Ky lay wedged between Corso and Skavak, her head on Skavak's shoulder, arm across his ribs and Corso stretched along her back, hand resting on her hip. Silent, her two men were, in this place, she called home. She didn't know what words to place in their mouths beyond simple courtesy or moans of pleasure or laughter when they bumped noses in the dark. They didn't have to say they loved her, she already knew. She'd had enough of words with Tajno's questions and constant grating voice blaring through her cell night after night.
They communicated in body-speak now, action or inaction, limbs and torsos and touch saying all those things that words would fail in the telling. They glided through the cycles of day and night, mute and harmonious, with birds and waves and wind to sing the arias of their lives.
She alone knew of the horrors outside the borders, just beyond the walls, snuffling at the door. Another tremor rumbled through her mind, shaking the foundations of her refuge, driving a spike of pain through her temples. The demon-god who had dominion over her body was trying something new. A new chemical, a new artifact or ritual, a new torture or...maybe she was dying. She could live with that. What an amusing oxymoron.
Nothing good waited for her out there. Nobody was coming for her, a bitter pill she'd swallowed at nineteen, the last number she'd scratched on her cell wall. She doubled down on her resolve, tightening her defenses, digging in like a Yavin tree tick. She knew it now, knew the truth. Nobody was coming, and she'd never leave this place alive.
#
"I know that evil." Sayonar shivered under Scourge's hand. "I remember when I was held prisoner and twisted into something so dark I thought I'd never see the light again."
"Not the Emperor but one of his children." Kira's face turned pale and wan under dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves.
"The same we met on the Emperor's asteroid. Cirris Tajno." Scourge's mouth curled into a snarl. "I thought he'd died. Seems fate has given me a second chance to take his head."
"We have to get to him first," said Akaavi.
"The trap is not out here. It's in there," said Scourge.
Corso's face had gone blank. The kind of fatalistic blank that showed no fear, and no mercy. "That the same sicko bastard that said he'd tear Ky's mind apart and then give her over to his guards for—how'd he put it—their entertainment?"
Scourge nodded then grabbed for the man who'd stepped from the cover of the trees and proceeded into the clearing. "Corso. Wait!"
"Just gonna ring the doorbell," Corso threw over his shoulder, never slowing his stride.
"Fucking hell," blurted Skavak and trotted into the clearing to catch up.
"So much for precautions," snorted Akaavi.
"And the arrogance of youth." Scourge strode forward, followed by the others.
The turrets remained silent, the cameras whirred and clicked as they pivoted on their brackets, tracking the approaching group.
Corso banged on the door with the heel of his fist. "Ok, asshole, we're here. Where's Ky?"
Seconds stretched into minutes, the ages-old waiting game intended to needle intruders into impatience and blunder. They all knew the rules and settled into stances of unconcerned forbearance. If Tajno wanted them, he'd make the first move. Opening the door would be a great start.
The duracrete pad under their feet vibrated, pullies and hydraulics groaned and the blast door ascended with the squeal of metal on metal. A short, dark hallway opened up before them with a dimly lit freight lift at the far end.
Bowdaar growled and blocked Corso with his arm, pushing him back and motioning for the others to follow suit. The Wookie skidded the tree limb he'd been carrying across the floor and retreated.
The whoomph, flash of stun grenades reverberated off the corridor walls, the detonation stirring dust clouds that blew in waves and dervishes through the entrance.
"Stun grenades," said Scourge. "The cheap trick of a coward."
"Pressure plate or trip wire? And was that only the first volley?" said Akaavi who activated the spectrum scanner on her gauntlet and set it to rotate from infrared to violet searching for trip wires. There were none. "Pressure plates it is then."
"Someone will be monitoring our progress." said Scourge. "T7, stun grenades don't damage droids. You go across first, let's see if those plates trigger again."
The repeating whoomph, flash answered his question, T7 beeped from the other side.
"We can shield ourselves," protested Kira.
"Yes, and doing so would weaken us before we ever entered the fray," said Scourge before turning his attention back to the droid. "T7, one more pass. I doubt the supply of grenades is inexhaustible."
One more pass, no detonations. Scourge led the way into the entry, noting the open and empty chutes, one on either side of the passageway. His boots crunched on the metal detritus left by the grenades. The lift whined and lurched when Scourge pressed the button to take them down to level two.
Akaavi reignited the spectrum scanner on her gauntlet, again searching for trip wires. Walls, floors, and ceiling, painted in varying tints of Imperial gray. At least the Empire was consistent in color scheme and predictable in tactics.
The first junction, kill zone and crossfire. Blaster bolts, flash bang flare, Wookie roar, Mando'a curses. Kira turned left, vanguard for Corso and Bowdaar, dualsaber twirling, deflecting blue and green. Body shields active, then up close and deadly, hairy arms flailing, bodies flung like empty clothes, bones snapped, heads crushed. Kira's face bathed in blue, lightsaber sizzle, cutting, stabbing, clean, bloodless death. Corso, cold face, blade running warm with red.
Scourge, Akaavi, Skavak to the right, much the same, crimson blade carving a narrow path. Skavak, tuck and roll, knife glinting, whispering promise of quick death, piercing skin, the twist a lie, making it hurt just a little more. Men pouring in from side doors. Sudden plume of fire, screams cut off by flame, the smell of fat burning, flesh crisping, metal melting, fabric turned to ash. Akaavi drifting back to the floor, jetpack sputtering off, tip of the flamethrower glowing like a Tatooine sunrise.
Sayonar and T7 in the junction, watching the way forward, watching the flank. Her head hurt from the darkness pounding against her skull. More fights to come, more of the same, another lift at the far end of the corridor, the true power waits below, sharp fangs and no soul.
Doors kicked open as they advance, nobody hides, nobody lives. Still need a control room, T7 searching. Last stand at the end of the hall, men scurrying like spider-roaches to a corpse. Stupid men, senseless deaths, too easy by far. Bloodlust and caution warred for a place in Scourge's eyes. Blood always won.
Adrenaline rush abandoning them, draining energy through their pores in the smell of gore and sweat. Cuts and bruises and blaster burns, sting of kolto injectors. Jolt of stims, expanding irises to the point of pain, each nerve a live wire sparking against their skin. Not over. Not by a long shot.
T7's whistle from down the hall. Feet running to see what he'd found. Schematics to the complex, two more levels beneath their feet, cells on the bottom level. No camera access, someone had blinded those prying eyes. The floorplans revealed an expansive lab, sanctum, quarters for people, master bedroom, unlabeled room at the end, and lift to the cells below in an alcove off the main hall.
Corso's heart plummeted. "Where is she?"
Scourge put his gloved hand on his shoulder. "In the lab or the cells. We will find her."
The beast, coiled and restrained, lunged forward, breaking free. Eyes gone black and feral, teeth bared, Corso threw off Scourge's hand. "I will kill them all."
"Stand in line, farm boy," Skavak growled.
A sigh of impatience blew from Scourge's lips. "Bravado and blind rage will not serve either of you. Force users wait for us below. Kill what you can, leave the rest to Sayonar, Kira and I. Tajno will be too powerful for any of you. Leave him to me."
He turned to Kira and Sayonar. "Guard your minds well. You have both bathed in the darkness, and it will tempt you again. Lean to the light, it may save you both."
"We will be exposed when we reach the next level," said Akaavi. "The lift provides no cover."
"The three of us will take the front. Our shields should hold until cover can be found. Keep moving, do not provide an easy target."
Corso shoved the beast back into its cage so he could think. "Any of you ever fight with Ky?"
"Barfight on Rommeth IV," answered Skavak.
"Arena tactics?"
"Yeah, though I doubt either of us could move like her."
"Nobody moves like her," said Corso.
Skavak's voice slipped into a wistful tone. "Don't I know it."
Corso gritted his teeth and ignored the double entendre. "Point is, you and I are both smaller and quicker than Bowdaar and Akaavi with all her armor. Cheese and hammer, distract and kill. We get in a tight spot, it might be worth a try."
"Sound strategy," said Akaavi. "We'll be ready."
The force wave that hit them when the lift reached the bottom slammed into the pale blue and gold of Sayonar and Kira's shields. They skidded backward, then advanced into the hall to face the wall of black cowled people blocking their way.
"Force save us," breathed Kira. "All children of the Emperor. Their power makes me sick."
Away from the two Jedi, Scourge wrapped a cloak of writhing dark power around himself. "They belong to Tajno now, and he has unleashed them. We must find him soon." He raised his commlink. "T7. Now!"
The hall went black. Lightsabers cast the only light, rainbow rods of crimson, blue and green weaving and waving in a macabre greeting. Akaavi jammed her helmet onto her head, the visor changing to night vision. She jetted ahead, keeping her oath of death from above and sprayed a wall of flame onto the front line. Screams filled the hall with a flood of sound, poor flapping creatures abandoned by their master and their kin. Left to their fate, falling one by one.
Battery powered emergency lighting flickered to life, dim and sickly green. Sprinklers burst open, reducing those caught in the conflagration to charred bone and muddy slime.
Scourge looked ahead. So many left, perhaps twenty or more. The sprinklers stopped. Sodden and dripping, his troupe surged forward to meet Tajno's army. Chaos erupted, uncontrolled and unbeautiful, digging into the muck and grime of the true nature of battle. Above the deafening din, Scourge's voice rang like a clarion bell, calling Tajno's name. Calling him out.
Tajno's people fought, frenzied and uncoordinated, but deadly nonetheless. Force lightning burned wide swatches of hair from Bowdaar's body, the underlying skin blistered and blackened. The visor of Akaavi's helm shattered, the useless armor lay discarded, blood pooled under her right armpit. Her left thigh throbbed, she blinked blood from her eyes.
Kira's face would carry another scar, the knuckles of her left hand lacerated to the bone, she limped on a twisted ankle. Skavak's shirt was crisscrossed with scarlet stains, crusting and turning black. Corso had rolled onto his bad shoulder one too many times, his arm nearly useless and hanging at his side. One eye was swollen shut, and blood dripped from a broken nose.
Lightning scored the walls and ceiling, pieces of rubble flew through the air, and the drone of lightsabers sang the song of angry hornets.
Scourge and Sayonar both caught movement at the far end of the corridor at the same time. Blond hair and implants reflected green in the light, black robe trailed the floor, twin red sabers drawn and displayed in that inverted V of invitation that Scourge recalled so well.
Force speed rocketed Sayonar forward. "Sayonar, no!" Scourge's voice a warning. He reached out with the force and pulled her back before she could cross the threshold of the far room.
Scourge skidded to a halt by her side. "Together, Nulis," Scourge said, realizing his blunder too late.
"So, the mighty Scourge has a weakness after all," Tajno taunted, inching back into the room one step at a time, luring them in. "Who would have thought it would be a woman, considering your shortcomings in certain departments."
"Immortality has a cost," said Scourge, "and your debts already run deep. I'm here to collect, not to give a donation."
"Your little spacer friend had many secrets to tell. I wonder what marvelous treasures your Jedi has locked away? I'll have fun finding out, one piece at a time. Perhaps you'd like to watch my methods."
Sayonar moved from Scourge's side to flank Tajno, who watched her with the amused interest of a predator.
Something was wrong, rippling just beneath Scourge's feet. The oily taint of Sith alchemy bubbled up through the floor, slick tentacles wrapped around his legs, up his torso, gripping his arms. He was force locked in place. His darkness roiled and struggled against the ever-tightening bonds, unable to break free, raging against the restraint. The doors slid closed behind him.
"They're in trouble," Kira yelled while blocking a saber and spinning around to aim for the gut. She was having trouble of her own. And someone needed to do something.
Corso ducked and rolled, coming to his feet at the far end of the fray. "Akaavi? Do something about that kriffing door," he yelled before sliding his blade into the ribs of his latest opponent. The man slid off his knife, falling soundlessly to the floor.
Akaavi jetted upward, raised her gauntlet and fired. A trail of smoke followed the missile to its target, the explosion buckled the metal, and the door cracked open, but not enough.
"Akaavi?" Corso yelled again.
The Mandalorian plowed her fist into the face of a young woman, snapping her head back, then fired her gauntlet again. "Last one," she said before snapping the woman's head back for good.
The missile struck the right panel of the door, knocking it off the track and opening a gap large enough for a man to slip through. Corso ran, halting at the door just long enough to spy Scourge battling against some force that Corso couldn't see. Tajno and Sayonar battled on the other side of the room.
"Sayonar he's baiting you into another trap. Stand your ground," Scourge grunted through clenched teeth.
Corso squeezed through the door and unleashed all the rage he'd kept bottled up for so long. Adrenaline surged anew, refueling his tired muscles, his legs burned with it, his heart hammered out a war cry that echoed in his ears.
He crouched and lunged, not at Tajno, but at Scourge and slammed into the Sith Lord with enough force to shove the man outside the reach of whatever held him. Corso's beast hardly noticed the hot needles rolling across his body, prickling and poking into his flesh like cactus spines.
"Well, well." Tajno grinned. "A force-blind fool come to join the game."
Corso saw the man's hand twitch, the wrist bend, the shoulder drop, preparing a new trick that would doom them all. The beast lunged again. He'd seen Ky do this, he knew the move, he could do the move. He dropped to the floor and slid under the man's arm, hooked his hand into Tajno's belt, swung upward, pulling the man off balance. His hand grabbed a handful of Tajno's hair and yanked back, rewarded with the sound of cracking bone. Scourge's blade narrowly missed Corso's arm as he sliced his blade across Tajno's throat.
"Fool should have run while he had the chance." Scourge's eyes met Corso's. "Perhaps you are man enough after all." Scourge turned his back and walked to the door that creaked open with a wave of the Sith Lords arm.
Sayonar knelt and removed something from Tajno's corpse.
The fighting in the corridor had stopped, six of the 'children' remained alive, their eyes confused, their jaws hanging slack in stunned silence. Bodies littered the floor, blood and viscera creating reflecting pools of the carnage that had swept through their ranks.
T7 relayed a message through the commlink. "More trouble on the way from Tajno's ship," said Scourge. "T7, open a channel."
Scourge's eyes narrowed. "Your master is dead. I have no quarrel with you, depart now and live, continue this folly and die. My name is Scourge. You do not want to make an enemy of me."
No reply came, but no troops either. "T7, tell Seph we need them now. We have a woman to find, and if alive she will require medical aid."
The beast fidgeted in Corso's skin, shuffling from foot to foot, too hemmed in by people, needing to lash out. Chafing with impatience as the lift descended, he burst through the entrance and came to a grinding halt before the only active forcefield.
He'd never known she could look so small, delicate, breakable. Even under the blanket that covered her, the bones protruded, all rounded knobs and razor-sharp ridges. They'd shaved her head. His fist pounded on the forcefield.
The forcefield dropped, he stepped inside and turned to snarl at Scourge who'd gripped his arm. He barely heard the words the Sith Lord uttered. "Don't touch her. Something is terribly wrong with her body. It could kill her."
Corso dropped to his knees by the mattress ignoring the horrendous odor. She'd soiled herself. They'd not even preserved her dignity. A tube hung from one blood caked nostril. The arm laying exposed was dotted with needle tracks, bruised and raw, the fingers bent at odd angles. Scabs and metal probes dotted the stubble on her scalp.
Born of loss and vengeance and rage, the beast threw back its head and roared at the ceiling, its agony too overwhelming to bear. It had no place here, alone and seeking relief from emotions that had no names. It bowed and merged with Game Face who felt nothing. Game face stared down at the woman he had fought for, would have died for and needed to weep for but didn't know how. He merged with Corso, the original man, the man who could cry the tears that needed to be shed.