One for the Sith
Under the dim blue morning sky, a thin white mist drifted through the upper city of Coruscant. Thus silhouetted against the pale horizon, it acquired a surreal character. This was further enhanced by the the orderly lines of vehicles cruising through invisible highways in the air, crisscrossing and winding their way among the endless landscape of complex towers, domes, and platforms, like fish in a concrete reef. The height of these buildings could not be ascertained from this angle, as they seemed to rise up from far below the artificial grounds, where only a tiny fraction of the light from above could reach.
And at the political centre of the capital world, there was a vast clearing laid down with smooth grey and pale brown stone. From all directions, terraced stone steps led up to the centre of the complex, where stood a gigantic building shaped like a shining, grayish mushroom flattened from above, with smaller towers protruding upwards from the edge of the dome, and a broad fluted stalk which widened as it rose to match the base of the dome. At regular intervals along the sides of the grand pathways leading up to the central building, there stood metallic statues of tall, lean, humanoid beings each holding a lance in its right hand. They towered above the people walking up the stone steps like men above ants, and were in turn overshadowed by the enormous structure which they were guarding.
And ascending the stone steps was, among others, a young man with flaming red hair, and dressed in a light brown robe. He seemed to be enjoying the scenery most of the time, but occasionally he would turn to his right and talk to the empty space beside him. For a moment a few passersby would stop and regard him curiously, then shrug and walk on. They were too busy to be distracted for long by an eccentric tourist. They had important decisions to make, affairs to discuss, errands to run.
"And that, my friend, is the Galactic Senate building." Kart announced.
"Magnificent." Zeratul exclaimed.
For a while now the former dark templar prelate had been using his Void energies to keep himself invisible from the crowds around him. Kart had assured him that this was unnecessary, but it paid to be cautious.
And Kart did not mind, because he could still see Zeratul, if they stood close enough. In fact, the latter could sense a familiar psionic emanation coming from the young Jedi, though at the moment he could not quite explain it.
Well, he could always ask the boy later. "So this is where your leaders meet and make their decisions ?"
"Yes" Kart replied. "In fact, there is a major discussion going on almost all the time. Even now, I think. " Then Kart turned to Zeratul and grinned mischievously. "Hey, now that you are here, can you use your special abilities to … see … sneak us in ?"
For a while Zeratul frowned and rubbed his chin. "That would be difficult. No dark templar has attempted to hide himself and another individual without the proper equipment." Then he looked up at Kart eyes wide as if the latter just slapped him in the back. "Would that not be against your laws ?"
"Of course it is !"Kart shrugged. "I just asked for the fun of it. But seriously, you should teach me how to do that some time."
"A little at a time …" Zeratul nodded,
And jumped in shock as he heard a loud explosion and the ground beneath him trembled, followed by a chorus of hysterical screams coming from everywhere else in the Senate Building complex.
After steadying himself, he saw Kart starring incredulously at the Senate Building. He followed the boy's gaze and froze.
A section of the supporting trunk of the Senate Building had gone up in smoke and flames, casting an eerie orange glow on the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling. Above it, chunks of metal and stone were breaking off from that area of the dome and raining down on the ground.
All around them, humanoid figures dressed in ceremonial robes and military uniforms of various designs ran frantically away from the fire, while thin white stick like figures dashed pass them towards the scene of the explosion.
"What just transpired ?" Zeratul exclaimed.
"Terrorists !" Kart muttered, and ran off towards the Senate building.
"How do you –" Zeratul stopped short and ran after the Jedi.
-
"How can you be sure that this was a deliberate attack ?" Chancellor Finis Valorum asked under his breath.
"This facility is regularly inspected for common hazards, explosives included. As of the last inspection, all identified hazards have been neutralized. My analysis leaves sabotage and external violence as the only plausible causes of the current explosion." Came the calm, metallic reply. "Please remove your robes, sir. We have to leave the area as soon as possible."
"What ?" Finis stared hard at his sleek, white escort droid.
G6PE stared back with a pair of cold, unblinking, glassy eyes set into the front of a mouthless face shaped like the carapace of a lobster.
"Oh fine." Finis tugged at the sleeves of his heavy, grey, flowing ceremonial robe which reached down to his feet and was dotted with brilliant blue patterns. It radiated an aura of authority fit for a chancellor, but became a great hindrance in times of emergency.
Out of the corner of his eye, Finis saw a figure in a distinctive black robe approach. Under its hood, strands of red hair trailed down over its shadowy forehead.
"Jedi Knight !" Finis called. "Thank the Force you are here ! These terrorists must be stopped !"
"Do not worry, your excellency ! For now we must get you out of here." The black robed figure called back as it ran over to Finis's side. It was a woman.
To the chancellor's surprise, she wrapped an arm around his throat and whispered into his ear. "I have my light sabre pointed at your back. If you dare make a sound, I will turn it on, and then you know what happens."
"What –" Finis froze, jaws agape. His eyes were wide and jerked from side to side as he tried to make sense of what was going on.
Recognising this as a hostile act, G6PE immediately unsheathed its blaster and brought it up towards her head. "Step away, Jedi, or I will - "
The Jedi, or so she appeared to be, flicked her lightsabre in the droid's direction. An arc of red light sliced through G6PE's chest, and the next moment, its weapon arm, together with its severed shoulder and head, slid off and clanked onto the floor in a small shower of sparks. Seconds later, the rest of its body collapsed as well.
"I demand an explanation !" Finis uttered the first phrase that he could think of.
"Shut up, old man !" His kidnapper turned off her light sabre and pressed the projecting end of its hilt into his back. "Walk !"
"Gaya !"
The chancellor tensed as another Jedi stepped before them. Only this one wore light brown robes, and he sported the characteristic braid of the Padawan.
"Let the chancellor go !" The Jedi trainee demanded. "You are not getting out of this one. I recognize your force sense from when we last met in the cave."
"And what will you do, Kart ?" The woman known as Gaya retorted. Still pressing her weapon against the chancellor's back, she let go of the latter's throat and pulled back her hood to reveal long, red hair tied into several braids which bent and drooped backwards, nearly converging at a point behind her head. She looked almost like Kart, except for the more gracile features, the piercing gold irises, the black, claw like tattoos, and the shadows around her eyes which made her appear like she was going mad from lack of sleep. "Are you going to stab at me like you did the last time ?"
Kart hesitated. Gaya wrapped an arm around Finis's throat again and dragged him away from the scene. She grinned triumphantly at Kart. "Stay put, and no one gets hurt."
It was not a sinister grin. What was it ? She appeared … satisfied, as if she thought it natural that Kart should cooperate with her. And part of him agreed. True, she was holding the most important politician in the Republic hostage, but …
"Let the elder go !"
Gaya froze and glanced down to see a thin white thread of light wrapped in a translucent blue haze running right across her below her chin and tapered to a point to its right. Instinctively, she looked to her left and saw that it was projected out of the back of a large white four fingered gauntlet, at the end of a long, lean arm wrapped in black and red cloth, which was attached to the shoulder of a tall humanoid creature whose entire face was concealed by a red-brown turban revealing only its large orange glowing eyes, and the fact that its skin was grey and covered in scutes.
"Alright, scaly." Still grinning, Gaya let go of the chancellor and slowly stepped back. When she was two metres away from Finis, she stopped.
"Zeratul, look out !" Kart shouted.
Zeratul jumped back in surprise as the two halves of the dead droid now hurled themselves at him. They slammed against his plasma shield with the force of a megalith crashing down onto him, and sent him flying backwards for several metres.
Gaya leapt forward, grapped Finis again, turned and ran, dragging him with her as fast as she could. The chancellor screamed and cursed, then went mute as Gaya tightened her hold on his throat. She had been ordered to take him alive, but that would not matter if she could not reach the pick up point alive.
"Stop !" Kart ignited his lightsabre and sped off after the two.
Strong as she was in the Force, Gaya was carrying a heavy burden, and Kart soon caught up to her, just as she reached the landing platform at the edge of the Senate Building complex, where several vehicles were parked.
"Stop !" Kart shouted again, as Gaya put one foot through the door to her speeder. "Why are you doing this ?"
"Haven't your Jedi masters told you ?" Gaya turned round and gave Kart a mocking, condescending stare. "It's always for power. The lure of the dark side ! You want it too don't you ? The power to avenge our people, our homeworld ! Yes, I know you do …"
Kart grimaced and clenched his palms tightly around the hilt of his weapon. "Stop messing with my mind !"
Gaya laughed, "Oh, I'm not messing with you, my dear. You are just weak. All the so called true Jedi are weak. Come, leave the Republic, it is their fault all this has happened …"
"That… that… is only half true ! The Sith … they - " Kart gasped.
"The details don't matter !" For the first time, Gaya's grin turned a wicked look."Only power matters !"
Throwing the chancellor, now delirious from all the dragging and choking, into the speeder, Gaya held an arm towards Kart, pointing her fingers straight forward. Without warning, bright blue sparks burst out through her finger tips and struck the young Jedi, crackling all round his body.
"No-" Before Kart could react, he felt intense pain shoot through his whole body. His muscles cramped. His joints ached. His skin burned. He dropped to his knees and tensed his body.
Gaya looked down at her victim with glee. Her expression was one of wild excitement, one felt when unleashing one's powers of destruction for the first time. "Yes, beg for for it ! Beg for it, my –"
"Your power will only consume yourself, if not tempered with the discipline of the Khala !" From out of nowhere a low resounding voice thundered.
Gaya gasped in astonishment as the Force lightning projecting out of her fingertips arced up and struck herself instead, causing her to jerk back in shock. More bolts of lightning emerged from the ground around her and bore through her body.
She staggered and fell back into the cockpit of her speeder, clenching her teeth and cursing herself for being overconfident. She was still a novice. Her limited experience in the Dark Side allowed her to dispatch Jedi padawans with ease, but the Jedi order was not all padawans.
Quickly, she slammed a fist onto a group of buttons on the control panel, and tucked in her legs, just as the door slid shut, and the speeder lifted itself off the ground, then suddenly dashed forward.
Kart watched helplessly as the sleek white teardrop shaped vehicle vanished in the distance. "Thanks, Zeratul."
"You are welcome." The Grey Templar appeared behind the young Jedi. "Who was that ?"
Kart looked down and remained silent.
Zeratul asked no further. Kart was exhausted, and he could feel, the boy's mind was now filled with pain and anguish. If even a Dark Jedi could inflict so much trauma and suffering upon her enemy, Zeratul shuddered to think what a Sith Lord would be capable of.
One other thing drew the Grey templar's attention. Now that he had glimpsed Kart's light sabre as it appeared when activated, he realized he had found the source of that strange psionic emanation he had felt.
For he had felt it only a few times, during his visits to the labs on Aiur when he was young, and the protoss homeworld was still prosperous.
It was more than a simple light sabre that Kart was holding in his hand. The hilt appeared no different to the weapon of any other Jedi, but the thread of lethal energy that it projected was unmistakably something else. Something that the protoss had tried to reproduce, with limited success.
An ancient Xel-Naga psi-blade.
-
"What is it that you want, Sith Lord ?" Jedi Knight Ki Adi Mundi stared at the holographic projection of the hooded figure in a black cloak, who stared back at the Jedi council member with glowing yellow eyes amidst a face that was completely obscured in shadow, adding to the dark unnerving influence that this mysterious adversary of the Jedi Order had on the atmosphere.
The Sith Lord answered with his chilling laughter. "We know about the latest addition to your order, Jedi. Hand over the renegade Sith, and the chancellor returns unharmed."
"Nonsense, we have never inducted any Sith into our order." Jedi Master Poof interjected.
"Do not play dumb, you hypocrites." The Sith Lord bellowed, then laughed again. "The pressure is on you, Jedi. We could kill the pathetic chancellor. It will still be our gain and your loss. However, I am making you a deal here. You have little choice."
"You do not frighten us, Sith Lord."Master Mace Windu retorted calmly. "Gloat while you can. The power of the Sith order shall end with you."
"Hahahahaha …"
"Elders of the Jedi Council, we bring news most dire !" Zeratul announced as he stepped through the entrance to the Council chamber, then froze as he saw the holographic projection in the middle of the room.
"Ah, what have we here ?" The dark figure turned to face Zeratul. "You do look formidable."
"You !" Zeratul roared.
Now the Sith Lord ignored Zeratul and turned back to face the others seated in the room. "Bring him to the abandoned Republic outpost on the moon TP6 in three Coruscant days. Only two persons may accompany him, else the chancellor dies !"
And with that, the holographic image flickered and vanished, leaving Zeratul staring aghast at the empty space in the middle of the room.
"You have heard what he said, strange one ?" Master Windu broke the silence.
"I … am the ransom." Zeratul shook his head, still trying to digest this latest turn of events.
"We have three Coruscant days." Master Windu tried to calm everyone. "We need not go about this exchange exactly as he demands. If our experience with the Sith has taught us anything, brothers, he is plotting something far more sinister. We must be prepared."
"I will accept his terms." Zeratul announced, drawing astonished stares from around the council chamber. "I must meet with this Sith Lord. He has something that I want."
"Oh." Adi Mundi exclaimed. "What do the younglings say ? 'Oh, shit !'"
"In deep shit we all are." Agreed the short green skinned figure seated at the far edge of the room.
-
( Wooh, I'm back.
I can't believe how many variables I always leave unfixed before the next chapter XD
But don't worry, I have been thinking about this fic all this while, and now that I am free, I can type them all down. Expect a rate of update never before witnessed in fanfiction net :D
Just kidding. Please do comment. Suggestions keep me going.
Starspawn07