Chapter 16

"He's lying!" Alex snapped out loud.

Black Shot's dead body lay still on the cold floor, and his henchmen were still trying to kick down the door so that they could aid their unknowingly dead master. Alex felt like he was about to scream, but he controlled himself and made his way for the open office window. He climbed down the high factory wall with increased haste as he heard Black Shot's office door crash down and the men stormed in. Alex leaped from ledge to ledge until he reached the ground. When he looked up he saw a guard checking the body that Alex had left on the way in, the guard jumped back when he realized that his friend was dead.

The alarm was raised straight after Black Shot's body was found, and guards were gathering in groups all around the facility to locate his killer. Alex had to be careful on his escape, but he couldn't go out the way he came because that exit was now blocked. Alex turned back and went into the massive metal factory. He stuck to the alleyways and back passages, always staying out of sight as he made his way to the other side. This worked well until he reached the main manufacturing room, where as he ran past a small crane carrying hot molten metal he was spotted by one of the metal workers.

"Over there!" The sweaty worker barked, "That way!"

Stealth was no longer an option and so Alex sprinted for the exit as the guards came after him, but as he drew near to the door three large Barabel's with even larger weapons came through and cut him off. Alex turned sharply to the right, almost losing his balance as he darted for another exit. Again more guards cut him off, now all the exits were blocked and there was no way out. As the smelly sentinels closed in, Alex searched for another escape and ran through all options in his head.

'I could fight them,' Alex considered, but he knew that there were too many to take on alone. Then Alex spotted the crane, which he decided would be his way out of the dreadful factory. Alex force jumped over the line of guards and made a run for the crane. He then grabbed hold of the rope at the end of the pulley system that suspended a large smouldering bucket of hot metal over his pursuers. Alex kicked the lever that held it all in place and the bucket fell, crushing and burning Black Shot's guards. They poor creatures shrieked and cried as they burned.

Because the rope was attached to the bucket, Alex was pulled into the air as the bucket fell and he landed safely on a catwalk that was suspended just below the high ceiling. From there Alex climbed out of a window and ended up on the landing pad where his star ship was sitting. He waisted no time as he boarded the ship and set it for take off.

To his surprise he was not followed any further after he had left the dry atmosphere. Alex assumed that Black Shot's men just didn't care so much as to leave the planet to avenge their master's death.

Unaware of the new threat presented by the clones, Alex set a course for Coruscant and put the ship into hyper drive. While he waited Alex was riddled with conflicting emotions concerning Elexis, and he began to argue with himself.

"Elexis would never betray us, she was loyal to the Jedi."
"Elexis was only loyal to herself, she told you that, and she doesn't care about the Jedi."

"Elexis would never betray me, she was in love with me, and I with her. It must have been someone else."

"There was no one else, think about the escape pod on the frigate, there was someone in there and you knew it, and what about the fact that you are alive. If she loved you then she obviously didn't want you dead when Black Shot learned of your identity, she made a deal with him, how else would he know her name?"

Alex fell back in his seat, it was all true, and Elexis had betrayed him. He just didn't want to believe it.

When Alex arrived on Coruscant he immediately knew that something bad was taking place, but he focused himself on finding Cordatis to tell him what had happened. Cordatis' little blue figure appeared from the holo-com, he seemed stressed and Alex sensed something worse had happened.

Cordatis was extremely relieved to hear from him, "Alex, thank goodness you're okay." He said, "Where are you?"
"I'm on Coruscant, about to go to the Jedi Temple. There's something wrong here." Alex replied.

"Listen to me, it might not be safe there." Cordatis gave a very brief summary of the end of the Boz Pity Battle, "The clones have turned. Do not go to the temple. Just wait for me there. Be weary and stay on your guard. Do not trust anyone."

As they spoke the holo-com was interrupted with static and Alex began to lose the signal, and he still needed to warn Cordatis about Elexis.

"Sir, you were right about Elexis." He tried to say, but the signal was gone and he could only hope that Cordatis had heard.

He thought about what Cordatis had said, and then he checked his ship and found that there was a message. It warned all Jedi of the new threat and told them to return to the temple immediately for their own safety. Alex could not wait for Cordatis, and so he set off to see wether or not the temple of was trap.