A/N
Yeah, It's almost the end. And yeah, I heaven't written many notes in this one, but I'd just like to say I really appreciate how you stuck with this story this long, and I welcome reviews with open arms-if it's a comment, your thoughts, or even just a joke, I'd love to hear your feedback, and I'll definitely reply (even if it's just to say hi). Okay wow, I'm not used to making a note this long, so I'll shut up now and go play Dragon Quest or something.
Later~
The Last Battle
"Hurry up!" Lynx yelled at us as the distant sound of metallic footsteps grew rapidly louder.
"All right!" I shouted back, placing bombs on the thick steel walls as I ran after him. Blood trotted beside me, laughing maniacally as he followed suit, snapping the detonators onto the floor. I began to laugh along.
It was good to be back.
We ran as fast as we could, twisting through the labyrinth of cold, dark metal, and I found it hard to believe I'd thought of this place as a second home all those weeks ago.
Weeks, huh? I thought, feeling sweat bead on my forehead and run down my neck. Feels more like years.
Even as I reminisced, my thoughts were interrupted by laughter. Cruel, cackling laughter that I recognized almost immediately. By the look on Blood's face, he did too.
"Sobeck," we hissed in unison, just as the commander of the prison rounded the corner ahead of us, catching Lynx by surprise.
"Hey!" The young Jedi cried out, stumbling back from the gray-skinned creature with wide, terrified eyes.
"Careful!" My voice act without my consent, coming out as a sudden yelp in my shock. A look from Blood, and we both ignited our lightsabers, letting the fierce red glow highlight our faces in a bloody foreshadowing. Sobeck cringed a bit, his mind still automatically placing us as the Sith who outrank him.
But his grotesque features slowly twisted into a wicked smile when he realized he wasn't dealing with his superiors anymore. We were exiles, traitors to our order. We didn't belong here, and he would have the upper hand when the droids arrived. It was all in his favour.
"Oh, my dear DeathRain," he laughed, grabbing Lynx by the neck and holding him in front of me, "you don't scare me anymore. I can hurt you as much as I want now, without fear of Dookou or anyone else coming for revenge."
I grit my teeth, tightening the grip I had on my blade. Blood nudged me with his elbow, giving me a look that clearly said, "you've got this."
I checked the timer on my belt, watching as it counted down in bright red numbers. We only had a few minutes to get out before the bombs went off…
"Yeah," I growled, tilting my head back up to look Sobeck in the eye. "I may not have Dookou anymore, or any Seps for that matter. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm a Sith."
Swinging my blade in a graceful arc, I lunged towards the general, my mouth open in a furious snarl.
"I'm afraid you can't do that, my dear," he stepped to the side, eyes looking down on me patronizingly. I spun to face him, itching to feel my blades meet that familiar resistance as they pushed through his flesh.
"Because you see," he waved my Jedi friend I front of my face, giving me a good look at my friend's panicked expression as he clawed at the fingers wrapped around his throat.
"I have a hostage. And I'm still not afraid of you."
"No…" I heard Lynx's soft voice float weakly towards me. "Don't… don't worry about me… I'm…"
"Let him go," I hissed. My fury turning to outright savagery. "I will kill you, Sobeck. You don't seem to realize that I'm not afraid of you either."
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" Sobeck laughed again, eyes wide with victory. "You may be a Sith, DeathRain, but you're still so naïve."
It was all I could do not to attack him then and there, but I had to keep him talking—and he had to keep me talking. We were both stalling, it was just a matter of who's support came first.
I tried to keep my eyes from following Blood as he crept behind the commander, skillfully silent from all our years of mischief. Instead, I stared at my prey, concentrating on his words just as much as he concentrated on mine.
"Naïve?" I hissed, scarlet eyes flashing. "Why don't we see who's naïve in a battle, eh Commander?"
"Gladly," he grinned, reaching for a bade with his free hand. I grinned, glancing pointedly at my backup. Without a moment's hesitation, Blood leapt, igniting his lightsaber as he went, aiming his blow right for the general's neck.
The commander's expression didn't change a bit as his hand flew back, grabbing Blood's arm and twisting it over his head—he still believed he had the upper hand.
Lynx took his chance to slide out of the Sep's grip, panting heavily and clutching his reddening neck.
"You all right?" I didn't let my gaze drift over to my friend, keeping my eyes on Sobeck and Blood as they fought. Lynx nodded immediately—he knew there was no time to be injured.
"Hey, Rain!" Blood called over to me, sweat pouring down his face, "I think we'd better take this fight somewhere else! Like, NOW!"
I looked at my timer—only a minute left.
"Good idea!" I yelled, grabbing Lynx by the wrist and yanking him down the hall. Blood took a final swing, just hard enough to send Sobeck stumbling back, before darting after us.
"Oh, you three aren't getting away that easily!" The alien cried out, showing his large teeth as he yelled the command for the arriving battle droids to attack.
"Come on!" I yelled, increasing my pace to get as far away from the bombs as I could.
"I know, I know!" Blood rolled his eyes behind me. "I'm not that stupid."
I laughed, yanking Lynx behind a corner as the timer's alarm began to go off.
Oh, yes, it was good to be back.
The alarm went silent just as Blood rounded the corner, and all three of us huddled against the far wall, covering our necks with our hands.
The world was silent for a moment, and not even the battle droids' incessant droning could reach us. The second it took for the explosives to do their work seemed too long to be real, and everything seemed to be suspended in time and space like some sort of beautiful break in reality.
It was over all too soon, and the sudden BANG that shook the walls and twisted the metal around us was enough to push us into the steel, making human-sized dents in the wall and floor.
The fire shot out in blazing tendrils, all the colours of Tattoine's suns as they fused together to forme one giant ball of flame that shot towards us without mercy. Even with the combined strength of Blood, Lynx, and I, the Force was barely enough to keep it from us. I could feel the heat singing my face, and my sweat evaporated long before it could do its job.
I don't know how long it was before the flames died down—I just know that by the end of it, my arms were shaking and my clothes were half-burnt. But it did end, and all three of us were all right.
"Whew," Blood wiped the new beads of sweat from his forehead, letting out a short bark of laughter, "there's no way any of them could survive that."
With a collective sigh of relief, we looked around. There were still fires burning, but they were much smaller now, and scattered throughout the Citadel.
"Wow." I whistled softly, staring at the blackened, twisted steel that used to be the thick walls, and the jagged vines of molten metal that ran down the sides of the halls and pooled up on the floor. "Still can't believe we did this…"
"Yeah," Blood cast a sidelong glance over to me. "But I'm glad we did."
I smiled at my old friend, taking his hand and squeezing it gently. "So glad."
"Uh, guys?" Lynx's uncertain voice reached us from around the corner. Blood and I shot each other a quick, worried look before running over to the Jedi, stopping at his side to look down at the last thing we wanted to see at that time.
A bomb was planted on the floor in front of us, it's blinking red light telling us it was still active.
My eyes widened, and I barely had time to leap backwards with the others before it went off. A bright flash of light and an earsplitting roar of thunder, and my vision was nothing but black.
"B—Blood?" My voice was a hoarse whisper, nothing more than a croak of confusion that quickly turned to panic. "Lynx?"
There was nothing but a dull ringing in my ears, but through it, I could barely hear voices. I tried counting them, just to quell my growing fear that one of my friends had died.
"What… wait—no! Jedi!"
That was Blood's voice. One.
"Ach! You!"
Lynx. Two.
I stiffened at the sound of that all-too familiar laughter, followed closely by words that forced my scorched eyes to open.
"I can't believe you traitors fell for a trap so simple as that," the voice cackled. "But, lucky for you, you won't fall for anything ever again."
Three.
My vision slowly returned, from pitch black to a blur of blood and ink, until my sight showed me what I'd hoped I'd never have to see again.
Everything was charred black, lit only by the deep red flames that leapt from the huge, gaping hole that had been blasted into the floor. On the edge of it stood Sobeck, his face charred and mutilated from the inferno we'd sent on him mere minutes before his retaliation. In his burnt arms he held Lynx, gripping him tightly with his blazing blue laser knife held to the Jedi's throat
"Lynx," I moaned, my voice raspy and soft. The Padawan's lightsaber-blue eyes darted down to look at me, shocked for a second before they melted into pools of resignation.
"Hello, Rain," he smiled down at me, as if nothing was wrong. "You've woken up, I see."
A sudden burst of flame shot up from the crevice, sending Sobeck stumbling forward a few steps with Lynx in tow. I pressed my hands to the ground, trying to steady myself against the sudden push. I glanced over to Blood, whose face was highlighted with the crimson firelight, the rest solid black. The inky smoke swirled around his face for a moment, staying a few inches away before he put his Force-shield down.
Force-shields, I cursed inwardly, that's why they're fine. They were actually smart and acted before the bomb went off. I looked back to Lynx, who wasn't even struggling against Sobeck's grip. The general himself was staring at us with his hideous, bulging eyes, eagerly awaiting our next move.
I pushed myself to my feet, unsteady as they were. My mind was racing for anything that could even possibly become a solid plan, but nothing came.
"Oh-ho," Sobeck's hated eyes were filled with glee when he saw me rise, "look who thinks she can do anything about her friend's death!"
"Look who thinks he has control," I spat a cinder-filled wad of blood at his feet, but it hit Lynx's boots instead. "Sorry, man," I flashed the Padawan a quick grin. "I'll clean it off later."
"What makes you think there will be a later, stupid girl?" The commander yelled, pressing the laser knife closer to Lynx's skin. The boy winced as the energy singed his flesh, but he didn't make a sound. Sobeck opened his mouth to say something else, but his words were cut short at another burst of flames from the pit.
Lynx took this moment of distraction to pound his boot onto the general's foot, setting him off balance. A determined gleam in his eye, the teen threw himself onto the commander, sending him reeling backwards, teetering on the edge right over the fire pit.
"Hey, watch it, kid!" Sobeck yelped, flailing to catch his balance. "Do you want us both to die?"
My blood froze. I knew the look in Lynx's eye. And I didn't like it one bit. As the general was fighting to keep his balance, the Jedi managed to hook one of his arms over the commander's. Now he was no longer the helpless hostage.
"Wha—hey!" Sobeck cried out, but I couldn't hear his words anymore. My gaze was fixed on Lynx, hoping with every fiber of my being he wasn't about to do what I thought he was.
My fears were confirmed by his next words.
"Goodbye, Rain."
"No!" I yelled, narrowing my eyes furiously at my friend. "Don't you dare."
"I'm sorry," tears glistened at the corners of his eyes, but they quickly evaporated in the heat. "I've got to."
"But you could just—"
"It was all I could do just to get this far, Rain, and this might be the only chance we have!" His voice was stern, but his expression was peaceful. It didn't seem real, what was going on. But it was. Oh, it was all too real.
"Rain," His voice was low, barely a whisper, but I could hear it loud and clear through the crackling and roaring of the fires all around. "I thought we both knew that all three of us might not make it to the end of this mission."
I tried not to cry.
"Well, yeah, but—"
Lynx smiled at me, eyes dull and rueful.
"Then I'm afraid this is where my story ends."
It seemed to last a lifetime as I watched him fall, not even noticing Sobeck's startled expression as he dropped into the abyss. My eyes locked with Lynx's, and he smiled for me one last time. His face was the picture of serenity, as if he knew this wouldn't be the last time he saw me, as if this wasn't really goodbye.
I couldn't hear my screams, couldn't feel Blood's warm hands as he pulled me back, couldn't see anything but the body of the person who saved me from the world as it plunged down into nothingness.
The next thing I knew, I was on a ship, watching the melting planet shrink as we head off towards Courascant. Blood's hand was on my arm, pulling me closer to him until my face was buried in his shoulder.
Oh, I tried so hard not to cry, but Blood's shoulder was wet with my tears before we even made it to the nearest planet.
"He's gone," I wept, trying my best not to collapse. Blood was supporting me, holding me up when he knew I needed it. I kept on crying, and eventually we both sunk to the floor. I was holding onto him like a life preserver, and he was struggling to be one.
"Yeah," he muttered, not even trying to lie.
"He's gone," even my voice was wet—nothing was untouched by the rain.
"I know." He pulled me tighter, not knowing what else to do. His voice was dry, but I could feel his raindrops wetting my hair as he rested his chin on my head.
"Blood," I cried even harder now, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Yeah?" He was trying to be strong, I could feel it. But even he was slipping as more tears fell onto my shoulders and down my neck.
"I love you," my voice was soft now, dull with pain. My eyes, squeezed shut, began to relax, and my breaths became softer too.
"I know," he kissed my forehead, the tears on my head stopping. We sat there for a while, neither moving for the longest time. Eventually, my breathing was deeper, and more regular. My tears had stopped, being replaced with sleep.
"I know." Blood whispered, stroking my hair as I rested.