Chapter 32
The sounds of sporadic laserfire and the flickering extrasensory perceptions of ripe and raw fear were their only guides as Foyi, Rayf, and Vaevi scurried up the undulating slopes, their speed slowed by the thick mud in which they had to constantly extricate their feet. The marks left by repulsors were evident within that mud, and thus the trail described by the droid-manned vehicles was not difficult to follow. The road was even more accommodating to their search, for it continued climbing the ascending slopes and into the mist-shrouded highlands. The further they sprinted, the more evidence they saw of beings having recently traveled the track, judging by the smattering of multitudinous footprints beside the ominous splashes of mud and filthy liquid left by the speeder trucks in dire pursuit. Foyi's danger sense only grew more palpable, a dark stone jutting from the depths of the Force upon which her perceptions continually crashed and frothed. The blasterfire grew louder, echoing eerily through the contours of the heights and hills rising about them, the moldering, everpresent jungle reaching out with slimy appendages and dripping overhangs to further confuse the locations of the violent vociferations. Foyi could feel her heart hammering in her ears, keeping a steady dirge of doom to which the slurping noises her feet made in the mud kept a rhythmic, if syncopated beat. She tried desperately to maintain her focus, to find the rational core of her being that allowed her to remain connected and balanced within the Force. But her mind would not cease screaming in fear, in silent pleas that unfolded as shrieks in the Unifying Force, cries meant to call her sister's attention. But other parts of her mind prayed in a litany of hope and fear, begging that she would find her sister once more. That she would find Tama alive and whole. That she would not be too late to save her.
They crested another ridge, an outcropping of stone so covered in mold and lichens, it was practically a carpet on its own. The road had been cut brutally through the peak of the ridge, creating a shallow depression filled with shards of rock, the dirt that had once covered it washed down either side of the ridge by the rain. Foyi momentarily lost her footing on the treacherous stones and found herself taking a short tumble down the far side of the ridge, but soon arrested her fall by allowing her tumble to become a somersault. She took advantage of the roll's momentum to spring back to her feet at the opposite side of the ridge, where it dipped down from a steep slope into a gorge, the majority of the high country rising in hills of different sizes around her. She could feel Rayf and Vaevi stumbling down the slope into the ravine with her; she paid them no attention as her eyes fixed upon an oblong object over which she stumbled. The object gave under her feet, and she nearly fell before realizing she had slipped upon the corpse of a Gran boy, his face sunk halfway in the mud, the trio of eyestalks upon his countenance splayed limply to the side. Beside him lay the remains of a B2 Super Battle Droid, and only a meter beyond that, along the ravine's bottom, lay another battle droid, though the spindlier form of this decapitated and dismembered automata suggested a B1 model. Foyi knew without physically examining the body that the boy was dead, for only an echo, a wisp of his presence and existence within the Force remained, suggesting he had died quite recently. She grimly turned the body over, to see a large gouge leaking coagulating blood and smoke in his abdomen, where multiple blaster bolts had been fired in close proximity, likely killing him instantaneously. Vaevi and Rayf paused by the body as well, the bounty hunter hissing in a dangerously livid tone. "They're slaughtering the remaining kids. One by one, they're hunting them down and executing them."
More blasterfire erupted in the distance, further up into the misty hills before and above them. Foyi sprang to her feet again and resumed running, clambering up the steep and rocky slopes that the trail zigzagged across in its ascension. While climbing the muddy path would most likely have been a simpler course, it would take longer if they were forced to follow its winding way. Foyi put the Force behind her movements, propelling herself in leaps beyond her normal physical abilities, jumping from the bottom of the ravine to various ledges and narrow ridges, ascending the hill in rapid fashion. She reached the top of the hill and did not even look back to see if Rayf and Vaevi continued to follow her. The sounds of blasterfire had increased, echoing so loudly in her ears she was certain they were mere meters from her.
Foyi scrambled down the other side of the hill and lost herself in the wild, cloying jungle beyond, bulbous towers, fungal fronds, and tubular strands slapping across her limbs, torso, and face as she called upon the Force again, letting it give her a speed comparable to that of the vehicles that had come through this way minutes before. She barely noticed the sights around her had taken on less presence; instead of the blackness of the void, they had become more amorphous and gray. She found the road again and sprinted along its length, skipping over more damaged fungi, the detritus left by droids that had been pulverized by laser blasts. The narrow gap in the jungle canopies created by the road showed a dim light finally piercing the mist in the atmosphere, rays of the rising sun slashing through the tumultuous clouds that described the last vestiges of the storm that had dominated the night. Meanwhile, the intermittent thunder permeating the air was slowly dying away, being drowned out by a droning that only grew louder the more distance she covered, the roar emerging from an unknown number of sources. Initially, she assumed the growing roar to be from the repulsortrucks that must be somewhere ahead of her, but the sounds were too constant and aqueous to belong to the malfunctioning engines and repulsor coils they had heard before. While these sounds were puzzling, they barely drew her attention, for they were punctuated by the continuing explosive blasts of weapons fire being exchanged. Foyi sank further beneath the waves of the Force and let it course through her body, reinvigorating her limbs and putting the wind at her back. The world blurred around her, until the haphazard and grotesque shapes of the fungi to either side of her fell away, and she slowed to a stop as she came into a clearing, an opening stretching for kilometers in a great valley of wildly disparate elevations.
Foyi paused and dropped behind a thicket of fungal fronds, her eyes roving over her new surroundings, feelings of wonder and apprehension becoming a churning, confusing mixture within her consciousness. Before her stretched a great valley, the highlands the road had been winding through giving way to cliffs hundreds of feet high, dropping into a pit that was kilometers in diameter. The deepest fathoms of that sharp valley were hidden from sight, for a storm of mist rose from those depths, created by the half dozen or so waterfalls that streamed into the valley, fed by the dying rain and the rivers that twisted and converged on the far slopes in a delta of steaming swamplands atop the moss-carpeted hilltops. The roar she had heard was nearly deafening this close to the cliffs and waterfalls, suffusing the atmosphere with a clamor that practically drowned out the continued errant blasts of laserfire. The light of Felucia's primary filtered through nomadic banks of clouds, slowly migrating to the horizons as they exhausted themselves of precipitation, allowing rays of thermal energy to lance down into the mist of the fathomless depression, casting rainbows in the morning sun. Foyi took the briefest of moments to recognize the natural beauty of the scene before her, though her attention was inevitably drawn to the flashes of energy discharges in her peripheral vision.
Almost a kilometer from her position the road continued onward, drawing close to the lip of the cliffs that dropped into the waterfall-fed mists, until it met a large outcropping of rock and mushrooms growing outward like tumors. There, the path curved around and wound just beneath a lip of stone and dangling fungal strands, and it was in the shadows cast by this formation, lying between the outcropping and the cleft, that the remaining speeder trucks had gathered. The droids the vehicles had carried were arrayed in haphazard lines, maintaining a thunderous fusillade of laserfire up at the cleft's ledge, which was spewing burning organic slag and molten rock in response. From atop that cleft came occasional blasts in answer, fired by small humanoid figures she could not discern at this distance, crouched behind rocks and thick vegetation, only popping out of cover infrequently to land a few shots upon the droids below. Some of those blasts connected, and she saw one of the battle droids fall due to the prevalence of small blaster burns across its carapace, but the droids arrayed below the cliff continued their withering assault. An assault that was forcing their quarry to remain in cover, while also serving as a distraction for the heavily-armored and battered A-A5 Speeder Truck, which was moving ponderously around the exchange, its pilot looking for a means by which it might scale the ridge and approach the children from behind. To trap them in a prison of droids, armor plating, and moldering rock.
Rayf bounded to her side, having used the Force so closely attuned to his own body, to carry him up the slope with unnatural swiftness to arrive at her side. Once again, his breathing was normal, his body exuding no signs of physical distress. He too took in the scene before them with a quick glance and reached to his belt, pulling his WESTAR-34 Blaster Pistol, while his other hand hovered at his belt, as though he was considering whether he should wield his damaged but functional wan-shen, or the lightsaber he had stolen. Vaevi arrived mere moments later, breathing heavily due to her wounds, but no less determined than her compatriots. She dropped to the knee of her uninjured leg, then unslung her E-11s Sniper Rifle and shouldered it, peering through the rangefinder at the battle beyond. "There're younglings on that ridge. And the droids are trying to sweep around to surround their position."
"I'm going down there," Foyi growled, ramming the stock of her A295 to her shoulder. She could feel Tama near that cleft now, the proximity of her presence as relieving as it was alarming, for the wild, frothy waves she exuded from her essence were capped with dark fear.
"As am I," Rayf intoned. He glanced at the Twi'lek beside him, continuing in a calm voice. "We're doing this together."
Vaevi grunted in pain. "I'll only slow the two of you down. I'll stay up here, or find a better vantage point, and do what I can from range." She turned to face both Rayf and Foyi, and her countenance was so suffused with rage and grief, the pair of Force-sensitives felt a moment of vertigo as they attempted to sort their own emotions from those of the Iktotchi bounty hunter's. "And if you see Arctan down there...save him for me."
"Will do," Foyi replied, and without further words, leapt free of their hiding place and slid down a muddy slope, her feet and posterior flattening colonies of mold and tiny, phosphorescent mushrooms. Rayf came running right beside her, and the pair met the bottom of the slope in a Force sprint, racing across the intervening ground separating them from those they had come to rescue. They heard blasterfire ring out closer than those being fired indiscriminately ahead of them, and Foyi saw droids that had taken stationary positions begin to fall, laser blasts knifing through weak points in their armor or disintegrating heads. The droids noticed their comrades falling to the impeccable aim of Vaevi, turning toward the direction of the new threats in time to see a Twi'lek female and a male human rushing toward them with blasters drawn, moving far too fast for beings of their size and capabilities. The droids opened fired, attempting to track these new enemies, but their blaster bolts went wide, or were dodged entirely, only for lasers to spit from the blasters of their enemies, impacting the rusty and pockmarked armor of several battle droids. Droids began to fall to the impossibly fast assault, though only three were significantly damaged or destroyed before the machines' rudimentary tactical subroutines kicked in and they began to seek cover behind the sturdy armor of their hovering repulsortrucks. They set up a firing line and unleashed waves of lethal energy through the air; Foyi and Rayf were forced to halt their charge and angle for the rock outcropping, diving against its glistening contours as hyphens of scarlet light screamed about them. A Super Battle Droid lumbered around one of the speeder trucks in order to gain a better sightline on the pair of combatants, only to be blown off its feet by sniper fire from Vaevi, hidden somewhere upon the slope they had just left.
Foyi leaned out of cover and switched her blaster rifle to autofire, unleashing a stream of bolts, most of which left scorch marks on the carbon-scored flanks of one of the ST-101 Repulsortrucks, while two of her bolts found their mark. A battle droid lost its head and began to stagger around, its articulated digits flailing about for the vital piece of itself. A super battle droid raised its arm over the side of the vehicle to fire, only to accept a blaster bolt that burned through its processors, dropping it out of sight with a spray of sparks. She slunk back behind the cover she and Rayf shared, and let Rayf reach around her, firing a quartet of shots, their shrieks ending in a pair of wails from battle droids. He slammed himself against the slippery rock as a stream of laserfire sizzled through the space he had been leaning out into. His steely gaze met Foyi's. "The kids have stopped firing."
Foyi peered carefully around the edge of the rock, laserfire nearly blinding her as it darted past her vision. She focused her gaze upon the ledge several meters away, the position of height the Shepherd's retaliating victims had adopted to combat the droids sent to execute them. She could no longer glimpse any of their shapes, and neither could she sense any friendly presences, though she doubted she could concentrate properly in the heat of such a firefight. Her gaze swept to the side, where the A-A5 had been making its way around the ledge, so that whatever horrors it carried within could be disgorged upon the slope behind the kids' position, allowing the droids to rush up the slope and catch them between themselves and the edge of the cleft. But now the vehicle had paused, its pilot undoubtedly attracted by the fight that had broken out from a new set of opponents from the opposite direction; the speeder had halted its curving progress about the cleft, and the rear cargo bay door was folding downward to create a boarding ramp. Foyi instinctively fired a burst of lasers through that widening opening, and was greeted by the static of a vocoder malfunctioning, the clang of a metal body striking the vehicle's deck. The door opened fully, and Rayf joined her in firing through the gaping maw of the armored speeder, but more droids were already rushing down, B1s and B2s, their blasters blazing and joining the fusillade that already chipped away at the companions' cover. Foyi and Rayf were forced to scoot farther around the perimeter of the immense boulder they had claimed as cover, shards of superheated rock sizzling on the wet ground about their feet.
"We're pinned!" Rayf shouted above the clamor of shrieking energy and blasts of fire on rock. Foyi flinched as the concussive screams of sniper fire echoed across the valley, followed by the metallic spang of that energy splitting duranium armor.
"We need to get to the kids!" Foyi insisted, trying to stand enough to put on a Force-augmented sprint around the peripherals of the firefight. But further blasterfire forced her to a crouch again. She cursed loudly and viciously at her circumstances, then fired blindly around the edge of the rock, most of which was dripping down its sides in a molten stream of slag. She heard her blaster bolts connect with something, but whatever it was did not squawk in protest.
"We can't get to them without getting vaped!" Rayf responded. "We need a distraction!"
Foyi reached out with tendrils of sensation, ignoring the storm of deadly energy and searching for the presences of the children she had felt, the essence of her sister. The Force was in even greater turmoil than she had felt previously; the region they had found themselves in, despite its natural beauty, was a boiling cauldron of Dark Side waters. Looking for Tama was like dipping her hand into those waters, and struggling to ignore the pain as their heat and viscosity melted her skin off in sheets. She reeled back against the solid stone at her back, gasping for breath. She had not been able to sense Tama, save for traces of her presence. Tama had left, likely fleeing for the uncharted depths of the forest, not realizing her sister had arrived to save her, missing a reunion by meters and seconds alone. Foyi let out another string of vitriol, which drew Rayf's attention to her, irritation evident on his face. "Are you actually going to fire back at them, or just sit there being creative with your language?"
"Tama's gone!" Foyi growled back, flinching as another laser blast flew far too near to her knee for comfort. "Her and the other kids! They used us as a distraction and fled into the jungle!"
"They better appreciate it, then," Rayf replied sarcastically. He stood up just enough to lean around and fire shots from his blaster pistol again, then leap back, letting loose a curse of his own.
"What?" Foyi asked. She saw the serious grimace on his face, which only prompted the question again, more insistently this time. "What?!"
"We're in trouble," he replied in a tone that sounded more irritated than fearful.
The Twi'lek risked a glance past the distorting waves of heat emanating from the boulder so that she could get a better view of the Trask Heavy Speeder, and the droids trotting out from the vehicle's cargo bay. There were at least a dozen more mechanized opponents joining the firefight, bringing blasters ranging from the Clone Wars to the more contemporary era to bear. As they trotted down the loading ramp, they arrayed themselves in a tight, protective formation around another machine, a wheel-shaped vehicle in brown armored plating, making a thunderous clamor as it propelled itself down the ramp and across the ground. The battle droids around it spread out to give it more room to maneuver, but there were still too many laser blasts flying and droids in the way for Foyi to get a clear shot at whatever the machine was, certain it could only represent some new and dangerous obstacle for her and Rayf to overcome. She had to pull her head back a moment as the Force warned her of an impending blaster bolt that whizzed far too close to her nose for comfort, then dared to look once more. She glanced around the boulder in time see the curved machine unfolding itself, a quartet of narrow limbs emerging from the bottom of the armored "wheel" to create a stand of legs. From the center of that wheel thrust forward a cluster of glowing red photoreceptors, while a semicircular portion of the wheel rose higher into a sort of hood, a trio of blaster cannons extending from beneath the shadows cast by that "hood". As the fearsome droid stood upright on its quartet of sharp-ended legs, either side opened and extended outward, oblong plates of brown armor displaying a pair of repeating blaster cannons. Foyi raised her blaster rifle to line up a shot as the droid began to turn about to face the boulder they continued to use as cover, but there was a sudden fizzle of energy, and a spherical ray shield enveloped the droid, encasing its entire frame in a sanctuary of protective energy. Foyi gave a yelp of frustration and surprise as the nearly impervious droid finished swiveling around on its insectoid legs and unleashed a tempest of laser blasts from all the repeating blaster cannons attached to its metallic body, chewing new holes in the boulder and forcing her to leap fully back and out of sight.
Foyi clutched her blaster to her chest and hunched low over her knees, waiting as the blistering, artillery assault of the unknown droid broke off larger sections of the far side of the boulder. Even over the cacophony this created, she could hear the sounds of more mundane but still deadly battle droids maneuvering across the intervening space, likely moving in separate groups to come at both her and Rayf from either side. The boulder would not provide cover for them for much longer. She glanced at Rayf, who was similarly hunkered down, and seemed to be frantically considering all the ways he and Foyi were about to die now. "What the hell is that thing?" Foyi shouted over the screams of enemy fire.
Rayf shook his head. "Some kinda destroyer droid...never seen this model before. If the other droids don't come at us from the sides first, that thing's gonna chew right through this rock."
"Got any bright ideas?"
He grimaced. "I've got an idea. I wouldn't call it bright, and I'm gonna need your help."
Foyi sighed; whatever desperate plan he had conjured, they did not have the luxury of thinking up a new one. "Doesn't have to be...it just has to work."
Rayf gestured to the rock behind them with his blaster pistol, while his other hand went to his belt again, brandishing the lightsaber hilt but keeping it unlit for the moment. "Can you move this boulder really quickly through the Force? Can you throw it at all the droids?"
Foyi looked up and around at the size of the stone outcropping, reminding herself that no matter its composition, its dimensions, the Force would allow her to move it telekinetically. She looked back to Rayf and dropped her blaster at her feet, raising her hands as she gathered the Force around her, letting its waters flow through every part of her existence. Such a plan would leave them without a spot of cover, lest they were to move quickly and find more barriers between themselves and the blaster bolts in the form of the scarred and pitted hulls of the remaining repulsorcraft. Doing so could result in their deaths, but if they sat and did nothing, their deaths were assured.
Foyi scrambled around and faced the boulder, her hands touching its slimy, overgrown surface, that tactile sensation reaffirming its existence within her mind and extrasensory perceptions. The force of her will manifested in the Force, the atmosphere vibrating with a deep, throaty drone as she imagined the boulder uprooting itself from the moss and mold that clung to it, rising in air, and hurtling itself toward the droids. The target in her mind's eye was the new shielded droid, an opponent that would be successful in negating almost all attacks with her blaster she might manage, but doubted its ray shields could withstand the enormity of a rock hurtling toward it with all the speed and destructive force of a antipersonnel rocket. Her eyes snapped open in time to see the boulder she already knew to be aloft speeding half a meter over the ground, crossing the few meters between herself and her opponents fast enough to stir her lekku with the air currents it made. The shock of that boulder being hurled into the midst of the droids was surprising to even her, the ground heaving beneath her as metal squealed and sparks flew like wild torrents of rain. The boulder clipped almost a dozen battle droids in its ballistic path, cutting some completely in half or crushing their carapaces into useless slag, while others were bowled over but still functional. Foyi gritted her teeth and brought the Force to greater intensity in the boulder's wake, granting a small boost of speed that hurtled it directly into the shield of the destroyer droid variant. She could feel the resistance of that shield for the barest moment as it tried to counteract the kinetic energy of the supernaturally-thrown boulder, but the droid's shield generator overloaded within seconds, and the boulder's weight came squarely down upon the destroyer droid. There was a flash of fire and sparks, and Foyi was greeted to the satisfactory sound of the droid creaking and squealing under the pressure, forcibly folded into a pile of smoldering, smoking scrap that could not easily be identified as a machine, boulder smashing the metallic pulp into the soft ground upon which it had stood.
Rayf had not remained idle while Foyi telekinetically threw the immense and partially-melted boulder into the midst of the droids' ranks. As the mass of stone left its berth, Rayf took off in a sprint behind it, his blaster pistol in one hand, the lightsaber in the other. His WESTAR-34 spat fire as he closed the distance, putting bolts into a pair of battle droids that had been staggered by the flying boulder, only nicked as they tried to dodge its airborne passage. But the droids Foyi had attacked with the cumbersome piece of terrain were not the only ones arrayed against them, as still others continued to keep to the relative cover provided by the stationary repulsorcraft. They turned their fire upon the approaching Matukai, laser blasts flinging through the air toward him. Rayf dodged back and forth, maneuvering his feet and twisting his body to allow the bolts to pass within mere millimeters of his clothing or flesh. He fired a few more bolts, his shots flying wide or impacting the dented hulls of the vehicles, so focused upon attempting to dodge the incoming fire he could not properly aim. The destroyer droid's cannons tracked toward his rolling, cartwheeling form, but Foyi's boulder planted it in the mud with explosive force. Rayf took the opportunity to drop on the opposite side of one of the speeder trucks, lowering rapidly into a crouch, his hand flashing down to his holster and ramming his blaster pistol in its sheathe. With a focused expression that suddenly became serene, he brought his other hand to the lightsaber's hilt and ignited it, the red blade springing into existence with a curious drone. Even as Foyi let her telekinetic hold on the boulder go, Rayf sprang upward, the Force prepelling him upright and back as he executed a backflip that carried him over the width of the speeder truck, landing on his feet just centimeters behind the firing line of droids using that same vehicle for their cover. He launched into a series of twirls, slashes, and stabs, the scarlet blade blurring into fans of sanguine light bisecting the limbs, torsos, and heads of droids. He had launched into one of the fantastic and blinding martial forms indicative of one with Matukai training, though the reach of the lightsaber was far shorter than his wan-shen's; his hands carried the blade in great arcs and spins as he cut through the droids, his feet carrying him in quick bursts of Force-augmented speed, from droid to droid. Whereas with his signature weapon he would have attacked with quick, decisive, but carefully placed strikes, the nature of the lightsaber prompted him to strike with aggression Foyi had only seen displayed in the throne room of Yuelo. Shards and shreds of droids with cloven edges glowing white-hot flew all about his relentless onslaught, the lightsaber screaming through the air, sparks erupting like enraged sparks as the blade contacted mechanized armor plating. He was a blur of limbs and crimson light, bouncing and whirling between so many combatants, the droids falling away in pieces and slag, like a deadly game of smashball, leaving the unfortunate automata malfunctioning and "dying" in the Matukai's wake.
Foyi, for once, did not allow herself to become enraptured by Rayf's skills, nor feel the pure joy and sense of belonging that had exuded his presence in the Force at wielding a lightsaber again, using it to cut down proponents of disorder, violence, and depravity. Her focus turned back to the cleft where the children she had seen at a distance had been, where she had last sensed her sister. Ignoring the stray blaster bolts that whipped through the air around her, Foyi pushed herself into another sprint, falling beneath the waves of the Force and letting its rejuvenating waters course through her veins and muscles, giving her the energy to streak past the boulder, leaping over smoldering scraps of droids, and plunging into the jungles just past the cleft. She ran between the towering mushrooms and into the deepening shadows, leaving the sounds of Rayf's lightsaber squealing as it bisected metal, the retorts of sniper blasts picking off droids Rayf had yet to cut down, the clamor of the menagerie of waterfalls pouring into the beautiful valley behind her. There were few droids to attack them left, and Foyi had full confidence that her companions could handle the remainders of the mechanized army the Shepherd had brought to bear. As she ran further into the tangled and darkening jungle, she could feel the Dark Side gathering somewhere ahead of her, becoming more palpable, like a tsunami of overwhelming void pressing upon her consciousness from every direction, threatening to drown her.
But Foyi pushed through it, refusing to be slowed as she rushed headlong into the jungle, unsure of where she was going but knowing she must get there as soon as possible. She could feel Tama now, could feel her abject fear in the Force, striking her like a cold spray directly in the face. Foyi added more speed to her hurtling form. She had to get to Tama. She had to save her. Even as her feet blurred below her and the world transformed into streaks of phosphorescent lights and whirling darkness about her eyes, she reached out past the confines of her body. Tama! I'm coming! Hold on!
Tama stumbled through the jungle beyond the cleft, rushing as fast as her aching, bleeding feet would carry her, her DH-17 Carbine dangling from fingers so weary, they only held fast to the weapon due to the tendons locking up in overuse. Nuri sprinted beside her, the Zabrak girl's breath coming in wild, ragged gasps, her head incessantly swiveling about to look for pursuers. Cyran ran close beside Nuri, gripping her wounded shoulder as the shocks of her feet contacting the mud and tendrils of fungi across the forest floor sent new shivers of pain through her wound. Ashla was to Tama's other side, though her speed was more inconsistent than the others, and she was beginning to lag behind, where Farr brought up the rear. The Rodian was chattering almost constantly in frantic Rodese under his breath, and Tama was fairly certain he would have taken off into the jungle ahead of them leaving them far behind in a mad dash for escape, had he not been wounded in the momentary last stand upon the ridge. A blaster bolt from a super battle droid had drilled through a weakened section of the cleft, sending bits of fungal flesh flying and inflicting a serious burn along Farr's thigh. It was not a mortal wound, but his leg was only partially functional, and the only reason he was running now was because of his sheer determination and fear.
Tama's environment was little more than amorphous shapes whizzing past her eyes at lightspeed as she ran, like all the images and holos of hyperspace she had seen. Her mind was a twisted tangle of fear, pain, exhaustion, and too many other emotions to even identify. She felt as though she had been running for days; her legs were merely flailing weights attached to her torso, somehow moving her forward even though her body insisted on letting Felucia's gravity draw her to the soft bed of moss and mud. After the first exchange of blasterfire with the droids under the command of "the Savior" and the resultant death of Vibak-Ol, they had fled to the high country, seeking shelter from the pursuing droids in the tangles of fungi and craggy hills they found there. But the terrain had proved as disadvantageous to them as it had the droids, and despite the many ridges and differing heights they had been forced to traverse, the droids had done so in a more coordinated and speedier fashion, aided as they were by repulsorcraft. The children had almost been slaughtered to a being in a particular ravine, when they had tumbled to its muddy bottom and been momentarily trapped there. Vo-Yees had lost his life there, his own exhaustion causing him to be seconds too slow to maintain the group's pace, and thus an easy target for a battle droid's well-placed blaster bolts. The former prisoners had been forced to leave his corpse in the mud, just as they had with Vibak-Ol, Fenn, Ossa, and Otar. The farther they ran, the more they strove to escape the violence and hellish madness about them, the more their number dwindled.
And then they had been forced to make a stand on the ridge rising from the perimeter of the waterfall valley, for both Ashla and Cyran had collapsed, nearly insensate from the exhaustion, the pain, the malnutrition that permeated their frames. And as they had lain in stupors, Tama trying desperately to awaken and revive them, the droids had fallen upon them, taking up positions around the ridge and maintaining a blistering onslaught. Nuri and Farr had returned fire with ferocity of their own, but they were only a pair of blasters against almost two dozen. And when Farr had taken a hit, Tama had turned from her ministrations to Cyran and Ashla and added her own blaster to the fracas. They had accomplished little, and the few times they had been able to emerge from cover enough just to visually mark the positions of their enemies, they had grown more disheartened with each new droid taking a step closer, the A-A5 Speeder Truck beginning a wide circuit to overrun their position from the side or rear. In that moment, even as Farr managed to motivate Cyran and Ashla with one of the harshest sequences of invective Tama had ever heard, the Twi'lek had completely lost hope. The Dark Side had closed in on her, and she had no defense against the buzzing, squealing screams of the many fell voices all pressing upon her simultaneously. She had found no peace in the realization of her impending doom; only a galaxy of fear, one completely devoid of hope.
Then blasterfire from a new source had rang out, and droids began to drop to the mud as multiple people came rushing out of the jungles from whence the children had fled, determined to destroy every single killing machine firing upon that cliff. Nuri had not hesitated in grabbing Tama's shoulder and pushing her ahead, further down the slope and away from the fighting. Once the droids were distracted by the unknown assailants and unwitting rescuers of the escaped prisoners, Tama, Nuri, Farr, Cyran, and Ashla had bolted for the deeper parts of the jungle beyond the ridge, not even daring to look back, fearing they might see the final blaster bolt that would mark the cessation of their existence.
So they were fleeing once more, with no direction, no knowledge of where they went, no purpose other than to remain breathing and to somehow survive the planet that was so intent on utterly destroying them. The jungle whirled past them, but Tama could not muster enough concentration to avoid the tangles of moss and grasping strands of fungi that seemed to leap out at her feet and drag her to the ground. Tama did not even realize she was falling before her face impacted the mud, sending a stab of pain down to the base of her skull, and she found herself rolling and flailing through a malaise of bewildering sensations, unable to make head or tail of any of them as she continued to roll across the uneven ground. Tama's momentum was arrested when she slammed against the unyielding base of an extraordinarily large mushroom. She lay there a moment, the world still swirling about her as she gasped for the air that had unceremoniously vacated her lungs. Her vision swam back into focus in time to see Nuri's face hovering before her, the girl's hands gripping her waist and shoulder as she tried to right her and pull her back to her feet. Tama did so woozily, and she subconsciously pressed a hand to her forehead in a vain attempt to alleviate the pain pounding through her cranium and arcing along the bridge of her nose, where she had mashed it into the earth. She hoped she had not broken it.
Farr stumbled up to them, his breath wheezing so hard through his snout, it produced an irritating whistle. "Why...we stand here? You want getting shot?"
Cyran and Ashla finally caught up as well, both so short of air they were unable to say anything articulate. Nuri ignored all three of them and turned to Tama, keeping a hand on her heaving back. "Where...where do we go? Those...clankers won't stay distracted for long...whoever the blazes those others were attacking 'em...where do we go now to find your sister?"
Tama clutched her temples in frustration, fear, rage, and pain, her lekku coiling and stretching out about her throat. "I don't know! I can't even think straight, much less...find her again!" She tried to still her voice, lowering the volume of her response; Nuri was only thinking of the survival of what was left of their group, and did not deserve her ire. "All I know...is that she was following that road...but the droids chased us the opposite way."
Farr looked back over his shoulder, where the distant sounds of blasterfire and concussive explosions could still be heard through the dim and cloistered foliage. He bent down to massage his leg, careful not to touch the scorched and blistered skin around the laser burn. "We can't go back there. Droids find us."
"Unless the others take care of them."
"We don't know how many there are," Tama supplied a pessimistic view of Nuri's hopeful assessment. "And we don't know who they are. For all we know, they're bandits, or natives, or Imperials. Just 'cause they don't like battle droids very much doesn't mean they're our friends." Nuri nodded with a grimace to those suppositions, and Tama continued. "We need to get away from this area as quickly as possible, then try and circle back to the road and...pick up my sister's trail again." Tama's glance was drawn to the side as Cyran moved through her peripherals, the Duros staggering to a large stump where had once stood another enormous mushroom, though most of the stalk had fallen and rotted away, leaving a semi-level surface that provided a convenient seat. The Twi'lek turned from her resting companion and looked to Nuri and Farr again. "The Savior meant to herd us out here with his droids...we need to run from here as fast as we can, get our bearings, and regroup."
Farr was nodding his head before she had finished, and began to hobble off deeper into the forest. "Yes. Run more. Good plan. Nothing bad happen."
Tama could not determine whether he was being serious or darkly sarcastic, and she found she did not really care. She gasped once more to suck in humid, fetid air into her lungs, then nodded to Nuri in silent acknowledgment and gratitude for her help. She turned to follow the Rodian, who kept up a soft litany of Rodese epithets and snarls of pain as he moved, only to jump several centimeters in the air when Ashla let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The children whirled as one to see the Togruta having dropped her weapon, scrambling as quickly as she was able to put Nuri between herself and whatever had scared her so. Their eyes followed the line suggested by her flight, and saw Cyran still perched upon the mushroom stump, though she no longer sat still, her limbs convulsing in some perverted mockery of a dance, her eyes wide as her open mouth attempting to scream, though no sound came from her throat. Standing just behind her was a shadowy figure, a humanoid upright on two feet, though its form was slightly hunched as its hands gripped tightly to either side of Cyran's throat. Tama could not see the figure's face, nor any distinguishing characteristics, but she could suddenly feel his presence in the Force, as well as the way the Force seemed to warp in the immediate area, the exultant shrieks of the Dark Side. But what she could see and feel was Cyran's complete withering before her eyes, as though she had been inflicted with an infection that was rapidly causing her to waste away. As her gaunt frame receded to little more than dry skin stretched between limp bones, her essence dwindled as well, until Tama could no longer feel her as a sentient being in the Force, only a bright stab of pain in her gut, a cry of agony in her ears, that ceased suddenly and brutally. She tried to raise her blaster, but the unnatural flow of the Force in the immediate area, the feeling of Cyran's life force being consumed without mercy or remorse, was enough to leave her own tired presence frozen in fear. Ashla was still screaming. Farr had taken one look at the figure in the shadows and quickened his pace as best he could with an injured leg. Nuri was the only one of their number who acted with courage, despite the fear emanating from her form. She gave a cry of denial and fury and snapped her A280 to her shoulder, discharging several shots at the amorphous appendage that must be the Savior's head. But the figure was ready for such an attack; Tama felt a pulling sensation in her gut, the Force responding to the figure's will as the last vestiges of the being that had been Cyran were obliterated. The figure raised a hand so quickly the movement could not be properly seen with normal eyesight, intercepting the path of Nuri's blaster bolts and deflecting them wide of the mark with an application of the Force. One of those bolts lanced out from the figure's palm and struck Farr in his uninjured ankle, just as his flight had carried him to the limits of Tama's peripheral vision. The Rodian gave a shriek and fell in the underbrush, the gyrating fronds and continued screams of pain the only evidence of him still drawing breath. Another bolt stitched the mud at the figure's feet, nearly taking the lifeless Cyran's head off in the process, and two more blasts whirled off into the darkness of the forest beyond. One reflected off to the side and scathed Ashla's hip, causing her to stumble and fall, where her head struck the base of a mushroom with enough force to render her senseless. The final shot Nuri had discharged was reflected immediately back to its source, the crimson laser scything through the barrel of the rifle and causing the weapon to short out in her hands. Nuri cried out as the weapon practically disintegrated in her palms and blistered the flesh there, but before she could attempt to secure another weapon, or simply bring her natural weapons to bear upon the darksider she faced, the Force exploded about her, throwing her bodily through the air until she impacted one of the mushroom stalks and gravity dumped her harshly to the ground.
Which left Tama the only combatant to resist their captor's use of the Force, but even as she realized this, she was already too late to do anything about it. She felt an invisible fist rip the carbine from her frozen fingers, the blaster disappearing in a spin through the forest. Tama dropped into a fighting stance drilled into her by the Zeison Sha practices, her hand snapping the electrostaff off from her back, only for another burst of the Force to strike her in the abdomen. The wind from her lungs left her again, the electrostaff flinging from her palm and bouncing away from her reach. Tama fell to the ground, her chest heaving for air, her arms protectively wrapping themselves about her injured stomach. She reached for the Force again, begging it for aid, but pain and fear blocked her concentration and limited her connection.
Tama was still struggling to stand when a pair of old traveling boots caked in mud appeared before her, leaving deep impressions in the ground before her eyes. She wheezed as she willed her body to turn enough to look upward, to peer along the vertical length of legs sheathed within those boots, clothed in trousers splattered with mud, rent with minor tears. Her eyes continued upward to a torso covered in a tunic that may have once been part of a formal garment, or maybe even a military uniform, based on the strict cut of cloth, but age and constant use had caused it to fade, the hems to fray. Over this the figure wore a tattered trenchcoat, covering arms that dangled limply at his sides. Tama was just beginning to find her breath once more when she dared to look the rest of the way upward and met the gaze of her kidnapper, the creature who had imprisoned her on this world, who had violated the sanctity of her mind, starved her and put her through trials meant to harm and to terrify. Tama had expected to be looking up at a monster, some cacodemon leering down upon her, a horror straight out of the darker myths and spacers' tales that Pash had regaled her with. But the sight her eyes did fall upon was almost worse than that, for she found herself looking into the eyes of an Iktotchi man who, despite the eerie void in his gaze, seemed almost normal. He appeared to be middle-aged, with skin on his gaunt face just beginning to show wrinkles, and horns that appeared too small for a specimen of his maturity. He kept his lips in a grim line, the nostrils of his crooked nose flaring briefly, as though he were considering her smell. A moment passed between them as they merely held the other's gaze, and Tama felt a profound sadness falling upon her like drops of rain. It took her a moment to realize the despair did not belong to her, but was actually emanating from him, an emotion he was actively sharing through the Force, not bothering in the slightest to hide it.
The Iktotchi man slowly lowered himself into a crouch even as Tama rose to her knees, gulping air and feeling some modicum of strength and sanity return to her. She felt a part of her screaming, begging her to strike while she had the chance, to reach out to this man's face and plunge her thumbs into his eyes until only she remained amongst the living. But she could not tear her gaze from those eyes; she could not force herself to move. She did not even feel as though she remained in her own body, so surreal was this experience.
The man spoke, and his voice slipped between his teeth in a gravelly, cracking tone, as though he had not used his vocal cords in such a lengthy amount of time, they were beginning to atrophy. "We meet face to face, you and us. Vile Tama. Pretty Tama. Should have sensed the fire in you, the light of the Universe at the genesis," he babbled, and Tama found she could not determine whether he was speaking to her, or himself. He reached a hand out to her cheek, and though she flinched, she could still barely move. His fingers were startlingly soft. "But so hard, so hard it was, yes? We couldn't see...there's so much we don't see anymore. Too much darkness. Your soul is stained. You fight for evil. You fight the Will. Do you see? No hope because it's wrong. Not your fault, not your fault, ssshhh. Born this way, we all are, born from cesspits of darkness only to crawl into the daylight, leaking blood and oil and covering all existence with our perversions, our iniquities." He removed his hand and rocked back on his heels, sighing heavily as he did so. That sigh reverberated through Tama's augmented hearing, communicating the sheer weariness, the sadness, and ultimately the resolve the Iktotchi felt. "Foolish Tama. Misguided, treacherous. False. Mustn't guard what is familiar just because it's always been with you. You were meant to change, to become light, to be freed of your inner darkness. It's why we are here, why I came, why I serve after so long. It isn't Right; you're not Right." He leaned closer, and his tone became more insistent, more frenzied. "Your fight is over, over, over again. So many before you, so many saved, so many many many freed from sins, Right with the Universe. It's old, we are and the job is, but must be done as long as those are born, as long as they reach the proper ages. As long as accountable to the hidden darkness, to the Wrong." His hand flashed forward again, his gentle touch long gone as he gripped her chin and pulled her head roughly forward, so that his other hand could grip her shoulder like a vice. "You've struggled enough, Tama. Fight no longer. Be at peace. I will stay with you till the end. I will take that darkness, the shadow that haunts your every breath, and I will save you from those iniquities. Finally, you will be free, and all will be Right again."
Tama opened her mouth to respond, to say something, to even utter a scream or a whimper, but no sound came from her as his hands gripped tighter. The Force came to bear upon her, warping about her and the darksider holding her in place. She felt the Savior's presence spreading out from his physical form, and she was suddenly aware of every sensory perception of him, the sour taste of his ragged breath, the clammy sweat upon his fingers, the overwhelming stench of unwashed bodies. Tama reached for the Force herself, but the Iktotchi's essence was too overwhelming, hammering down upon her like a blast door preventing her from expanding her consciousness and activating her connection to the Force. It was everywhere around her, but he made it impossible for her access her connection. She could feel something fundamental inside her beginning to unravel, the very fabric that stitched her being together coming apart at the Iktotchi's pervasive influence. Her mind began to devolve into primal screams of fear as she realized that the Savior's presence was enveloping her own; no longer was it just blocking her connection to the Force, but was drawing upon everything she was, the very core of her existence, and pulling her into itself. Like Ossa, Fenn, and Cyran before her, the Savior meant to consume her through the Force, to drain her until she existed no longer. Tama felt a brief flicker of despair amongst her abject fear and the unraveling of her mental capacity as she realized that this was her death, that despite all she had struggled for and against, she would still become sustenance for her captor's boundless insanity.
She barely registered the feeling of the Savior's hands upon her, and only when they left her form unexpectedly. She felt herself fall back in the mold and mud, her vision swimming in and out of focus, the jungle seeming to dance through her sight as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts. The cacophony of blasterfire assaulted her ears, followed by a snarl of rage and pain that rippled through the Force, like the scream they had heard when the ray shields had been brought down, but with far less destructive metaphysical presence. She turned upon her side, trying to peer through the haze within her mind, seeing the gangly, dark shape of the Savior as he staggered and darted forward, his arms flailing in front of him. Flashes of scarlet light flared all about him, casting his form in a garish silhouette as he raged toward another figure, one shifting through the shadows of the forest, but appearing more clearly the longer Tama watched. Recognition sparked in her mind as that figure rushed through a patch of light, a lance of thermal energy that illuminated the figure, one covered in mud, blood, and bits of fungi, gripping a blaster rifle in her narrow fingers as she triggered a storm of lasers in fury. Tama caught only a flash of the figure's features, but her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the fierce expression, the piercing eyes, the narrow features. It was her sister. It was Foyi.
Foyi paused in her heedless flight through the forest, attempting to gain an idea of where she was in relation to the distant echoes of her sister's essence in the Force. She was halted in place, attempting to reacquire the traces of Tama, when she heard the first screams, the wails of a girl as something truly horrendous occurred to her. Foyi did not recognize the owner of those vociferations, and on a fundamental level, she knew that they did not belong to her sister. And yet she continued her sprint, putting all the Force behind her like a tidal wave of energy speeding her along, as though Tama were the one in mortal danger. For if she was not at the moment, she most assuredly would be soon.
The jungle flew past her, but she barely registered its presence, following the growing feelings of familiarity, the currents in the Force created by her sister. Foyi emerged into a copse of tangled mushrooms as multiple presences in the Force shown like beacons within the waves of her mind, and her darting eyes took in the scene before her, one of death, of violence and perversion. Several meters from her a small, gangly figure struggled in the underbrush, whimpering from the pain of a wound she could not see. Beside the stump of a fungal stalk lay a frail, skeletal figure that might have once been a young Duros, but the emaciated remains of the unfortunate being were difficult to identify beyond a rough approximation of its species. A Zabrak girl lay at the base of another mushroom, her hands blistered and smoldering, her eyes closed and her mouth hanging open, lost within the oblivion of unconsciousness. Another unconscious girl sprawled before a mushroom nearby, bleeding from her hip and only beginning to stir as Foyi approached. And to the side, mere meters from her, knelt Tama, a pale wisp of what she had been before, her eyes locked open in horror, her body shivering as the Dark Side clustered like thick, oily waves all about the small clearing, threatening to drown her with its viscosity. Those waves emanated from a man she did not recognize, but one she instantly identified as her sworn enemy, an Iktotchi man crouched before Tama, his hands gripped upon her willowy frame like an energy spider to its intoxicating webs. And she could feel the Force in the man, a twisted version of it that exuded currents of agony, despair, rage, and suffering. Those waves were curling back in on themselves, lapping at the being of Tama and pulling more and more of her into himself. He was draining her, destroying all that she was to feed himself, and she was dying at his feet.
Foyi surged forward in a sprint again, a wordless cry of denial, of fear, of abject rage erupting from her throat, her finger squeezing reflexively upon the trigger of her blaster rifle. The Iktotchi man spun toward her in surprise and anger of his own, only to be thrown to the side when one of her blaster bolts clipped his left horn. He gave a scream nearly as tortured as the ones she had heard before, but it was not born of pain as it was of surprise, frustration, and incurable rage. The scream rippled through the Force, and Foyi dropped to her knees at the strength of the waves assaulting her, so loud and powerful she feared her eardrums would burst at the sound. But she gritted her teeth and shoved those waves away from her, drawing the Force within herself, allowing it to fill her like an empty basin, and sprang to her feet again. She saw the Iktotchi rising to his feet himself, swaying uncertainly as he brought a hand to his injured horn, his manic eyes blinking rapidly to clear the confusion born of having his head nearly blown from his shoulders. He looked toward her in time to see her rushing him, her blaster spitting more fire. His palms came up, catching one bolt and seemingly drinking it in, absorbing its energy even as his other hand bisected another laser blast and reflected it up through the canopy above, showering them both with ichor bled from an injured mushroom cap. Foyi fired again and rolled to avoid her bolts deflected directly back at her, but as she came up on one knee, she felt a tendril of the Force reach out and seize the end of her A295, ripping it brutally from her hands.
Foyi let it go, drawing upon her anger to sharpen her focus and prepare for the dive into the depths of the Force she must muster. Two could play at that game. Even as the blaster rifle spun through the air, cartwheeling end over end toward the Iktotchi Force-user, Foyi reached out and grabbed its other end telekinetically, arresting its twirl so that the blaster suddenly pointed directly at the Iktotchi, though it still hovered in midair a few meters from him. The Shepherd gave a cry of surprise as Foyi reached out with her free hand and crooked her index finger, mimicking the application of the Force that would remotely pull the blaster's trigger. The blaster rifle, still set to full autofire, unleashed a salvo of energy as the Iktotchi released his telekinetic hold on it and tried to dive to the side. His quick thinking and supernatural reactions saved him from taking the full brunt of the onslaught, but two blaster bolts burrowed through the fleshy part of his side, and he gave a scream as he tucked into an awkward roll and disappeared around the wide bole of a mushroom.
Foyi made a grasping motion with her hand and her blaster rifle leapt back into her grasp. Almost every fiber of her being urged her to rush to Tama's side, to determine the cause of the way her essence continued to flicker and wane. But she could also feel the presence of the Iktotchi as he scrambled out of sight, how he was attempting to hide in the Force from her metaphysical regard. If she did not deal with him now, he would take the first opportunity to kill both her and Tama. He could not survive if they were to continue living.
Foyi rounded the perimeter of the mushroom, assuming the Shepherd was already meters away, fleeing through the jungle. Instead, he had been lying in wait, apparently unconcerned with the ragged, bleeding wounds in his side, leaping upon her with a snarl. Foyi tried to bring her weapon to bear, but his hands gripped the barrel and chamber of the rifle and shoved it forward and up, the scope of the weapon contacting her chin and slamming her mouth shut. She felt blood explode in her mouth as her teeth clipped the end of her tongue, struggling with the Shepherd for control of the blaster. The Iktotchi's wild, determined eyes floated through her gaze, his breath rasping in grunts and sickly gasps as he pushed her back against the mushroom's trunk. His knee came up in a vicious jab to her ribs, and she gasped, spitting the blood pooling in her mouth across his eyes. He snarled in frustration and called strength from the Force to his limbs, ripping the blaster to the side and carrying her with it. Foyi, still choking for breath from the strike to her ribs, lost hold of the weapon and tumbled through the mud. Her grasping fingers and tumbling body ripped the blaster from the man's hands as well, and the weapon tumbled out of sight in the forest as Foyi attempted to slow her momentum. She somersaulted backward, ignoring her lungs' pleas for air, and came up into another fighting crouch, to see the Shepherd had already darted across to the other side of the mushroom, putting the trunk between himself and her. Foyi scurried to the side, using her hands as much as her knees, trying to keep him in sight; she rounded the mushroom stalk in time to see the Shepherd reaching out across the clearing. Currents of the Force rippled through the air, and an electrostaff leapt seemingly of its own accord from the underbrush a couple meters from Tama's prone form. The weapon spun end over end and slapped into the Iktotchi's palm, and purple veins of electricity arced over the transparisteel ends. A warcry escaped his lips as he called upon speed and power only the Force could provide, and closed to striking distance within seconds. Foyi twisted her body to the side as the Iktotchi tried to stab her with the sparking end of the polearm, which gave her the opportunity to grip the haft of the weapon and stop him from pulling it back. She twisted the electrostaff in her grip and whipped it to the side, pulling it free of the Iktotchi's hands. She twirled about on her heel and whirled the staff weapon around her body, bringing it to bear on the Shepherd, but he caught her off balance when he pulled on her in the Force just as she took his weapon. Too late she realized that he had never intended to land a hit on her with the electrostaff; he had merely offered a diversion for her that she could not pass up. Before she knew it, the man's hands had seized about her throat, and his knee came up again into the same spot in her ribs, eliciting such a torrent of pain through her body she could barely think, much less breathe. His presence within the Force became like a maelstrom of energy, the Dark Side washing over her, drowning her soul and cutting off her energy in the same way her breath had been denied her by the savage attacks to her midsection. She barely felt the electrostaff drop from her clenched fist as her knees hit the mud; the Shepherd lowered himself with her, keeping their gazes locked. While initially she had seen anger and uncontrollable rage twisting his features into a mask of hate, his countenance had changed completely upon immobilizing her in his grasp. Now, as Foyi's vision began to blur and she struggled weakly in his clutches, she saw only hunger in his face.
Darkness began to close in on her vision, her brain and lungs starving for oxygen, her lekku quivering and wriggling about her shoulders. The Shepherd's hateful, ravenous face was all she could see through blurry, amorphous sight. His voice filtered through the sound of her heart thundering in her ears, a hoarse croak that slid like poptree syrup off the end of his tongue. "Too old, too old, yes you are. Lost to darkness, sinking in sin, dying without realization, fighting hardest for the evil which you harbor. And such evil it is, buried deep, evil so evil, so dark it reeks in our nostrils, it slides beneath the stars. You can't hide it from us anymore. The Universe demands it drawn, the poison sucked from the festering wound. It will be swallowed, destroyed forever, lost to all. And you will be no more."
As the Shepherd's disturbing rambles wriggled like kouhuns in her mind, they rooted out and dredged up memories, recollections of past events from the very beginnings of her memory and even beyond, to information recorded in her brain so long ago she could no longer regularly recall them. Angry words she had shouted at her parents for not allowing her to create a discblade when she was not yet ready. A filthy epithet she had levered her sister's direction when an argument had become intensely personal and out of control. Lido lying in a pool of the same blood that smeared her hands. Ak-vir Vri gasping on the floor of a refresher as her telekinetic grasp massaged his heart and lungs. Every fear, every action she felt shame for, all dredged up from the depths of her consciousness in one writhing mass of scum from the bottom of the ocean that was her being. Even as pure agony rippled through her, she felt the Iktotchi's extreme satisfaction, which became relief as he found some revelation, some sense of peace, of vindication in the actions he had committed. He was committing. And as more such memories arose in her consciousness, always bringing more pain, she felt less and less like herself, as though something were eating her alive, and there was nothing she could do.
But then her world of pain and confusion was shattered by the sharp retort of a blaster. Her ears were filled with the Shepherd's scream, a vociferation of primal pain and profound disappointment, a sensation of failure that struck her like ice-cold waves of brine. His claw-like hands released her throat, and air whistled down her esophagus and through her sinuses, air that was thick with humidity and possessed of a sickly warmth, but it felt liberating nonetheless. She possessed enough strength left to roll away from the Iktotchi man as he writhed in the mud, reaching for a severe blaster burn along his left shoulder blade, flinging dirty water and thick blood in his agonized throes. Foyi heaved and gasped, one hand gripping the bruised parts of her ribs, scuttling away from him on one hand and her knees. She looked up to see Vaevi entering the small clearing, her eyes only for the Iktotchi man convulsing and gasping on the ground. She limped across the uneven ground, but it did nothing to halt the determination in her gait; she carried her C-10 Heavy Blaster Pistol in her right hand, lowered to her side, the end of the barrel faintly glowing with the heat of the energy it had just discharged. But it was her gaze that was the deadly part of her, promising mortal peril to any and all who dared to stand in her way. The pure, unadulterated hatred in that regard was marred only by tears that brimmed upon her lower eyelids, occasionally gathering enough liquid to slip down her cheeks and drip off the end of her chin.
The Shepherd's convulsing form flipped him over on his uninjured side, where he lay gasping and muttering incoherently to himself. His eyes rolled wildly about in his head, whereupon they alit on the sight of Vaevi stalking toward him. All his struggles ceased immediately, and his gaze widened in a mixture of alarm and disbelief, as though he were seeing a ghost that enraptured him. Vaevi's stride took her to within a meter of the Iktotchi, and she stood calmly there, though it appeared as though a light breeze would knock her prone. Her gaze had not wavered, but her lips began to quiver, and her voice emerged as little more than a squeak so soft, it could barely be heard. "Arctan. Why?"
The Iktotchi man met her gaze, but his own changed little. His lips flapped wordlessly for a lengthy moment, and the voice that emerged from his throat was barely coherent. "It had to be done. They were of age. They knew. I had to help them; I had to save them. And now they're free. Free free free! Freer than you or me, Vaevi!" His voice began to speed up, stumbling over words in his rising excitement. "We can join them, Vaevi, our love. Join them! Be free free free!"
Vaevi's hand rose, and with it, her blaster pistol. There was a retort that echoed again, and the blaster bolt scythed through the center of Arctan's thin chest, slamming his body to the mud. The Iktotchi man gave a gasp that sounded more confused than pained, and Vaevi mercilessly shot him again, putting another hole through that heaving chest. Then she fired again. And again, until she was rapidly filling his corpse with more energy, splattering her shadowsuit with her former husband's blood, the bolts burrowing so deep they separated his spine and exploded in the mud below. Only when there was a gaping, smoldering crater through the center of the Iktotchi's body did she stop.
Foyi's attention was drawn to the sound of running footsteps, and Rayf sprinted into the clearing, his lightsaber swinging in his hand as he turned about looking for enemies, the crimson blade casting garish illumination that competed with the spears of sunlight and the glimmering stripes of phosphorescence. He glanced about the clearing, saw her struggling to get up, and ran to her side, his lightsaber switching off and at his belt with a blur of his hand. He gently grabbed her shoulders and helped her to stand, asking questions regarding her health, but Foyi did not even hear them. Her gaze was transfixed on a sight past Vaevi, who still stood over the man she had once known and loved, and deigned to execute. Foyi had eyes only for Tama, who was similarly lying in the mud, though she was still moving and gasping, attempting to stand. As soon as Rayf had helped her back to her feet, Foyi was already running, running around the corpse and the Iktotchi bounty hunter, then dropping into a slide and practically bowling her sister over, catching her up in a fierce embrace. She tried to say something past the emotion wedged in her throat, but all that emerged was incoherent blubbering, and finally great sobs that wracked her frame, shaking the frail and emaciated Tama with her. Foyi did not know how long she wept, only that she did until she could no longer breathe, and her ribs hurt so much that pain and the primal need to gulp air caused her tears to cease.
Foyi looked down at the Twi'lek girl in her arms, her last flesh and blood, pressed so tightly to her chest the girl was having difficulty breathing herself. Tama's horrid circumstances had made her almost unrecognizable, her face reduced to little more than a grinning skull, her eyes sunken and hollow, her lekku hanging limply over her bony shoulders. But somewhere in those dark eyes was that same glimmer of life, that unrelenting energy and zest for life, that she knew so well in her sister. And when Tama met her gaze, her thin, chapped lips managed a pained smile. "Foyim'buma. You're here."
Foyi had to collect herself, lest she devolve into further sobs. "Of course I am. Where else would I be?" She sniffed hard, swiping a hand at her leaking eyes and nose. "I'd find you anywhere you went. And now I'm never letting you go."
Tama's face twisted into a grimace. "Never? I'm going to have to eat and piss sometime."
Foyi could not stop her laughter, which prompted Tama's chuckling. She sniggered for only a moment though before her laughter became deep sobs that shook her delicate frame, sobs that became wails of relief and anguish all mixed together. Foyi could no longer hold her own tears, and began weeping again. The two reunited sisters clutched each other close and simply wept into each the other's shoulders. Rayf watched them for a moment, then began to rush about, waking the other children enough to determine whether they were seriously injured or not, and then proceeding to the wounded Rodian with bacta patches.
But Vaevi dropped to her knees, her blaster discarded in the mud beside her, and simply gazed down at the mutilated corpse stretched out before her, silent tears continuing to stream down her face.