Horatio coughed with effort behind Mand, sounding worse as the tense moments passed.
"Don't, Kil," he pleaded hoarsely. Prophet still stood in front of both of them, motionless but focused and poised to attack. "Just go back inside, tell Tzymo what he wants to hear, and he'll let you go."
But Mand shook her head, leaving Horatio to only imagine the determined look on her face. "No," she said, still glaring at Prophet before her. "This ends now."
Every breath he took sounded more painful than the last, but Mand ignored him, her senses on edge and her muscles tense. Showing the most patience Mand had seen from the beast, Prophet continued to wait for something...a signal from Horatio perhaps? But she had just attacked him minutes ago for his alleged treason; how could he exercise any control over her?
Surprising even Prophet, a large explosion overhead rocked the platform they stood on, showering them with debris. Several fighters zipped about in the black night sky, seemingly chasing and attacking one lone shuttle that lumbered by. As turbolaser fire erupted above them, Prophet released a powerful roar toward the ships, then returned her attention to Mand, no longer waiting for orders.
Mand was only just able to regain her footing and dive away from Prophet as she lunged, rolling to the side behind a few large cargo containers. Though they were heavy, Mand easily lifted them with the Force and hurled them at Prophet, but the beast was quicker and leaped over them, landing in front of her as she scrambled to her feet. Before Mand could even register what happened, she felt a powerful blast knock her back down...but Prophet still stood a good meter or two away from her, twitching her tail with her black beady eyes fixed on her triumphantly.
...the beast had used the Force on her in return.
Another explosion nearby made the platform sway again, and Mand again just barely dived out of Prophet's reach, though one claw caught her leg and gashed it open. She cried out in pain, but without time to tend to it, she left it to bleed while she tried to calculate her next move. Behind her, Horatio surprised her as he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet with his good hand. Unable to stand on her wounded leg, she almost returned to the floor, but Horatio quickly braced her against himself with his arm around her waist. He, too, was losing the strength to stand, still struggling to breathe, but as Mand looked up at him, she gritted her teeth and stepped away, determined to finish the fight.
Prophet roared angrily, scraping the floor in preparation to charge. But before she could, the shuttle that had flown by earlier returned, barely skimming over the top of the Tzymo Labs tower beside them. Two fighters tailed it closely, firing at it relentlessly, but over the noise, Mand somehow heard a familiar voice calling out to her from it as it passed.
"Mand!!"
As she turned to look, she saw Elena standing in the back of the shuttle on its rear lowered ramp. She had her lightsaber ignited in her hand, swinging it to deflect one last turbolaser bolt from the chasing fighters. As Mand watched, the purple blade vanished and Elena reached back and released, throwing her lightsaber hilt into the air as the shuttle disappeared with the fighters into the dark. The saber flipped end over end as it flew, and Mand only had to reach her hand up to catch it. Feeling the cold metal hit her palm, she gripped it tightly and brought it down, returning to Prophet in front of her.
Enraged that Mand caught the weapon, Prophet lowered her head and charged, extending her jaw as sharp ramming spears. Mand stood her ground as Prophet approached, waiting for the right moment to strike...
"Kil, NO!"
At the last second before they collided, Mand wrapped an invisible grip around Prophet's torso and used her momentum to lift the beast over herself as she charged. At the same time, she crouched and ignited the saber, extending its blade up into Prophet's exposed underbelly as the beast powered through the jump above her, slicing the length of her torso. Prophet whined weakly as she fell, and landing hard on the platform behind Mand, she tumbled off the ledge without so much as a faint whimper and a distant thud as she landed on a ledge far below.
Mand remained crouched on the floor, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. With Prophet gone, an eerie silence hung over the platform...but it shouldn't have been so quiet...
In a panic, Mand stood and turned around, terrified to find Horatio gone, too. But...he should have moved...Prophet couldn't have taken him with her...
Stepping up to the edge, she looked down to see Prophet motionless and sprawled on a walkway...and Horatio on his side on the one below. Without even thinking, she leaped down to his level, landing awkwardly and limping as she slowly stepped up to him, still with the lightsaber ignited in her hand.
The purple glow from the blade shadowed his blank face, and Mand would have thought him dead had he not rolled onto his back as she approached. Somehow still conscious, he coughed weakly, but the fall had severely impaired his breathing, and she knew his wound was beginning to claim him. Still acting without much thought, Mand powered the saber down and clipped it to her belt, carefully kneeling beside Horatio, ignoring her leg pain as his half-open eyes fixed on her. Though she tried to keep her expression neutral, she knew she wasn't successful; his eyes followed her with warning in them as he continued to fight for every breath.
Determined but silent, Mand pressed her palm against his wound, calling on the Force to heal it. She could tell his lung under her hand was heavy with blood, but it was also collapsing in on itself because of the injury. She tried to concentrate, but his choking question caught her attention.
"What are y-you doing?"
As she looked up at him, she hardened her expression as she answered. "Saving my messenger." She pressed deeper, making him grimace in tremendous pain. "You'll live long enough to get a message to Tzymo for me."
Horatio's grimace finally released as he coughed shortly, having to resort to forcing air from his chest to breathe. "I don't th-think he'll...listen...to anyth-thing I have to say..."
"Oh, he will," she countered, watching his face, "because you're going to make him. You're going to tell him that if he wants anything else from me, he's going to have to come after me himself. And I'll be ready for him. Losing that horrible monster Prophet will be the least of his worries."
Though he looked like he was about to retort, Horatio made only a muffled choking sound as he looked around in alarm, and Mand realized he was beginning to suffocate. He couldn't draw in a breath at all, changing her focus. She tucked her other hand under his head to ease the strain on his neck and help him breathe easier, leaning over him further to look down on him and press her hand more firmly on his wound.
"Breathe all the way out," she instructed him strongly, but he continued to choke, barely able to mouth I can't. She pressed harder still, her expression intense. "Horatio! Do it!"
Though he continued to struggle, he locked his gaze on her as he coughed with difficulty, forcing the rest of the air from his lungs. He was rapidly losing consciousness, though, and working as quickly as she could, she focused herself again, drawing on the Force to pull air from where it wasn't supposed to be within his chest...equalizing the air pressure...
With a desperate gasp, Horatio finally took in a deep breath, inflating his damaged lung once more. He coughed painfully several times with a wet sound, breathing heavily once he was able to. Relief saturated his features, but a conflicted look overtook Mand's expression as their eyes met again for a long, tense silence. Trying to remain objective, she pulled her hand out from under his head, making him cringe as it hit the cold durasteel under him. As he recovered, he swallowed weakly, looking up at her blankly.
"I'm not sorry," he said roughly, watching her reaction closely. Though it was difficult, she kept her expression neutral with a tinge of sorrow in her eyes.
"I wouldn't have expected you to be."
Still breathing laboriously, he reached up with his good hand to pull hers from his shoulder, tossing her arm away. She narrowed her eyes and sat back from him, leveling a dark look at him as she spoke in a low voice.
"This is the last time I help you. If I ever see you again...I don't care what you're doing or why you're doing it...I will kill you."
Horatio hardly flinched. "No, you won't. You can't. You...need me."
Mand blinked, taken aback by his conviction. He continued just as strongly, and she hung on his every word. "How else are you going to get the information your sister Galina wanted you to have, now that she and your father are dead?"
Stunned, Mand could hardly speak. "You're bluffing."
"She wanted me to help get you out of the Huxnel, to get you away from your father...but I--"
"Shut up," she stopped him, unsteadily standing from his side, her voice dark. "You're lying. You're just baiting me."
"You have another sibling, Kil, and now I'm the only one who knows about her--"
Even though he tried to continue, the roar of a ship's engines overhead drowned out his remaining words. As Mand looked up to it, she recognized it as the shuttle Elena had been in just minutes ago. It settled on an empty landing pad at the top of the towers, but hearing dozens of doors opening all around her, she looked about and saw Tzymo's armed guards spilling onto the walkways about her. She quickly returned to Horatio, glaring at him severely.
"If Elena saw you, you had better hope I can keep her contained, or you'll have another few wounds to tend to."
Without awaiting his response, Mand tugged Elena's lightsaber off her belt and ignited it, leaping up to the walkways above her as she swung the blade behind herself to block blaster bolts that followed her up to the top.
Elena had hardly stepped out of the shuttle with Master Lithess and his apprentice Wes Arosc before she heard blaster fire erupt below. As she leaned over the ledge to look down, Lithess was quick to grab her arm and pull her back as several bolts flew past. She shook his grip and returned to the edge, watching the activity below carefully.
More than a hundred guards filled the walkways above and below Mand, unleashing a furious shower of bolts from almost all angles. She twisted and somersaulted as she jumped, swinging the purple blade around herself deftly, but landing on one bridge strangely clumsily, she fell to its floor as the guards closed in. Even with the intense blaster fire they assaulted her with, she somehow managed to stand, still wielding the saber as a shield. Seeing Mand favoring one leg as she gripped the railing behind her to steady herself, Elena gasped.
"She's hurt, we have to help..."
"You are no good to her weaponless," Lithess said plainly as he, too, cast his crimson gaze down, but as the three watched, Mand continued to hold her own, deflecting the bolts effortlessly. The longer Elena watched, the more she began to realize...none of the guards had yet been felled by a bolt Mand had redirected. The hundreds of them were intent on killing her, yet she redirected their fire elsewhere with intense restraint. Seeming to have regained her composure, Mand made another few powerful leaps in a row, making her way to the top while still parrying the bolts behind her.
Readying himself for the pursuit that would follow Mand, Lithess drew his saber beside Elena, igniting its silvery blade to deflect a stray bolt that had found its way to them. Wes ignited his, too, casting a dark blue glow over the platform. Standing between them, Elena watched her friend anxiously, tracking Mand's progress as she continued to vault herself up the walkways in a bright purple blur. The tense seconds seemed to stand still as they waited, and though it had taken an eternity, Mand made her final jump over their heads, landing in a heap on the platform behind them.
"Get her into the shuttle," Lithess ordered immediately as he stepped closer to his apprentice. "Wes and I will cover you."
Already at Mand's side, Elena pulled Mand's arm over her shoulders, lifting her back onto her feet. Weak and hurt in one leg, Mand could barely walk, even with Elena's help. Determined to get her safely inside the shuttle, though, Elena pulled more of Mand's weight onto her shoulders, keeping her off her wounded leg as much as possible. The familiar sound of blaster bolts being ricocheted off lightsaber blades echoed around the platform as the guards turned their fire on the four, but as Elena helped Mand to a seat inside, Lithess and Wes were close behind, backpedaling into the shuttle's cabin while nimbly deflecting bolts. Elena quickly sat at the controls and raised the shuttle's ramp, powering up the engines to leave.
Once the ramp sealed shut, Lithess and Wes shut down their sabers simultaneously, and Lithess was quick to tend to Mand. But interested in leaving the complex far behind, Elena forced the shuttle into the air, guiding it toward the med center.
"Here, let me," Wes said as he stepped up behind her, respectfully offering to take the controls once they were a safe distance away without pursuing fighters. Elena nodded quickly, standing from the cockpit to return to Mand's side in the main hold. Master Lithess was already kneeling beside her, his hand over her wounded leg as he concentrated on healing it. Shivering as if cold, Mand once again looked exhausted, and in between painful winces as Lithess continued his work, she kept her eyes closed, trying to calm her own breathing.
"Mand, where else are you hurt?"
But as Mand looked up at Elena to answer, her shaking slowed and her eyes went unfocused. She was still conscious, but no longer responsive, prompting Lithess to shift his attention. Having healed her leg sufficiently, he moved to her upper body, working quickly.
"She is going into shock," he said calmly as he glanced back at Elena. "She has lost a fair amount of blood. There should be a blanket in the cabinet behind you."
Elena wasted no time, finding it quickly and laying it atop her friend as Lithess brought his hand up to Mand's head. With his thumb and index finger at her temples, he put her into a light trance with the Force to ease the stress on her system. Though Mand slowly stilled and breathed calmly, Elena was far from relieved. She knelt beside Mand, still worried as she brushed hair from her face after Lithess stepped back from them.
"She will be alright, Elena," he reassured her with his usual low, even tone as he lightly placed his clean hand on her shoulder. She nodded and sighed, looking Mand over carefully, amazed that she didn't even have a...
"Blaster burn," Elena breathed in astonishment, "not a single one."
Behind her, Lithess agreed, though his tone changed little. "While she was training under me months ago, I came to admire her profound aptitude with a lightsaber, as well as her unparalleled restraint with it. Even facing all those guards, bearing down on her relentlessly...she spared them." He sighed uncharacteristically, making Elena look back at him as he continued quietly. "If only the Committee could have seen..."
Saddened, too, by the missed opportunity to redeem Mand's standing with the Jedi, Elena returned to her, intensely curious about what she had just gone through in the past several hours. Had she been abducted again? By whom? How had she escaped, and how did Horatio Sheridan fit into the puzzle again? Despite her hundreds of questions, she kept running the images of Mand's skill with a saber through her mind. Mand had attached it to her belt before they reached the shuttle earlier, finally safe as Lithess and Wes protected her and Elena. As Elena looked at the hilt rightly hanging from Mand's belt, she sighed sadly.
"Master, we all saw what happened. Can't we...can't you talk with the Committee? Tell them what you just told me?"
She looked back to see the Chiss Jedi Master lower his crimson gaze, subtly unsettled by her proposition. "My words do not hold much weight any longer, I am afraid." Unsure what he meant, she waited silently, watching him carefully as he continued. "I was the last Jedi Master charged with her training just before she confronted her father. In the Committee's eyes...I am under review, as well."
But Elena furrowed her brows, thinking it contradictory. "...yet, they still placed an apprentice with you afterward."
Lithess's expression, while normally impossible to read, was transparent; she had pointed out a fact that he hadn't considered, and it perplexed him. Still, he corrected his expression, shaking his head solemnly.
"It was most likely at Aalon's request."
Saddened even more by the mention of Master Noor, her friend and mentor who had died protecting her unborn son, Elena sat back on her feet, looking up at the cockpit where Wes worked at the controls. He, too, had been proficient with his weapon, easily deflecting blaster fire even though he had only been training with Noor and then Lithess for a few months. The boy was already showing tremendous promise and skill, much like his late maternal aunt, Tascit Arosc...
"You should rest, Elena," Lithess continued quietly. But Elena shook her head, instead returning her attention to Mand for the duration of their hours-long trip to the opposite side of the city-planet.
Though Mand had repaired his wound somewhat, Horatio could still hardly breathe, and it was still extremely hard to. His own bloodsoaked shirt stuck to his skin and lowered his body temperature even more, making him shiver painfully on the ice cold durasteel walkway. Tzymo's guards had ignored him in order to pursue Mand, but as the shuttle took off, they returned to him, though they did nothing more than maintain their blasters in his general direction. As if he was going to get up and escape, too, he thought sardonically. He couldn't even sit up without help, let alone try to dodge the hundreds of them that surrounded him. They all watched him intently but remained silent, like they were waiting for something...
Before long, the guards around him parted, allowing through one lone tall man he presumed to be Tzymo. Horatio was quickly losing the battle for consciousness, and coughing to clear his throat of blood that was drowning him, he looked up to see Tzymo standing over him with his arms crossed, his feet mere inches from Horatio's head. His expression was intense but strangely blank, and as Tzymo looked him over without any interest, he sighed, his breath billowing away in a light cloud.
"Get him inside to the bacta lab," Tzymo ordered darkly. "He still has many lessons to learn..."
With that, the doctor rounded and returned to the tower, leaving his guards to grab Horatio by his arms and drag him inside. The merciless movement stole Horatio's last reserves of strength, reducing him to hang limply between the two. He couldn't physically protest, nor could he speak, as the strain on his wound caused him even more pain. Instead his head fell forward, and though he feared what Tzymo had planned for him, he couldn't hold out any longer and blacked out.