leading up to and during the beginning scenes of the episode 'Lawless' from season 5 of the Clone Wars. Korkie, Bo-Katan and the others attempt to rescue the Duchess from prison so she can get a message to the Jedi Council about the state of Mandalore. Soniee gets a taste of what it's like to draw on something a little darker to try to rescue her friends.
Bo-Katan concluded the meeting and sent the Night Owls off to get a few hours sleep before they would execute their plans. The leader nodded toward Lagos and Amis who set off toward the staff wing.
"I think this might actually work," Korkie smiled when only he, Soniee, and his aunt remained in the common room. "Good night then." He held Soniee's hand in his and prepared to lead her back to their room. His grin and the blush in her cheeks betrayed their intentions.
Before they could take a step, however Bo-Katan laid a hand on each of their shoulders. "I think separate rooms might be in order for tonight."
Korkie bristled. "You can't tell us what to do. You're not my..."
"I'm not your mother and I won't pretend to be. But I do need you both well rested and not distracted for tomorrow."
"She's right," Soniee whispered and then squeezed Korkie's hand. "After we succeed, there will be plenty of time for..."
He grinned and kissed her on the cheek. "Alright, till we succeed." Then he reluctantly let go of her hand and left the room.
Soniee sighed, remembering waking up in his arms and already regretting sending him off to sleep alone.
"I believe that boy would bring down Concordia and lay it at your feet," said Bo-Katan. "Reminds me of how his mother used to look at the holos of Kenobi."
Soniee turned and looked curiously at the Night Owl. "You've known all this time and you never told anyone. You never said anything to Viszla?"
"No." There was that break in her voice again and though Bo-Katan wouldn't say it, Soniee was sure the female warrior had been in love with the leader of Deathwatch. "He never even knew we were sisters."
"He could have put you on the throne in her place." Soniee ventured. "Another Kryze heir?"
"He would have had to kill her and I've never wanted her dead. She is family after all. But that's not how the title of Mand'alor is supposed to work." Her voice was hard but level. "It should never be passed down to weak offspring. Only the strongest should rule Mandalore."
"And you thought that was Viszla?"
"I had my doubts when he insisted that we join up with the offworlders, but he was sure we could use Maul and his brother and then get rid of them once we had the will of the people."
Soniee remembered the holo of the victorious Viszla lording his power over the Zabrak. "We thought you had arrested them."
"They used the Force to break free." Bo snarled.
"Force users?" Soniee gasped.
"Sith! And then Maul challenged Viszla to single combat..." Bo-Katan went on to describe the battle but Soniee was fixated on the word, Sith, the antithesis of the Jedi. She could feel the power behind that title and a dark sort of seduction.
Bo-Katan had stopped speaking and looked at her strangely. Soniee cleared her throat. "You don't trust force users. Then why would you help Duchess Satine to contact the Jedi Order?"
"Maybe they're the only ones who can stop Maul."
Soniee thought of her own weak, untrained abilities.
"Come on." The Night Owl patted her roughly on the back. "Sleep. So we can face tomorrow."
When Bo-Katan left the dorm room she had shared with Soniee the next morning, she ran smack into Korkie. "Krif, Kid! Your girlfriend is fine. She'll be out in a minute."
He nodded, on edge about the mission, but stayed at his post by the door.
It was actually several minutes later when Soniee emerged looking slightly uncomfortable in the borrowed, burgundy, skin-tight jumpsuit that would provide her with a bit of body armor and still let her move freely for the action ahead. Korkie goggled at her. "You look..."
"Eyes back in your head, Kryze." Lagos walked up behind him and slapped the backside of his head. "You see this is why you weren't allowed to share a room last night." Her voice was harsh but at least she was smiling at them again. She was wearing a greenish version of the same outfit that Soniee had on and she went to stand next to her former roommate and looped her arm through the brunette's.
"I'm surprised they haven't got you in Night Owl armor yet." Soniee smiled back at her friend, glad everything seemed to be water under the bridge now that they were all facing an adventure together.
Lagos grinned. "I believe this will be something of an initiation for all of us."
"Yeah but it's what you've always wanted." Soniee tugged slightly on the armor plating that was covering her torso. "I'm not sure if I'm cut out for it."
Just then Bo-Katan came back around and issued them each a blaster. "You'll do fine. I've seen your records you know, top of your class at target practice."
Soniee checked the weapon as she had been taught and slid it into the holster on her hip. "Never against organics though."
Korkie came up behind her and put his hands on her waist. "You're going to be amazing because you're always amazing."
"You may not want to sneak up on her like that now that she's armed." Bo-Katan warned. But Soniee only smiled. She could hardly tell them that it was impossible for Korkie to sneak up on her. She was too aware of the signature of his presence in the Force. And she would be keeping an extra close watch on him today if they were going to be facing as much danger as they were preparing for.
Just then Amis stepped up behind Lagos and wrapped his arms around her. "Are you gonna be alright today, Sweetums?" he asked her sappily.
"As long as you're there to protect me, My Love." She simpered. And then the two of them kissed with such ardor that it made Soniee blush.
"Okay," Korkie laughed. "We're not that bad."
"You totally are!" Lagos argued.
Amis grinned, "You're worse."
Bo-Katan finally stepped between them, "Alright, alright. You kids can continue your orgy later. We all know what we're doing today. Ordo, you and Baldy go check out the bikes."
Amis whooped, clapped his hands and practically danced down the hallway toward the garage.
Soniee prepared to follow but Korkie spun her around and kissed her. Someone grabbed her shoulder, pulled her away, and pushed her down the hall to follow Amis. She glanced back once with a smile and then ran ahead to do her job.
There were two bikes there now waiting for them, the school swoop and a nearly identical model that the Night Owls had acquired for them. She knew her bike was in perfect working order since she had just looked it over the day before, so she got right to work checking out the new one. She started it up and frowned.
"Sick nerf?" Amis asked.
"Yeah." Soniee shut it off again. "Wish I had time to really fix it up. I'll just have to see how much I can manage before they're ready to go." She grabbed tools as quickly as she could and slid under the swoop to see how much she could accomplish in the short time allotted to them.
"I uh... still think it's pretty hot that you can fix bikes." Amis stood back out of her way.
Soniee laughed. "But not as hot as Lagos."
"She's somethin' else." He grinned.
She tightened a loose bolt, replaced a couple of fuses, and silently lamented that she couldn't do a complete coolant flush. "Just don't tell Korkie that you two got to share a room last night." She called out to him.
"How'd you know that?" Amis asked. "Some sort of mind trick?"
"Nope." Soniee slid out from under the swoop wiping her hands on a cloth. "Just a wild guess." He helped her up. "You should take the academy bike. I'll take this one. And you should tell Lagos how you feel."
He avoided the later piece of advice and asked, "You think something might go wrong with this one? Korkie would never forgive me if I let you fly a broken bike."
"I don't think it's going to fall apart or anything. I'm just going to have to talk to it nicely." She smiled.
"If anybody could do it you could." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know Korkie's a lucky guy." Amis bent down and kissed her cheek. And in that moment her blood ran cold. She had a terrible premonition, a vision of his lifeless body sprawled next to the swoop. She froze. Maybe he just thought it was a negative reaction to his kiss. "I'll talk to Lagos," he said nervously, taking his hand from her shoulder and turning away.
"Before we leave." Soniee tried to say it encouragingly but it came out sounding more like a command. She took a breath and then more calmly said, "Why wait? You should tell her now."
He turned back and looked at her curiously. There was worry in his eyes but then he replaced it with a careless grin. "I did tell her a few things last night."
Soniee relaxed as the vision faded, it began to seem like only a baseless concern. She rolled her eyes and climbed astride the swoop while the rest of the rescue team began to file into the garage. She watched Amis walk over to Lagos, take her hand, and whisper something in her ear. She was so interested in the two of them that for the first time she could remember, Korkie did surprise her by climbing onto the bike behind her. She gave a little jump.
He chuckled. "You don't mind if I ride along with you on the way there?"
The Night Owls were checking their jetpacks and weapons, Lagos kissed Amis and then slid onto his bike behind him, and Korkie wrapped his arms around Soniee's waist to hold on for the ride.
"You don't think I'll distract you from what you've got to do when we get there?" She asked him.
"Nah." He breathed close to her ear. "You remind me what we're fighting for."
Soniee shivered. "Just so you don't distract me while I'm trying to fly." She switched on the engine and winced.
"How'd you end up with the sick nerf?" he asked.
She sighed. "I'm the better pilot."
The flight to the prison landing pad was almost too easy. Soniee watched as Korkie and Bo-Katan entered the complex with no opposition. She jumped off her bike and started pacing, her mind reaching out to stay in contact with Korkie while he searched for his mother's cell and freed her just as they had planned.
"It's going to be alright." Lagos hopped off Amis's bike and came to stand with her while they waited.
Soniee smiled at her and back at Amis and nodded but couldn't speak.
Then the door swished open and Bo-Katan exited followed closely by Korkie and the Duchess.
"It's all clear. Come on," said Amis.
Duchess Satine looked as determined as ever. "We need to contact the Jedi Council. Korkie give me your comlink."
"It won't be any good unless we get out of the city." Korkie handed it over. "All other frequencies are jammed."
Then the Duchess seemed to notice them all. "You are all taking a terrible risk by helping me."
Korkie grinned, "Nothing we haven't done before. Right, Auntie?"
Bo-Katan hurried them along. "Let's get going."
One of the night owls flew up in speeder. Soniee jumped back onto her swoop and she and Amis circled while Lagos jumped in to the speeder to take over piloting. Korkie and his mother and Bo-Katan hopped in behind her.
Soniee flew just to the right side of the speeder as they had planned and she saw Amis take up his position on the left side. Two of the night owls hovered just behind with their jetpacks.
Then the shooting started as three Deathwatch soldiers drop down behind them.
"Take them out!" Bo-Katan ordered her own fighters.
Soniee weaved to avoid the blaster bolts and glanced back to see the night owls each drop back to face an opponent.
"Get the Duchess clear!" Bo-Katan yelled as she also joined the fight.
It didn't take long for the Night Owls to dispatch the foe and Soniee sighed when they returned to follow closely again. But the relief was short lived as 2 and then 4 and then 6 more enemies appeared seemingly out of nowhere to pick up the chase.
Soniee felt the heat and the shockwave when the speeder was hit right beside her and she saw Lagos struggling at the controls. Thankfully just ahead was a hanger that offered some cover.
Lagos managed a bumpy but safe landing in hanger, followed closely by the two bikes. Soniee jumped off her swoop and ran to the speeder, blaster in hand, returning the enemy fire.
The duchess held up the comlink and tried to connect. "The transmission is still blocked." She jumped out of speeder and ran, with Korkie quick on her heals to guard her.
Soniee stayed with speeder providing cover fire even as part of her consciousness strove to hold the connection with Korkie. She was aware of Lagos fighting beside her and Amis on the other side of the hanger and Bo-Katan was involved in a battle of her own.
Fear surged around Soniee but she didn't stop firing. She could tell when her bolts met their mark, which they usually did, and she could sense the pain of the soldiers when she hit them. It gave her a curious feeling of ... power. That was almost more frightening than the bolts zipping past her head. Experimentally she drew on the reserve of their pain and felt the transition of her own fear into anger. It was intoxicating.
Then suddenly, like turning off a light, Soniee felt Korkie's consciousness vanish from their connection. "No!" she screamed, the blaster falling from her hand.
"Are you..." Amis heard her and turned to see if she was okay. Then he cried out in pain and fell.
"No!" Soniee screamed again. Her earlier vision came back to her but even clearer in her mind were the positions of the remaining 3 deathwatch assailants. She closed her eyes, drawing on the fear and anger and pain and focusing it into something almost physically tangible. Then she opened her eyes, held up her hands, and unleashed a wave of energy toward the enemies. One was thrown back against the wall with a sickening crack and slid to the floor with arms and legs splayed at impossible angles. The other two looked as if they might have escaped the attack but the jet pack of one of them clipped the edge of the hanger door as he was tossed back and the resulting explosion engulfed them both.
The girl stood panting, numb to the destruction she had just caused. Bo-Katan and Lagos stared at her. Then she blinked and pointed toward their fallen friend. "Amis," She said simply and then turned and ran to find Korkie. She saw him lying on the ground but stopped short when she heard jet packs and voices around the corner.
"Obi-wan, I need your help." The Duchess must have finished her message even as she was surrounded.
Soniee watched from her hiding place. She wanted to blast these soldiers away as she had the others but she didn't trust herself not to hurt the Duchess and her energy seemed to have drained away to nearly nothing.
Two of the warriors grabbed Satine by her arms and prepared to fly her back to her prison cell but first one of them pointed back at Korkie, "Finish him and then follow us."
"Gladly," the third began to saunter toward the fallen young man.
Soniee broke cover then, seemingly weaponless. "You won't touch him," she said, trembling.
"And what are you going to do about it girl?" he laughed.
She couldn't have explained what she did next or how she made it happen but she lifted her hand toward the man and felt the power of her fear and anger and now hate, rise within her again. Without the aid of his jetpack the warrior rose half a meter into the air. He had no control over his assent and Soniee could feel his fear and she fed on it. She clenched her hand and watched his hands struggle helplessly at his throat. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Korkie move and her attention faltered for a split second dropping her victim a few centimeters before she focused on him again with the renewed anger at what he had done and was planning to do to Korkie. "You won't touch him!" she said again, squeezing tighter.
Then a sudden blaster shot put an end the man's suffering.
Soniee looked behind her, saw Bo-Katan pointing the weapon, and then ran to Korkie's side. He was alive, unconscious and bleeding from a blow to the head, but alive. She collapsed to her knees exhausted and laid her head on his chest just happy to hear his heart beating.
"What did you just do?" Bo-Katan asked. Her voice was tinged with horror.
Soniee pressed her eyes shut. She didn't want to think about the fact that she had just killed those men. "I don't know." She whispered. "I have no idea how..."
"You can use the Force." The woman took off her helmet and walked closer but she didn't get too close. "Why didn't you say something?"
"I've never done anything like that before. I've never..." killed anyone, she finished silently. She was trembling harder now and then she sobbed. "Is Amis..." She couldn't say it, but she already knew.
"He's dead." The words hung between them until Bo-Katan spurred herself into action and went to check on her nephew.
"It's all my fault. I knew... I saw..." Soniee sobbed rocking back and forth. "He looked back and they... and then I killed them... I didn't mean to... I don't know how..." She stared at her hands as if she didn't know who they belonged to.
Bo-Katan, satisfied that Korkie was alive, turned to the hysterical girl, grabbed her shoulders and gave her a shake. "This is not your fault. You acted on instinct and I believe you probably saved Korkie's life. Now you need to calm down. I don't think anyone who saw you other than us lived to take the story back to Maul but I don't think it would be a good idea for him and his brother to find out what you can do."
Soniee's eyes widened in terror. What if another Force user, a more powerful one, could sense her from kilometers away? And then she heard more jetpacks and she was sure they were there to take her to the Sith Lord.
They were only more of Bo's Night Owls, come to help clean up the mess. "Come on," their leader commanded Soniee and dragged her up to stand. "We've got to get all of you back to the Academy. Tell me. Did the Duchess get her message delivered?"
"Y-yes. I think so. It almost seemed like - like they waited for her to finish before they took her." Soniee watched while a couple of the Night Owl soldiers carefully lifted Korkie onto a stretcher, strapped him down and moved him onto a transport. Then she stumbled as she followed Bo-Katan back into the hanger.
"Of course." The red-head cursed. "She's their bait. Maul wants Kenobi. I should have thought of this before." She cursed again.
Lagos was sitting on the floor cradling Amis's head in her lap. She was singing an old battle song like it was a lullaby, stroking his bald scalp tenderly. She resisted at first when the Night Owls came to carry his body to the transport. She didn't want anyone else to touch him.
Bo-Katan knelt next to her and began to sing the song along with her. Lagos looked up and released her hold on the body. Then she noticed Soniee standing a few meters away. "You..." She whispered and Soniee couldn't tell if it was an accusation or something else. "What you did to them."
"I didn't mean to. I -I couldn't control it."
Lagos stood and watched as Amis's body was carried to the transport and started to follow but first she looked back at Soniee. "I only wish you'd done it sooner."