Author's Notes: Wow, thanks a lot for all of the feedback, people, it means a lot. I'm really glad that a lot of you seemed to like the most recent chapter-I have to admit, it was one of my favorites, too. However...the next chapter really gave me trouble, so I hope that not everyone is disappointed in a drop off in quality. This was probably the hardest one to write so far, I sorta cornered myself. But enough of the apologetics, there's no point in drolling on about it. Thanks again for the feedback and I hope you enjoy.
Chapter Eleven
The shock from his dream was beginning to wear down, but the implications were still huge. He thought on it for a while, but the more he concentrated, the less real it seemed to get. Caius swore he could now remember those events as they had happened on Dxun, but he could not pin them down. He was starting to doubt that they had happened as he remembered. Perhaps it was just a regular pilot and he had projected Elliott onto him in the dream
But he remembered the name Elliott.
The most confusing detail was that of the amputated leg. Elliott had two legs, but the pilot in his dream had lost one. Surely this was proof of the unreality of the dream. He would go back to the ship and find out it had been a terrible nightmare and nothing more.
He took several more deep breaths, and then really looked around for the first time. Xristos was gone, his mat barren. At the other end of the room, Allie lay in a still, silent sleep. It was much more peaceful looking than Caius's sleep probably had appeared.
Her face was half buried in the pillow, but Caius immediately saw her in that beautiful dress again.
Damn it, he thought. I can't focus at all. He did not want to think about Elliott or Dxun, every time he did he saw that horrible picture of the dismembered leg. But when he tried to think of something else, he only saw Allie. His mind was playing tricks on him.
He groggily determined to stand up. He did so, and arched his back, trying to work out the kinks from sleeping on the hard ground. As he stretched, he noticed Xristos was standing in a doorway leading to the back of the underground cavern.
"Good morning," said the old man.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Have a bad dream?"
Caius blew air, said, "I wish I could call it that. More like a bad reliving of the past. A dream would be welcome."
Xristos nodded. He opened his mouth, but the words that came out were blown out of the air by the sound of the front door flying open.
Hronah ran inside in great haste, his father right behind him. They slammed the door shut and then bolted it.
The noise jerked Allie from her sleep. She looked up through squinted eyes and confusion, asked, "What was that? What's happening?"
Hillel yelled something, and Caius only barely caught part of it. He picked out the words "Lords", "find", "stay".
Their faces looked, as best he could tell, panicked. He was not sure what to do, so he asked the old patriarch as he worked on the door, "What is happening?"
"The Lords are come. They are unhappy."
Caius felt a horrible fear settle in. His forehead became cold and warm at the same time with that sensation of terror mixed with helplessness.
"Hide," said the old alien.
Hronah bolted past Xristos into the other room, and the old Jedi followed him. The women and child were in back, and they all took up refuge there.
"Hide!" shouted Hillel again. Caius realized that he was standing still. The raised voice he had not heard before, and it dually concerned him.
The Exile leapt from his mat and ran over to Allie. She was still in the middle of waking up, and so was not entirely clear-headed.
There was a loud crash as something slammed into the locked door. Wood splintered and creaked as it hit.
Allie's eyes then widened with fear. Caius grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her off of the ground. In one fluid motion he yanked her up with him. The thud blew out the door again and more wood splintered, little rays of sunlight bleeding through. Caius looked and saw an open closet of some kind with a door on it. He flung himself and Allie inside and pulled it shut.
The sound of the closet door slamming coincided with the blast of wood shattering as the front door was broken open.
Caius backed into a corner in the dark closet and pulled Allie close to him out of instinct. She made a worried noise and he immediately put his hand over her mouth to make sure she said nothing and gave away their precarious hiding place.
The broken panels of the wooden door were thrown to the ground, the hinges ripped from the wall, as one of those atrocious creatures broke in. It was the same kind of awful alien that had harassed them on Korriban, answering any question as to the identity of the race.
Caius could vaguely discern it through several small, horizontal openings in the wooden door. They allowed for visibility from inside out, but not vice versa. He felt his skin crawl as he saw it. His heart was beating dangerously fast, thudding against Allie as he tried to keep her still. His fear manifested in a cold sweat, and he could feel the terror from Allie as well. The sensation was palpable and nauseating.
The Sith approached Hillel, who was innocently standing by himself in the middle of the room. It said something in that hideous language. As he heard it again, Caius realized that it was the language that Darth Nihilus had spoken—a sort of broken, guttural bellowing that sounded like scraping rock.
"I do not know what you are talking about, your greatness. There is none here but I."
The Sith pushed the old patriarch and he stumbled backwards but retained his balance. The Sith gurgled. Caius began panicking even more as they shifted closer to the closet, not further than six feet.
He spoke again, said, "We fulfilled our quota last night. It must be another you are looking for, your greatness."
The Sith bellowed a disjointed sentence in what sounded like hate in audible form. It shoved the old patriarch again, and out of Caius's limited scope of vision.
It then reached down to its belt and loosened something. A disturbing feeling of ominous inevitability surged through Caius as he watched. It raised its arm towards the patriarch's general direction.
He could not bear to look. He shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. There was a moment of agonizing silence and then a horrifyingly familiar crack. Both he and Allie jumped as they heard it.
Allie screamed. Caius desperately tried to muffle the noise as he covered her mouth. He could say nothing of consolation, he merely hoped that the Sith would not hear them. The abominable creature shifted its movement and was suddenly scouring the room. It walked like a man, but its aura was like a slithering thing, a serpentine demon that sought to consume everything in pure malice.
A shadow cast over the slits in their closet door, and Caius heard the Sith breathing through its veil. He held Allie tightly and they both held their breath for an eternity.
Finally, the creature snorted and then darted out of the room. It hurriedly scampered over the wreckage of the door and out of the dwelling.
Caius was not sure what to do. He stood there in indecision until Hronah appeared within his line of sight. The alien let out a horrible, blasting moan that he had not heard before. The noise was unlike anything they had ever said, and Caius would have thought that such a diametrical contrast to their traditional manner of speech would've been impossible. But the awful noise was real.
Xristos emerged from the hallway. Caius could see him too, a horrified expression twisting on his face.
The Exile hurled the door open, but even he, with all his background in war, could not prepare himself for the grotesque disturbance of the scene.
On the ground lay Hillel the patriarch. He was on his face, his arms and legs sprawled outwards in unnatural directions. There was a massive bullet hole in the side of his head.
It was not bloody, a clean shot. It was no where near as disgusting as things he had seen during the war, but something about it galled him even worse. It was as if actual innocence had been destroyed right in front of him.
Allie fell to her knees and began crying.
He almost wished right then that the whole universe had never existed so as to prevent this one thing from happening. He did not even know what to do aside from just stand there in mere shock. He was paralyzed, immobile, uncomprehending. He just found himself staring at the corpse on the ground, feeling so sick about it that he could just give up living right at that moment.
He too fell to the ground. His legs simply could not hold him up anymore. He hit the ground hard as he had fallen quickly, and then buried his head in his arms, not bearing to look any longer.
Just the day before he had seen the full beauty of life apparent in its simplicity and love, and now this morning he had seen that innocent beauty destroyed.
"I am so sorry…" Caius said to Hronah in distressed, broken version of their language.
The alien did not look at him. In fact, he had hardly moved since it had happened. He merely stared off into nothingness. He said, "You did not do this."
"But it is our fault for being here…I am so sorry…I do not know what I can say."
"They were not looking for you," said Hronah distantly, "if they knew you were here. You would also be departed."
"I do not understand…why did they do this?"
"This happens when someone does not meet the quota."
"You did not have enough grain for them? Oh, it is our fault—you would not have had to give us any if we were not here."
The alien still maintained its statuesque form of grief, said, "It was not us. Another group did not make their required commitment."
"But…why do this to you?"
"It does not matter to whom it is done—it matters because it is done. Someone fails to meet the quota—a Hasan dies. This is the cycle."
"Did he know this would happen when he waited here?"
"Once the Lords had come—yes, he was aware. He stayed in the room to sacrifice himself for the rest of our Loved Ones. And for you and your Loved Ones, too."
What a noble thing, Caius thought to himself. That the old patriarch would quickly and decisively embrace death not only to save his family but also three strangers was a selfless act the likes of which he had not seen ever before in his life. Even in the war. Soldiers would give their lives for each other…but they would be at least on the same side. Hillel did not know who they were or what they were doing—he merely saved them because they needed it. They had done nothing to earn this grace, but they had gotten it. Another chance. It was somber in its profound implications. He spoke at length, "We owe him…everything."
"It is over."
"No, I want you to know how much this means to me. I will do anything to help your Loved Ones. Just let me know what to do, please."
Hronah still stood motionless. He seemed to be thinking about what Caius said. He then spoke, saying, "There is nothing more to speak. We must prepare for the funeral."
With that, the now-taciturn alien turned and left the main room. He strode up the steps and out of the home.
Caius sat with Allie and Xristos in the back room of the house. They were still afraid to go outside considering how close they had come to being discovered by the Sith. However, he though it was important to let them know what had happened.
"They didn't kill him because of us?" Allie asked, timid and disbelieving.
"No," Caius answered, "there didn't know we were here. They simply killed for other reasons."
"It's so awful," she said.
"I know," Caius said, "I feel so…worthless. If I had known, I feel like I should've taken the bullet instead."
Xristos then added philosophically, "Greater love has no one than this. That he laid down his life for his friends…it's incredible. To have such love for people…"
"I think you're right," Caius began, "…but we weren't his friends…he didn't even know us. That's what makes me feel terrible."
Xristos sighed, said, "I know, but there's only two things we can do, Caius. We can go on living in an alternate reality, pretending like this didn't happen, or we can make his sacrifice mean something."
Allie merely nodded in agreement.
Caius closed his eyes and sighed too, said, "You're right." He gathered himself, "but now we must find Revan. We have to find the way to destroy these Sith bastards. We cannot fail."
The rest of the day was spent in oppressive silence. Caius, Xristos, and Allie did not talk to each other at all. They did not leave the house for fear of the Sith spotting them. The aliens spent the rest of the day preparing for the funeral. They had cleaned up the old alien's body and wrapped him in a symbolic body bag and then took him somewhere else. They did not speak either.
Caius and Xristos meditated on what had happened the whole time.
Caius felt like he had to do something to earn this sacrifice. He would have to act. He would have to find Revan, save the Republic, help anyone he ever met. He would make the alien's death mean something. To say that the patriarch giving his life profoundly affected him would be a tragic understatement. He wanted to do something to make it worth it. More than anything. His mind was getting taxed to its breaking point as he now had no shortage of issues to confront. He had to sort out his feelings on Hillel, Allie, and Elliott. It was simply too much. And he could talk to none of them about it…except Allie. No, he didn't even know what the problem with her was to begin with. He would hold off on figuring that out.
Xristos also was dwelling on the sacrifice. He did not take the same legalistic approach to it that Caius did, though. He knew there was nothing he could do that would justify that kind of thing. He would simply have to accept it and try his best to earn it. There was no bar that he had to meet in order to make it count; he just had to face it with honored acceptance.
Allie did not meditate, but that did not mean that she was not engrossed in deep thought. Her incredibly agile and bright mind raced laps around itself as she thought. She was so scatterbrained in terms of thinking that she often thought herself into very long loops. In reality, this was the reason she was generally quiet. An analytic mind in the greatest sense, she would overanalyze almost everything that happened to her in the day. This day was traumatic beyond anything she had experienced in two decades. It was for all of them; at least she thought so. Well, maybe it wasn't. Caius had been in war, and Xristos had…she realized that she knew nothing about Xristos. Perhaps she would ask him. She caught herself as she realized that she had veered off course in her thinking again.
The majority of the day was spent like this. Only near dusk did Hronah speak to them. He told Caius that it was time for the funeral. It would take place outside, amongst the other aliens in the area. He assured them that the Sith never ventured outside in the dark—a contrary notion, to be sure; he wondered why.
"Do you think it's wise to go out there?" Allie asked, in spite of Hronah's assurances.
"There is no way we're not showing up. He died for us and his family—we're going," Caius said bluntly.
Xristos said, "I believe he's right. We must go."
The funeral was nothing like the ones they had in the Republic.
As Caius emerged from underground—the first time in over a day—he observed what would happen. Hronah then explained it to him.
There was a large bier, yoked to their trusty lizard, with the body on it. There were two others, other Hasan who had apparently met the same fate at the hands of the Sith. A multitude of creatures, of all races, formed a massive horde in the streets around the area. They assembled into a huge throng and, as soon as the primitive wagon made its way into the street, they began to follow it.
Hronah drove the cart. Behind it there was a good deal of space provided by those present. In between the crowd and the back of the cart moved a group of Hasan musicians. They played songs as the procession spilled through the streets. Their instruments were strange, but soothingly pleasant in spite of the nature of the event. Their playing was even better than that of Hronah's, and they brought a wide arrange of foreign instruments to the parade. They played wildly, but within the laws of music. They improvised off of each and spoke back and forth through their instruments. It was, at the same time, a celebration of life, love, and culture whilst a mourning for the deceased. Caius thought it was incredible.
They traveled through the city for almost an hour. Caius mixed in with the crowds of aliens. He, Allie, and Xristos all stuck close together in the throng. He saw all kinds. There were hundreds of Hasan and many of the little fat aliens along with the pale-faced white ones. There were other kinds he had not seen yet. Some were too bizarre for him to really describe.
As the procession neared its end, he saw that they were approaching a sort of earthen amphitheater. The bier went off to the side, and several of the Hasan slid the wooden plank off of the back of the wagon. The carried it to a large pyre in the middle of the arena and set the bier on top of it. The wood was drenched in flammable liquid, and after a moment of ritual silence, they lit the pyre.
Flames flew upwards as the crowds of aliens circled around it. The moved slowly in a large revolution around the bonfire as the fire consumed the bodies of the deceased.
Once they made a full revolution, the crowd dispersed, but did not leave the amphitheater. Instead, they began a celebration of some kind. There was suddenly food and drinks available, the whole place being illuminated by the light of the pyre.
Caius did not want food, and he was a little nervous because he had been separated from Allie and Xristos in the midst of the crowd.
He was nervously walking around, looking for them, when he saw a man in the distance. He assumed it must be Xristos and approached from behind. He said something and tapped him on the shoulder, and was shocked silent when the man turned around.
It was not Xristos.
"Can I help you?" he said in the alien language.
Caius stammered, "You're—you're human!"
"I am," said the man. He was middle aged and balding. What remained of his hair was quite gray, although it appeared it had once been red.
"How did you get here?"
"You are asking what? I don't get it. How are you here? You know the Hasan killed?"
"I do…but I mean, how did you get to this planet?"
"I was prisoner after the War," said the man, "that is how all got here. You aren't?" The man's language was fractured. It must have been over a dozen years since he had really spoken it, and Caius could see that it was morphing to the grammar of the alien language.
"I came here by ship two days ago."
The man's eyes widened for a moment and then he narrowed them again, said, "You lie. No one knows this place."
"I need to ask you some questions," Caius said.
"This is not good place—a funeral, man. I want to answer none."
The man looked like he was about to leave, but Caius stopped him, said, "No, please, just a few."
The man turned back around, his face darkened with unhappiness and also with the shadows that the dancing flames cast upon him.
Caius asked, "Do you know any other humans here?"
"There are some—I do not know them."
"Have you ever seen Revan?"
The man's head jolted as he heard the name. He furrowed his brow and said, "Revan! I knew him. You are looking for Revan? Hah! The great Jedi strategist. Was not so great for me! He was fool. I heard of him here."
"Is he here?" Caius asked, trying desperately to hold back his unbridled enthusiasm.
"No, he is not here. Rumor says he was here—I do not believe." Caius knew that this was right, though. After all, the Ebon Hawk's navicomputer told him so.
He asked, "And where was he supposed to go?"
"I do not know. Why ask me?"
"Because you knew he was here!"
"I knew no such of a thing. If Revan were really cared about us, he would go to the Lords' capital world and fight there. But he does not. Rumor said that was his plan, but how do we know?"
"Where is the Lords' world?" Caius asked.
"I do not know," the man answered. "You would have to ask a Lord. Good luck with that."
"I can't speak their language…" Caius said quietly.
The man tilted his head, said, "You cannot? All slaves must learn it—it's that or we won't survive."
Caius thought for a second then said, "Excuse me for a moment." The man was about to ask why, but Caius interrupted him and reached into his brain. The man's face betrayed a strange expression, unsure what was happening to him. Caius forced him to speak a word of the Sith language and then stole it through the Force. When Caius was satisfied that he learned the Sith language, he let go.
The man looked wide-eyed for a moment, then crinkled his nose in thought. Suddenly, his face exploded with brightness and hope, said, "You Jedi!"
"Quiet!" Caius urged him.
"You must help us!" the man begged, said, "please…thirteen years I've been here. Please, help us!"
"I will, but I need to find Revan," Caius said, trying to bring the conversation back to what he needed.
"Yes, yes, Revan. The rumors were that he was here for a while. I think…I think I saw him. He was supposed to fight a Lord—named Severus. But we know not what has happened. Revan vanished, but never found. Severus is still alive. But he left, he is supposed to be going to Lords' homeworld. That is what the few were told…I saw him!"
"And the only way to find out where that is…I have to ask one of them?"
"Yes, none of the others would know—these aliens cannot fly like we can."
"How would I ask one?" he asked.
"After Lords gather up offerings before dusk, they hurry back to their enclave. Some of them stop to drink outside. They fight and sometimes they die. You could jump one and ask him and kill him. They would never look into it if you made it look good."
Oh damn, Caius thought to himself. How would I do that? No matter, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. He said to the man, "Thank you. I will try to do this. If I can find him, we'll be able to help."
The man said, "Thank you thank you, Jedi."
Caius said, "But you must never speak of this. You open your mouth and say one word about it, we won't be able to help you."
"Right, yes—man," the stranger said.
Although it pained Caius to do it, he would have to block the man's memory. He reached out with the Force and removed the last fifteen minutes from his mind, making sure he could not divulge what had happened.
He then left to find Xristos and Allie. He had regretted that the man found out he was a Jedi, but he knew there was really no working around it.
He scoured the crowd, floating through the dark (and tolerably warm) night looking for his friends. He saw every kind of alien imaginable—even a Twi'lek—before he spotted them.
They were sitting next to each other on a dirt step, one of the levels of the theater. They seemed to be talking to each other amiably as he approached.
He heard Xristos say, "Well, that's how I feel about it, but it's really up to you."
"What is?" Caius asked, blatantly intruding.
"Nothing," Xristos said, "Allie just wanted to know if I thought she should apply a certain upgrade to T3 that might make him more eccentric."
"Well, I hardly thought he could get more eccentric," Caius said. There was a subtle tell on the old man's face. If Caius had been more perceptive, or less affected by the day's events, he might have been able to tell that he was lying. But as it stood, he did not notice.
"Well, I'll see," Allie said. Both she and Xristos stood up and formed a triangle with Caius.
The Exile shrugged and said, "I guess we wait for the funeral to end and then we go back to the house."
"Do you have a plan now?" Allie asked.
"As a matter of fact," Caius said, "I do."
"You really think that's a good idea?" posited Allie, disbelieving.
"No. But I don't think we have another option," returned Caius.
They had returned to the house late at night. Their alien hosts went to bed immediately, leaving the three humans in the main room with the lights out. Caius could only hear their voices, crawling out of the darkness, and determine their general direction.
"What, exactly, do you think you're going to do?" Xristos asked.
Caius cleared his throat, said, "Well, I don't exactly know. I just have to watch these Sith until one of them is in a vulnerable position—or by himself. If I can isolate one, then I can try to get him to tell me which planet is the Sith homeworld. All we need is a name—we have all the coordinates in our computer. We just need to know which one to go to."
"And what if he won't tell you?" Allie asked.
"Then I kill him."
"I thought you were going to do that if he does tell you."
"I am. But the Sith won't know that."
Xristos sighed, said, "You don't have much leverage then. Suppose he realizes that you will do nothing but kill him and you can't get any information?"
Caius shrugged, though no one could see it, said, "Then we'll just have to start planet hopping until we arrive at the right place. Though it could take months."
"That is also dangerous—they'd easily figure out who we are if we did that," Xristos answered.
"Then I guess I can't fail now," Caius said flatly.
"I don't like this," Xristos said.
The Exile countered, "Look, there isn't another way that I can conceive of. It's this, or we sit on our hands."
"I see you are committed. Right, let's get some sleep then."
The three people blindly fumbled through the darkness to find their mats and lie down. It took Caius a minute or two to do it, and once he laid to rest his mind began racing again. He was accustomed now to doing this before he slept. It would take him at least an hour to fall asleep every night.
Tonight was starkly different than the night before. Yesterday he had fallen to sleep thinking about those people around him and had had a terrifying dream. Today he had woken up and seen something worse. Now he had even more things taxing his mind. There was Elliott, Allie, the Sith and Revan, and Hillel. He was still solemnly obsessed with the old patriarch's sacrifice. One of the reasons he wanted to go threaten the Sith, though he did not say this, was because he wanted to beat the living hell out of one of them. He wanted to make them suffer. He realized that this was a vehicle through which the Dark Side can corrupt, but he didn't care. He was not a Jedi, so why would he worry about the Dark Side? He was a nothing—a gray. And he hated the Sith. He was allied with the Jedi by necessity, but he still was not one. Why, then, should he follow their rules? He considering all the things they kept him from doing. He would murder a Sith, allow his hate to control him.
No, he caught himself. Maybe he should not reject the Jedi values. Even though he was not a Jedi…that did not make the Jedi incorrect, did it? Maybe they had wronged him, but their mores perhaps were still the best way to live. Screw it, he thought, I'm killing a Sith. I'll evaluate their morals after. He thought longer, and then said almost unconsciously, Force—grant me self-control…but not yet.
With those fading thoughts he did succumb to sleep. If one could objectively analyze his mind, one would conclude that, from these thoughts, Caius was and always would be a Jedi. It was as Kreia had said, "His stance, his walk" were of the Jedi. No matter how hard he insisted otherwise, he was still one. It was not something that could just be taken. His entire life he had been groomed to be one, how could he stop? Even when the Force was taken he was still a Jedi.
The morning came and went quickly. Caius insisted that Allie and Xristos ride back to the Ebon Hawk with Hronah during his morning round. They would need to tell Bastila what had happened, and they would have to be far away just in case something happened to him. He did not want them compromised.
The time came for them to depart, and Caius gave them a somewhat grave goodbye, though he tried to mask it with insistence that he would be all right. Both Xristos and Allie hugged him as they loaded onto the wagon, somewhat startling the grizzled Exile. They exchanged a few words, and Caius again assured them that he would be fine.
When they left, he found himself in a rather odd position. Now he was alone in a sea of the aliens, completely isolated from humanity and the Republic. He was also alone in the house. All the Hasan family had gone out to the fields to continue their work. There was no time for grief for them, they had to fulfill the Sith's quota.
Slowly, the time passed. Eventually the Hasan returned, and Caius waited for their grain to be taken by the Sith overlords. Once this happened, he allowed a half hour of time to slip by, and then he bade his hosts farewell and left the dwelling. He would make his way to one of the infamous drinking holes in the city.
Allie and Xristos had taken a long time to get back to the Hawk. The heat—previously not a factor due to the underground house—came back and assaulted them full force. They rode the cart in silence, journeying back to the original meeting point—the canyon gorge in the sea of the field.
They tearfully bade Hronah goodbye as they disembarked. They watched him fade into the distance on his wagon, dragged along by that scary but altogether friendly lizard.
The journey was difficult in the heat, but eventually they made it. Allie seemed to have more difficulty because she could not focus or heal herself with the Force. Though it didn't do that much, Xristos could be re-energized by it and it helped him. By the time they made to the Hawk, it was past noon and they were hungry.
Bastila greeted them excitedly, but then with confusion.
"Where is Caius?" she asked.
Xristos explained the situation.
"I do not approve of his plan," Bastila said. "I wish he would've consulted me first."
"There was no way to do that, Bastila," Xristos said.
"Then…" she drifted off, "we must merely pray for his survival."
Xristos nodded, said, "He told me to tell you that if he was not back by tomorrow, that we should leave the planet without him."
Bastila nodded grimly, "Let's hope not."
Everyone filed out of the room. Dustil followed Xristos to ask him about the aliens, and Elliott was off somewhere else. Allie cautiously approached Bastila and said, "Bastila…can I ask you something?"
Bastila nodded and the two women retreated to their dorms as well.
The strange pub-like bar was right in front of him.
Caius had followed Hronah's advice and taken the route the alien had prescribed to him. The planet's white-hot sun was setting, and darkness was beginning to fall. It was still very hot. Caius noticed that the closer he got to the bar, the fewer aliens he could find. Once he got within one hundred yards of the place they had disappeared entirely.
He crept along a back alley, ducking and scurrying behind anything he could find in order to remain out of sight. He approached the back of the bar and sidled around its corner and wall. There was a modest flight of stairs that led up a few flights to the top of the building (most of the structures on the planet seemed to have access to the roof from the outside). He treaded as softly as possible on the hardened dirt that was ground and crouched at the corner. He could hear voices.
Those despicable Sith voices. Their filthy, garbage disposal language was slurred even worse than normal as they appeared to be drunk. Whatever planet this was, it appeared to have alcohol. In another situation, Caius would have found this funny—the two main constants he had discovered in the universe was the Force and alcohol—but he did not at the time. He waited patiently, unsure what action to take.
The Sith continued garbling, drinking heavily and yelling at each other. Though he could understand their language, he still felt as though he could not really interpret what they were saying. One seemed to be insulting another one, and they soon started coming to blows, just as he had been told they would. He stole a very quick glance around the corner to see that there were six Sith outside the bar. Perhaps there were more inside. His vision was, however, distracted by the sight of the Sith enclave in the center of the area. It was not tall, as he had not seen it before, but it was certainly noticeable. It was a large, obsidian rock looking thing. It was surrounded by a ten foot tall fence with barbed wire around it. Gates appeared to be guarded. The obsidian stone in the middle looked very strangely organic, and he had no idea what its function was—but it could be assumed it was their headquarters.
There was a loud noise as one of the Sith punched another in the stomach.
Caius thought quickly, and decided that a diversion would be his best bet. He reached out to the Force and used it to topple a bin on the top of a building across the street. It rolled perfectly and fell to the ground, letting all sorts of hard objects fall with it. The Sith outside reacted to it immediately, thinking that it was an alien that needed to be punished. Several of them immediately ran over across the street and behind a large crate. Caius observed them run awkwardly as they were intoxicated.
He peered around the corner again and saw one severely drunk Sith leaning against the wall of the bar by itself. It was the perfect target. It looked like it was trying to move, but could not due to its inebriated state. Its movements were strange, as though a puppeteer was operating its body. Its motions were technically correct, but seemed to be somehow less than right. It turned and faced away from his corner as it tried to steady itself against a wall.
Immediately Caius grabbed its throat with the Force. It instantly grasped its neck and made a gurgling noise, but Caius allowed it no time. He reached out again and pulled it towards him. It looked as though he had yanked it backwards with an invisible lasso as its feet lifted off the ground and it came catapulting at him and crashing right at his feet. The creature rolled over, still struggling for air, and Caius grabbed it by its arm. He noticed that it wasn't wearing that veil that they seemed to always have on. Probably it took it off in order to drink.
He lugged the creature up the stairs to the top of the building, crouching so as to avoid notice from the Sith across the street. His captive was still croaking for air as Caius dragged it, its head knocking against the crude stairs and its legs thrashing about the ground. Just as they reached the top of the third floor, Caius picked up the creature and threw it several feet in front of him. It smashed into the earthen roof and rolled. Caius loosened his grip on its throat just enough for it to get one breath of air to sustain it a while longer. He walked over to the thing and looked at its face.
This was the first time he had really seen one.
It's ugliness was so profoundly disgusting that he could scarcely look at it. There were some things that were so ugly one had to look to believe it, and there were some things that were so ugly that looking but once would be mistake that would engender lifelong haunting. This creature was of the latter category.
It's as ugly as Allie is pretty, he thought. Wait…
He brushed those thoughts away, for he was suddenly reminded of his intense hatred. He knew, deep down, that this was not the Sith that had shot Hillel, but it didn't matter. Just as they had killed a Hasan that did not deserve it, he would kill a Sith that did not "deserve" it. Before even speaking he let his right fist fly and landed a vicious blow across the Sith's face. It could not scream or say anything as its breath was being denied it, so the only noise was that of a bone-crunching thud as Caius's massive blow had fractured part of its skull.
It still writhed on the ground. Caius relieved it from the Force Choke, but no sooner had he let it go than he was on top of the creature with his own hands, once again strangling it. The Sith looked up at him with sickly yellow eyes. It was so intoxicated that it couldn't actually figure out if it should be afraid or not. It just tried to breath.
Caius loosened his grip and asked in their language, "Where is your homeworld?"
The Sith just gurgled and gasped, not answering. Caius slapped it and asked again, "Where is your homeworld?"
He was lucky that the Sith was drunk. Had it been sober, it probably wouldn't have told him anything, but since it was intoxicated it could not comprehend what was happening. It choked and told him what he wanted to know.
"Malacandra," it whispered in that awful language.
"Malacandra?" Caius asked, confirming the answer
The alien choked and coughed again. Caius thought he had enough information, they could use the Korriban map to find this planet. But now he would let his hatred fly. He tapped into the Dark Side, something he had not done since the Mandalorian Wars. He let the Force strangle the creature as he began to whale on its head. He landed half a dozen punches on it, all the forcing his knee into its chest. His vision was hazy and clouded and he could not even tell if it was still alive—though common sense would say that it had long since expired.
His fist grew raw as he continued beating the corpse. When he was satisfied that he had unleashed enough anger on the creature, he ripped it off of the ground by its shoulders. He ran it towards the edge of the building and then heaved it over the edge. Its limp body went careening through the air, limbs flailing wildly, before it hit the ground with a disturbing crunch.
There was a shrill shriek from the ground below as another Sith saw the dead carcass, and Caius was brought back to present reality. He gathered his wits and turned to flee. He called the Force again and used it to propel himself through the air as he jumped across an alley onto another rooftop. He broke into a full sprint and repeated the process until he was a third of a mile away from the bar.
Once he had put sufficient distance between himself and the bar, he climbed down one of the structures and resumed a brisk walk through the not-so-crowded streets on his way back to Hronah's dwelling.
He arrived close to midnight.
The night's sleep was easier to achieve this time as he had tired himself out through the day. As soon as he had lain down on the now-familiar mat he fell deeply asleep. No thinking, no pondering, nothing.
The night passed in an instant and he awoke without any outside help.
He ate a solemn breakfast with his host family and then they prepared to go out in the fields to work. Outside the house, in the corral, Caius bade sad goodbyes to the matriarch and Hronah's wife. The little child was still asleep. He thanked them for everything and apologized profusely for everything that had happened, telling them he would do everything within his power to help them out.
After a few minutes he leapt into the back of Hronah's cart and they departed.
They did not talk until they made it out of the city. It took a good half hour for the trip to be completed, and Hronah stopped the cart where he had first met the humans what seemed like an eternity ago.
Caius jumped out of the back, sweating tremendously in the heat, and turned to look at Hronah. The alien too had dismounted his dinosaur and they stood, facing each other, for a few awkward moments.
"This is…farewell," said Hronah.
"It is," Caius said. "Thank you, so much, for everything. You kept us safe and helped us and told us what to do. We could not have done this without you. My purest and deepest thanks and condolences go out to you and your Loved Ones."
"It is part of the great cycle to help those in need. And thank you for fixing our ghostly machine and for telling us of your story and homeland. We are truly unique to have borne witness."
Caius didn't answer immediately, just stared at the alien with uncertainty,
Hronah spoke, said, "How do you say 'farewell forever' in your country?"
"With an embrace," Caius answered.
To his surprise, Hronah said, "That is what we do."
In an unprecedented display of interplanetary peace and harmony, Caius and Hronah threw their arms around each other and said goodbye.
Caius took a step back and said again, "Thank you, Hronah. Goodbye and farewell."
The alien repeated the phrase. He then mounted his lizard and began his journey further towards his land.
Caius held his hand up in the air, a still wave, until the cart was out of sight. He sighed and then turned, following the little pathway to the steep trail into the gorge. He stumbled down it and arrived at the base of that mutilated tree. He stopped and faced it. Its gaping mouth was still in that perpetual howl, still screaming within the tree. He looked at it solemnly, trying to attach a meaning to it.
Eventually he gathered his breath and turned, making his way slowly through the blisteringly hot canyon and back to the Ebon Hawk.