A/N: Had been a little busy so did not upload the new chapter. But here we are. Hope you guys still like it.
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Taris
Part Three
"Ladies and gentlemen, draw your eyes to the center ring. We have a very special presentation in store for you. Hold on to your seats and stay back from the edges of the ring. He's wild, he's unpredictable, he's borderline psychotic... and he's the best damn duelist in the game today! Give it up for... Twitch!"
People in the arena began to cheer enthusiastically.
"But Twitch's opponent plans to take the champion down," the commentator continued. "Night after night, battle after battle, we've watched this young phenomenon rise through the ranks. In this corner, the challenger for the title of Taris Dueling Champion, our first ever Twi'lek, the Mysterious Stranger!"
Carth Onasi shifted his body with discomfort, moving his weight from his left leg to his right. He was in a dreadful anxious state. He felt as though his stomach was filled with tons of pebbles and tied into a thousand knots. He was sweating buckets. There were two Ithorians chattering excitedly in some alien language, presumably about the match. Carth would not have a clue, since the one and only person he knew who could possibly understand the language was right in the middle of the arena a few meters away from his spectators' stand.
It was the fifth night since his companion signed up for the Duel Ring Challenge. She would be facing the current dueling champion Twitch tonight. Although they were no longer in shortage of credits after the first two matches, Skye Imarr still decided to fight with the remaining duelists for reasons known to only Skye herself. It wasn't that he doubted her combat ability or anything. She had more than proven that her skills were beyond the impressive level. But somehow he was still very nervous about the whole match thing, worrying that every time she walked into the arena would be her last.
Carth moved his body slightly to shift his weight back to his left leg again. His leg kicked into their backpack at the bottom of his boots and made a loud clanging noise. It was the Sith uniform they had managed to steal from the party a few nights back. He could remembered vividly how they waited for what felt like millennia for all the party goers to collapse from excessive Tarisian Ale drinking, and how they gingerly sneaked around them to search their bags for the uniforms. All that was left to do now was to finish off this Force damn dueling match tonight and they were off to the Lower City tomorrow.
The crowd began to cheer, which indicated that the match had started. Carth looked down from the spectator stand just in time to see Skye's slim body back flip into the mid-air to avoid Twitch's fast-flying blaster fire.
"Twitch begins his attack on the Mysterious Stranger. Attacking the opponent off guard, higher chances of winning. Good on you, Twitch!" the commentator reported in a roaring voice. One would thought he was totally drunk. Perhaps he did. But no one appeared to care.
Twitch's fast firing was quite famous, and Carth began to know why tonight. He could not even see the trigger being pulled; all he saw was blaster fire, one shot after the other without any gaps. It was little wonder how Skye handled such a rapid fire with ease. All he saw was a blur image of hers tilting left, right and left again and the fire went straight past her with no damage or injure on her body whatsoever at all, not even a scratch.
"Holly mother of gizka! Did you see that? Did you see the way she moves? Will someone please replay this to me, in slow motion, once it is over? I haven't seen anyone who can avoid Twitch's attack like this at all!" The commentator's voice thundered through the arena. Carth suddenly had a very strong temptation to fire his own blaster at him just to shut him up.
The stress showed after a while, as Twitch seemed to be getting visibly upset and fired his blaster even more aggressively and frantically. Skye, on the other hand, was still as calm as cucumber. She sweated a little from all the running around, but that was about it. Gradually, she moved towards Twitch and advanced her attack on him with her two vibroblades. Twitch threw away his blaster and switched to vibroswords to fend off her attack. The loud noises the blades made when they occasionally collided echoed around the entire arena. People suddenly stopped talking, including the commentator. They held their breath, eyes following the two combatants' every move. Carth noticed that Skye's luminous sapphire eyes were sparkling and glowing with excitements. Her lips curled upwards. She seemed to have a jolly good time doing this.
Signs of tiredness started to show on Twitch and his attack began to slow down a little. Obviously Skye noticed this, too, because her attack seemed to change as soon as Twitch's defense was weakened. She fluffed her vibroblades skillfully and tackled the flaws in his combat with excellent precision. Twitch managed to fend off a couple but not all of them. It wasn't very long before Twitch began to suffer damage and quickly was crumbling down.
"Good Force! Oh, my good Force! I can't believe it! I bloody cannot believe it!" the commentator was practically shouting at the top of his head, his voice hoarse but sounded mightily impressed. For a moment Carth thought his voice might break. "History has been made tonight! We have just witnessed the match of the century! Twitch's reign of terror is over! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new champion: the Mysterious Stranger!"
Noise of the cheering crowds nearly ripped the roof of the arena off.
Skye was still breathing quite heavily when Carth greeted her at the entrance of Ajuur's office.
"Excellent work, Skye. I must say whoever trained you in this did a superb job!" Carth couldn't help himself grinning at Skye. His voice was filled with uncontrollable relief.
Skye nodded towards Carth. She seemed to be pretty pleased with herself, too. She strolled to Ajuur at the other side of the room.
"[Outstanding performance! Absolutely outstanding!]" Ajuur was extremely happy with the broadcasting rating and the ticket sales. He was literally beaming from ear to ear and you could barely see his eyes anymore. "[People will definitely talking about this match for years to come! Now, here are the credits I promised you.]" He handed over the credits, which Skye accepted and thanked him politely.
"[Now you are the new champion on Taris. Congratulations! There will be no one above you now…unless you count Bendak Starkiller, the former champion before Twitch. He retired from the Duel Ring long ago. It is such a shame; otherwise it will be another blood-boiling match!]" chattered Ajuur happily.
"Bendak Starkiller?"
"[Oh yes, he was our best. Twitch would be no match if he were around. But like I said, he retired long ago. I've heard rumors that he occasionally will be here to watch the match. But he had never entered the Duel Ring again.]" Ajuur picked up a big handful of the snack in his plate, stuffed it into his mouth in one go, and chewed away.
"Oh, I see." Skye seemed immersed in thought.
"Why do I have this feeling you want to fight whoever this Ban... guy?" Carth's thick eyebrow rose as he noticed Skye visibly scanning the cantina as they were on their way out. "You do remember we need to get to the Lower City tomorrow, don't you?"
"…I do.." Skye replied reluctantly. "I don't know. I have this…urge…I want to go all the way to the top of this and make sure there is no one left. I don't know why."
Carth gazed at her for a while, finally he mumbled, almost toward himself:
"...You have that look again."
"What look?" Somehow Skye had heard it.
The vulnerable angel look, thought Carth inwardly. The look that had, for a moment, made him believe there was someone he could trust; the look that was hardly noticeable, but very slow, awoke the part of his heart that he had once thought was long dead; the look that twigged his heart violently, making him want to protect her at all cost.
"What look, Carth?" asked Skye again half-heartily, her eyes still searching for Bendak Starkiller.
Carth did not reply. He noticed a Mandalorian-looking person standing at the corner of the pazaak room. He looked utterly familiar; Carth had never seen him in this room before. However, he remembered spotting this person a few times on the spectators' stands in the Duel Ring arena.
"Hey…." Carth pointed at the Mandalorian to Skye, gladly distracting her attention to something else. "Do you think that's the Ban guy?"
Skye narrowed her eyes and glared at the direction Carth was pointing at.
"Hmm…I don't know. Why don't we ask him?" And she was off, without waiting for him to nod.
They approached the Mandalorian with some degree of caution. The person gave them a nod of acknowledgment as they walked near, which was not all that surprising since the Duel Ring match had just finished less than half an hour ago.
"Mysterious Stranger, WOW!" The Mandalorian greeted them with mild sarcasm, his voice sounding slightly odd when coming out of his helmet. "Oh, yes. Your performance surely was impressive."
"Are you Bendak Starkiller?" queried Skye politely.
"That's my name. Now how may I have this pleasure to assist the first Twi'lek in Duel Ring history?"
"I was told you retired from the Ring. Why?" Skye asked.
"The Duel Ring is now just for those faint-hearted pretenders who can't even stand seeing a single blood drop!" Scoffed Bendak: " They are not even worthy enough for me to move me finger! Now, you are different."
"Different?"
"Yeah, I've seen you fight. You have proven yourself worthy in front of me. Are you daring enough to fight with me? I don't mean fighting like one of those babies whose milk teeth haven't even fallen out yet, bloody mother of gizka, even my socks are older than any of them! I mean the real fight to the dead fight. What say you?"
Skye did not responded straight away. She puckered her eyebrow for a long minute, as though she was seriously considering the challenge. Finally, she nodded her head.
" All right. I dare you."
Sparkle blasted straight out of Bendak's eyes. Suddenly he seemed anxious, vibrant, energetic, colorful, and…alive.
"Excellent. Let me have a quick chat with Ajuur now. I believe he will organize a match for us very soon."
"You are not serious, are you? Or mental?" Carth questioned Skye as she prepared herself in the combatant's restroom fifteen minutes later. "You've just finished the Champion's match less than an hour ago, and now you jump straight into another match?"
"It will not affect our plan." Skye reloaded her blaster and practiced her aiming at the locker in the corner of the room. "We can still go to the Lower City tomorrow morning."
"Whether it will affect our plan is not my major concern at this point." Carth sat down on the other bench in front of her and buried his face in his hands. "This match is different. Haven't you heard what they said? This is a fight till you're dead. No one will be leaving the arena until someone dies!"
"That person will not be me," said Skye affirmatively. Her tinted blue face glowed with confidence. "Don't worry about me."
"...I am not worried about you," Carth denied instinctively.
"Oh, really, Wookiee? Keep saying that." Sky's sapphire eyes twinkled.
"Ladies and gentlemen, come with me now on a journey to the savage days of years gone by to a time when two combatants entered the arena and only one came out alive. They're illegal. They're banned. They've been outlawed for nearly ten years, but we've got one for you tonight: a good, old-fashioned... DEATH MATCH!"
The commentator's excited voice echoed back and forth across the arena. Skye glanced at the pouch clipped on her waist belt and quickly ran a inventory diagnostic inwardly. There were two usual medpacs, three advanced ones and one life support pack – given by the kind doctor Zelka whom they had met in the medical place a few days ago. Zelka was a compassionate, generous doctor. Not only had he hidden away the serious injured Endar Spire crew members who did not make it through the crash of their escape pods, so they did not have to suffer the terrible fate of being horribly tortured by the Sith to the end of their lives, but he also did some research on a very rare, incurable disease – Rakghoul Disease, a disease that so far only existed in the Under City. It caused great suffering among people who lived in the City. Unlike most citizens in Upper City, Zelka did not have any problems with alien species or offworlders, and he, Skye, and Carth had become friends almost immediately. Zelka heard rumors saying that the research facility had made some discovery about the cure and managed to produce some kind of serum before the quarantine and the Sith officers who entered the Under City might carry it. Skye and Carth had promised him that they'd keep an eye out for the serum if the chance arose.
She pulled out the vibrosword and firmly gripped it in her right hand, catching a glimpse of Carth's concerned face among the cheering spectators. Something unfamiliar stirred deep within her. She quickly looked away. It was not the right time to dwell on those profound thoughts.
"In this corner, a living legend. A man whose very name would make his opponents shake in their boots... if any of them were still alive! Out of retirement for one last battle... Bendak Starkiller!" The commentator continued to make introductions.
The crowds cheered ever more loudly.
"And who would be crazy enough to step into the ring with such a lethal legend? Who would be mad enough to face almost certain death merely for your enjoyment? Ladies and gentlemen, feast your wondering eyes on... the Mysterious Stranger, our favorite Twi'lek in the entire galaxy!"
For a moment Skye was sure the roof of the arena was definitely going to fly off.
"And now... the moment we've all been waiting for... Let the death match begin!"
Bendak's attack started almost as soon as the "match begin" siren went off. Within seconds he was already in front of her, slashing his sword at her direction. Skye dived away just in time to avoid the blade going through her body. She took a roll on the floor and stood up. Several grenades were then flying at her direction. Skye back flipped to avoid one but could not get away from the other on time. One explosion later, she was surrounded in some kind of yellowish smoke and choked hysterically. Suddenly the whole arena started to spin and she began to feel dizzy.
"Poison grenade," Skye whispered to herself, while hurriedly reaching for her waist pouch, searching for the antidote. When her fingers finally felt one, she immediately grabbed it, tore off the seal with her mouth and stuck the syringe straight towards the vein on her upper leg.
The attack of the Starkiller continued. Compared to his, Twitch's were like turtles'. Skye had to keep wielding her vibrosword to fend off Bendak's ever advancing blade, while trying dead hard to pull herself away from him to secure some distance. When she was hit by grenades for the umpteenth time and her antidotes were running dangerously low, she realized she needed a sound plan.
"CARTH!" Her voiced shot through the thundering cheering crowds. "ECHANI SHIELD!"
Almost immediately a small, whitish arm plate flew from the spectators' stand. Skye rushed over, jumped into midair, equipped it and switched it on swiftly. An electro-static field glowed around her slender body, wrapping her in some kind of bluish color.
"Wait, wait a minute," the commentator remarked enthusiastically. "Is this legal? Is this allowed? Can a combatant call his or her companion for assistance in a dueling match? Goodness gracious me… Well, looks like the judges don't mind. This is a illegal match after all, as long as they don't both come out alive, I don't think anybody will care…."
Skye pulled out a vibroblade and held it in her left hand firmly. As quick as lightning, she spun around and then charged straight towards the Starkiller. He did not expect the Twi'lek to turn around and attack him this soon. He, for the first time in this match, or in his personal dueling history for that matter, took some hits.
"Bendak is hit. OH MY FORCE! Bendak Starkiller is hit! No one on Taris has managed to go anywhere near him as far as I know of, not to mention actually cut him in the slightest! Now, our Mysterious Stranger has achieved just that! This match has just become very, very interesting! Don't turn your little beady eyes on your big scones away from the center court for a split second from now, folks. Otherwise you might be moaning till your dying days for what you've missed!"
Skye was not paying any attention whatsoever to what the commentator had just said. She was busy doing all her best not being hit, by grenades or swords or blasters while attempting to make her next attack. The burn marks formed by the explosions were now almost everywhere in the center court, and there was thin layer of smoke in the arena. It became quite difficult for both the combatants and the spectators to see anything.
Skye held her melee weapon up and every single cell of her body was in full alert. She couldn't exactly see where Bendak was; the last time she had caught any sight of him was along the left edge of the center court…
Something cold and metallic cut through her lekku. Although the Echani shield was on and took come effect, Skye still felt the burning sensation immediately. A few drops of blue blood appeared on the bottom of her feet.
Bendak was right behind her.
"MY FORCE, the Mysterious Strangers is also hit!" the commentator screamed in a very high pitch noise. "Looks like Bendak Starkiller hasn't lost his touch!"
Even through the smoke, Skye Imarr could see Bendak smiling. She cursed quietly, quickly pulled herself away from the blurry shadow, managed to inject some medpacs, and took a deep breath.
"All right, don't panic, if you can't see him with your eyes, sense it, feel it," she murmured to herself.
She closed her eyes, breath in deeply one more time, and stretched her senses.
Soon, as though she was toppled with a bucket with icy water, she started to feel every inch of her body, and then the ground she was standing on, then the center court she was in, then whoever was standing on it…. Suddenly, she could feel every living being within this very arena and every word they were saying. She could feel Carth leaning against the barrier of the spectator's stands; his knuckles were as white as marble from holding on the handle way too tightly. Skye did not know how she knew how to do this; it just came very naturally like breathing; it was like she was born with this ability.
How do I know this? she queried inwardly. Where did I learn this from?
Something stirred behind her left. She spun around and used all her might to thrust her vibrosword towards it…
A thump and a moan meant she had just successfully stuck her melee weapon through Bendak Starkiller. The smoke suddenly cleared up, Skye saw the surprised and stunned eyes that belonged to the Mandalorian looking straight at her.
"Bendak is down! It's over, it's over, the fight is over!" The commentator's now husky voice once again thundered through the loudspeaker. " Bendak Starkiller is down! Bendak Starkiller is dead! All hail the Mysterious Stranger!"
"This…this can't be true…"Bendak mumbled to Skye as she approached his dying body. " I am the invincible champion Bendak Starkiller. I should be the one who's alive… It shouldn't…"
Skye gently removed Bendak's helmet. She saw a white-faced middle-aged man glaring back at her.
"Perhaps….this is how it meant to be…yes." Blood poured out of his mouth. He reached out his bloody hand and gently touched her light pearl blue face. "Yes, you had proven yourself worthy….to prevail me…..excellent…."
"It is my privilege and honor to fight with you, Bendak." Skye bowed her head.
Bendak smiled at her, and then the life slowly left his face. His head slid aside.
Bendak Starkiller was dead.