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Chapter Three: Belsavis, Part One
It was a few hours' flight to Belsavis and Aurelia spent a lot of it with Doc. After returning from the ship she went to the medbay and kissed him without a word. He held her and murmured, "I'm glad you're back, beautiful," and then Aurelia closed and locked the door. Everyone on the ship knew about their relationship, or whatever it was, (and now so did Scourge, and she knew he wouldn't let her live it down for awhile), and nobody came down to the medbay for a long while for anything. In fact, Aurelia and Doc didn't leave until Kira braved knocking and letting them know they'd docked at the Belsavis orbital station. They dressed, Aurelia pulling her hair back into its tight bun, bangs falling into her eyes, and she dodged a smirk from Scourge as they all gathered around the holoterminal.
Master Satele told her anything she knew about Belsavis, including the fact that the Empire had just attacked the world in some simultaneous air strike and prison riot. Aurelia groaned internally. Kriffing Empire. Why can't anything ever be easy? According to Scourge it was just a diversion, so that the Emperor could focus on his ritual. Master Satele informed them that their target was some high-up Imp named 'Executor Krannus', and that he had just arrived. Personally, the man didn't seem intimidating in the least - people only had titles like that if they were trying to overcompensate or something. But Scourge insisted he was dangerous so, Aurelia conceded, he probably was. A little bit. Well, dangerous enough that Satele deemed Aurelia the only one strong enough to take him on. There'd been a lot of that going around lately - hadn't she been the only one strong enough to defeat the Emperor?
"Are you sure I can do it?" she asked softly, hearing the insecurity seep into her voice.
"Without a doubt," Satele responded, and Aurelia sensed the truth in her words. But it didn't do much to calm her nerves.
A few moments later she and Scourge were headed to the airlock, Kira having hissed a brief, "Watch your back," in her ear. On the shuttle they sat silently again, Aurelia lost in thought. She still wasn't sure if she trusted Scourge. He was a Sith. She knew firsthand they were famous for betrayal and deception (Tarnis was a prime example, let alone all the ones she had encountered from her days at the Academy). What if all this was a ruse to capture her - or end her, once and for all? But he'd gone to the Council. He'd sounded so sincere, made Master Satele believe him.
Maybe he's just that good an actor.
But he wasn't lying - the Force told Aurelia that much. She sighed heavily, shaking her head, hoping Scourge was really for real. They touched down at the main Republic base, and as they headed for a speeder to take them closer to Enna Tabord's coordinates, Aurelia could feel the mood of the base change. Every face they passed regarded Scourge with a scowl or a glare - some of the more gutsy people cursed or muttered under their breath. But he kept his head high, staring straight ahead - she could feel his discomfort rising. It was a mix between anger and irritation. Stars. She'd never given any thought to how any of this would affect him. She remembered his words from earlier - we're both traitors - and sighed. He'd given up everything he had in the Empire to help her. He was risking his life for this.
And she felt awful for not trusting him.
"I drive," she said as she climbed onto the speeder.
But not awful enough to let him drive.
Scourge made a noise, but no further protests as he got on behind her. And Aurelia spent way too much time focusing on his presence. He was incredibly tense, and his large, strong hands burned through his gauntlets and the light armor on her stomach. It was… interesting. Nice. Nice because Belsavis was freaky cold - a cold that no one had prepared her for. The cold wind whipping around them was enough to make her shiver and her teeth were chattering by the time they hopped off the speeder. It wasn't as unforgiving as Hoth had been (a planet she swore never to return to) but cold enough that she wished she'd opted for thermal robes before leaving the ship. She put her own arms around herself, trying desperately to keep her jaw from moving unnecessarily.
But that became impossible when Scourge smirked at her.
"Aren't you cold?" His armor looked lighter than hers in terms of warmth.
He gave a light shrug. "We should not delay. The Jedi should be right in there." He pointed to a small, nearby building, and Aurelia sighed, stalking after him.
Well, Enna Tabord was in the building. Just dead. An unfamiliar Zabrak man crouched beside her, and he looked up at Aurelia. The electrostaff at his back and the fact that he was the only one next to a dead Jedi made her itch for her lightsaber. She held a hand over it as she and Scourge approached him, and he stood.
He tried to explain the situation to her, with a tremulous voice, saying Enna had asked him to help her; that he was a self-proclaimed "expert" on Belsavis, and that, "I had no idea what I was signing up for. Now I just wanna get out of this alive."
Mm-hmm. Aurelia wasn't buying it - it just seemed too… convenient. "Jedi aren't easy to kill. What happened to Enna?"
Beside her, Scourge sighed, folding his arms across his chest. "We do not have time for this," he muttered.
"You aren't the least bit curious what happened?" Aurelia asked as she faced him.
He shook his head. "She's already dead, Jedi. Knowing how it happened will not bring her back."
"But whatever killed her could still threaten us. So let the man talk."
Scourge made another noise in the back of his throat but he didn't speak, and Aurelia felt a momentary pang of pride at effectively getting him to be quiet for a minute.
Pak eyed them both for a moment before explaining that Enna had come back from a scouting run barely alive. She'd blamed Imps and told Pak everything and that, of course, none of it was good news. Nothing ever was.
"Did she happen to mention anything about an Executor Krannus?" Aurelia asked. "He's an Imperial officer. Red-skinned Sith."
Pak's eyes shifted to Scourge for a fraction of a second. "Enna told me the Imperials are entrenched by the main reactor. They were taking orders from a pureblood Sith."
"We know where they are? Let's go."
"Whoa, not so fast. They have heavy weapons and a ray shield protecting their position. Nobody's moving them from that reactor anytime soon."
It was always something. "Well, if Krannus is there, we have to figure something out. Maybe we can take out the shields?"
According to Pak they could, with a few ion charges. At her insistence, he gave her the charges and promised to make sure that Enna's remains got the respect they deserved. "Good luck," he told her. "And watch your back."
Aurelia and Scourge got each of the ion charges in place - they had to battle a few Imps and Sith to do it, though, and as she watched the last Sith fall she wondered how this made Scourge feel. She tried reaching out to him through the Force, but he must've felt because he made a noise between a grunt and a grimace.
"Let's not waste any time," he muttered. "You can tell that nervous little Zabrak we've done what he wanted."
"Will you try to have a better attitude?" She pulled out her holocom, sighing at Scourge. "You're ridiculously downbeat. Anyone ever tell you that before? You're all 'the galaxy is gonna end' this and 'we don't have time to do anything at all' that."
"I am a realist," he snapped. "And a pragmatist. If we make time to inquire about every dead Jedi or take the time to reflect on our feelings - " His voice held a hard, mocking tone, and she frowned - "we will be dead tomorrow."
"That's my point - so depressing. Blast, Scourge, you could at least smile. Even just once."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and she fought a grin herself - at least he wasn't so stony now. "Make the call, Jedi."
She let her smile through for a moment, and then she called Pak. He detonated the charges and told her that the ray shields were down. Now they had the privilege of taking out the heavy guns the Sith had. Joy. Her smile was gone as she faced Scourge again.
"Why do Sith have to make everything so hard?" she half-whined.
"I know many a Sith asked the same question about you Jedi."
Aurelia sighed again. "We can both be terribly ridiculous sometimes, huh? Well, we should go. We've got a legion of angry Imps and Sith just waiting to kill us." She looked up, caught his eyes, and smiled. "Should be fun."
His crimson eyes shone for just a second - or maybe she was imagining it? - and he gave a nod. "What else is new?"
"What that a joke?"
"Perhaps. Now let's go." He started back towards the speeder and Aurelia grinned, walking behind him. This really was shaping up to be an interesting experience. Who'd've thought she'd be befriending a Sith Lord - the Emperor's Wrath, for that matter? But the speeder ride to the coordinates was silent (she still wouldn't let him drive), and they hopped off a few meters away from the main reactor bunker. By her quick estimate there were five or six Imperial battle droids, more than a dozen Sith, and a lot of Imperial soldiers. Not impossible to break through, just damn hard. And she guessed the inside was much the same.
She took a deep breath as they crouched behind a snowbank. "I say we just go for it. They're spread far enough apart that we won't have more than four, maybe five of them on us at once - and we can take them."
Scourge nodded. "I can take any soldiers and battle droids while you go after the Sith."
"What if I wanted to take the battle droids and soldiers?"
"Go right ahead, Jedi. I only assumed you'd rather fight someone that closer matched your own skill set."
She'd like to, she thought as they moved away from the snowbank, igniting their lightsabers. But she wasn't sure if she could by herself anymore. Stars, she used to be so sure of herself. She used to rush into battle with hardly a thought, knowing full well she could take on anything that was thrown at her. Now she was afraid to go up against a few Imperial soldiers. Blasted Emperor. She watched as Scourge rushed forward, engaging with a nearby Sith. He moved with such skill and determination, and she could feel him calling on his anger, channeling it into his attacks. He fed off the dread and rage in his opponents, too, becoming an even greater force to be reckoned with. Not only that, he was insanely adept in lightsaber combat. He used an older form she hadn't seen before - a lot like Ataru, but not as refined. Probably something he picked up three hundred years ago.
"What are you waiting for?!" he called out to her as he struck the Sith down. "Fight!"
She used the Force to leap to a close group of Imperial soldiers, using her favored Juyo form to inflict as much damage as she could. And any thoughts of Scourge or the Emperor or the impending doom they all faced was gone as she fought. She cut down any soldier, battle droid, or Sith that got in her way without a problem, and she used a mix of her own fear, anger, and serenity, slowly letting out all of her pent-up emotions. She and Scourge fought to the front of the base, not stopping until every last opponent was defeated. Then Aurelia doubled over, hands on her knees, panting softly. She hadn't fought like that in a long time.
Scourge de-ignited his saber and returned it to his hip. "Come on. We cannot stop."
They made their way through the main reactor base, taking out anyone that dared oppose them. Then they ended up in a large, open room with a computer pressed back against a wall. Before it stood a tall, pureblooded Sith woman in full Imperial military garb. She turned to face Scourge and Aurelia as they entered.
Her name was Colonel Hareth. As it turned out she was Executor Krannus's lover and she tried and tried to convince Aurelia to rejoin 'their' side. Not only that, but she was an Emperor fangirl. Nothing Aurelia said persuaded her against him, and then she admitted this was all a distraction so that Krannus could get his mission done. And then she attacked.
She was a tough opponent, and both Scourge and Aurelia fought with everything they had, even up against the soldiers and probe droids she called on to aid her (cheater, Aurelia thought miserably as she threw one saber, watching it arc around and strike three soldiers as it was drawn back to her hand). They were so close, as Aurelia deflected blaster bolts, Scourge impaling a soldier with his crimson saber; she could feel Hareth's resolve breaking and then kriff - stars - one of her blaster bolts struck Aurelia in the leg, tearing right through her leggings. She'd been so preoccupied with protecting her head that she'd left her legs wide open and she gritted her teeth against the burning pain, her leg trembling. The soldier a few meters in front of her took a chance and let out a volley of bolts. She deflected most of them but one hit her shoulder, just between her armor plates, and the other caught her in the side of her stomach. She went down, the pain white hot and burning and her chest heaved as she tried to breathe.
How - how did this happen?
Then Scourge did something curious. He sort of growled in the back of his throat and with a quick slash of his saber the soldier fell, dead. In the same second Scourge leapt to deliver a fatal, crushing blow to Hareth's middle. Her flame-colored eyes grew wide as the red saber protruded from her back. In her pain, Aurelia barely registered what was happening, even as she tried to focus on the Code to calm her, but she felt her body stiffen in fear. He was the Emperor's own executioner - he must've killed hundreds of Jedi and Sith alike - and she knew that, she did. But seeing him like that, feeling the raw anger rolling off of him, watching Hareth's lifeless body crumple to the floor as he de-ignited his saber… it scared her. His hard, red face turned to her and it softened fractionally.
"Why did you let them hit you?" he half-snarled, rushing to her.
She barked out a short, wry laugh and the pain in her stomach flared up, and the laugh turned into a pained wince. "I wasn't having enough fun."
He scowled, kneeling beside her. "Can you walk?"
"Probably but blast, it hurts." She stood up on wobbly legs, holding her arm across her stomach. "Guess I need new armor."
"What you need is to be more careful, Aurelia." He slipped off one of his gauntlets and examined her wounds, his fingers startlingly cool on her stinging skin. And underneath his firm voice she could detect something that resembled caring and she smirked.
"Aw, are you worried about my well-being?" she teased, holding back a gasp as his fingers touched the laceration on her stomach. The blaster bolt there had, at almost point-blank range, cut right through her armor. She did need to be more careful.
"Only for the sake of the galaxy," he retorted. "If you perish, we all will."
Aurelia sighed, anger pricking her skin. "I'm sick of hearing that. Why can't you do it?"
"Your face is the one I saw - it must be you. Now hold still."
"Wait why? What are you - ow, that hurts!" She winced as he worked on healing her through the Force. Her skin knit back together slowly, agonizingly, and why did it hurt so much? Whenever Kira healed her it didn't feel like this. But Kira never used the Dark Side to do it. He'd started with her shoulder and then went to her stomach - she'd been unable to hold back a groan at that one; it was deep, deeper than a blaster bolt wound probably should've been. Then he was kneeling before her, his hand hovering over her upper thigh. This one hurt the least amount but why in the Void did this situation make her feel so… weird? She couldn't place it, didn't recognize it, and called on the Code to help lessen the pain. Then it was over, and Scourge straightened up.
"There," he said quietly. "Now, you should let that Zabrak know that we've not found Krannus yet."
"Yeah, I guess." She reached for her holocom and it started beeping. She frowned at Scourge before accepting the call.
"It's a shame about Hareth," Executor Krannus said with a smirk. "But she will receive a place of honor when the Emperor grants us eternal life."
Aurelia scowled. How did he get this frequency? "You've been brainwashed," she half-snarled. "The Emperor has filled your head with false promises so you'll throw your lives away for him."
"I may not feel the Force as you do, Jedi, but I do know its power transcends death. Now, this delay has cost you. You cannot stop what is to come. The Emperor's will is inevitable." He ended the transmission suddenly and Aurelia sighed, shaking her head. This was not turning out well.