A/N: Please review with any comments or friendly criticisms you may have. That can be one of a writer's most useful assets and would be much appreciated :D. Thanks and hope you enjoy!
CHAPTER 9: DESCENT
"Some hero you are," the woman spat.
Carth tensed as he found himself looking down the barrel of his own blaster, where countless hours of work, upgrades, and modifications now stared him in the face.
I've got to do something, he thought. If I don't this is going to get really messy, really fast.
He knew reasoning with her was futile. Looking into her pale green eyes, he felt his chest constrict as watched tears drip onto her cheeks. Her glare was one of the utmost hate and contempt, one he knew all too well. Carth searched for something, anything to say that would strike a chord within her. Anything to make her realize she was making a mistake.
"Listen," he began, slowly dropping down beside the boy. "He's still alive, but if we don't hurry, he might not be for long."
The woman stared at Carth intensely, tightening her grip on the blaster.
"I have a ship filled with supplies and kolto," he explained. "If we go now, I should be able to stabilize the wounds. Please. You have to let me try."
Bending one knee, the woman slowly lowered herself to the ground, never taking her eyes or the blaster off of Carth. With one hand she reached out toward the boy, placed her fingers against his neck, and checked for a pulse.
"I…I can't tell," she said desperately.
As he watched the woman ease her head down toward the boy's nose and mouth to listen for any sign the boy was breathing, Carth caught sight of a figure approaching them from his right. His breath caught in his throat when he realized it was Dustil. Shaking his head slightly so as not to draw the notice of the woman, he attempted to warn Dustil off.
"Father?" Dustil questioned as he stopped a few feet from them, his eyes quickly darting from the boy, to the woman, and finally to the blaster once again aimed at Carth. "What's going on?" he asked as he tentatively attempted to slide his lightsaber from his belt.
"Drop that," the woman commanded as she rose to her feet. "Hands up right now, or I'll shoot him."
Realizing he had no other choice, Dustil slowly laid the lightsaber on the ground and gave it a nudge with his foot. The lightsaber rolled toward the woman, stopping at her feet. Without looking down the woman lifted her left foot and gave the lightsaber another nudge with the bottom of her shoe, sending it rolling swiftly behind her.
"Save him," she ordered Carth with a newfound vigor. "Save him or I will kill your son."
The woman turned the blaster towards Dustil and took three steps back, now able to easily keep them both in her line of sight.
"I told you already," Carth repeated, forcing his voice to remain even as the weight of her threat registered in his mind. "The supplies are on my ship. We'll have to take him there."
"Actually, Father, I've got a kolto injection in my medpac. Standard Sith-issue."
Dustil unclasped the small box from his utility belt, handing it to Carth. Withdrawing the syringe and needle from the pack, he cleared his head. It had been awhile since he had dressed wounds like these. On the Ebon Hawk Jolee usually handled the more critical injuries from their battles. Straightening out the boy's arm, Carth inserted the injection into the boy's flesh, hoping there was still time.
"Hand me the antiseptic," he instructed Dustil. "After I spread it on an area, place a kolto patch on top of it."
Pulling the patches from the medpac, Dustil swallowed hard, nodding slightly as he proceeded to follow his father's orders.
"Pip," Carth asked after a few moments. "Can you hear me? Pip?"
Leaning toward the boy, he turned his head sideways so that his ear was hovering just above the boy's mouth and nose.
Oh no you don't.
Counting, Carth pumped the child's chest in even rhythm attempting to revive him.
"Save him," the woman repeated softly as a sob nearly overtook her voice.
That was Carth's every intention. He again pumped on the child's chest, but he still remained unresponsive. Several minutes passed by while he repeated the same motion, each returning the same result.
"I'm sorry. There's nothing more I can do," Carth declared breathlessly.
"So'm I," the woman replied as fresh tears streamed down her face.
"NO, WAIT!"
Carth lunged toward the woman, knocking her to the ground as a blaster bolt escaped the barrel with a piercing ring. Scrambling to her feet, the woman dropped the blaster, and picked up the body of her dead son. As she headed back toward the Market District, she stopped briefly to grab the hand of the boy's brother, dragging him along behind her.
Dustil had fallen to his knees, his hands covering the site where the blaster bolt hit. Carth caught him as he slowly fell backwards, instantly easing him to the ground. After straitening his legs out in front of him, Carth pulled Dustil's jacket off of his shoulders to better examine the blaster wound. Peeling back the layers of his burnt clothing, tears welled up in Carth's eyes as he saw the scorched skin of his son's chest. Cradling Dustil's body in one hand, Carth checked his own pockets for a comlink with the other, knowing that Canderous always carried one with him.
"I will not lose you again," Carth whispered vehemently. "I will not."
As his hands finally closed around the device, he let out a small sigh of relief.
"Ordo," Carth stated calmly into the comlink, hoping that Canderous would be on the other end this time. They had tried to reach his comlink earlier before leaving the ship, but the Mandalorian had never replied. "Ordo this is Onasi."
Though still unconscious Dustil groaned slightly, rolling his head to one side.
"Hang in there, son," Carth said as a few stray tears spilled over onto his cheeks. "Hang in there for me."
"Can you read me?" he called as panic threatened to overtake him. "ORDO!"
"You won't be hearing from the Mandalorian anytime soon," a voice explained from behind Carth.
Straining to look over his shoulder, Carth saw a hooded figure standing merely a foot behind him.
"Who the hell-"
Before he even had time to finish the statement, the butt of a disruptor rifle struck his temple and pain instantly overtook the left side of his head. Carth fell the short distance to the ground, his face planting onto the dusty street with a thud that resonated through his ears. Though he was barely conscious of the warm stream of blood that cascaded down the side of his face, Carth was copiously aware of a very familiar presence in his mind as his world was immersed into darkness.
Revan.
Finally easing to a stop directly in front of the military base, Revan arrived at the end of the Telosian main street. Closing her eyes, she cleared her thoughts and kneeled on the ground, hoping to gain some clarity on the situation. Canderous hadn't returned to the ship last night, and though that itself didn't bother her, the fact that he didn't answer any of her pages on the comlink had. In any situation in which the crew had been separated from the rest of the party and the ship, each had carried their own comlink. Even now, Canderous had insisted on following the tradition. Not because he feared Revan couldn't protect herself, but, he had said, "Because you can never predict the outcome of battle. No matter what the odds."
This made perfect sense to Revan. The Mandalorians had attacked the Republic, knowing full well they could defeat them. Only by stroke of luck, or destiny as Jolee would quickly argue, did Revan and Malak defy the Council and join the war. Most of the galaxy agreed that without them, the Republic would have lost.
A mutual respect had grown between Revan and Canderous, starting from the day she became the Swoop Racing Champion on Taris. They understood one another from a unique perspective. Conquering worlds that put up a challenge brought Canderous's clan glory and proved they were a capable breed. The more battles they fought in, wars they won, and numerous their conquests, the more honor they received. Canderous was a warrior through and through and in the end, so was Revan.
Canderous's people had been defeated not by the Republic, or even the Jedi, but instead by Revan and her unrivaled military prowess alone. A tactician to the core, Revan had known when to make sacrifices and when to suffer losses in order to advance goals. Though Canderous found it hard to respect the Republic for some of their meager actions on the battlefield, he found it easy to respect Revan.
This constituted an allegiance to her that Canderous would gladly follow to his death. He admitted it was intoxicating to bask in her power, but he also knew there was much more to it than that. Canderous felt the same loyalty to Revan that he had to Mandalore. After the defeat of the Mandalorians on Malachor V, he never thought he would believe in something to such a degree again.
Revan reciprocated the respect. The Mandalorians were more than a formidable opponent for the Republic and the Jedi. Though they had far superior technology, with their Basilisk War Droids and other indigenous machinery, it hadn't been enough. In the end, strategy and tact prevailed over sheer muscle and power.
Surrounding herself in the Force, Revan let herself flow with its wispy fingers as it caressed her environment. She opened herself to its suggestions, cautious for any allusion it could place in her mind. Several moments passed as she remained completely still, listening intently.
She could see Canderous in her mind and almost feel his presence in the Force. Unbeknownst to them, Canderous and Carth both held a very similar presence in the Force that differentiated only slightly. Both the warrior and the soldier's bloodstained past held an unambiguous path of death and destruction, but where Canderous still held an underlying desire for the exploits of war, Carth held a suppressed mixture of guilt and regret.
Suddenly, Revan heightened her senses as she felt an unfamiliar presence. Pushing herself deeper into the Force's grasp, she attempted to locate and latch onto the source. She could see the shadow of a man. A Force adept. And a very strong one at that.
Unexpectedly, Revan felt the familiarity of Carth's presence, but his aura tingled with panic and fear.
"Ordo. This is Onasi."
There was a short pause in the transmission as Carth waited for a reply.
"Can you read me?"
Another pause.
"ORDO!"
Revan's eyes shot open as she flung herself off the ground. She hadn't heard Carth's distressed call through the Force, she had listened to it with her own ears. Canderous's comlink had sounded from somewhere nearby. Roaming her eyes over the street she searched for the comlink, keeping her ear tuned for another distraught call from Carth.
Revan stumbled as pain fleetingly threw itself across her mind, suddenly realizing she'd unconsciously maintained a light clasp on Carth's presence through the Force. Deciding she couldn't waste any more time looking for the comlink, Revan turned back, focusing all of her attention to Carth. She had to find him, something was horribly wrong. Instead of retracing her exact steps, Revan cut through one of the many alleyways. Though it was still heavily covered with debris, it only slowed her down slightly and in the end would give her a faster path to Carth.
Emerging through the alley, Revan caught site of a durasteel fence at least three meters taller than herself blocking the path. Without another thought, Revan began the ascent up the barrier, traveling as fast as she dared while still maintaining her balance. Upon reaching the top, she balanced herself and easily swung her left leg to the opposite side. Picking her right leg up in the same easy motion, a sudden tremor in the Force caught her off guard. Feeling both the emotional and physical pain Carth was suffering as if it were her own, she lost her balance and collided forcefully with the dusty Telosian earth.
Revan didn't move immediately; the fall had more than knocked the wind out of her. Opening her eyes, she became acutely aware of another presence in her immediate vicinity. Still lying on her back where she landed, Revan craned her head to get a glimpse at the figure now eclipsing her view of the sun, casting a shadow across her face.
"If all Jedi were as clumsy as you, Revan, we actually might have won the war."
"I'm not clumsy it was Carth," she mumbled as she sat up slowly. Holding one hand to the side of her head just behind her right ear, Revan looked up at the towering figure with only one eye open.
"Canderous! Where have you been? You wouldn't answer the comm call, I felt this disturbance and-" Revan stopped abruptly as her eyes finally adjusted. "You look like nine kinds of Corellian hell."
Canderous reached out an arm, helping a disheveled Revan stand to her feet.
He answered her gruffly, "I had an unpleasant encounter with one of your Jedi and his lightning. Lucky for me, my implant kicked in. But I think he's after your Republic boy, so we should really talk about this later."
Revan knew he was right and with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she once again opened herself to the Force as they continued to backtrack towards the Ebon Hawk. She pushed forward, despite the pain coursing through her right temple. Numbing herself to the throbbing sting, Revan used the Force to distance herself from it.
"You could have just used your lightsaber to cut through the fence," Canderous pointed out as he shot a glance to the cylindrical object hanging from her belt.
Revan didn't reply immediately. He was right and there was no way around it. She had been so keen to reach Carth, to stop his pain, that she once again had acted brashly and it could have easily cost her more than a headache.
Instead of retorting, Revan merely nodded an acknowledgement. The time of making excuses for herself was long in the past, buried deep alongside an identity she couldn't remember.
A lengthy silence stretched between the Jedi and the Mandalorian as they continued to make their way back down the street as quickly as their injuries would let them. Thoughts began to race across Revan's mind so rapidly that she could barely register them before another would take its place. First, a very Bastila like voice scolded her for being careless, followed by an image of Mission telling her how Carth's face had lit up at the mere mention of her name, and then the Jedi Council slithered into view, reprimanding her for directly disobeying the Jedi Code accusing her of retracing old footsteps to the path of the darkside.
"Revan!" Canderous finally yelled, snapping her away from the fleeting thoughts. "Look."
Directly ahead of them a man lay motionless on the ground, and Revan felt as if she'd just been trampled by a herd of Banthas.
"Dustil!"
Revan immediately began to search for his presence in the Force as she dropped down beside him, her lips tightening into a grimace has she felt its faintness.
Canderous walked to the other side of him, bending down on one knee to examine the wound.
"Looks like a blaster bolt struck the left side of his chest. Lucky for him, he didn't get a direct hit. It seems like it grazed the side of his chest, but it's still a pretty nasty wound. I don't know if there's anything you can do."
Revan sighed as she looked up at Canderous. "Do you have a medpac?"
Canderous pulled a medpac from his belt, one of Jolee's own, and handed it to Revan. As she began to dress the wound, Canderous walked around the square, looking for any clue as to what happened.
"Well," Revan began several minutes later as she closed the medpac and clipped the case to her belt. "That's all I can do until we get him back to the Hawk. What's that?"
Canderous was rising to his feet, holding a blaster. Closing the distance between them he extended it to Revan.
"Onasi," he said. "The kid was shot with his blaster."
As Revan took Carth's blaster from him, a lump formed in her throat.
"Think you can carry Dustil back to the Hawk?"
"Sure, but what are you-"
"I've got to find Carth. He wouldn't shoot is son and if he by some incident did, he wouldn't run off and leave him," she paused a moment, spotting a small plasteel object resting near Dustil's head.
Revan retrieved it, throwing a glance at Canderous. "Okay. When you get to the ship, inform me. We'll keep in touch that way. I'll check in periodically to tell you what I've found."
Canderous nodded as he eased down to pick up Dustil, watching as Revan sprinted off through the buildings without so much as a glance behind her.
Stay with me, Carth, she thought as she glanced down at the blaster in her hands. I'm coming.
"So, Tadek," Mission began. As she sat down beside the dark-headed figure, she couldn't help but return the genuine smile he gave her. "What have you been up to since Taris?"
Tadek grinned, happy for the company and the break. Switching off his datapad, he placed it in his lap and gave his eyes a good rub. The datapad contained the sixty-seven-page rundown of the Onasi-Dyok simulation, which Tadek had now analyzed so many times he nearly had it memorized.
"Well," he began. "I've been serving the Republic."
Mission didn't know that his presence on Taris had been because of the Republic. He was investigating reports of Sith dealings with the Exchange and had come a little too close to uncovering some semblance of the truth. A price was placed on his head and every bounty hunter this side of the sector turned out for the hunt. "I think a much more interesting question would be, 'What have you been doing since I last saw you on Taris?'"
"Oh you know. Not much really. Just the normal things me and Big Z do. Explorin' and stuff."
"That's it?" Tadek asked as he raised an eyebrow, his green eyes twinkling with amusement. "Since when are we the cryptic one, hm?" Tadek made a pointed glance at Jolee, Juhani, and Bastila, who were all crowded around a viewscreen examining the file he'd given them, then glanced risibly back to Mission.
Mission didn't answer. Instead, she stared at him with the utmost look of seriousness plastered on her face.
"Come on, Little Blue," he prodded again. "You assist in saving the Galaxy from intergalactic turmoil and you don't have anything to say about it?"
Mission blushed briefly at the nickname but recovered quickly, enveloping her face in a wide, toothy grin.
"Okay," she began excitedly. "So Big Z and I were explorin' like always in the sewers of the Lower City, when Zaalbar was captured by Gammorean slavers! That's when I ran into Carth and Alora, well Revan. After we freed Big Z I promised to sneak Alora, er… Revan, into the Black Vulkar base to get back a prototype accelerator they stole from Gadon Thek. Alora, well, Revan, swoop-raced for the Beks and won, which saved Bastila from the Vulkars and-"
"I still maintain that I saved Revan from the Black Vulkars," Bastila stated as a matter-of-fact, her eyes never straying from the screen in front of her.
Mission paused just long enough to roll her eyes at the Jedi. With extreme emphasis on the first word, Mission continued. "An-y-ways, after Revan saved Bastila from the Vulkars…"
Bastila tuned out from Mission's recollections of the events leading up to the Star Forge and instead focused her full attentions back on the file before her. All three of the Jedi were huddled around a viewscreen in the common area of the Paladin's Luck, Tadek's personal starship, as they traveled through hyperspace on the way to Telos attempting to piece the facts in the file together. The best information they received were reports of sightings of men who looked like Vren Dyok and a brief description of Carth's last moments with him taking from a debriefing on their last mission together. Bastila felt like there should have been more to the file, almost as if it were incomplete.
The file began with typical recruitment data such as Dyok's name, birth date, weight, height, homeplanet, date of recruitment, squadron, and etcetera. Bastila didn't see anything too important there. As it continued, the file went on to name the stations and fleets Dyok had been assigned to during the Mandalorian Wars, along with the corresponding dates. Straining her eyes to follow the small print, Bastila leaned in closer to the screen.
"It seems Dyok and Carth were in the same squadron," she pointed out. The others merely nodded, having assumed that particular fact already.
Following immediately after the record of Dyok's tour of duty during the Mandalorian Wars, a much shorter list stated his assignments to ships and planets during the Jedi Civil War.
"What do you think?" Bastila questioned as she stepped back from the screen.
"I don't know. I can't make much of this file. There's a lot less information here than I would have thought," Jolee sighed, rubbing his temples.
"Wait a second," Juhani interjected, her eyes still poring over the file. "I never heard of Yavin IV in any of our travels for the Star Forge. I thought it was a remote planet without modern life. Why would the Republic be there?"
Tadek suddenly rose from his seat, joining the Jedi at the viewscreen. Examining the file for himself, he began to shake his head slowly in confusion. "The Republic wasn't there. As far as I knew there had never been any sort of assignment or operation on Yavin IV."
"During the war with Exar Kun, the Jedi fought there," Jolee answered. "But there never was Republic presence there."
"I don't understand how he could just disappear," Mission contended as she moved to fill in the small gap between Juhani and Tadek.
"He didn't just disappear," Tadek replied, turning to look at Mission. "It was easy and happened often. Especially during the beginning of the war. Soldiers, hell, even officers joined the Sith. No one knew who to trust anymore. Revan and Malak's influence didn't end with the Jedi."
"Right," Mission continued, nodding her head. She had heard the Jedi point this out several times during their quest for the Star Forge. "You're saying he switched sides?"
"It is obvious," Bastila said, somewhat despondent.
"Well, it's no wonder Carth doesn't trust nobody," Mission replied. "First Saul and now this guy."
Jolee nodded in agreement as his head churned with one thought after another. "And you have said there have been no reports that this man is alive?"
Tadek shook his head grimly, "No reports of his death either."
"I guess we'll just have to wait until we get to Telos. Hopefully Carth can provide us with answers to our questions. Until then, shoo. All you young people are giving me a headache," the old Jedi ordered as he once again began rubbing his temples. When no one moved Jolee released his head from his hands, glaring at his fellow passengers. "Shoo I said! Just standing there with your mouths open, attracting flies. No one listens to their elders these days…"
As they turned away from the viewscreen and a ranting Jolee, Tadek whispered to Mission, "Is he always like that?"
Smiling, Mission nodded her head and rolled her eyes. "Always. Thinks we should do everything he says just because he's been around the block a few more times than we have. But he's still pretty endearing for such A SENILE OLD JEDI!" Mission finished, raising her voice just loud enough so Jolee would be able to hear the last words.
As Mission took another step she seemed to trip over some invisible object and crashed to the floor of the Paladin's Luck, with a painfully thunderous smack.
Taking Tadek's extended hand, Mission climbed to her feet, seething.
"I hate it when they do that!" she exclaimed glancing back at Jolee, who was fussing with his robes and appearing as if he hadn't noticed a thing.
Walking towards them, Jolee spoke to Mission most seriously as he passed. "You really should be more careful, Mission. You could really hurt the ship next time you fall."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh ha ha. Very funny, granpa."
Mission turned sharply on her heel, catching sight of Tadek, who immediately stopped chuckling and made a poor attempt at a straight face.
Glaring at him briefly, Mission turned as if to walk back toward the cockpit. As Tadek made a move to catch up with her, falling in at her side, Mission jutted her foot out to her right and tripped him, sending him hurling toward the ground. With nothing but the harsh metallic floor of the Paladin's Luck to break his fall, Tadek could only curse as he smacked the floor in one swift, resonating clank.
He couldn't help but smirk as he watched Mission leave him, her lekku swinging behind her with what must have been sheer satisfaction. Tadek sighed as he pushed himself to his feet.
This is going to be a long week.