Chapter 35

Anger

"All right, we can't wait for her any longer. We have to go for it." Arc said as he checked his belt to make sure he had all of his equipment.

"I agree," said Ylenic. "I will create a distraction. Jyssa, I would appreciate it if you would watch my back. Mirian, stay with Jyssa to protect her from any oncoming fire."

"I've never actually shot anyone before," the Corellian pilot said. "I'm not so sure I can start now."

Ylenic put a furry hand on her shoulder. "I hope you do not have to start now. At the very least, you can make the pirates keep their heads down."

Jyssa nodded. "Okay. I'm with you, I guess. Xho will keep the ship ready to go in case we need a rapid exit."

"Arc, I will give you three minutes to get into position. Then I will strike."

Arc shouldered a long rifle and immediately started heading towards a vantage point. "They won't know what hit them."

Jyssa shook her head, "I just hope Ahsoka is out there somewhere, waiting for us to make our move."

Ylenic led Jyssa and Mirian down a trail that led around the edge of one of the lips of the valley. He pointed out a well sheltered vantage point. "That should be good enough to keep you safe from incoming fire, and close enough for your pistol to do some good."

"I'll make sure nothing gets through, Master It'kla." Mirian still wasn't at her peak, but she looked determined. Her lightsaber was in her hand, and she showed no signs of hesitation. She looked more than just determined. She was focused.

"I thought that pirate was right. I thought droids couldn't lie," whispered Nat to BLX-5. "How come you can?"

"Keeping you alive is a higher priority. Minor programs can be overridden by programs given a higher priority. As to how I was able to lie so well, it is simple. I looked the pirate in the eye and told him what it would take to keep you safe. The probability that it would save your life overrode any programming conflicts that I may have had."

"I didn't know you could do that."

"I have found that few droids can. I suspect it is a result of various tampering with my circuitry over the years. Most of my common droid programming is intact. I cannot harm intelligent organic beings. I still strive for functionality. And yet, I have been told more than once that I have a near perfect sabacc face."

Nat laughed, still trying to stay quiet. "If somebody told me a month ago that the entire universe would be turned upside-down, and I'd end up on a dark-side infested desert planet, tied to the galaxy's only droid with a sense of humor, being held hostage by pirates..."

"We may not be hostages much longer. Be prepared to escape, Master Nat."

Nat craned his head around to try to see what the droid was looking at. He saw Master It'kla striding up to the ship. He walked so quickly and casually that he passed right by one of the sentries before the man even had a chance to react.

"Hang on a minute... who's this bugger?" the guard asked. Ylenic didn't even slow down, but Nat saw a glint of metal in his right hand. Up until this point he'd never even seen the Caamasi Jedi's lightsaber. "Hey, you can't go through here!"

Before he had a chance to draw his weapon, Ylenic wave a hand in his direction, and the pirate flew into the rock wall of the canyon. With a dull thud, the pirate fell to the ground, unconscious.

Nat felt the bonds around him loosen. He wasn't sure if Bollux had done something, or if Ylenic had untied the rope with the Force from several meters away. Either way, he stood up and shrugged off the ropes.

"What is all of this?" came the voice of the head pirate. "Don't tell me, another Jedi is here on some foolhardy rescue mission. Two smaller Jedi are easy enough to handle, but a full grown Caamasi? This is getting to be too much. I only have so many men and so many cells to put prisoners in."

"Hondo Ohnaka, I presume." Ylenic stood in the middle of the canyon, facing down a dozen armed pirates. He showed no sign of fear or trepidation. "You have had your fair share of dealings with the Jedi in the past. I suggest you walk away from this. I will be taking Nat with me."

"I don't think so, Jedi. I may not be a bounty hunter, but I am a hunter of profitable enterprises. And right now, Jedi are one of the most profitable enterprises in the galaxy. Neither of you will be leaving here."

"Nat, stay behind me," Ylenic instructed. Nat used a Force-enhanced leap to land behind Ylenic.

"Does there really need to be all this unnecessary bloodshed?" Hondo said, "I am willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to all of this. As long as it ends with you and the boy in my cargo hold, I am more than capable of being peaceful. But if you take another step away from here, I am afraid I will have to order my men to open fire."

"Then do what you must, pirate. The boy and I are leaving."

One of the pirates twitched his trigger finger as Ylenic started to step back, and a green blade snapped into existence in front of him, deflecting the bolt into the canyon wall. Immediately another bolt flashed from a vantage point at the top of the canyon, and the pirate fell. A curl of smoke rose from a hole in the pirate's shoulder.

Behind the two Jedi, a second lightsaber blade snapped into existence, this one shimmering silver. "Well, well. How many Jedi are there today?" said Hondo. "Men, blasters are useless against a Jedi. Don't shoot at them."

"A wise decision," said It'kla.

"Shoot the canyon walls. Bury them."

Eleven blasters fired into the canyon walls, and in her vision, Ahsoka saw Ylenic and Nat crushed under several tons of rock. She heard Mirian scream, and the Padawan leapt out from under cover, running to help save her friends. A well aimed stun bolt from Hondo hit her as she stood over the crushed bodies of her compatriots.

"Is this really supposed to scare me? Frighten me? Make me angry?" Ahsoka asked. "It doesn't matter how dulled my senses are right now. I know you're just showing me what you think will make me angry."

The voice laughed. This was starting to get old, but Ahsoka reminded herself that being a Jedi required patience. "So convinced, are you? This is what will happen if you remain trapped in this cave. I have seen it."

"And I don't believe a word that comes out of your nonexistent mouth. Now shush. I'm trying to meditate."

"So bold. You speak this way to a Lord of the Sith in his own hallowed halls? If I didn't need you to fix my crystal, I'd strike you down for that kind of insolence."

"And that's just it, isn't it. You need me. I really don't need you. You're just a shadow, a relic of the past. You just... don't matter."

"Insolent wretch! I will destroy you! I will tear apart your mind and make you my servant! I will force what little part of your mind is left to watch as you do horrible things. I will change the future, just to ensure that your little apprentice lives through this ordeal. I will only do this to force you to watch as you slowly torture him to death, and then trap his spirit forever inside a crystal of my own design, but forged by your hands!"

And while he raged in Ahsoka's head, she continued trying to find her center, to undo whatever tampering his dark side workings had done to her mind. And to find a way out of these caves.

Author's note: I just passed 52k words on my NaNoWriMo project, which means that I've technically 'won' NaNo... but my my outline puts my full book at over 80k words, so I'm actually behind on my writing schedule. Still, I've got a couple days off work in a row that I'm going to try to use to catch up. Right when I hit 50k words last night I managed to introduce the character who will be the main character of the sequel, and have her help the main character of this book stage a jailbreak. Fun times. So I'm still working hard on that, and with any luck, it'll be done before Thanksgiving and I'll be able to get back to the normal schedule for this fic in December. Thanks for bearing with me. :)