ready." Jerin nodded tightly. "Although... It seems to me, last time we fought, YOU lost."

"I may have underestimated you a bit." Seco admitted. "But, we were also fighting in a pretty narrow hallway that didn't let me use my Ataru. Not such a problem here." He gestured around at the wide open field, then spread his feet apart, holding his lightsaber forward again.

'All right, he wants you to fight him with a lightsaber because he's sure he can win.' Jerin thought. 'So, do something else.' Instead of charging forward, he turned off his lightsaber and lit up his jets, rocketing skyward. He quickly switched his lightsaber to his left hand and pulled out Jango's blaster with his right, getting off a few quick shots that Seco easily batted away. Seco appeared to be shouting something at him, but Jerin couldn't hear over the sound of his jet pack and his own shooting. He hovered about a hundred feet in the air, moving to the left in a wide semicircle. He didn't actually expect any of his shots to hit Seco, but it would keep Seco on the defensive while he planned what to do next.

Or so he thought. Then, even as Seco continued to bat away Jerin's blaster bolts with ease, he reached out with his left hand, and a rock roughly two feet across lifted off the ground about a dozen yards away, then shot into the air, right at Jerin. Jerin just barely managed to deflect it with a little Force energy of his own, but it was clear he couldn't just hover up here any longer. 'All right then, let's get to it.' He couldn't help but grin a little as he flipped forward, then went into a steep dive. He leveled out as he got close to the ground, rocketing straight at Seco. Seco, for his part, stayed right where he was, lightsaber at the ready. Jerin wondered why Seco wasn't taking some kind of evasive action, but then he realized that Seco assumed HE was going to break off at the last moment. 'Oh, big mistake, you pale murglak.'

Jerin ignited his lightsaber at the last instant, so that its blade was still extending at he thrust it at Seco's head. That was intentional, to make it harder to defend against. Seco just barely got his own blade up to block in time, and Jerin probably would have scored at least a glancing blow, except that his own momentum carried him forward into Seco's block, and the tip of his saber swung out to the side. Even as that was happening, Jerin let go of his saber with his left hand, then slammed the base of his palm into Seco's jaw. Then they continued through the air like that, the two lightsabers tangled up together, Jerin trying to push Seco's head even farther back. Of course, an ordinary opponent would have gotten his neck snapped at the first moment of contact, but Seco was no ordinary opponent.

After a few seconds, Seco finally twisted his saber out of their stalemate, and swung a solid chop into Jerin's right side. However, it just bounced harmlessly off Jerin's armor. The motion did change the angle of Jerin's flight though, but definitely not in Seco's favor. Seco slammed into the ground, but Jerin managed to correct the angle of his rockets so they didn't stop there. Instead, Jerin used Seco's head to plow a shallow trench in the soft ground for well over a hundred feet before his hand finally slipped off Seco's jaw. Jerin went into a forward flip as he shut off his jet pack, and landed facing away from Seco, lightsaber at the ready. Surely NOW was the moment Negian would come charging in, but no, there was no sign of him. Jerin whirled back around, but all he saw was Seco slowly getting up, mud sliding off his shoulders and dripping from his hair.

"Gross." Seco said simply as he shook his arms, flinging more mud away. Then he looked back up at Jerin. "Well, I hope you enjoyed that, because it's the only one you'll get."

Jerin couldn't keep a grin off his face as he replied, "Oh, somehow I doubt that." But, he was well aware that the hard part was coming. With Seco seemingly immune to Force Lightning, there was no way to defeat him that didn't involve a lightsaber duel. So, as Seco began to run forward, Jerin repeated some advice to himself that he'd been thinking a lot lately: 'All right, just do what you did on Tatooine. Open up to the Force and FEEL his hostility. Sense what he's about to do.' As Seco got close, Jerin ran forward to meet him.

Rather than meet Jerin's charge head on, Seco jumped over him, striking out at the back of Jerin's helmet as he flipped forward. Jerin deflected this without looking, then spun around and aimed a slash at Seco's left side. Seco's blade was there to meet it, then he forced Jerin's blade up and back. Rather than try to fight it, Jerin went with the motion, swinging his blade back around for a stab at Seco's stomach, even as he ducked under the slash Seco aimed at his head. Seco danced away nimbly, then stopped, his eyebrow raised. "Well, someone's been improving." He admitted. "You still don't stand a chance against me, but you have improved."

"Oh, and why don't I stand a chance?" Jerin wondered aloud.

"You may be getting lots of practice with your powers, but you have no master." Seco shrugged. "Where I was trained by Asara Sebatyne, one of the greatest lightsaber duelists in the galaxy."

"And if she could see you now, she'd be rooting for me to kick your butt." Jerin responded.

"Well, that may be. But even more than that, I haven't exactly been giving it my all yet." Seco's eyes narrowed. "Observe. If you can." With that, he exploded into action, his lightsaber seeming to blossom into several blades thanks to the incredible speed and acrobatics of his Ataru style. Jerin stayed calm and stayed in the moment, blocking swiftly and efficiently for the first five seconds or so.

Then, Seco's saber smacked into the back of his helmet and bounced away, and Jerin had to fight off a sudden burst of panic. He hadn't sensed that strike coming at all, and even as he desperately continued batting Seco's attacks away, he realized that Seco was not consciously thinking about each individual attack he made. Seco was operating off pure muscle memory, and almost seemed to be in a trance-like state, odd as that might sound for someone moving so fast. The Force wasn't much good for sensing your enemy's intent when there was no conscious intent. The obvious solution to this problem was to counterattack, forcefully, but Jerin was almost entirely on the defensive, and he didn't see any way to change that without taking several big hits from Seco. Well, if that was the only way to do, then so be it.

Jerin jumped backwards, feeling Seco's blade bounce off his right thigh and then his left knee as he went. As he landed, he felt a searing pain in his left knee, so at least a little bit of the saber must have snuck past his armor, but he was still able to stand, so he could worry about that later. Seco waited half a second to see if Jerin was going to do anything else, but when he didn't, Seco whirled forward again. When he did, Jerin let loose with the Force Push he'd been quietly gathering up power for, and Seco took the full force of it, though his blade continued to spin around even as he went flying backwards. 'I thought so.' Jerin allowed a smile back onto his face. When Seco had emptied his mind so Jerin couldn't sense what he was about to do, he had also stopped sensing what JERIN was about to do.

Jerin ran after his opponent as fast as the Force would let him, so he was right on top of Seco when he landed, chopping away with his own saber. However, Seco didn't seem any worse for wear, and defended himself with relative ease. After several seconds exchanging blows, with neither gaining a clear advantage, Seco took several steps backward. "Can I ask you something?" Seco raised an eyebrow again.

"Oh, and what would that be?" Jerin didn't mind stopping to talk, because that would at least give him time to come up with a new plan. Right now, he didn't have much.

"Why do you keep on fighting us every chance you get? What's in it for you?" Seco wondered.

"Because it's the right thing to do." Jerin answered simply.

Seco snorted derisively. "Don't play Jedi with me. You're a Mando mercenary. Why would you care about what's right?"

Jerin's hands tightened on his lightsaber's hilt, and he felt some righteous determination welling up within him. "What it boils down to is, self-aware beings are not property, regardless of how much money they might be worth if they were."

"Hmm..." Seco looked at him quizzically now. "I sense some personal demons behind that noble statement. But- huh?" Seco's eyes widened in genuine surprise as a pair of strong, green arms slid under his own from behind, then forced his own arms up and out, and finished by joining hands behind his head, leaving him pinned in a very awkward position.

"Since you like sneaking up on people from behind," Hetch growled, "I thought I'd return the favor."

"Heh, I don't blame you for being angry." Seco shrugged, or at least tried to. "But this isn't going to hold me for long."

"Probably not." Hetch admitted. "Hey Jerin!" He called over. "Is there a reason you're not killing him yet?"

"All right then!" Jerin called back, and charged forward. He hadn't wanted to steal the victory from Hetch, if Hetch had had something specific in mind, but he didn't mind this being a team effort. However, even as his black blade neared Seco's neck, he saw the small arcs of electricity starting to dance between Seco's fingers, and he knew what was coming.

Seco let loose with a massive burst of Force Lightning from his right hand, at an awkward angle that should have caused him to shock himself pretty badly as well, but he didn't seem to suffer any ill effects from it. Hetch was sent flying backwards, while Jerin stepped back to avoid the initial blast. That relief was short-lived, as Seco dropped his lightsaber from his left hand to send another cluster of bolts right at Jerin. Jerin managed to get his blade up to block in time, but there was clearly some trick to blocking Force Lightning he still didn't know, as the successive waves of electricity snaked into his hands and on into the rest of him. The only reason he was able to hold onto his saber was because his muscles were literally locked in place by the effect of the electricity. Jerin was only dimly aware that he had toppled over onto his back, and he also realized that he was howling with pain, but he could barely hear that over the rushing sound in his ears.

Then, suddenly, the Force Lightning was cut off. Jerin managed to tilt his head up enough to see Hetch charging forward, and Seco staggering back under a savage series of punches from the angry Gamorrean. Clearly, being blasted by Force Lightning wasn't enough to intimidate Hetch. Neither was being stabbed by a lightsaber, for that matter. Jerin wasn't entirely sure how Hetch was still alive, but there was no sign of the injury he had sustained, other than two matching holes in the front and back of his vest. Jerin was trying to get up to help, but his body was somehow both pretty numb and yet in a lot of pain at the same time. He managed to lurch up onto one elbow, and looked across the grass toward where Hetch had collapsed after Seco snuck up on him. There, as he'd suspected, Tenn was lying motionless in the grass, clearly passed out after healing such a serious wound. Still, the fact that she'd been able to completely heal a lightsaber injury like that, and so quickly, was nothing short of miraculous. It was something he would have thought only Cade Skywalker could have done, if he hadn't just seen the proof.

As Jerin finally lurched to his feet, Hetch sent Seco reeling backward with a truly magnificent uppercut, and Jerin would swear he saw two teeth go flying out of Seco's mouth. But, even as Seco stumbled backward, he reached out with his right hand and summoned his lightsaber back to his grip. Hetch did likewise with his left hand, only Jerin wasn't exactly sure what he was reaching out for. As Seco ignited his saber once more and spun back into action, Hetch remained where he was, still waiting for something that would probably be too late. Jerin charged forward to help, but he knew he wouldn't make it in time.

At the last possible instant, Hetch's large, gleaming spear came rocketing across the plain and smacked into his right palm with a force that would have broken a Human's hand. He got his left hand on it as well just in time to hold up the shaft to block Seco's downward chop. Seco was clearly surprised that his saber didn't cut right through the spear, but he kept pressing down, sure that it would soon enough. Then, Seco grew more surprised when the blade of his lightsaber grew wavy and uneven, before sputtering out completely. Jerin was baffled for a second as well, before he realized what had happened. 'Cortosis? Of course, his spear is made of cortosis!' Then, the real significance of it hit Jerin. A lightsaber blade that had come in contact with cortosis wouldn't be able to ignite again for several MINUTES. Minutes, in a battle between Force users, was an eternity. 'Oh, we've got him!'

Hetch wasn't wasting this opportunity, and he began thrusting and slashing at Seco as fast as he could. Seco was a very nimble target though, and Hetch wasn't having much luck. Jerin pulled out Jango's blaster and took several quick shots at Seco, now that they might actually be effective. He managed to put a few holes in Seco's robes, but didn't hit anything more solid. Seco launched into a big backflip to put some more distance between him and Hetch. Open to the Force as he was, Jerin could sense that Seco was about to unleash some more Force Lightning, he just wasn't sure which target Seco would aim at first. If it was Hetch, Jerin had a pretty good idea of how to put and end to this. Jerin hung back, letting Hetch get in close.

Then Seco unleashed his Force Lightning, and it was indeed aimed at Hetch. Hetch had apparently anticipated the move though. Even as the lightning closed in, Hetch was jamming his spear into the ground and jumping backwards. The spear didn't attract all the lightning, but most of it, and the little that did make its way to Hetch didn't seem to bother him much. Even as this was happening, Jerin turned on his rockets and activated the grappling cable in his right gauntlet at the same time. Seco was too focused on what he was doing to notice until the cable was already wrapping tight around him, pinning his arms to his sides. Then, Jerin headed skyward, and Seco was yanked bodily into the air.

The lightning continued to stream from Seco, even as he was unable to effectively aim it at anything. 'Yeah, can't shoot lightning out of your eyes, can you hot shot?' Jerin thought smugly, before he stopped to consider his own question. COULD Seco do that? Hell, could HE? It was something to explore later. Right now, it was time to bring this to an end. Jerin flipped forward in midair and aimed a kick right at Seco's head, even as he hit the button to sever his grappling cable. Seco's Force Lightning trailed off as he went sailing back toward the ground, but they were several hundred feet up, so Seco had time to right himself in midair, and start to untangle himself from the cable. He had just started to look back up at Jerin when the Force Push slammed into him, and the rest of his fall was greatly accelerated.

Even as Jerin was quickly making his way back to the ground, Hetch was charging in with his spear, clearly ready to skewer Seco and make sure he was finished. However, as Jerin touched down and turned off his jet pack, he saw that Hetch was stabbing at various tall clumps of grass pretty much randomly, while Seco was nowhere in sight. "I know he came down right around here, I saw him!" Hetch exclaimed. Jerin drew his blaster again, expecting a sudden counterattack. But as he and Hetch fanned out around the spot where Seco had landed, or at least, SHOULD have landed, nothing happened. Reaching out to sense the area in the Force, Jerin couldn't feel any sign of Seco now.

"He's gone." Jerin announced simply.

"What? How could he get away?" Hetch demanded. "He should have barely been conscious after that."

"I can't explain how." Jerin replied calmly. "But reach out with your own senses and see for yourself. He's nowhere around here."

Hetch closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds, before he looked back at Jerin. "Hmm... Aren't some of the more powerful Jedi able to hide their presence in the Force?"

Jerin thought about that for a second, before answering. "Yeah, some, but that's mainly limited to the Skywalker and Hapan royal families, from what I've heard. And he's not one of them."

Hetch scanned their surroundings quickly again. There were several hundred other boars walking forward, now that the fight was apparently over and their hero seemed to have the situation well in hand. There was no sign of anyone else. "Well, wait. Is it possible to use the Force to actually teleport?"

Hetch clearly wanted some kind of plausible explanation for what had just happened, but Jerin didn't have an answer for him. "Not according to anything I've ever heard." Jerin responded slowly. "I mean, I'm sure a Jedi Master would tell us that the Force can do anything, but I've never heard anything about teleporting." Even Seco's disappearing act didn't bother Jerin as much as the fact that there had been no sign of Negian through any of this. Had the two Sith wannabes gotten separated? Was Negian simply running late, or was he seriously not here at all? Whatever the case, Negian had missed a golden opportunity, Jerin realized. With both him and Hetch tied up fighting Seco, Negian could have snuck up and whisked Tenn away, and he wouldn't have noticed for quite a while.

"This whole incident was strange." Jerin finally said out loud. "Until now, he's always traveled with a partner, a Zabrak, the only being in the galaxy who can stand to put up with him. I kept expecting Negian to join in the fight at any moment." Now he looked at the hole in Hetch's vest. "Are you all right? I mean, is that wound really healed?"

Hetch patted the spot gently. "It's pretty tender, but it seems to be healed. I know what internal bleeding feels like, and this isn't it." He looked over to where Tenn was sprawled in the grass. "Your Twi'lek friend is very impressive."

Jerin nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's had actual Jedi training, unlike you and me. Well, unlike me, I should say. I don't know about you." He corrected himself.

Hetch snorted in amusement. "Do I look like a failed Padawan? No, my people have one of the lowest Force-sensitive per capita rates in the galaxy. The Jedi never bother to come around to this planet. Not that I'd want to go with them if they did." Now he looked back at Tenn. "Don't get me wrong, I know the Jedi Masters are more powerful than beings like you and me, by a pretty big margin. I just... don't see myself devoting all my time to protecting others."

Though Jerin felt much the same way, he couldn't help asking, "Isn't that pretty much what you do here?"

"Well, basically." Hetch admitted. "But this is HOME. I'm protecting my family, my clan. The things that are really important. I don't see the point in protecting every being in the galaxy that's weaker than I am. There are plenty that don't deserve my protection." He thought for a second, before adding, "And plenty who do, I suppose." Jerin got the feeling that right now, Hetch was being introspective to a degree that was unusual for him. "But trying to police the whole galaxy is too big of a task for any one person." Then, Hetch actually smiled, and he shrugged. "And, I guess I like being a big fish in a small pond, to use the Human expression."

"I'm pretty much the same way." Jerin nodded in understanding. "I'd rather be the galaxy's most dangerous Mandalorian than an old, fairly pathetic Padawan." While they'd been talking, the other Gamorrean boars that had kept a safe distance during the fight had walked back to within earshot, where they stopped. Jerin wasn't entirely sure what came next. Hetch HAD declared him the winner of their bout earlier, but then he'd immediately gone down via cowardly sneak attack, and that might have muddied the waters a bit.

"All right everyone!" Hetch turned to bellow at the crowd. "We got a little distracted there, but Jerin won our fight fair and square earlier. The deal was clear: if he won, we repair his ship, so let's get to it!"

"Well, that wasn't exactly it." Jerin said calmly. "I just need some help to repair it, mainly parts."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Hetch waved that concern aside. "You've done enough already, getting rid of that unwelcome intruder." He winked. "Just relax and let us show you some Gamorrean hospitality. Which IS a thing, despite what you Humans might think."

Jerin simply nodded, then he took a single step back toward his ship, and a searing pain shot up from his left knee, which just about buckled. Now that the adrenaline of the battle was fading, his body was really starting to feel everything it had been through today. He hoped Negian wasn't lurking somewhere nearby, because he doubted he still had what it took to take the Zabrak down too. But on that thought, he couldn't help but wonder, 'Negian, where the hell are you?'

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Ubrikkia

Korgo looked on the scene of devastation before him with barely concealed delight. He was seated on a hover-couch a supposedly safe distance away from what had been a Black Sun mansion. While the owner wasn't a full-fledged vigo, he might as well have been, given Black Sun's relative lack of presence this close to Hutt Space. The fires were mostly out now, though smoke still billowed from many of the windows. Likewise, the blaster fire and shouting had all died down now. Negian was calmly walking toward him down the long entrance path, his red lightsaber still glowing in his hand.

As always, Korgo felt a thrill of excitement at seeing one of his Sith in action. Yes, he was well aware that Negian would remind him they weren't really Sith, but that was a minor detail. Sith, Dark Jedi, Rogue Jedi, whatever they wanted to call themselves, the important thing was that they actually needed to work for a living, and Korgo was willing to pay them in more than just credits. Their obsession with Tenn Sonata was a consistent annoyance, but it also served to distract and weaken them, Negian especially. Did the Zabrak actually think he was the first man in the galaxy to suffer this kind of heartbreak? Oh well, if Negian was weak in terms of emotional maturity, he more than made up for it with his strength in the Force.

As Negian drew closer, Korgo saw that he had a rather blank look on his face, and he seemed to be in a bit of a daze. That is, until a figure sprawled on the walkway, who had seemed to be unconscious, grabbed the end of Negian's robe with his one remaining hand. Negian turned to regard the young Human without any great alarm. "Why?" The young man croaked. "With the kind of power you have... You could do anything. So why work for someone like HIM?" His burning gaze flicked toward Korgo.

Negian turned off his lightsaber, then squatted down to look his already vanquished foe in the eye. "First of all, I don't work FOR him, but we do help each other. As for why, that's very simple. Unlike most beings in the galaxy, Korgo actually understands and values the concept of loyalty." Negian calmly stood back up. "The loyalty you show to Black Sun will not be matched by a similar show of loyalty from the vigos. To them, you're just an expendable pawn. You'd do well to remember that." Then, Negian resumed walking back to Korgo.

"Well said, my boy, well said." Korgo nodded in approval. "And a job well done, in most ways." Negian simply raised an eyebrow in response to that statement. "But, you didn't kill a single one of them, did you? You're still such a Jedi at heart."

Negian just shrugged. "My understanding was, the point here was to send a clear message to Black Sun that they shouldn't be trying to muscle into Hutt territory. But, if you'd prefer I go back and slaughter all the witnesses so that they can't report this back to their bosses..."

A crooked grin appeared on Korgo's face. "A good slaughter does have its uses now and then... But in this case, you're right. Besides, no point wasting perfectly good decoys."

"Decoys?" Negian was clearly confused.

"Right." Korgo nodded. "The more time Republic Intelligence spends chasing after incompetent Black Sun flunkies, the less time they have to spend poking into my business."

Negian just nodded absently. In truth, he WAS still a Jedi at heart. There were moments where he was full of rage at the galaxy, like Seco, and he could almost convince himself that anything bad he did paled in comparison to what dozens of petty dictators and crime bosses were doing at that moment. He had periods of pure nihilism, where he was sure that nothing he did, good or bad, mattered at all, because there was no point to existence anyway. He had been in that state of mind when Seco managed to talk him into replicating the experiments of Darth Plagueis.

However, he had been raised by a Jedi Master, and he had known the affection, if not exactly the love, of a wonderful woman for two and a half years, and this resulted in a conscience that could never be supressed for all that long. One incident in particular was gnawing at that conscience lately. The way he had tried to kill the gorgeous red Twi'lek who had been with Tenn at Kuat, without any hesitation... That was the act of a true villain, and that was not the person he wanted to be. Even as his rational mind told him he wouldn't be so torn up about it if it had been a MALE Twi'lek, he couldn't help but wonder if the galaxy would be a better place if he wasn't in it. He didn't think that was nihilism talking, just cold, hard logic.

Looking back at the destruction he had just caused, Negian reflected that a true dark sider would probably take some pleasure in it, or at least some satisfaction that he had accomplished his mission. He didn't feel anything at all, other than what he always felt: the gaping void in the core of his being where Tenn used to be.

"Shouldn't we have heard from Seco by now?" Negian was snapped out of his introspection as Korgo spoke up.

"We should have, if everything went according to plan." Negian nodded. "But, who knows..." He trailed off as his comm buzzed. "Well, on that note..." He smiled thinly as he answered. "Seco, you had us a bit worried."

"Yeah, sorry. Took me a bit longer to get away than I thought." Seco responded.

"Any other problems?" Korgo cut in.

"No, nothing to speak of." Seco replied, sounding relaxed. "Honestly, I was little worried about making my 'loss' look convincing, but Jerin had some help from a Force-sensitive Gamorrean, so it ended up being a pretty good show."

"A Force-sensitive Gamorrean?" Korgo snorted. "Such a thing actually exists?"

"Oh yeah. He was a tough bastard too." Negian sensed a grudging respect behind that statement. "But anyway, I think I accomplished our goal of convincing Jerin that I'm a dangerous, but ultimately defeatable opponent."

"Well, I've taken care of business on our end, too." Negian informed him. "So, I guess we'll see you at the rendezvous in a few days."

"Are you still sure Jerin will be heading there?" Korgo wondered aloud, yet again.

"Yes, I'm sure." Negian responded patiently. "He seems intent on sticking to the Triellus anyway, but events over the next few days will give him added incentive."

"All right then, I'll see you soon." Seco signed off.

Korgo rubbed his chubby hands together. "I know it's premature to celebrate at this point, but I do enjoy it when a good plan comes together." Negian forced a smile onto his face that he didn't feel. He WISHED he could find some satisfaction in their scheming, but ultimately, it felt just as pointless as everything else he'd done since he'd lost Tenn. But, if everything went according to plan, and he and Korgo both got what they were after, would he feel like celebrating then? No, he realized. There was absolutely nothing to look forward to about any of this.

Not a damn thing.

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"There is nothing at all to believe in in this world." - Vicious, Cowboy Bebop

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(Nanaki's note: Boy, my end of chapter quotes have been depressing lately, haven't they? Oh well, the next chapter should put a stop to that.

So, PartyPat, the next time you feel the urge to write a nitpicky Yelp/ TripAdvisor style review about all the things you wanted to see in a chapter, but didn't, you may want to stop and ask yourself: "Say, did this chapter end with a cliffhanger? Might the rest of this story arc, which is CLEARLY not done yet, provide some of those things I wanted?" Just a thought exercise you might want to consider.

But hey, thanks for your pedantic proofreading. Now, don't let my snarky tone fool you, I'm quite sincere about that part. I'll readily admit that I'm not great at proofreading my own work. I think it's because, soon after the fact, my brain still sees what I intended to write, not what I actually wrote. So, the errors you pointed out have been corrected, aside from the space after the slash, which is a stylistic choice, since I'm writing for a human audience, not a computer.

Anyway, I should have another chapter for you all pretty soon here, very likely before Thanksgiving.)