Chapter 13
Kyn was studying a datapad quietly in his Galactic History class along with the rest of his classmates. They were preparing for a quiz and the teacher had given them a few extra moments to look over their notes.
A loud ring then enveloped the classroom that made several students cover their ears. Someone had turned on the intercom system in a rush. As the screeching noise died down, everyone could hear heavy breathing. Everyone, including the teacher, was looking up at the speaker as if it could give some sort of physical indication of what was happening.
"We need everyone to immediately evacuate the school in an orderly fashion. Teachers, please stick to your predesigned evacuation routes. Lead your students out in single file lines. Thank you!"
The intercom turned off and Kyn's teacher stood up from behind her desk and put her arms up in the air to quiet down any impending commotion.
"You will all follow me. Single file now."
Kyn pocketed his datapad and everyone else began to gather up their personal belongings.
"No time for that. Single file!" The teacher ordered.
Kyn was bumped and shoved, much to his irritation. He was sure this was just a drill of some sort.
When all of the students were crammed together as best they could in a single file line, the teacher opened the door and led them out into the hallway.
Kyn noticed that none of the other classes coming out of their rooms were in such a tight formation. Instead it was absolute chaos.
"Get down!" An older student yelled, as he came running around the corner of the hallway.
He had jumped to the ground and a red blaster bolt had flown by him.
Screaming ensued. Kyn began to push his way through the crowd. Everyone was running away from the direction the blaster bolt came from, but Kyn was inching nearer. He had to find Kyra and he had to find her now.
Kyn found his back to the wall and he peered around the corner as the rush of students began to clear some. He saw three more blaster bolts being fired, but did not see whom they came from or whom they were directed at.
With a great leap of faith, Kyn ran full speed across the hallway and found the cover of another wall, trying to get a closer look.
"Don't try to follow us," a gruff male voice said. "Just show him what we left him."
There was an explosion and Kyn felt a massive amount of heat generate from the direction of the gruff voice. The suspects had thrown a thermal detonator to cause the explosion to assure no one could follow them.
Kyn ran from the direction of the fire as it began to engulf that part of the school.
"Help! Over here!" A senior student cried. "He's been shot."
Kyn ran over and found a girl he recognized from a few classes. She was helping the school administrator, who had the confrontation with Salue a few days previous.
"I'm okay, get yourselves to safety." The administrator said, his concern for the students.
"Let's lift him," Kyn told the girl. "Can you manage that?"
The girl nodded, "I think so."
Kyn reached down to help him up and made sure to steer clear of his injured arm.
"He can't put as much weight on the left shoulder, so you get under that side. I'll carry the bulk of his weight on this side." Kyn instructed.
Students were still running past them although it was becoming fewer and fewer, none stopping to help. Kyn and his classmate began to slowly walk the administrator down the hallway, away from the fire and to the nearest exit.
"Fire brigade ships," the girl said, motioning her head towards the window.
"I hope no students were hurt." The administrator mentioned, wincing in pain.
"Just hold on, sir." Kyn said. "Let's try to pick up the pace, that fire is still growing and we don't need to breathe this stuff."
They finally made it to the exit. After some trouble getting the door open, they were in the clear and the three of them took a much needed breath of fresh air.
"Let's lay him down here," Kyn instructed.
They were on the southwest side of the school on the bottom floor. No one else was waiting on this wing of the school as it wasn't a predestined evacuation point for any classroom. They laid the administrator down on the ground and something fell out of his pocket.
"I'll try to wave down one of the emergency vessels." The classmate said.
Kyn crouched down and picked up what had fallen out of the administrator's pocket. It was a holo-communicator.
"That's… that's what they wanted you to have." The administrator explained.
"Me?" Kyn asked, looking astonished.
He nodded and Kyn stood up and turned the holo on. A transparent, prerecorded image of Salue appeared in his hand.
"Hello, Kyn. I surely do hope that you haven't forgotten about the credits you owe me? I gave you 96 hours and I haven't seen you since our little… scuffle. I'm sad to say I got tired of waiting. I always was a little impatient. I suggest you find a way to give me the 10,000 credits you owe me. Kyra will be waiting for you. I'll let you figure out where. Oh and you should have taken out Blanco when you had the chance. He has been dying for some revenge for the blaster bolt you shot into his arm. I think he might just take it out on your little sister. See you soon, Kyn." Salue blew him a kiss as the transmission jolted and faded out.
Kyn threw down the communicator down in a savage anger. It shattered into dozens of pieces on the concrete ground.
"What happened?" A local man said, getting out of his speeder. "Is everyone okay?"
"This man's been hurt over here." Kyn's classmate said, waving him over.
The man ran over and looked at the administrator's injury.
"I have some first aid in the speeder, let me go get it." The man said, turning around to find his speeder gone. "Wait… where did it go?"
He looked up and saw his speeder flying in non-traffic lanes in the distance. Kyn had stolen it and was on his way to the bar that Salue and he had frequented.
After a few minutes of flying, Kyn recklessly parked the speeder and left it running in neutral. He ran inside, nearly breaking the cantina's door down.
"Where is she?" Kyn demanded.
There were only a few patrons this time of day in the cantina. The barman was cleaning glasses behind the counter and only shook his head.
"So they got her?" The barman asked.
Kyn kicked a chair out of his way and ran over to the bar. "Where is she?"
"Look, she told me to give you this. I didn't really know what she was planning. Sorry, kid."
Kyn grabbed yet another holo-communicator from the barman.
"Watch that outside; I don't want any more to do with this."
"You still have my blaster I left in here the other night?" Kyn asked.
The barman nodded and reached underneath the bar and slid it to him.
"I was going to sell it," the barman explained. "That's what I usually do in a situation like the other night, but you seem like a decent kid. Good luck."
Kyn took his blaster and stuffed it in his belt. He un-tucked his white button down shirt and threw it over the handle. He then rushed back outside and turned on the holo in his hand. Once again Salue appeared in the palm of his hand.
"Good job, but I guess anyone could have figured out to come here. Nonetheless, you should be alone now. That's exactly the way I want it too, Kyn. I don't want anyone else showing up. You come alone or Kyra is going to be dropped a thousand feet to the Coruscant lower city. Now listen up. Bring the credits to the old Bothan church. You'll find Kyra waiting for you on the upper spire near the bell… that is, if you have the credits. Once you pay up, you can put this all behind you and I promise you will never see me again. You are a good kid, Kyn. I'm sorry I had to use you, but you just made it so damn easy."
Kyn did not wait for her to blow another kiss to him; instead he crushed the mechanism with his bare hand. He jumped back in the stolen speeder and took off to the high skies of Coruscant, trying to locate an old church with bell. He knew it had to be somewhat tall for Salue to mention an upper spire. Kyn also knew this was a trap and Salue wanted to be found so she wouldn't make it too hard to find.
Master Tine was carrying a tray of food through the Jedi Temple towards the medical ward. He passed and greeted several other Jedi before arriving at his destination. He opened the private room which Zafii had been staying in the last four days.
"Zafii?" Tine questioned.
Her bed was empty.
He looked to the dresser by the medical bed.
Her lightsaber was missing.
Kyn was sure he had found the location that Salue had meant to lead him to. He flew from a distance around the spire that contained an old, large bell. He did not see any sign of Kyra or Salue up there. He decided to start from the ground floor to make sure he was in the right place.
"I guess," Kyn shrugged, looking at the writing on the sign.
It was in a language he didn't recognize. The church looked like it had been abandoned for many years. The doors were made of an old wood and opened easily. He found himself at the bottom of a staircase. This was obviously not the main entrance to the facility. He wanted to go up however, so this was a place to start his search.
He drew his blaster and held it in a position to fire. He slowly began to ascend the stairs, hoping that the creaking wood would not alert them to his arrival.
The other negative to this whole situation, other than actually not having the credits to pay the ransom, was that Kyn had no idea how many people were actually in Salue's gang. He knew he would have to deal with her and Blanco but the voice he had heard at the school was neither of theirs.
Kyn had made it to the fifth floor when he took a bad step that caused a loud noise that rang throughout the stone enclosure surrounding the staircase.
"Well they know I'm here now." Kyn muttered to himself.
"Oh Kyn!" Salue laughed devilishly. "Our heroic stud is here to save the day. Do you have my credits?"
Kyn was tired of lying and he didn't have a better plan, "I donated everything to charity, Salue. You will never see a single credit. You may as well give it up now unless you want to add murder to the list of charges."
There was a male laugh now, coming from high above, "Too late for that, kiddo. I saw some of your little classmates burning after the explosion. It was great."
"KYN!" Kyra yelled.
"Shut up!" The gruff male voice yelled.
Kyn could hear bone on flesh as they hit Kyra.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!"
Kyn began to run as fast as he could up the stairs. His adrenaline was pumping but running up twenty-five stories would wear out even the most well conditioned athletes.
As he neared the upper spire, he saw the fat, dirty man he had sat next to at the Sabaac game over a year ago. It was his voice, Kyn had heard in the school. It was him who had hit his sister just moments ago.
"Hold it there." He said, holding his own blaster at Kyn.
They were only feet from each other, both pointing deadly blasters.
"Just hand over those credits and I'll go get your sister for you."
"I told you already. I have nothing." Kyn said, gritting his teeth in anger.
"That's too ba…"
Kyn had shot him before he could finish his sentence. The large man stood there for a moment and looked puzzled as if he didn't know what had just happened. There was a large searing gash in the middle of his forehead from where Kyn had perfectly aimed the bolt.
The largest member of Salue's gang then began to wobble on his feet before falling sideways through the shoddy wood railing and down twenty-five stories.
Without a moment of hesitation, Kyn kicked the last door open that stood between him and the upper spire: between him and Kyra.
"Kyn!" Kyra yelled.
Blanco shot his own blaster, but with his left hand. It was obvious his normal shooting hand was his injured right arm, as his aim was well off. Kyn's blaster rose and without even trying to take cover; he shot Blanco in both knee caps.
"BLANCO!" Salue screamed in anger. "You hurt my Blanco!"
Kyn began to look for a place to hide when he saw the size of Salue's gun. It was a heavy repeater, something that Kyn could not contest with.
He ran back down stairs a bit to take cover.
"That's fine. Run like a coward. I'll just blow her apart!"
Kyn peeked through the door and saw that Salue now had the gun pointed at Kyra. The gun was so heavy in fact, that Salue had to hold it against her hip just to aim it.
Everything seemed to stop all at once. Kyn saw his life with Kyra flash before his eyes. Green blaster bolts had began to churn out of the heavy repeater at a blazing speed that not even slow motion could stop fast enough.
Kyra was dead and there was nothing Kyn could do to stop it. Salue had savagely destroyed his little sister's body.
"NO!" The word was agonizing to yell as the green blaster bolts hurled over and over towards Kyra's young and tied up body.
Before Kyn saw the first bolt hit, Blanco had pulled himself together enough to shoot Kyn in the upper arm, knocking him to the ground.
Kyn's eyes never left Kyra. Her eyes, even though they were several yards away from each other, were locked on him as well.
Everything sped back up in an instant. Salue's gun blew up in her hands, burning her badly and sending her body flying backwards into the large bell, making it ring.
The green blaster bolts arced into one another in an amazing display. They fizzed out into nothingness just inches from Kyra. Impossible…
Suddenly Krya was untied and standing… alive.
"Zafii!" Kyra cried, her emotions running wild.
Zafii fell to her knees as Kyn watched the amazing Jedi Knight save them once again.
"KYN!" Kyra yelled.
Zafii face planted into the concrete floor of the spire.
Kyn jumped to his feet, the pain of the blaster injury to his upper shoulder not yet being felt. Was it the adrenaline of the situation or the annoyingly loud bell that seemed to block out the pain for just a few moments? He ran to Zafii and he and his sister tried to revive her.
"What is wrong with her?" Kyra sobbed, crying uncontrollably now.
"OH MY GODS!" Kyn screamed, holding a defenseless hand up.
Salue, who had been burned severely from the exploding gun, was in mid-air with knife in hand, lunging for Kyra.
Zafii opened her eyes and somehow found a way to be sitting on her backside instead of lying down. She used the Force to push Salue back.
It was a reckless use of the Force, barely controlled by the young Jedi Knight. Salue flew backwards through a stained glass window and into the streets of Coruscant, far below.
Zafii winced in pain and lowered herself slowly to the concrete. The fetal position seemed to comfort her.
"Kyn…" Kyra cried. "What's wrong with her?"
Kyn shook his head. She seemed so powerful one minute and completely helpless the next. All Kyn knew for sure was that they needed help and that he had a lot of explaining to do and not only to his parents this time.