Fighting with Monsters

Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 2

a fanfic by Sisiutil

Chapter 3

Kilu Branon sat, as inconspicuously as she could, in a dark booth in the bar portion of Morty Corba's Karkan Ribene House and Bar. Not for the first time since she'd arrived, she frowned, grimaced, and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb, trying to stave off the headache she felt coming on, one of the bad ones that formed right behind her eyes. She then pulled the dark hood of her robe further over her head, the better to cover her face. She even slumped down a little into the booth's bench, trying not to be noticed.

It wasn't working. For the fourth time since she'd arrived only five minutes before, the waiter--a tall, thin, blue-skinned creature with a single eye and a tiny tuft of silver hair atop his head--approached her, carrying a single drink on his tray.

"From the Twi'lek gentleman at the bar..." the waiter said, a little nervously this time as he began to set the drink down in front of her.

"I told you, I'm not interested," Kilu growled at him through clenched teeth, casting only the most cursory of glances at the Twi'lek in question, a violet-skinned member of his species who smiled at her as he idly stroked the brain-tentacle which was wrapped around his neck.

"Come on, lady, I'm just doing my job," the waiter pleaded as he held the drink, a light blue frothy concoction decorated by a brightly-colored little umbrella, just above her table.

"You bring me one more drink from another 'gentleman at the bar'," Kilu snarled at him, "and I'll rip out your gizzard and use it as a swizzle stick!"

The waiter sighed and put the drink back on his tray. "What about, er, a drink sent by one of the ladies?" he ventured cautiously. "Because the female Togruta at the far end was asking about you..."

"Go. AWAY."

And the waiter did, though shaking his head and evidently wondering what this woman was doing in this place anyway, since she didn't want company.

Kilu was wondering the same thing herself. All around her, beings were engaged in various forms of negotiation, all in pairs--well, almost all--and all towards the same end, which the Jedi silently acknowledged would, at least, result in the perpetuation of the various species present. Though not in every case. At some tables sat two beings of the same species, at other tables were odd couples from different worlds--some so different that Kilu couldn't help wondering how the mechanics of their coupling could possibly work, though she abandoned that train of thought as quickly as she could force herself to do so. The Jedi valued knowledge, but in some rare cases it was simply better not to know certain things.

Her jaw clenched as she stared down at the tabletop in front of her. Of all the places to choose for a rendezvous, why in the stars had Axel chosen a pick-up joint? She couldn't help thinking that this was a perverse joke on his part, or some bizarre form of revenge, though he'd probably just protest that it was the best he could come up with on such short notice. Whenever he got there.

Kilu raised her eyes and glanced anxiously around the dimly-lit establishment once again. There was no sign of him still. She checked her chronometer. He was fifteen minutes late. She took a deep breath and tried to maintain her Jedi mental detachment and calm, but the surroundings didn't make that very easy.

The blue-skinned waiter was approaching her table again. She suppressed a powerful urge to activate her lightsaber.

"I thought I told you to..." she began to say.

"The, er, chef would like to speak with you," the waiter said.

That brought Kilu up short. Beneath her dark hood, she frowned. "The chef?" Was this a trap of some type, she wondered?

"Yes," the waiter said, the single brow above his one eye furrowing in a puzzled expression that, in a bizarre way, reflected her own. "He said you'd be... uh... interested in his father's recipe for Karkan Ribenes?"

"I see," Kilu said, her lovely features lightening with understanding. "Yes, I would be interested in that. Which way to the kitchen?"

The waiter pointed to a swinging door a few meters away. Kilu nodded a thank you, rose from her table, and walked towards the door.

Once she went through it, the kitchen staff--about a dozen different creatures of various species--briefly raised their heads, eye stalks, and a few other appendages towards her, then collectively shrugged and went back to their assigned tasks. Kilu looked around. She spotted Axel standing by an exit at the back of the kitchen.

He was dressed in his usual clothing: a dark suede jacket over a white shirt, khaki pants tucked into black boots, all of which unselfconsciously showed off his trim form. His blaster was in its holster, strapped to his left thigh. He hadn't changed; his jet-black hair was still cut short and parted on the left, his face clean-shaven, his blue eyes as piercing as ever. Except there was now a pained, haunted look in his eyes, and instinctively, Kilu knew she was the reason it was there.

Kilu sighed with relief at the sight of him, but other than that, she showed no reaction--which took nearly all of her Jedi-trained self-control. Her first instinct was to run to him, throw herself into his arms, and gladly partake of the illusion of safety that such an action would provide. And she wanted to do more than that besides, things that would make many of the customers in the room she'd just left blush, or do whatever their respective species' version of that was.

But she'd closed that door several months ago. The life of a Jedi involved hard choices and sacrifices, and the code was clear: personal attachments were dangerous--they had the potential to lead to the dark side of the Force. So she walked towards Axel calmly, her face impassive, determined to keep their relationship professional--which, she knew only too well, was what she should have done from the start. Besides, she was a little annoyed with him.

"Nice place you chose for a rendezvous," she said as she walked up to him, her voice dripping sarcasm.

He shrugged. "It was the best I could come up with, under the circumstances."

"Uh-huh."

"What, did some Hutt sugar-daddy try to sweet-talk you onto his barge?" he asked, one brow cocked.

"Let's just get out of here," she said testily.

"Fine by me," Axel said as he pushed the restaurant's back door open and led the way out into an alley. The night air was surprisingly cool and crisp for a desert world, and a light breeze ruffled Axel's short black hair and made Kilu's auburn pony-tail flutter. "So what is it this time? Imperials? Smugglers? Ticked-off Ewoks?"

"We'll talk aboard your ship," Kilu replied. She began to impatiently march ahead of him, even though she didn't know which direction to go.

"Ah, yes, the ship," Axel remarked, and was unable to keep the resentment he felt from creeping into his voice. "It's the reason you called, isn't it? 'Oh no, I'm in trouble! I know, I'll call up that pathetic freighter pilot I boffed and sucker him into risking his neck for me again..."

Kilu turned on her heel to glare at him, her Jedi reserve at risk of completely vanishing. "That's impressive, Axel," she said sharply. "From zero to full pout in under sixty seconds. But if you don't mind, I've been shot at today, so I'm not in the mood for your dramatics, all right?" She turned around and started walking again, but then stopped. "Which way do I go?" she demanded, waving one hand in an impatient gesture. She then took a deep breath and tried to recover the emotional equilibrium so vital to a Jedi.

"Straight ahead, second right," Axel said. His hurt tone had disappeared, replaced by concern. "You were shot at? By who?"

"I don't know," Kilu said, concern evident in her voice as well. "And for all I do know, they're still after me. Though maybe they think I died in the explosion..."

"Whoa!" Axel said, reaching out to grab her wrist and stop her. "There was an explosion? What exploded?"

"They blew up our shuttle," she said, staring evenly into his eyes at first, but then she dropped her gaze to the ground. "...and... killed my Master, Habbad Nefeel."

"You lost another Master?" Axel said. "This is becoming a habit, babe." She raised her head to cast an angry, shocked glance at him. "I'm sorry," he said quickly, "that was callous of me." Kilu said nothing; she turned from him and started walking again. "Kilu, what's going on?" he asked.

"I told you, we'll talk aboard your..." she began to say, then stopped dead just as she was about to take the second right he'd mentioned, down an empty street that led to the spaceport's hangar blocks.

"What?" Axel asked, coming up behind her.

"We can't go this way," she said, her hand reaching for her lightsaber.

Axel saw the gesture and recognized it; his left hand clasped the handle of his blaster.

"The Force sending you a warning signal?" he asked quietly.

She nodded and pressed herself against the wall of the nearest building. She focused and reached out with the Force. "There's a welcoming committee," she murmured, and they both slowly peered around the corner. Down the street, they saw a human and a Rodian loitering outside one of the hangar bay entranceways, both cradling blasters in their arms and gazing about expectantly.

"Yep, right in front of my hangar," Axel whispered as he and Kilu stealthily drew back behind the wall.

"Those two are decoys," Kilu murmured. "Over a dozen people were after us earlier. The rest of them will be waiting to ambush us inside the hangar. We take these two out, think we're clear, walk inside, then they hit us."

"Figures," Axel said. "They intercepted your call and knew I was coming."

"What I don't understand is why they didn't just follow you." she said.

"Because I made sure I wasn't followed," he told her. "That's why I was a little late. Time to get out of here, wouldn't you say?"

Axel reached down to his belt buckle. The large, gaudy metallic buckle had several cheap imitation jewels embedded in it. Each jewel was part of a remote control system he'd engineered that allowed him to activate and guide the Nomad from a distance. He slid one jewel across the buckle, which unlocked the control system, then he pressed another jewel, which activated the beckon call that would order the Nomad to fire up her engines and fly to his location.

He waited a minute, but heard nothing--not even the sound of his ship's engines warming up. Kilu had noticed his use of the belt buckle's control system--she'd seen him use it before--and waited expectantly with him.

"Nothing," Axel said. "They must be jamming the signal. Whoever these guys are, they're good. You got any bright ideas?"

"Maybe..." Kilu said. Slowly, she moved her head around the corner of the building to look down the street. "Get ready to follow me," she whispered to Axel.

Kilu extended her hand around the corner towards the two thugs, then spread her fingers. At the far end of the street, a loud rumble sounded, echoing off of the walls of the surrounding buildings in the cool night air. Instinctively, both the human and the Rodian standing in front of the hangar door turned towards the sound, both of them pointing their blasters towards where it seemed to originate. Kilu took advantage of the opportunity to run across the street and took cover behind another wall on the opposite side. Axel followed right on her heels.

"One step closer," he acknowledged quietly. "What now?"

Kilu glanced up. Like most cheap spacecraft hangars around the galaxy, these ones lacked roofs. The walls extended upwards about three meters; at the top would be nothing more than the whitewashed walls' narrow upper surface. These particular hangars had a rectangular layout, and the adjacent ones on the same block also shared common walls. The Jedi smiled. These thugs were good, but like many beings, they tended to think in two dimensions. They were expecting Kilu and Axel to walk up the street and straight into their trap--not to come in from another direction entirely.

"Here's what we do," she whispered to Axel, and briefly explained her plan as he listened attentively.

"Okay," he said, "good plan. There's just one problem with it."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I... don't like heights," he said.

She looked at him incredulously. "What?! But you're a starship pilot!" she said in an agitated whisper.

"That's different!" he said. "I've got a whole bunch of metal wrapped around me when I'm in a ship!"

Kilu sighed heavily. "It's the only way, so you'll just have to manage. It's not that high. Just... try not to look down."

"Yeah. Right." Axel said dubiously as he cast an anxious glance towards the top of the wall.

"Ready?" she asked.

Axel took a deep breath to steel himself, then nodded. Kilu bent her knees, then Force-jumped up to the top of the nearest hangar's wall. She then gestured back down towards Axel and used the Force to lift him up onto the top of the wall beside her. Once there, he gasped and teetered precariously. She reached out and placed a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Breathe deeply," she said, imparting basic Jedi techniques for dealing with fear. "Focus on the reality, not the possibility."

"Right," Axel said. Even in the cool evening air, he could feel himself starting to sweat. The reality, he reflected, was that a fall from this height wouldn't kill him. It would just hurt like hell...

"Come on," Kilu said.

She then turned and nimbly ran along the narrow top edge of the wall as if she were still on the ground. Axel inched forward, keeping both his feet in contact with the wall's top edge as he shuffled after her. Kilu paused and turned around, then sighed as she saw how far behind Axel was. She reminded herself that very few people were ever taught to deal with their fears as Jedi were. In fact, she told herself, since Axel was scared of heights, his being up on the top of the wall was, in itself, a huge accomplishment. She kept telling herself this as she waited for him, struggling to keep her impatience at bay.

It took a good deal longer than she thought it would, but eventually they reached the hangar where the Nomad was waiting for them. She stole a glance at Axel; his face was bathed in sweat, his jaw clenched tightly, but he was there. Down in the hangar, Kilu's suspicions were proven correct. A dozen beings of various species were milling about down there near the inside of the entranceway. The thugs where conversing quietly with one another, obviously impatient for their quarry to finally appear. The noise gave Kilu and Axel enough cover to hold their own conversation on their high vantage point.

A disturbing thought occurred to Kilu as she remembered the fate of her previous transport. "Axel," she whispered into his ear, "you don't think they sabotaged your ship?"

Her breath was warm against the sensitive skin at the side of his neck, and her lips brushed against his ear, bringing back memories he didn't really want distracting him at the moment. He took a breath and focused on the matter at hand.

"I left her locked up tighter than a drum," he whispered back. "And Arf is programmed to watch for any sabotage attempts, internal or external." He caught her look of mild surprise. "What can I say, I'm in a competitive business," he explained quietly.

"Okay," she said, "here's the plan..."

She explained what she had in mind to him. His brows rose and he cast a hard, searching look at her. "You sure you're up for that?" he asked her.

"Hey, we took down a Sith together, remember?" she quietly reminded him--and herself. "What's a dozen under-trained thugs compared to that? So. You ready?"

Axel nodded his agreement, then slowly pulled his blaster from its holster and knelt on the wall's top. Kilu pulled her lightsaber from its belt clip. She crouched on top of the wall, her thump atop her weapon's activation button, and got ready. She was just about launch herself into her attack when she stopped; Axel had placed one hand upon her forearm. She turned to cast a puzzled glance his way; he leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"May the Force be with you," he said, then resumed his ready position.

She had to suppress an urge to kiss him for that. Instead, she took a deep breath and surrendered her will to that of the Force, beckoning it to guide her actions. Then she jumped.