Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Get excited.
Janna shook her head in disgust. "What a mess."
"Yeah. Sure glad we weren't here during the sandstorm," Marco agreed. "That would...heh...not have been fun."
The gang had returned to the Raventalon following the sandstorm. Thanks to the gaping holes in the hull, the ship's interior was full of sand and dust. Even the closed interior doors hadn't been enough to keep back the swirling debris, and every compartment from the galley to the engine room had at least some layer of particulate.
"I still don't understand how we ended up all the way out here, in the Outer Rim," Tom said as they inspected the cockpit. He brushed the sand from the copilot's seat and sat down. "We were only in hyperspace for, like, two minutes. Even with a class .5 hyperdrive it takes hours to get from the core worlds all the way out here, and the Raventalon's is only a class 2!"
"We were floating in space for a pretty long time," Marco reminded him. "Could we have just drifted here?"
Tom shook his head. "No way. I don't think we should have made it far enough to even leave the orbits of the core worlds."
Janna brushed the dust from the pilot's seat so that she could sit down as well, and caused Marco to accidentally inhale some and trigger a coughing fit. "I've been thinking about that myself," she said. "I heard some stories that old deep space pilots used to tell about a ship being hit by an explosion right as it jumps to lightspeed. They say it causes a ship to be knocked into hyperspace in such a way that it sort of 'skips' across the hyperspace dimension, like a stone on the surface of a lake, and causes the ship to be spit out way further away from where it started than it would from normal hyperspace travel." She shrugged. "I always thought it was just a tall tale. Guess there was some truth in it after all."
PY-HD rolled into the room followed by a very uncharacteristically nervous Star. The droid twittered something sarcastic.
"Okay, so what's the plan for getting out of here?" Star asked. "I hate this place so, so much."
"I didn't think anything freaked you out, Star," Janna said.
"Well, this place does, okay? I have the incredible misfortune of being very sensitive to the Force, and the longer I'm here, the more and more I feel the presence of the Dark Side." Marco noticed that Star was shaking slightly. "It's overwhelming and I can't make it go away! All I feel is darkness and cold and-and-and...death!"
Janna squinted. "Lucky."
Star rubbed her bare arms as if trying to warm herself up. "So? What's the plan?"
Janna thought for a moment. "Well, the Sith Empire in its heyday had a pretty extensive fleet of starships. There's gotta still be some somewhere." She retrieved her datapad and showed the others a scan PY-HD had made of the planet. She pointed to a spot on the map. "Over here is the largest concentration of non-natural structures. Hopefully there's a hanger or something with ships in it. This planet has been abandoned for so long I don't expect to find anything that still flies, but we just gotta find something we can cut some hull material off of to make patches for the Raventalon."
"That spot is pretty far away," Tom pointed out. "Almost a full day's journey. When you find parts worth using, how are you going to get them back here?"
"I was getting to that, Lucy, hold your fathiers. I think we should split up."
"Oh, that's a great idea," Marco said, rolling his eyes.
"It's the best option to cut our time here as short as possible."
Star quickly interjected, "I'm all for that."
"Look, we're gonna need some pretty big pieces of durasteel to patch the hull, way too big to carry on the speeder bike. So while one of us goes and hunts for starships to cut some hull plates off of, the others need to stay here and get the engines repaired so the Raventalon can get back in the air. That way when I find some suitable salvage, you can fly the ship to me instead of me bringing the salvage to you."
"I noticed you started referring to yourself as the one going searching for hull patches halfway through that," Tom said. "I guess that means you're volunteering."
"I'm not volunteering. I'm the one going and if you've got a problem with that, then you guys can try to stop me."
Tom shook his head. "You're just using this as an excuse to go exploring on the abandoned Sith home world."
"Duh."
The demonicite crossed his arms. "Well, you're not going alone."
Janna rolled her eyes. "Fine. Guess you're with me, Marco."
The young Jedi jumped. "What?! Why me?"
"If I'm going hunting, then Tom has to stay here to work on the engines, and Star-"
"-is absolutely not going galavanting around on a planet where I'm constantly being bombarded by feelings of death and darkness to the point where I can barely think straight," Star finished. She held the sides of her head with her hands. "Oh, it's getting worse and worse every minute."
"Yeah, that," Janna finished.
Marco quickly tried to figure out an alternative to being alone with Janna. "Uhhhh...what about Pony Head?"
"Pony will be far more useful here in repairing the ship," Janna said. "Sorry, Diaz, you're stuck with me."
Marco sighed. "Fine." He looked at Star again. She was still trembling, anxiety written on her face. She didn't seem nearly this bad last night, and then we were literally in a Sith execution chamber.
Heh. Maybe it's because she was wearing my hoodie.
"Well, if we're gonna go, we might as well go right now," Marco said.
Janna stood. "Couldn't agree more. Let's grab some more provisions. Who knows how long it'll take to find something? And then we'll hit the nonexistent road. Oh, and Pony?"
The droid beeped a confirmation.
"While we're gone, take a look at the navicomputer again. We could be stuck here for a while, you may end up having enough time to fix it."
The astromech twittered an affirmative. "Good. Marco, I'll meet you down below." And she disappeared through the cockpit doorway.
"Be careful!" Tom yelled after her.
Marco and Star met each other's gaze. "So...we're splitting up," Star said slowly. She gave a tiny chuckle and smiled nervously. "This will probably be the furthest apart from each other we've ever been since the day we met."
"Yeah...I was thinking the same thing." Marco gently took both of her shaking hands in his. "Are you gonna be okay? You look terrible."
"Gee, thanks," Star quipped, but she said it with a teasing smile. "I know. But I'll...I'll be fine."
Marco was not convinced. "Are you sure?"
"Sure, sure. Totally. I'll be fiiiine. Just...don't drag your feet finding that salvage."
"I won't." He wrapped Star in a hug and she enthusiastically returned it. Marco noticed that as they stood together in their embrace, Star's trembling ceased.
"Well...I guess you'd better get going...wouldn't want to keep Janna waiting." Star reluctantly released him.
"Yeah...I guess I'd better." Marco quickly shrugged his arms out of his hoodie just as he'd done last night and drew it around Star's shoulders. "Keep this safe for me until I get back, okay?" Marco waved goodbye to Tom and quickly hurried out of the cockpit.
"Alright, let's see...I've got our bedrolls, water, a couple days' worth of ration packs, my datapad for navigation, macrobinoculars, flashlight, and a burning desire to explore this planet's weirdness." Janna looked at Marco. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be, I guess."
Janna climbed onto the jump speeder and Marco took his seat behind her. Janna turned the bike around and zoomed away from the Raventalon.
From up in the cockpit, Star watched as her friends sped off toward the Moraband horizon. She pulled Marco's hoodie around her tighter and felt the same comfort she had last night, as if the one she secretly harbored great affection for were right there with her. Her senses were quieted, and she trembled no more, though she already missed him and wished he were still there with her.
"So...Star." Tom beckoned from the back half of the cockpit. "Shall we, uh...get to work?"
She tore her eyes away from the window. "Yes, we definitely should. What's first?"
"Well, I think the first thing we should do is bail out some of the sand so it doesn't get into anything we're trying to fix."
Star hopped over the copilot's seat. "Oh, I can do that! Easy-peasy!"
"What are you-"
Tom fell silent as Star pushed passed him and stood in the corridor just outside the cockpit door. She closed her eyes and raised her arms outstretched to either side. Tom watched as she gritted her teeth together and scrunched her eyes tight.
"Uhhh...Star?"
And then suddenly all of the dust and sand that lay in drifts throughout the cabin of the Raventalon floated up into the air. Star strained in concentration. And then, all at once, the debris shot toward the starboard side of the ship and blasted out through the gash in the hull.
Star opened her eyes. "How's that?" When she turned around to look at Tom, the Demonicite was spitting out a mouthful of dust. "Oh, I guess I should have told you to...close your mouth."
Tom coughed. "It's cool. That was honestly amazing. There's hardly a speck of dirt in here. I think it might be cleaner than it was before."
"I'll be honest, I wasn't really sure if that was going to work or not."
"I thought you said it would be easy...peasy."
Star shrugged. "I lied?"
Tom laughed. "Well, at least we can move on to the sublight thrusters since you made such quick work of cleanup. Hey, Pony Head, can you-"
He turned around to where he thought PY-HD was sitting at her terminal in the cockpit, but the droid was nowhere to be seen.
"Uhhh...Where'd Pony Head go?"
Star cringed. "Uh-oh."
They found PY-HD half-buried in a pile of sand outside and quickly unearthed the droid from its gritty prison.
"Pony, I am so sorry! I had no idea I was throwing you out with the sand." Star apologized as she and Tom cleaned the dust from the astromech's dome.
PY-HD twittered indignantly and rolled back toward the Raventalon, leaving Star and Tom standing together on the rocky ground.
"I feel so bad, Tom. Do you think Pony Head will forgive me?"
"That droid can really hold a grudge, but I'm pretty sure she likes you more than just about anyone else, so..." He shrugged. "Maybe." Tom changed the subject. "C'mon, let's get to work on the engines. We've got to be ready when Janna and Marco find what they're looking for."
"Yeah, you're right. The sooner the Raventalon is airworthy again, the sooner we can get back to Marco. And Janna," she quickly added. "And get off this planet." Star flipped the hood of Marco's hoodie up over her horn headband. "Let's get to work."
Over the drone of the speeder bike's repulsors, Marco yelled "How much farther?"
"We're almost there!" Janna called back.
"You said that an hour ago!"
"We clearly have different definitions of 'almost there!'"
For the past several hours, all Marco had been doing was hanging onto the back seat of the jump speeder, but he was still exhausted.
Janna steered the jump speeder toward a rise and gunned the throttle. The bike shot over the top, and there, nestled in the valley below, were the ruins of a small city.
"Whoa!" the two riders exclaimed as they approached.
Janna slowed to a more moderate pace as they cruised past. There were half-toppled stone columns sticking up from the ground like the teeth of a massive snake, and stone buildings and structures of unknown purpose lining streets of dust.
"Do you see anything that looks like a hanger?" Janna asked as she slowed the bike to a stop.
"I definitely don't see anything that lookslarge enough to be a hanger," Marco replied.
"Yeah...me neither."
They looked about their surroundings for a few minutes more, but saw nothing of immediate interest. Janna scanned the area with her macrobinoculars in case there was something in the distance they had missed, but still found nothing. She did, however, notice that the sun was sinking low in the sky, and the light filtering past the cloud layer was dimming.
"Well, Diaz, I don't know about you, but my butt is falling asleep from sitting on this speeder for the past eight hours and I'm hungry. What do you say we pick a building here and make camp for the night? Then we can pick up the search in the morning."
"I'm good with that. I'm getting sore from sitting on this thing, too."
Nearly all of the structures were merely skeletons, lacking windows and doors and leaving gaping holes where the fixtures once were. They were full of dusty drifts and otherwise empty, having been looted centuries earlier. They chose a building that still had an attached hinged door, the ancient prettified wood swinging slowly back and forth in the breeze, and set up camp, neither having much to say to the other.
As they ate their ration pack dinner, Janna hit Marco with a question that seemed to come out of the ether.
"So you in love with Star or what?"
Marco choked on his food, sending him into a coughing fit. "What?!"
"You heard me, Diaz."
"Why-" Marco coughed again. "What would even make you ask that?"
Janna shrugged. "Because I'm pretty sure you are and I want to know if I'm right or not."
"Uh...you know I'm not allowed to have feelings like that or get emotionally attached to anyone or-"
"You still aren't denying it."
Marco's face scrunched up in aggravation. Sure, he'd already had this discussion with Tom, but he didn't quite fully trust Janna and was rather annoyed at how sure of herself she was. He set down his half-eaten ration pack and stood up. "I'm going to bed," he informed her as he stepped over to his bedroll.
Janna grinned. "I was right," she said to herself, but loudly enough that she knew Marco heard her. He lay on his bedroll on a sand drift, facing away from her. "You know there's no reason for you to hide it. Not anymore, anyway."
There was a long silence before Marco finally replied, "I know."
Janna said no more. She'd gotten what she wanted. When she had finished with her own ration pack, she laid down on her own bed roll on the opposite side of the room.
As Janna slept soundly, Marco set into the rhythm of his breathing meditation just as he had the previous night, still refusing to fall asleep. While Star was constantly feeling the strong presence of the Dark Side swirling around the planet's aura, Marco didn't really notice it until all around him was quiet. Thoughts of his recurring dream returned to him again, but he pushed them away and returned his focus to his steady breathing.
While the meditation practice Kit Fisto had taught him helped, it was not meant to be used for prolonged periods of time, and when the sun rose the next morning, Marco did not feel much less exhausted.
Janna and Marco resumed their hunt. The desolate city where they'd spent the night sure didn't have any structures large enough to hold a starship, but they poked around some of the larger buildings anyway, just to see if there was anything of use inside. They came up empty-handed. Janna couldn't even find anything weird or creepy to slate her thirst for oddities.
"Alright. There's nothing here," Janna declared. "Let's move on." She showed Marco the map on her datapad. "The next closest area on Pony's scan that looks like man-made structures is a only couple dozen klicks to the northeast, and it's at least a larger area than this settlement here."
"Okay. Let's move on, then."
The next area Janna and Marco visited was certainly larger than the first, but it's condition was not much better. Toppled and crumbling stone structures littered the ground with rubble. Part of the city looked as though it had once been a spaceport, which gave the two teenagers hope. Unfortunately, there were no spacecraft anywhere inside.
They moved on to a third area on the map, but it was nearly dark when they arrived and they decided to call it quits for the night.
The following day, the search resumed yet again.
"Janna...not that I'm ready to give up or anything..." Marco pushed through a narrow gap between a fallen stone column and a vertical rock face that Janna was already in the process of free climbing, several meters above his head. "...but we've been out here for days..." He put his hands up on the wall and began to follow Janna up the rock face. "...and we don't really seem to be getting anywhere."
"Oh, c'mon, Marco," Janna called down to him as she hoisted herself up half a meter farther. "Have a little faith. We'll find something."
Marco didn't think that was possible. He was beyond exhausted, having not actually slept in a week's time. His attempts to keep himself rested through his breathing meditation was no longer working, and as he tried to haul himself up the rock face, he felt like he was going to pass out.
When Janna reached the top, she bent down and offered Marco her hand, which he gratefully accepted.
"Thanks, Janna," Marco panted when he had both feet firmly on solid ground again.
"Don't mention it," she said dismissively, strolling across the plateau to the opposite edge. She lifted her macrobinoculars to her eyes and searched for another building development anywhere between them and the horizon. "Oh, hello there."
"What do you see?" Marco asked as he came up beside her.
"Take a look." She handed him the macrobinoculars and he held them to his eyes. He could see more broken stone columns and a smooth carved out pathway terminating in a tall set of stairs that led up to a massive door carved into the side of the mountain.
"What the heck is that?" Marco asked.
"Beats me, but it sorta reminds me of the main entryway of the Jedi Temple."
"Hmm, you're right. It does. Except...creepier."
"Wanna go check it out?"
The idea of poking around in what he was now guessing was probably a Sith Temple of some kind was not very keen in Marco's eyes.
If that is a Sith Temple, though...maybe I could learn something in there that would help defeat Palpatine...
Marco looked out at the sinking sun behind the overcast sky and sighed. "Sure, why not?"
It was nearly dark by the time Marco and Janna climbed down from the plateau and rode the jump speeder to the supposed Temple. Janna hopped off and admired the decrepit but still beautifully sculpted stone facade carved into the side of a mountain peak. "Alright! This is definitely the most interesting thing we've seen so far."
Marco took his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it for illumination. "Come on, let's go take a quick look before it becomes pitch dark out here."
Janna extracted her flashlight from her jacket pocket. "Lead the way, Master Jedi," she joked.
They climbed up a flight of carved out stone steps and ended up before a set of tall double sliding doors, half-open in the center. They cautiously stepped inside and shone their respective lights around as they walked deeper into the mountain. Eventually, a second set of stone stairs led down to a corridor lined with towering statues of hooded figures, and ending in another short flight of stairs. The landing at the top held a massively tall statue that towered over the room and a rectangular carved stone box of some sort.
"Now we're talking!" Janna said excitedly as she examined the statues standing sentry along the corridor. "This is awesome."
Marco said nothing. He wasn't quite sure why, but something about this place was making him uneasy.
The beam from Janna's flashlight flickered over the larger statue at the far end of the room. "Guess that guy is the leader. I wonder who he is."
Marco took a good look at the statue. The person depicted was encased in full body armor, arms crossed over the chest plate. A strange helmet covered the head, and Marco was suddenly reminded of the inquisitor that had attacked him on Coruscant what seemed like ages ago. His eyes flickered to the stone chest at the statue's feet. He looked at the statue's pose a second time, taking note of the way the depicted's arms were crossed over the chest. "Janna...I think this is a tomb."
Her eyes lit up. "I think you're right!" She jogged up the steps to the stone chest. "This has to be a sarcophagus!" Gently, she ran her fingers over the smooth stone top and the line of strange symbols carved in a band around the top. "So cool."
"Uh, Janna, maybe we should leave this place alone, you know?"
"Why? You think some Sith Lord who's been dead for a thousand years is gonna get ticked off and jump us? Doesn't matter how powerful this dude was, Marco, no one can overcome death."
The young Jedi looked up at the massive statue again and shuttered. "I sure hope you're right."
With the day's sunlight gone, they made their camp for the night just inside the entrance to the tomb in the corner beside the door. As Janna comfortably drifted off to sleep, Marco yet again attempted to resume his breathing meditation, but his exhausted mind could not focus and he found it impossible.
I can't keep doing this. I'm gonna either pass out or die. I'm just gonna have to give in and go to sleep.
Marco reluctantly let his heavy eyelids close...
...
...
...
"M...ia...ssssss..."
Marco snapped awake and quickly sat up, his hand snatching up his lightsaber from the ground beside him.
What the heck was that?!
"...o...com...re..."
The hair on the back of his neck stood up, both in fear and from the sensation of cold that was suddenly creeping around his body. Someone, or something, was whispering in the darkness.
"...arc...m...he.."
And it seemed to be coming from deeper inside the tomb.
Cautiously getting to his feet, Marco stepped to the edge of the first flight of stairs, which he could just barely make out in the light of the Moraband moon. Beyond was only inky blackness.
The whisper met his ears again, barely audible, and though he could not make out what it was saying, it definitely was coming from inside the tomb.
The blade of Kit Fisto's lightsaber ignited in his hand, casting its emerald glow into the darkness. Marco could see nothing but what he already knew to be there: the stone sarcophagus, and the giant statues.
He ventured slowly down the steps, holding his lightsaber at a defensive angle in front of his body to protect him as well as light his way.
"...om...t...e...arc...assssss..."
"Uh...hello?" he called softly. "Is someone there?"
The whispering stopped. In the furthest reaches of the lightsaber's glow, Marco thought he saw something moving.
Please just be a hallucination from being so exhausted. Please.
As he drew nearer to the set of stairs before the stone sarcophagus, Marco came to the unfortunate definite conclusion that his eyes were not playing tricks on him. The movement turned out to be tendrils of thick, sooty smoke curling up from around the edges of the heavy stone lid of the sarcophagus.
"What the-?"
Before Marco had a chance to wonder what was happening, a fiery, smoking mass passed though the lid of the sarcophagus. It unfolded itself, and as Marco stood frozen in fear, he watched as it took on the same form as the towering armored statue behind it. The smoldering figure floated in the air, staring at Marco through the narrow slit in its helmet. When it spoke, it's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"Why do you come to my tomb?"
Marco screamed and tried to step backwards, but tripped on his own feet and fell onto his back, his lightsaber slipping from his hand and going out as it clattered against the stone floor. Without his weapon providing illumination, the fire that made up the floating specter before him was the only light in the room.
"I see there is great fear in you," the specter boomed. "Such anger. Such hate. Such...darknesssssss. Have you come to be my apprentice?"
"W-w-who are you?" Marco spluttered in terror.
"I am Darth Bane."
Marco shuddered and sat up. "Darth Bane? But you...you've been dead for, like, thousands of years!"
"And yet twice in the last two, my place of rest has been disturbed by two different Jedi. The first was most...disagreeable. But perhaps you have come to learn the ways of the Dark Side." And the specter sneered.
Marco quickly got to his feet. "What? No! I-I-I'm a Jedi!"
Though Marco couldn't see the specter's face, he could tell that Bane was smiling beneath the helmet."I can sense your emotions. You cling to the Light Side, but there is great conflict inside you. You seek revenge. You fear losing those you care for. There is so much fear in you, and great, terrible anger." Darth Bane chuckled as he circled Marco like a shark stalking helpless prey. "I could teach you to harness your emotions, to embrace the Dark Side. You could become a powerful Sith."
"What? No! You're wrong, Bane!"
"You cannot hide your emotions from me. I can sense your feelings."
"You don't know anything! You're dead!"
"Do not deny your true nature." Darth Bane's ghost came right up to Marco's face. "The Dark Side already resides in you. I can see into your future. It is fruitless to resist."
The lightsaber rocketed off the floor and snapped into Marco's waiting hand. In one swift motion, he ignited the blade and swung it at the burning embers that made up Bane's Head. The blade passed right through, as if there were nothing there.
Because there *was* nothing there. Darth Bane's ghost had vanished.
Breathing heavily, quaking in fear, Marco stared at the empty room, his fatigued mind swirling, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He cautiously began to back away from the stairs leading to the sarcophagus, still holding his lightsaber defensively.
Halfway to the stairs, the disembodied voice of Darth Bane echoed through the cavernous tomb.
"Giving in to your anger...striking an unarmed opponent...hardly the Jedi way."
Marco turned and bolted up the stairs, tripping and falling halfway up, but he did not stop.
"Heh heh heh heh heh. Very good, apprentice. Very good."
Marco sprinted right past where Janna was still sound asleep on the floor, having not been even remotely disturbed from her slumber, and out the entry way. He ran down the long stairway, past the jump speeder, looking back over his shoulder as he ran down the long and broken concourse, and out into the barrens beyond.
No longer was Marco plagued by exhaustion. Adrenaline coursed through his veins, his fear moving his body on autopilot. He ran between the mountain peaks and kept going. A rock caused him to stumble, and his finger slipped off of the lightsaber's activation plate. No attempt was made to reignite the blade again, and Marco instead ran in the night's darkness. He squeezed between two opposing rock faces, looking back over his shoulder again, making sure the specter was not following him.
And then his left foot came down and found only air, and Marco was suddenly falling down an embankment.
"Oof! Ah! Guh!" he gasped as he bounced and rolled down the rocky slope. He crashed into a boulder with his chest and what little air was in his lungs was knocked out of him.
And then a searing pain tore through his left leg as something sharp ripped through his flesh.
At last, the tumble came to an end. Marco landed sprawled out on a smooth rock surface at the bottom of the embankment, his lightsaber slipping from his grasp and rolling away into the darkness. Finally able to suck a breath of air into his empty lungs, Marco let out a scream of agony. "AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!
An intense pain radiated from Marco's left leg. He tried to look at it to see what the damage was, but he could not see it. In fact, he could not see anything aside from pitch darkness. The embankment he had rolled down had ended in some sort of cave, and the light of the Moraband moon did not penetrate the spot where he lay.
Quickly, Marco felt for his lightsaber, but his fingers could not locate it. It had rolled away, out of his reach. He stretched out his arm and tried to call it to his hand with the Force, but was in so much pain he could not focus on it. In addition to his leg, his lungs burned from his intense run and his entire body ached from the fall.
"Come on...come on...focus, Diaz, focus!"
But he could not. The harder he tried, the more intense the pain seemed to become. "Come on..."
Frustration was beginning to set in. Then panic. Then, as he realized that his trouser legs felt damp and the likely reason why burrowed down into his mind, genuine fear.
"Come on, you stupid lightsaber, get in my hand!"
Something metallic scraped against stone. That was it. He'd made it move and he had heard it slide across the cave floor. Marco closed his eyes. Even though there was nothing but blackness to block out, it helped him concentrate, quieted his mind.
After a few frustrating seconds, the scraping sound returned. Marco kept it up as long as he could, but soon the pain became too much to bear and his connection to the Force broke. He whimpered in frustration.
Then something touched the finger tips of his outstretched hand. He had given the lightsaber hilt enough momentum for it to roll to him.
Marco let out a sigh of relief and grabbed the weapon, propping himself up on his left elbow and igniting the lightsaber above his head with his right.
"Ohhhh, that can't be good."
The lightsaber's glow revealed that Marco was laying in a growing puddle of blood, his trousers soaked. Marco felt faint and quickly averted his eyes.
"Yes. That is blood. That is a lot of my blood."
Taking a moment to pluck up courage, Marco investigated his injury further. Carefully rotating his left leg, he saw the massive laceration on the backside of his calf through his torn trouser leg. A chunk of his flesh had been torn away, and it was gushing blood. Marco was starting to feel dizzy and weak.
"Oh boy...I gotta...stop that...or I'll...bleed out," Marco gasped to himself. "How am I...gonna...make a...tourniquet? I have nothing to...tie one with...and I...can't even...sit up."
The soft humming of his lightsaber caught his attention.
"I guess...I could try to...cauterize it." He looked at his leg again and swallowed hard. "Aw, man...this is really...really gonna hurt."
Marco shifted his lightsaber from his right hand to his left, holding his body up in order to see his injury with his right forearm. With every passing second, Marco felt weaker, and his head spun faster. As slowly and carefully as he could, he extended his arm, reaching out toward his leg with the blade of the lightsaber.
"Easy...easy..." Marco could feel his eyelids closing. "Stay awake...gotta...stay..." The lightsaber felt as though it weighed two tons. Marco could barely support it. "Gotta...stay..."
And Marco passed out.
Marco and Janna clearly aren'tfamiliar with the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. After all, it's not a story the Jedi would tell you.
