Chapter 19- Nar Shadaa…again
I had become quite the smuggler, Vogga the Hutt had given me quite a number of jobs to keep me busy. In my spare time (like at this moment) I sat down at a Pazaak table and played a few games at the Pazaak Den.I was a legend. After about four hours of relaxing and playing I was approached by a familiar face. A pretty thing. A Twi'lek.
She was the one I had played all those years ago, my future wife. I smiled and pretended I did not recognize her. Funny, she didn't recognize me. After spending a night with Atton Rand the ladies always remembered me. …did I spend a night with her though? I shot her an Atton Rand award winning smile and she grinned before taking a seat at the table for a game.
"Quick game's a good game." She said in her native tongue, one that wasn't Basic. Regardless, sooner or later I'd have to get used to her 'native tongue', get it? Native…tongue…? No? Tongue? Her tongue? No, alright, whatever.
"Don't worry babe, quick is the only way I know how."
…what?
What the hell are you doing man? Are you a moron? You are! What the hell!
I grinned awkwardly and she giggled, hopefully she was giggling at my grin not my terrible, terrible call. I hadn't thought before I spoke, a problem I often had.
After a few rounds she hadn't said anything and opened her mouth to make some pleasant conversation.
"So," she began "did you hear about the Republic?"
"No, what about the Republic." I replied.
"They announced that they did actually capture the Revanarchist. He's redeemed now."
What, it was true.
"You don't say." I said hoping to sound unbelieving.
"They say the man united the Republic and single handedly took his former apprentice."
"Darth Malak? No, surely not."
Hopefully so, I thought to myself.
"Yeah, the Republic said that he took out some giant Space Anvil or Star Anvil or something and was awarded the Cross of Glory with his allies."
It must be true, you couldn't fake something like that. I looked back over my shoulder towards the door and the unmanned bar. There he was, there was Revan.
He couldn't be there.
A blinked twice and he was gone. I was having some nightmarish flashbacks. A voice echoed in my head and his image appeared again.
"Heard you're looking for employment…"
No, I couldn't handle it. The memories were flooding back. No.
"You know how hard it is to drink a drink with a mask on…"
"What do you think of the Revanarchists…"
"So kid, what's your name… what's your name… what's your name… WHAT'S YOUR NAME!"
The illusion turned and I saw his face, it was demonic. I snapped out of it and the cantina went quiet. In my vision stood a man followed by two Sith soldiers. He looked like a bounty hunter, or part of some gang. He wore a tight black uniform over his whole body and a mask with red goggles. The men looked around.
"Grak." he said softly. "Grak? Are you here? Grak! Where the hell are you! Show yourself!" He turned to an Aqualish merchant sitting on a Pazaak table, the merchant was shaking. "Ah, there you are."
The man turned to face him but then looked at me and stopped. He didn't say a word. Not for what seemed like a thousand years.
"Atton?" he asked. I sat still, confused. Why was it that whenever I sat in this room I would get abused by the Galaxy's scariest Sith?
He removed his goggles and his mask and threw them on the ground beside him. They were Sith Assassin uniforms, new. The man's face was burnt off on his left side. His right hand was cybernetics as was half of his left leg (made evident by the parts jutting out the sides through the uniform leg). The right side of his face held massive scarring. He had a familiar face, what was left of it. He was an old friend. He was Drayven Khar.
He stood and stared at me angrily for several minutes. The only sound that could be heard was the wheezing coming from a rage fueled Khar. Then a small crash was heard, I couldn't see what made the noise as I was too terrified to remove my gaze from Khar. Then the character passed him, scaling the wall quite obviously. It was the Aqualish, Grak, Khar's target. Drayven, not taking his eyes off me suddenly raised his left hand out to the side and twitched it. In the space of half a second Grak's neck snapped and he collapsed to the ground.
Still Khar glared at me.
This moment was the single most terrified I had ever been my whole entire life, even up to the point I am at now flying back to Korriban looking for some Master Lonna Vash with the new love of my life, Meetra Surik.
"You know how I got these scars? Or these burns? Do you see the burns, Rand? I mean, how could you not? …They're all over my damn face!"
"I have a feeling I know how you got them."
He chuckled.
"You know, you always make me laugh, Atton. Even when you're so damn evil you'd melt your best friend's face off you still have the ability to crack a joke." He stopped laughing. "I hate you!" he screamed in a violent outburst.
Khar had changed. He was full of the Dark Side, maybe as much as I had.
"You know what's really funny, Rand? You used to be the best in the business. You used to be the darkest man this side of Malachor. Now I'm the best, now I am a million times as cruel as you ever were!"
He laughed manically again.
"I was in the room when the explosion went off. I was in the room when you sacrificed me! I had to use what little energy I had left in a millisecond to save myself from becoming completely charred. The rest of the brothers are dead, you know that? Yeah, you killed all of them. Yeah, you killed half and the Sith killed the rest. I crawled out of the academy a second before they began decimating the assassins. Decimation, can you believe that? But it kind of defeats the purpose if the survivors were taken to the courtyard and shot up anyway. I survived and when Sion got his hands on me… well, let's just say they don't call him the Lord of Pain for nothing. He bled me dry and I had to drink was left of my life juices off the floor of the Ziost infirmary. I was pieced together again. They kept me after I threatened to reveal that I knew what they had done to the assassins. They're training more, you see. They've decided that the assassins aren't to be trained to use the Force or they'll end up like you. You. You betrayed me, your best friend. You gave the Sith the opportunity to liquidate us, in the confusion of the explosion they seized the opportunity."
He turned to the people in the den.
"You know who this man is? This man is Jaq, he is Jaq the Jedi Hunter! He hunted the Jedi to extinction for a time and killed a few women and children just for the laughs. He's nothing more than a petty and broken man. Spread the word, this man is a traitor to all living things! Everyone warn the world of Jaq!"
He laughed crazily once more. It was similar to the way the bully, Garm, had done back in the academy. He called me Jaq, that was what Garm used to call me. It seemed only fitting he shared Garm's fate.
I pulled out Thalia's lightsaber and in anger lunged at Khar. Immediately he did the same and pulled out his double-bladed lightsaber. We clashed. I was fueled with anger, so fueled I could not tell if I was still Atton or if I had become Atton once more. I was angry and confused. Confused, the mind wipe had left me a little unsure of my actions and what I had done to my old friend.
We clashed. I swung the lightsaber into an uppercut and he proceeded to block it before swinging down from his top right to bottom left as if to cut my chest open. Thalia's gold crystalled lightsaber was just the right reminder I needed to stay mad at myself and at this abomination of the dark side that stood before me. We battled it out by the door and this forced everyone to remain inside.
I continued to execute a flurry of strikes at him and around him to test his defence. He had grown more skilled since training and blocked all my attacks and eventually threw me back. I landed on my feet and slashed the lightsaber at the window towards Khar. Shards of glass blew into his face and the wind stunned him. I drew Thalia's lightsaber back and launched a heavy attack onto his lightsaber which protected his face from strikes. It dropped him back closer towards the door.
From beside him three Twi'lek male refugees stood and retreated from their spots. There were two blue skinned Twi'lek's and an orange.
Still Khar and I clashed swords and for a time it seemed no one would fall. When we clashed at one point he blocked and positioned himself so that my weapon slid down onto one of the three Twi'leks. A blue alien's head was sliced in to two horizontally cut pieces. It was my fault. I had done this.
"See, the man is a murderer!" shouted Khar to the other two Twi'leks who eventually ran off in fear. Before they exited they took one more look at me before fleeing.
I jumped back and with his left hand Khar picked up a chair and threw it at me. I raised my hand to grab hold of it with the Force but failed. The Force was no longer with me and the chair threw me to the ground.
I rolled it off me as he threw another at me. I swung the lightsaber upwards and sliced the stool in two. I got onto my feet as he threw another and I sliced that one in two the same way. I began to run towards him and sliced a fourth chair in half that had been flung towards me. I jumped and brought my laser onto him. In a quick moment he spun around, spinning his two ended lightsaber before stopping as I landed.
Was I dead? Did he stab me? Did I die?
I looked down, the lightsaber I had taken from Thalia was in two pieces. I looked up and Khar laughed, he had sensed my story and where I had retrieved this pieces of sentimentality. I stepped back, dropping the lightsaber remains. I unsheathed my dual blasters and fired on him. He blacked the first few but I overpowered him. He was not stronger than me. He was no stronger than me at all.
Two blasts from my pistols ended his life. One slipped past his lightsaber and hit him in the chest, knocking him back and stunning him. The next I fired into his throat in the split second he had stopped deflecting my bolts.
I had done it. I was no longer a Jedi. I had lost my power of the Force and Thalia's lightsaber.
The Sith soldiers were no where to be seen.
I wiped the blood from my mouth using my fist and pocketed the two pieces of her lightsaber. Not taking my eye of the dead body in front of me I returned to my table of Pazaak. I figured it would've been really badass to sit and keep playing but I was too mad. I needed to cool off. So I took one of my pazaak cards and placed it underneath Khar's mask. I placed the mask and goggles back over his head and rolled him out the window. He fell a thousand levels down, a funeral he deserved. I watched as I lost sight of him.
I faced the Twi'lek.
"You can have the rest of my deck. I don't want it."
I stepped towards the door and stopped. I thought for a moment. I stepped back towards the Twi'lek and faced her again.
"Just for the record. It would've never worked out, I just have to focus on my career right now."