First things first: I apologize for the delay. I've actually decided, due to schoolwork and other life occurences that keep piling on, to make this a side interest. Updates will be random occurences, instead of following a pattern of 2 months, but I'm not done with this fic. Not by a long shot.
Enjoy.
Darkest Days
Chapter 9:
Who's Life Is It Anyways?
"Engine's online. Primary and secondary thrusters are working, so we should be able to take flight. Shields are online. Weapons are still inactive, but not totally lost. The Hyper jump module is damaged, but we probably won't have to worry about that if we manage to slip out inconspicuously, right?"
"I've never been one for taking chances. Do what you can on it." Scope ordered the junior mechanic, who saluted and went immediately to work on it. He was just about to light up a cigarette until he saw Alea walking up to him, a mixed expression on her face.
"What's up? You reach Brutus and Ahsoka, yet?"
"Well, I reached Brutus. Ahsoka, apparently, isn't there. She went missing with some girl named Karelia, who's a former Jedi. She's also the one who murdered the rebels and led us here."
"That ain't good. Ahsoka could be in a bit of trouble."
"Ahsoka can handle it, I'm sure." Scope offered her a cigarette. She refused. "How're repairs on the ship going?"
"Well, in the condition it's in now, we're better off stealing a ship from the Empire garrison. Flying this thing is no different than flying a cargo ship."
"But, isn't it already a cargo ship?"
"You know what I mean." He shot back, losing his patience. Alea chuckled lightly at this. After some time spent listening to Gidget make repairs, Alea spoke once more.
"Brutus wants us to get the ship to his position instead of us waiting for him to sneak back. Sacrifice stealth for time."
"I suppose that'll work. Plus, there's a chance the Empire might not see us. If we keep the weapons and main engine power toned down and use reserve power, we should be able to fly under the radar. Get out before they even notice us."
"...And if they do notice us?"
"Our only chance of escape relies on if Gidget can fix the Hyper jump."
Scope thought about asking Alea if he could contact Brutus until noticeable commotion was heard in the village. Instructing Gidget to remain with the ship, the soldier and the Twi'Lek ran to the village to see the Chief and his followers taking with a smaller Dug, who itself was frantic. The Dug silenced itself upon seeing the interlopers. Alea spoke to the chief in it's primary language.
"What's going on?" The Chief straightened itself and replied in a foreboding manner.
"He says he saw an Empire squad movement coming this way. They're approaching fast."
"How long?" Alea asked. Before a reply was made, the frantic Dug dropped to the ground suddenly, unmoving. A quick moment of confusion surround the group before Scope, thanks to his years serving wit the Naboo Royal Guard, realized what happened.
"SNIPER! CLEAR THE AREA NOW!" Immediately post-yell, the group scrambled to safety, only one other Dug being shot down. Once Scope and Alea were under cover, they pulled out their choice of arms (A rifle for Scope and a silenced blaster for Alea) and conversed in a loud, harsh whisper, Alea starting.
"Empire found us already? They aren't that fast with mobilizing."
"They must have a jungle transport or something. What I don't get is why they shot that dug instead of two obviously dangerous-looking humanoids..."
"We shouldn't flatter ourselves, we probably were just a couple of pirates to them. Besides, I bet they thought the Dug hadn't given us the information yet. Little late there." She smirked.
"Perhaps. Come on. We gotta get back to the ship. Hopefully Gidget can use it to get us to Brutus and Ahsoka then off this rock. Use the tents for cover, move in short bursts and keep your head down until we reach the jungle."
Endless slashing and clashing commenced between the two girls, one doing more slashing than the other. Ahsoka found it surprisingly difficult to defend the relentless attacks made by the pale girl. She would strike fast enough for Ahsoka to not be able to counter, and even resorted to using crude techniques like punching, low kicks and yanking her tails. It's as if she treated this like a street fight instead of an actual lightsaber duel.
If the fight kept going on like this, she realized she would have to stop holding back. Former Jedi or not, this girl wants to kill her. She will have to fight back if she wants to live.
Fortunately, she girl ceased her barrage of lightsaber blows and stood back, probably for a re-breather. Ahsoka used this to her advantage and, along with catching her own breath, attempted to come up with a strategy.
"What good is this, Karelia?" She tried to get the girl calmed. "After you kill me, what then? You go back to your life as a refugee, hidden from people who want to kill you? You think that killing me will automatically make the Jedi come back and the Empire vanish in thin air?" The girl said nothing and continued to stare her down. "You think that killing me will bring your friend back?"
"No." ...Was all she said. The response was so short, Ahsoka couldn't tell the emotion behind it.
"Then why? What's the point of all this? None of this makes any sense! I'm not the one that killed the Jedi! I'm not the one that killed your friend! Sure, I was the apprentice of the guy that did, but it's not like I convinced him to do it! Is there some kind of grudge you have against me? Are you using the fact that I was Vader's apprentice as a scapegoat just to kill me?"
"No." She replied again.
"WHAT IS IT, THEN? TELL ME WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS!" Ahsoka screamed, her patience finally snapped.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." She replied in a flat voice. Ahsoka felt her eye twitch.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Think about it. You were Vader's apprentice. Apprentice. For all we know, you could be in alliance with him, helping him hunt down whatever Jedi are left. That's why I have to stop you. For Sith, there are always two: A Master and an Apprentice. I'm gonna kill the apprentice, then I'll kill the master."
Ahsoka couldn't believe what she was hearing. This girl was actually crazy. For a moment, she considered letting the girl strike her down in hopes that it would cure her or at least get her to die by Vader's hand, then she can beat the lunatic up in the afterlife. She decided against this (obviously), and stuttered out the only words she could think of.
"I... I... Can't believe what I'm hearing. You're crazy- No, scratch that. YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND!"
"I'll show you who's crazy when I throw your corpse in the methane lake and light it on fire."
"You can't light a lake on fire... can you?" Oh, great. She thought. Now the insanity's rubbing off on me.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
She then took back to her fighting stance, and prepared yet another series of rapid fire strikes in an attempt to cut Ahsoka down. Ahsoka would've fought back... but then she saw the girl's eyes.
They were yellow.
I've never been good at anything mechanic-wise, but it was relatively simple fixing this speeder. Makes me wonder why we couldn't do it immediately. Didn't matter, because I was close to getting in prepped up. If it had enough power, I would've even used it to look for Ahsoka.
The reason I said "would've" is because she fell out of the trees just now, crashing onto the speeder.
"What the hell?" I yelled. Ahsoka was too dazed to respond, but not too dazed to move out of the way of an incoming Karelia with her lightsaber ready to pierce her body and the speeder as well. Fortunately, she missed as Ahsoka rolled over into the muck and ran to get back into her stance. Karelia was clearly pissed that she missed. She looked up and glared at me with a stare that I'm pretty sure won't leave my dreams for a while. I held my hands up and backed away slightly.
"Don't kill me. Whatever's going on between you two, I'm neutral." She ripped her saber out of the now unusable vehicle. She must have thought I was not worth her time (I'll be angry about that later) because she went right past me to attack Ahsoka. Both of them engaged in combat, and I looked at the almost-bisected speeder. Something clearly went wrong during their conversation.
"YOU JUST GONNA STAND THERE LIKE AN IDIOT OR HELP ME?" I heard her yell at me. The rest of the camp heard her, because people starting pouring out of their tents, weapons at the ready.
"Well, what's going on between you two? I actually like to learn what's going on before I jump into a fight so I know what I'm doing!" Contrary to popular opinion.
"She's possessed by the Dark Side!"
"She is?" I asked. Karelia clearly took offense to that statement.
"I am not! YOU ARE, YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH!"
"What the hell's she talking about?" I asked, perplexed by the situation.
"She's helping Vader in killing Jedi!" The pale girl yelled.
"What?" I was baffled at these statements.
"Don't believe her! She's trying to turn you against me! She's possessed! We have to help her!"
"SHUT UP!" The second girl yelled, and went on the attack again.
Normally, one would be torn between sides. Not me. I may be incompetent, but I'm not stupid. The decision was obvious. Ahsoka had much too big a grudge against Vader to even think about helping him. Besides who would want to help the very person responsible for killing all her friends?
All thinking aside, I pulled out my twin blasters and reluctantly opened fired on the pale girl. She must have used her Jedi sense to see it coming. She kicked her opponent down into the mud and used her saber to reflect the blasts. I kept firing as she moved closer reflecting my every shot. I knew I had to move away from her. That lightsaber of hers was certain death up close.
To my utter surprise, she didn't attack me with her saber. Instead she delivered as well placed punch to my face, sending me back onto the speeder's front end. It wasn't so much the power of the punch that send me down. There was barely any. It was more like the shock. A Jedi, even a former one, using a simple punch against a blaster welding opponent. I give her props for being unpredictable. I was too slow to get up, because she held me down by the throat with her left hand. Her right was holding her saber, which was ready to slice right through me. Fortunately, I managed to hold it back after dropping one of my blasters. Through the whole 30 seconds we were in that position, she kept glaring at me with glowing yellow eyes lined with ire.
"I... will cut... your fucking head off..." She snarled, sounding out of breath. Her saber hand was slowly moving towards my neck, but thanks to a well placed kick, I managed to knock her off without losing anything important. I sat up and swallowed a huge gulp of air, then coughed it out remembering we were on Malastare. Karelia fell on her butt and lost her lightsaber in the muck, but was quick to get up. Ahsoka grabbed onto her before she did got to anything and held her in a choke hold.
They both fell, knees dug in the swamp. Ahsoka held her hold around the girl's neck, not enough to choke her, but she was still clawing at the Torgruta's arm. You can easily tell Karelia was freaking out, thrashing her arms in attempt to get the girl off. It wasn't working as Ahsoka was remaining steadfast and spitting out some rantings that I assume were in attempt to calm the girl.
"Come on, Karelia! Fight this! You're a Jedi! You survived the Jedi massacre, you can survive this!" By now, Karelia was screaming uncomprehendingly with phrases such as "Let me go!" or "I'll kill you!" reaching out. Tears were raging down her face and it sounded like she was hyperventilating. She was having a full-on panic attack.
"Do it for your friend! Do it for Aldeema!" These words, and whoever the hell this "Aldeema" was, managed to calm Karelia down a level, but she was still fruitlessly struggling.
"No...No... I can't! It hurts! IT HURTS!" She whimpered out, clutching her head like it was going to split in half.
"FIGHT IT! REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!" With that, she let go of her head, looked to the sky and let out a massive scream and rose a couple octaves beyond that of a regular scream. Then she went limp in Ahsoka's bloody arm. Ahsoka laid the girl on her back. She was still alive, with steady breathing. Slowly, the pale girl awoke.
"A-Ahsoka...What...What-?" Ahsoka silenced the girl by shushing her, telling her everything's alright. She slowly rose up and sat in a slouched manner, leaning on Ahsoka for support.
"Do you remember?" She asked Karelia. Karelia nodded, before whispering "everything."
"I remember dead Jedi... The corpse of my friend... killing innocent people... I remember... wanting to kill you. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You were possessed by the Dark Side. It wasn't you thinking. It's done though. You're free."
"Free? Freedom? Wow. It feels... good." She looked at Ahsoka with happiness in her eyes and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Ahsoka hugged back and the two sat their finally enjoying each others company.
It was a touching moment, which was ruined for me when I heard someone couch in the background. I turned around to see a whole village of pirates, looking dumbstruck at what they just saw.
"Okay!" I yelled. "That never happened! You never saw anything, right?" I asked, hoping they would take the hint. One poor soul didn't, ranting on about what just happened before his eyes like a kid in a candy store.
So I shot him with my blaster. Stun, of course.
"Anyone else see anything?" I asked once again. This time, no one complied.
"That's what I thought."
I'd like to thank EsmeAmelia, whose story My Mother was a massive inspiration to this part. If you read it, I'm sure you'll see what I mean. You can find it in my favs.
Until next time,
Happy Life Day.