The Temple

Randal looked at Buck. "Hey, I know you! You're the one who was at the bar! And you, beige cloak, like the one who copied my scroll. So you've been watching me? Stealing my clues to get to my discovery!"

"You're not a force-user," Fan said. "You can't lay claim to this temple!"

Randal smiled. "So you know this is a Sith Temple." Randall lost his smile and aimed specifically at Fan, as if pointing at her with his blaster pistol instead of a finger. "So, that means you're either one of those lightsaber touting stooges the Empire keeps doling out." Randal kept quiet for a moment. "No, you dress differently from them. And I differently know that you're not Sith, cause there are usually two at a time and I know who the two are. So that leaves one more option," Randall's smirk returned, "you're wannabe Jedi."

"Let's test if I'm a wannabe," Fan activated her lightsaber.

Randal fired a shot, which Fan deflected. Another shot, Fan struggled to deflect that one. A third shot, Fan deflected that too but not well enough as her lightsaber was knocked away from her hand. The deactivated hilt clattered on the ground behind her.

She turned around to retrieve it, leaving her back open for another shot. Buck kicked Randall's blaster hand, causing his next shot to veer of its target, Fan's back, and knocking his blaster away.

Buck's hand went to his holster to draw his gun but Randal was on him in a flash, grabbing his arm to stop him from using his blaster. Randall punched Buck in the belly before he punched him under the chin in an uppercut. Buck stumbled back but could not get too far as Randal still held his hand. He gave him a right hook, sending him stumbling to the ground and his gun flying in the opposite direction.

Fan grabbed her lightsaber and charged at Randall, activating the blade of her lightsaber. Dyna had her pistol drawn but before she could fire, Fan stepped in her way during her attack at Randall. She swung for his head but he ducked down beneath the arcing green shaft. Fan reared her lightsaber up and brought it down onto Randall. The man rolled away and the high energy blade smouldered a hole in the ground that he had been at a moment ago.

Randall rolled to his knee, scooping up Buck's blaster in the process, and turned to face Fan. He fired three shots in quick succession but Fan was able to successfully block and deflect them. One of the shots exploded between Buck's legs.

"Hey!" Buck looked at the smoking hole in the ground between his legs.

"Oops!" Fan said.

Randall was about to take another shot but a shot from Dyna exploded in his gun hand. Randall cursed as he got up and ran away, picking up his gun in the process.

Dyna let out a few more shots while Randall returned with cover fire as he escaped.

Fan and Dyna gave chase as he disappeared around a pillar. They pounced behind the pillar, Fan pointing her pistol while Fan brandished her lightsaber. There was no one there because Randall had run down a corridor which existed, and hidden from sight, behind the pillar.

Dyna turned to Buck was now getting on his feet. "Buck, are you okay?"

Buck nodded. He wandered to the twisted and still sparking metal that used to be his blaster. "Great, now I have no weapon."

Dyna and Fan walked towards him. Fan deactivated her lightsaber and holstered it beneath her beige cloak.

"Here," Dyna gave Buck her pistol.

He looked at her in confusion. "What about you?"

"Well, I have an expert here, so I can rely on my other weapon." Dyna tapped at her holster, which was where there was a compartment where her lightsaber could be stealthily kept.

"An expert?" Buck whispered sceptically to himself. "Could've fooled me."

"We need to be careful," Fan said activating her holo-disk. "This eyepatch man knows this temple because of the scroll he has. From here on out, we tread carefully."

/

Dyna and Fan walked through the dark Temple, using their lightsabers to light the dark passageways. Buck rounded the rear, scanning the place behind and beside them with the nose of his blaster.

"Uhm, Ms Fan?"

"Yes?"

"Back there, Eyepatch said this place is a... a Sith Temple." Dyna looked around at the illuminated carvings in the walls, showing death. "What does that mean? What's a Sith?"

"Fan stopped and stiffened, causing both Dyna and Buck to do the same. Buck, who had not been listening to the conversation, became alert.

"What's wrong?" He sweeped the area with his pistol.

"Nothing." Fan shook her head before resuming moving forward.

It grew quiet again, with only their crunching footsteps and humming lightsabers disturbing the silence.

Just when Dyna thought that Fan would not answer her question, the Pantorian spoke, "The Sith are everything the Jedi are not. The only thing that connects us is the use of the Force but how we view it and the world around us is radically different." Fan took a steadying breathe. "The Sith are the reason why the Jedi are no more. They were behind the Clone Wars and they are now behind the Empire."

Buck had been listening this time. "Something confuses me," he said. "Eyepatch said that you knew that this was a Sith Temple because you were a Sith or a Jedi. Well, we know that your Jedi but that still leaves one question unanswered: why does Eyepatch know about this place?"

"He's not a Sith. I would've sensed it if he was." Fan rubbed her blue chin. "Regardless, he's our problem for now."

/

They exited into a wide room. It had a pedestal in the middle of it.

"Found it!" Fan said excitedly as she rushed forward to the pedestal.

"Careful," Buck warned as he and Dyna followed behind.

She reached the pedestal and frowned in disappointment when there was nothing there. "What... how could this be? There's nothing here!"

"Maybe Eyepatch reached here first?" Dya offered.

"Is that possible."

"Its true," Buck said crouching on the ground. He studied a footprints in the dusty section of the floor. A set seemed to head for the pedestal while another set headed off to the side. "There are fresh footprints here that don't belong to us. Looks like he beat us here."

"It doesn't seem like there's been anything here that's been disturbed," Dyna said looking at the rubble and dust on the pedestal. "There'd be a clear space for where whatever the objects are would be kept but the pedestal is drity and has rocks everywhere.

"That is true," Fan said.

In the meantime, Buck followed the direction which the set of footsteps were leading to...

"That would mean that he found nothing," Fan excitedly said. "So someone else found this temple and its treasures but who?"

Buck thought he saw a feint flashing in the distance and he wandered closer and looked behind the statue at the beeping.

"Didn't this mine belong to the Ferlons?" Dyna reasoned. "Maybe they found whatever it is you're looking for."

Buck came closer to the beeping and rounded on it. His eyes widened when he saw the explosive planted there with the count down almost reaching its expiration!

"Find cover!" Buck shouted as he ran away.

Not long after there was an explosion. Buck was thrown across the room by the explosion while the rest of the temple was rocked on its foundation. Dyna and Fan were able to get to safety as the explosion threw debris all around the room.

The ground cracked and fell in as the ceiling began to collapse.

Dyna slowly made it to her feet. "Ms. Fan?"

"I'm fine," Fan too returned to her feet.

They helped each other keep their balance as the room shook and the sky fell in huge boulders.

"Wh-Where's Buck?" Dyna looked around and across the chasm before and her, she saw Buck, lying face down and unmoving. "Buck! Is... Is he..."

Buck began to slowly stir. He got to his feet and looked at Dyna and Fan across the gap. "Dyan? You two," he paused to grimace, "you two need to get over here."

"I agree," Fan said looking around at the collapsing temple, "this place will not hold together for long!" Dyna rushed to the edge of the gap. He looked down to the darkness below and the distance across to where Buck was waiting for them.

"I-I don't think I can jump across that!"

"Its a good thing that I'm here then." Fan walked beside Dyna and held her hand.

"Don't... Don't we need a running start?"

"No time!"

Dyna bent her knees when she saw Fan do the same. They leapt off the ground at the same time. Dyna looked back at the impressive height they were able to jump, there was even a ring of dust that resulted from their innatural jump.

Dyna's awe was soon replaced by horror when a section of the ceiling completly buried the ground they had been standing on a moment ago. She looked ahead as they were getting closer to the platform, while still impossibly sailing through the air, closer to the other side of the chasm.

Dyna felt gravity begin to pull them down again and she knew they would not make it across as they fell. She involuntarily shut her eyes as they fell but then their fall was stopped when she slammed into the wall. She looked up to see that Buck ahd caught them... more specifically, he had caught Fan's hand.

Buck grunted as he tried to keep them up. "Dyna, climb up!"

"What? What about me?" Fan, who was holding onto Dyna below with one hand and Buck above with the other, said.

"Your not in a position to climb," Buck said through a strained face. "Dyna!"

"Okay," Dyan began making her way up, using Fan as a ladder. "I'm sorry," she said as she stepped on the Pantorian's face. She pulled herself on the platform.

Dyna held Fan's other hand and she and Buck pulled the blue skinned woman up.

Buck collapsed on the ground, holding her midsection. He coughed and blood painted his lips.

"Buck!" Dyna rushed to his side and hovered over him.

"No time!" Buck pushed her away before he got to his feet. "We need to get out of here. Fan, can you lead us out?"

"Of course," Fan took a moment to look around at the violently trembling and collapsing temple, "Quickly, follow me!"

Fan led the way. They dodged falling debris and spontaneously appearing chasms on their desperate way out of the temple. The three ran out of the temple just before it fully collapsed behind them, sealing the entrance in rubble.

They stopped outside, where they breathed loudly.

"Is... everyone okay?" Dyna said in between gulps of ir.

"I... have... no injuries," Fan reported also in between shallow breathes.

"What about... you... Buck? Buck?" Dyna looked at Buck who was swaying uncertainly.

"I'm... I'm..." Buck collapsed forward.

"Buck!" Dyna rushed to him...

/

Dyna looked at the vat tube in front of her where Buck was floating peacefully. The doctor had told her that he had sustained a few internal injuries but he would make a full recovery in a few days, thanks to the healing properties of the vat tube.

She exited the room to speak to Fan. "Uhm, Ms Fan...?" Dyna looked around in confusion at the empty hallway.

She walked through the rest of the medical facility but she could not find Fan anywhere. She exited the building and took out her communicator.

"Ms Fan, this Dyna, please respond." Dyan waited for n answer that never came. "I repeat, Ms Fan, please respond." Again, no response. Dyna looked up sadly into the sky. "She... She's gone."