Chapter 6

Adumar

Ben is walking down the street; he wears a cloak draped over his body, hiding his face and lightsaber from view. He can feel something wrong in the Force. He can feel something that is on this planet that should not be here. Frustrated, he begins to once more walk back to the hotel where he is staying with Jysella.

His mind has drifted back to the attack on them a few days ago, an attack which could possibly have succeeded. He suddenly stops a sense of unease rushing into his mind. Quickly looking around, he notices that the street around him is once more deserted, and he curses his own wondering thoughts.

With a flash, his danger sense directs his attention towards the row of buildings across the street from him.. From the darkened alleys there, three men with blast swords drawn jump out and circle him.

Ben laughs. "Oh you guys just made my day."

With a smile, he pulls his lightsaber and ignites it. The first man steps in and swings his blast sword. Ben flips his saber around, fully intent upon slicing the weapon in two. Yet as his saber hits the sword, Ben can feel something wrong in the saber; feel that something is happening in the power loop.

Ben watches in amazement as his saber sputters and dies.

Looking up at the man in front of him, noting his malicious smile, Ben says the first thing that comes to mind. "Uh-oh."

He jumps out of the way as the man swings his blastsword once more. Ben quickly steps into the first ring and hits him in the stomach, and swings his lightsaber against the back of the guys head.

Stepping over the inert body, Ben re-ignites his saber, and raises it to block the blastsword. To be rewarded by his lightsaber sputtering and dying once more. Ben starts to back pedal, but trips over the unconscious man, and his attacker quickly darts in, pressing the tip of the blast sword to the forearm of Ben's sword arm.

A loud pop, a puff of smoke, and Ben is screaming. He calls his saber to his other hand, and ignites it, stepping into the mid-guard, and swings, aiming not for the blast sword, but for the elbow.

With a scream, that man is holding the stump of his severed arm, staring at Ben.

Ben twirls, placing his saber into the path of a blastsword, only to watch it sputter and die once again. The final attacker quickly raises his blade again, and Ben switches hands, nearly dropping the saber in the process. Keeping his blade off, Ben throws up his left hand and catches the blast sword as it drops towards him. With a flick of his wrist, the man is left holding just the smoking hilt.

The man takes the hilt and shoves it into Ben's face, an arc of electricity, jumping across shattering his concentration and temporarily blinding him.

When the white glare is gone, Ben looks around, and does not see or feel that final attacker anywhere. Sighing, he bends down to one of the others, and starts slapping his face.

The attacker slowly wakens, and tries to scoot back from Ben.

Ben smiles, and ignites his saber. "Tut tut, my good friend. You attacked me, so now I can get some questions answered."

Ben can feel the man's fear, and with the Force pushes harder on that fear.

"It's a job! That's all it was. Some man in a black cloak hired us to hurt you and the lady you've been seen with." He looks away from Ben. "And kill you both if possible."

Ben frowns, and can feel the man's fear grow even greater. "One chance to redeem yourself - do you know anything about new munitions plants?"

The man shakes his head no, and Ben graces him with a malicious grin and raises his saber. "Then what good are you to me."

"Wait! Wait! I heard about a new plant that's paying premium labor rates over on the far side of Cartann City."

"What are they manufacturing?"

"They won't say, and the people who work there won't tell either."

With a quick hand wave, Ben leaves the man sitting there, intent upon finding an honest profession and to do something positive with his life.

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Ben walks into the room, and calls out to Jysella. Frowning when no one answers, he slips out of his cloak and opens the door to her bedroom. Stepping from the lighted common area of their suite into her darkened room, he is effectively light-blinded. He takes a second step into the room, and can feel his connection to the Force just vanish. With a gasp, he starts to backpedal as the room's lights come on, and there are three men standing around the room, with Jysella bound, gagged and unconscious on her bed.

One of the men raises a blaster and fires at Ben, who is dodging even as the blaster is being raised. Yanking out his saber, he quickly closes the distance to the shooter, and plunges his saber into the man's heart.

Growling, he swings his saber up, and slices through the ceiling and where he hopes the ysalamiri is at on the floor above them. Cursing as the Force nullifying field does not drop, Ben dives to the other side of the bed, as blaster bolts start shooting at where he was. With a quick slash, the man on this side of the bed is on the ground howling, missing the bottom half of both legs.

He shuts down his saber, and stands flinging it at the remaining attacker. Smiling as his aim is true, and the saber hilt smashes in the man's nose. The man drops his blaster and reaches for his nose which has begun bleeding profusely. Ben is up and over the bed once again, his fist quickly following the saber's trajectory. As he reaches that man, he slams his fist against the man's hands, further hurting the already broken nose.

Bending over and picking up his saber, he notices the man without legs, still moving. He rights himself, and kicks the man with a broken nose in the side of the head, sending him into unconsciousness. Then walking around the side of the bed, he ignites his saber and plunges it into that man's shoulder, allowing that final injury to push him over the edge into shock and unconsciousness.

Picking Jysella up, he carries her into the common area, and as soon as he steps from her room, he can feel the return of the Force. He carefully lays her on the couch, and touches her forehead, sending Force energy to her, trying to awaken her from the drug induced coma.

He smiles as her eyes flicker open. "How're you feeling?"

She makes a slight groaning noise as she raises her hand to her head, a flicker of pain flashing in her eyes. "I'm all right, I think."

Then suddenly they both gasp as the Force is once more removed from them. Cursing under his breath, Ben pulls his saber and cuts a large circle into the floor, angling it so that it won't just fall down. Shooting her a grin, he says, "Some vacation huh?"

He is relieved as she smiles back at him. "Yes. You take me to all the best places."

He helps her stand, and then drops through the hole into the room beneath theirs. A second later Jysella is landing on the floor beside him. "What now, Hero-boy?"

Smiling, Ben cuts another hole in the floor and one in each wall, and then opens the window. He steps up on the windowsill, a grin stretching his features. "Ready to jump?"

She watches him a second. "You're enjoying this!"

As he falls away to the ground, she can hear his laughter, and quickly follows him out the window. She can feel him wrap her in a Force hug, slowing her descent, and she lightly lands on the ground next to him. She kisses his cheek. "Thanks, but you're still enjoying this."

"I deny nothing."

As they calmly begin walking away, the floor of the hotel which held their rooms exploded, the Force of the blast, tossing them both against the wall of the building across the street. As they pick themselves up from the ground, Jysella looks out towards the spaceport. "They've better have done nothing to the Skate."

"I'm sure whoever is behind these attacks is not quite that suicidal. I'm fairly certain word of what happened to that ship thief on Kuat – the one who tried breaking into her – has spread this far already."

"I lose my temper one time, and never hear the end of it."

"It's not so much the losing your temper, as the fact that you had him running through the spaceport naked, singing the Corellian Anthem, and from what I understand, he strips his clothes off and destroys them in the closest incinerator every time he attempts to steal something these days." With a smile on his face, he glances at her. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that particular behavioral trait he picked up after his run-in with us would you?"

"You knew about that! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I thought that the compulsion was hidden better than that." Throwing a quick glance around her, she lowers her voice. "There're more folks coming in."

"I didn't actually know it was you, I just heard about his behavior later." Then he lowers his voice to match hers. "I know; they've been following us for a block or so now."

"Following? But the ones I felt are coming from in front of us."

As she finishes speaking, a group of Adumari soldiers step out from the corner, their blasters raised and leveled at the pair. The sound of shuffling feet and safety catches being disabled, and Jysella turns to face another group of soldiers.

She presses her back against Ben's. "How did we let them capture us? We're smarter than this."

"Obviously we're not."

"Okay, let me rephrase, I'm smarter than this."

Ben laughs, and then a soldier steps out from the group, attracting his attention. "By order of the Perator, the Jedi Knights Ben Skywalker and Jysella Horn are to be arrested for crimes against Adumar."

Ben focuses the Force on the leader. "We are not the ones you're looking for."

"They're not-" The man shakes his head. "Wait a second, that's resisting arrest. Fire at will boys."

Ben and Jysella both ignite their sabers, sending the blasters back towards the guards. Ben quickly falls into a simple rhythm of moving his saber and blocking shots, his blade a web of energy returning the bolts back towards the person that shot at him. Slowly but surely Ben and Jyeslla start making a dent in the soldiers, as the number of disabled soldiers on the ground increases.

Then his concentration is shattered as Jysella screams. Taking a quick glance down, he sees her holding her leg, where a nasty burn is showing.

Then Ben moves.

Calling Jysella's blade to his hand, Ben uses the Force to push his speed up, and is amidst the soldiers, his blades a blur, removing limbs and slicing torsos indiscriminately, no longer caring about not causing death. Then locking the sabers in the on position, he throws them both at the other set of soldiers. Using the Force, he guides the blade in a deadly dance, removing the threat to Jysella.

He calls the blades back to his hands, and then rushes to her side, kneeling down as she looks up at him, a pained smile playing on her lips. "Please, next time, can we be smarter than that?"

He returns her smile. "I thought you already were."