Chapter Four: Belsavis, Part Two
They found out, from Pak, that Krannus was after a doctor named Gantrell and they weren't really sure why. But they had his coordinates and they were halfway there when Aurelia's speeder malfunctioned. They were barely able to get off it before the engine exploded, leaving them effectively stranded in the middle of the maximum security section of Belsavis. Aurelia kicked the dead speeder with a muttered, "Kriff!" and stepped back, hands on her hips.
"This is just great." She looked at Scourge who stood a few feet away, his crimson eyes burning into her. "Do you have any ideas?"
"We walk."
"Walk? The doctor is hundreds of klicks away from where we are right now. I am not walking all the way there."
"Then we are destroyed."
Aurelia groaned slightly, and she looked up at the sky. "It's getting dark. Something about being on this planet after the sun sets rubs me the wrong way - oh yeah, maybe because it's a prison planet!"
Scourge only smirked at her. "Between us, Jedi, we have three lightsabers."
"Yeah, and I'm tired. Do we have time to sleep, Lord The-World-Is-Ending?"
"I suppose so." He glanced around them. "We have no shelter, however."
She sighed and looked around too. They were in a shaded glen, the minimum security cells looming in the distance. The Rattataki were spread out nearby, the Esh-Ka several kilos in the other direction, lurkers hugging any source of water. And then Aurelia noticed a cave a short ways away, and she looked to Scourge.
"Over there," she pointed. "It's probably got lurkers but we can clear it out."
He nodded. "Then let's go."
She followed after him, eyes wandering across the sky as it grew darker. Aurelia had been on many different planets and seen many different sunsets, but the beauty in them never ceased to amaze her (Tatooine sunsets were her favorites, though). So she stopped a few meters from the cave, watching as Belsavis' two suns set below the mountain line, and she felt a smile on her face. Gods, it was so beautiful. And for a moment, she was able to forget; forget that she was chasing a murderous Imp across this barren prison planet; forget that if she didn't succeed here the entire galaxy was screwed beyond belief.
"Why have you stopped?" Scourge asked softly, bringing her back to reality.
She caught his eyes for a moment. "Look at that sunset - it's beautiful."
He nodded once, not even looking away from her. "We mustn't delay. Come."
She sighed softly, and they entered the cave, lightsabers drawn. After taking out the few lurkers inside they settled in towards the back, and Aurelia laid down on a softer patch of ground, using the unarmored parts of her chestguard as a pillow. Scourge sat a few meters away, looking anywhere but at her. She could feel some discomfort on his part and she sighed slightly.
"What, half-naked women make you uncomfortable?" she teased, though she wasn't necessarily half-naked - underneath her chestguard she always wore an undershirt and her leggings were still on, though she'd kicked off her boots.
Scourge scoffed anyway, dismissing the question with a slight wave of his hand. He had yet to settle down for sleep, and she frowned.
"You… are you going to sleep?" she asked quietly.
"Even if I could, I would not. One of us ought to keep watch."
"Wait, you can't sleep?"
"I am immortal," he said, as if it were the only way to explain it. Then he added, almost as an afterthought, "I do not feel exhaustion the way you do, and my body does not gain anything advantageous from sleep. I can sleep but I simply choose not to, as I do not need to."
"Hmm." She watched as he stood up, gathering rocks and pieces of wood. "Do you dream when you sleep?"
Scourge stopped for a moment, his back to her, and he didn't speak. Finally, he murmured, "Yes."
"Is that why you don't sleep? Because you don't like dreaming?"
"You ask far too many questions, Jedi."
"Only because you deflect all of them."
"Perhaps, then, you should learn to stop asking questions." He dumped the rocks and wood he'd collected in a pile not far from her. A simple bolt of lightning from his fingertips ignited them and Aurelia scooted closer to the fire, feeling its warmth.
"You know, I've had that speeder since I was fourteen," she said quietly. "I got it on Nar Shaddaa before I was recruited into the Order."
"It was an Imperial model," he noted as he stoked the fire, adding a few more sticks and foliage.
She grinned cheekily. "I stole it from some soldier. But, stars, it's given me so many problems over the years. Kira and I got stranded on Tatooine because it broke down, and we had to wait for Teeseven to save us." Her smile widened at the memory, Kira ranting and raving in the heat, them fighting off a pack of womp rats. "But that's the last time I steal anything from the Imps."
Scourge wore a smile - an actual smile. A small one, honestly, but a smile nonetheless. It was curious, and seemed out of place on his otherwise stony face. "You know, your people speaking of the Empire sound like a distorted echo."
"Is that right?" Aurelia sat up, pulling her long dark locks from the bun, brushing it out with her fingers.
"When I was born, we thought the rest of the galaxy to be mystery and legend," he said. "We had been alone for a thousand years."
"What was it like?" she murmured, looking at him, catching his bright eyes over the fire. "I can't even imagine."
"We were what you made us."
She raised an eyebrow.
"In my youth, Jedi were how you threatened errant children. 'Obey your masters or the Jedi will obliterate you'."
"I remember," she murmured. "Not much changed in the Sith in three centuries."
Scourge nodded, folding his arms across his chest. "For thousands of years, we had total control of a hundred star systems. Then the Jedi drove us to the farthest fringe of the galaxy."
"Yeah, I remember that propaganda too." Aurelia gave him a teasing smile. "But you're in Republic space, now. That's skirting dangerous ground, talking like that."
"This is hardly worth debating," he scowled. "I gain nothing from understanding how your Republic's fools view the galaxy."
"But I have to listen to you talk about the old Empire?"
He didn't answer her question - he hardly ever did. Instead he said, "I'm surprised that once your Council finishes its brainwashing, any Jedi has a spine left to oppose the Emperor." He smirked. "Perhaps you are still young enough to finish your training and cultivate the strength of the Sith."
She snorted. "You know, Revan, the Exile and I were all Jedi-trained. We all resisted the Emperor. Last time I checked, the Sith hadn't done that."
"That was… a surprise," he conceded. "In three centuries, I expected to see one test his strength against the Dark Lord. But those strong enough to challenge him are killed young, or co-opted into the Dark Council." Then he sighed. "Perhaps you're right. Jedi strengths are different… not necessarily lesser."
Aurelia held back her grin. "Well, thank you."
He nodded once. "Now, you need to rest. I cannot have you collapsing on the mission tomorrow."
She nodded too and laid back down, pulling her legs up, wishing she was in her bed on the ship, burrowed in her heavy blankets, that super-soft pillow she'd picked up on Alderaan under her head. Sighing softly, her eyes found Scourge and she watched the flames flickering across his red skin, the distant look in his eyes. "What are you thinking about?" she murmured.
"Nothing," he responded almost immediately. "Go to sleep."
"Oh fine." She closed her eyes and moved a little bit, curling up as best she could. And then, within minutes, she fell asleep.
Scourge watched her for a moment, the cave silent except for the crackling of the fire and the soft sound of her breathing. She looked peaceful in sleep, several years younger (out of sleep she looked older than her twenty-one), and he sighed softly. He had never met a Jedi like her before, one that had piqued his interest; one that fascinated him. She was so different, so unpredictable, and he did not understand why he was so interested in her.
That morning they went on to the doctor's coordinates. Hopefully everything was okay - though Aurelia knew that was a stretch. Nothing was ever 'okay'. And sure enough, to get to the good doctor, they had to battle through a regular army of fanatic Imps, even a couple of trained Jedi killers - those were always fun. Then they reached a large, open room with a few Imperial officers and several older men in white coats, most of them on their knees, blasters at the backs of their heads. Aurelia kept one lightsaber ignited, refusing to take any chances. The officer in charge started prattling on about the Emperor's glory (the same junk she'd heard from Colonel Hareth) despite Aurelia's best efforts to convince him otherwise. She found out the men in white coats were scientists, and that Doctor Gantrell wasn't actually there. And then the Imperials executed a few of the scientists.
Aurelia attacked, anger flowing through her veins. She and Scourge slaughtered the officers, and she couldn't believe them. Killing innocent, defenseless men like that? That was cowardice. It was the thing she'd hated the most about the Sith and the Empire, and even after they lay at her feet, dead, she still seethed in anger. Scourge's curious gaze scorched her but she didn't look at him. She took a deep breath, there is no emotion, there is peace, and another one, and deactivated her lightsaber. Then she approached the scientists, anger fading into worry.
One of them spoke in a trembling spoke. "If you hadn't come here… we owe you our lives."
Her holocom rang out of nowhere and she answered it to an excited Pak Taldine. "That was amazing!" he crowed. "Outnumbered, outgunned - but those Imperials never stood a chance!"
"How did you see all that?" she asked.
"The security holo," and he sounded a little smug. "Saw the whole thing. Pretty incredible - and I've seen a lot of good fights."
"Thank you, but I don't need compliments. I need to know where Executor Krannus went."
The red son of a mynock had taken Doctor Gantrell with him, it turned out - but not before carving out the tracking chip embedded in his skin. Aurelia's almost-empty stomach churned at hearing this and she shook her head. "What kind of monster butchers a helpless prisoner like that?" Another reason she'd hated the Sith - their mindless cruelty.
Scourge stepped in, reminding her, "Torturing a prisoner is nothing to someone who would exterminate entire worlds."
That was true. But still… She shivered.
The scientist told her that Krannus had taken the doctor to help unlock the prison's lower levels; that Gantrell would be able to get the key. And then he told her about some prototype weapons they'd been creating, and it took almost all of Aurelia's self control to not groan dramatically. First it'd been the Planet Prison. Then the Power Guard. Then the Desolator weapon. Now there were warfare prototypes with both Republic and alien technology, and they were hidden in a vault near the main Republic base? Stars, this just kept getting better. The scientist asked if she could make sure the prisoners didn't get to them and she sighed. Scourge wouldn't like this.
"Well, I could probably spare a few minutes to keep deadly weapons out of criminal hands," she said softly, and she heard Scourge scoff.
Predictable.
"You'll be saving thousands of lives!" Pak added.
"Those lives are meaningless," Scourge said. "Stopping Krannus is all that matters."
"But - you're a Jedi." Pak sounded desperate, and she hated making decisions like this. "You can't turn your back on this!"
She looked from Scourge's hard red eyes to Pak's almost hopeless blue figure to the guilty looking scientist, and she cursed under her breath. They were all right - it was her obligation but if it meant Krannus could have time to carry out his plan... "I'm sorry," she said softly, after a few moments of thought. "I can't put the entire galaxy at risk."
Pak sighed, but nodded. "I'll deal with it myself, then. You just focus on getting to the vault and saving Doctor Gantrell."
Thank the stars, there was a Republic outpost nearby so Aurelia and Scourge didn't have to walk far. It was midmorning now as they hopped onto a speeder, yet it was still so damn cold. Aurelia shivered again as the crisp wind whipped around them, and she had to close her eyes against it. Ugh. If she could help it, she was never coming back to Belsavis after this. As they touched down at another outpost Krannus called on her holo. He was haughty and pompous as usual - and he told her that officers of his were planning to blow up kriffing volcanoes to slow her down. He said, quite honestly, that she couldn't afford to ignore this 'distraction' so she and Scourge reluctantly went to take care of it.
"Why does Krannus have to be such a coward?" she asked as she diffused the last of the bombs, turning to find Scourge striking a shooting Imp soldier across the chest with his lightsaber. "Why can't he just face me himself?"
"Is that rhetorical, or would you like a response?" He de-ignited his saber and looked to her.
She sighed and grumbled, "Rhetorical, I guess."
"Right." He nodded in the direction of the large, imposing building a few meters away. The maximum security wing. "We should go."
They fought through more fanatic Imps as they made their way through one of the cell blocks - and at the end of it they found a massive beast. It was a few feet taller than even Scourge and it was poised above a small, older man, and something told Aurelia this was the doctor she'd been searching for. Finally. She and Scourge took down the creature with hardly any effort, and then she knelt before the old man.
"Doctor Gantrell, I hope," she said softly.
"You arrived just in time! That beast was about to eat me alive."
She helped him up and after reaching through the Force to make sure he would be okay she said, "I've got to stop the Imperials. Where did they go?"
"Krannus took the key to the prison's power core!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "He intends to destroy it! Do you have any idea what that means?"
No. That's not why I've been chasing that red bastard across this godforsaken planet. Instead Aurelia said, "I'm not going to let him reach the core."
"The power core derives energy from hyperspace itself," the doctor said. "A detonation will send shockwaves at light speed - Belsavis would only be the beginning! Trillions will die!"
Of course. Because any destruction plan isn't complete without the senseless annihilation of obscene amounts of people. "Krannus can't be too far ahead; I'll stop him before he reaches the core." Then the good doctor asked her to lock him in a cell till reinforcements could arrive. And she wanted to; she almost felt bad for him. "Stopping Krannus is the only thing that matters," she said.
"You're a Jedi! You can't just leave me here to die!"
What is with all this 'you're a Jedi!' stuff lately? Why don't we leave emotional manipulation to the Sith?
"Fine," she sighed, her voice flat. "Follow me. Let's make this quick."
"You cannot be serious," Scourge hissed.
"It'll take two seconds. Relax."
It was more like two minutes, and the more time it took the angrier Scourge became. Aurelia could almost feel it without the Force. He huffed and scowled and paced, arms folded across his chest. Once the doctor was locked in Aurelia turned to her incensed companion.
"Oh my stars, Scourge, try calming the hell down, please." She shook her head. "Let's go, then, if you're going to continue to be passive-aggressive about it."
He made a face. "You're going to be the death of me, Jedi."
"Is that a promise?"
Scourge glared at her with harsh, fiery eyes, and a part of her almost hated how much fun it was to get him this worked up. "Enough. Let's go."
Aurelia stifled a giggle.