"COME ON, DIAZ! WAKE UP!"

Forcing his heavy eyelids open, Marco found Janna kneeling over him, holding a flashlight. His vision was blurred and his head pounded.

"Ja...Janna?"

"Geez, Marco, thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "For a second there, I thought I'd lost you!"

Marco groaned and tried to sit up, but that only exacerbated the pain. "Whoa, easy there, Diaz." Janna gently pushed him back down, removing her hat and placing it under his head to cushion it against the hard floor. "Stay down. You lost a lot of blood, Dude."

"Blood?" Marco shifted and realized that everything was sticky. Looking down, he saw that he was lying in the center of a half-dried pool of blood that stretched halfway up his back. "Wha...what happened?"

"I wanted to ask you the same thing!"

"I...I don't remember...I think I hit my head..." He gently cupped his throbbing temple with his hand. "Everything is fuzzy. Wait! All this blood is mine? Am I still bleeding? We gotta stop it! I'll bleed out!"

Janna gently took Marco by the wrist. "Marco, calm down. It's okay, you're not bleeding anymore. From the looks of things...you kinda took care of it on your own."

"I did?" Marco tried to slow his pounding heart. "How? Where was all that blood even coming from?"

He saw Janna grimace nervously. "Well...it was coming from your left leg, but, uh..." She reached down and lifted something off the floor. "...looks like you stopped the bleeding with...your lightsaber."

Marco's eyes bulged at the sight of what Janna held in her hands.

"Is...is that my leg?"

"Yeah."

In Janna's hands was the lower half of Marco's left leg, the top edge where his lightsaber had gone through scorched black by the plasma blade. The lightsaber had gone clean through just below Marco's knee cap. He could clearly see the large rip in the trouser leg still wrapped around it and the massive gash in the flesh underneath.

"...I cut off...my own leg?"

"That's what it looks like."

Marco blinked a few times...

...and then screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

His shriek reverberated through the cave, causing it to sound even louder than it actually was. Janna just stared at him blankly, calmly holding his severed leg, until Marco ceased his terrified shriek. "Ohhhhhh..." he moaned. "I think I'm gonna throw up."

Janna set the limb down where it was out of his sight. "Please don't. Vomit is like the one thing I cannot deal with."

Feeling faint, Marco set his head back down on the ground. "Fine, I guess I'll just pass out again."

"No! Don't do tha-"

The echo of a far-off shriek cut Janna off. The Padawan and the smuggler locked eyes, both equally startled by the sound.

"What the heck was that?" Marco asked.

Janna rose to her feet. "I don't know, but it sounded like it came from deeper inside the cave."

The shriek came again, seemingly closer this time.

"Whatever it is, it sounds like it's coming toward us!" Marco exclaimed.

Janna shone her flashlight toward the steep embankment at the cave's mouth. "There's no way I'm gonna be able to carry you up that. Whatever it is, we'll have to fight it." She reached inside her jacket for her blaster holster, but it wasn't there. She'd taken it off to sleep and had left it beside her bedroll in the Sith tomb. "Oh, shoot! I don't have my blaster!"

Marco's hand found his lightsaber on the ground. "Here, use this," he said, holding it out to her.

Janna started to take it from him, but noticed that one side was coated in sticky congealed blood where it had been lying in the pool of Marco's fluids. She gingerly took it between two fingers, careful not to touch the blood, and then lifted up the hem of Marco's shirt and wiped the blood off.

"Hey!" Marco protested.

"Hey, yourself. You're already lying in a puddle of it." She handed the flashlight to Marco.

Once more the shriek came again, even closer now, and accompanied by the thumping of heavy footfalls. Janna got to her feet, took several steps past Marco, tried to mimic a ready stance, and ignited the emerald blade of Kit Fisto's former weapon.

The footfalls became louder as their owner drew closer, the ground beneath Janna's feet trembling with each crash.

And then, lumbering into the edges of the lightsaber's glow, there it was. Nearly as tall as the cave's ceiling with rough pinkish-gray skin and clomping along on six stubby legs the thickness of tree trunks. It's massive, gaping mouth, wide enough that even Tom could have stood up inside, hung open as it walked, several rows of teeth visible inside. The front top and bottom rows were flanked on each end by a long, razor sharp fang.

It let out a deafening shriek that rattled the loose stones on the smooth cave floor.

"What the hell is that thing?" Marco yelled.

"I have no idea! But it does not look happy."

The creature crouched down low, it's yellow bioluminescent eyes focusing on Janna. It let out another short shriek and then lumbered forward at her at its relatively-slow-but-still-faster-than-Janna-could-possibly-run top speed, mouth prepared to swallow the smuggler whole. Captain Ordonia nervously held her ground as Marco lay helplessly behind her.

As the creature reached her and aimed its mouth to gobble her up, Janna swung the lightsaber with all her might and sliced through the creature's lower left fang, severing the nerves that ran through it. The monster reared back, shrieking in pain, and unintentionally hit its head on the cave ceiling. It backed up in surprise, shaking its head side to side low to the ground.

Seeing opportunity, Janna decided to go on the offense and charged at it. The top of the creature's head was far too high up for her to pierce its brain, so she decided instead to simply go for its primary weapons. With its mouth now closed, its teeth were hidden, but its fangs remained externally exposed. Resisting her fear and urge to flee, she swung the lightsaber at the other lower fang and lopped it off. She quickly jumped back as the monster roared in pain yet again and tried to swat her away with its stubby front leg, but Janna easily evaded it.

"Janna!" Marco yelled. "Be careful!"

Snarling in anger, the creature lunged at Janna again. So swift was its attack this time that Janna had no time to try to strike it. Acting on pure instinct, she dove to the ground and the creature's lower jaw passed over her head.

Now finding herself directly beneath the monster's neck, Janna rolled over onto her back. "Oh, hello." She plunged the blade of the lightsaber through the thick skin, puncturing the creature's windpipe. As it howled in pain yet again, she swiped the blade to the side, widening the gash before rolling out from beneath the monster.

The monster shrieked until it had exhausted the air in its lungs, and then, unable to refill them, collapsed to the ground with a mighty crash that shook the cave again.

Panting hard more from the sheer terror of the experience than from the exertion, Janna slowly walked back over to Marco.

"Wow, Janna...that was...impressive!" Marco praised.

Janna just nodded. "You know what? I get it now." She let her hand slip off the activation plate and the green blade of the lightsaber shrank back into the hilt.

"Get what?"

"Why you've always been so enthusiastic about being a Jedi. In spite of all their dumb rules, that felt really cool."

Marco laughed, but was cut off by a strange growl coming from the motionless corpse of the monster. "What...was that?"

The growl came a second time, and then the belly of the dead monster split open and a dozen meter-long white worms with teeth-filled mouths poured out.

"Looks like that monster had a bit of a parasite problem," Janna observed calmly.

Marco covered his mouth with hand. "I am definitely going to throw up now."

The worms writhed around in the growing puddle of stomach acid. One that had come out right side up turned itself around and caught sight of Marco and Janna. With surprising speed, it slithered across the cave floor toward them, making a beeline for Marco, who screamed when he caught sight of its hungrily gnashing teeth.

Janna ignited the lightsaber again and took two running steps toward it, meeting it halfway and slicing its head in half down the center.

More came. The next one charged at Janna instead of Marco, but it met the same fate as the first. The others saw what had become of the first two and circled wide, far from Janna's reach, around the other side of where Marco lay.

"Janna! They're learning!"

Janna hurtled over Marco and decapitated another before it reached her friend, and then another. But while she was distracted, one worm charged Marco. The Padawan was watching Janna fight the others and didn't see it coming until it was nearly on top of him.

"GAHH-!" He was cut off as the worm slithered right on top of his body, head pointed away from his face. Marco craned his neck to see what it was doing. It's head was down and bobbed slightly, sickening crunching and slobbering sounds reaching his ears. It looked like it was eating, but he did not feel the tearing of sharpened teeth.

Then it raised its head and he could see why. It had his severed left leg in its mouth.

"Oh. Great. It's eating my leg."

"Marco!" The worm looked toward the shout and saw Janna charging it, lightsaber raised to strike. It quickly slithered off into the dark with the remains of Marco's leg still dangling from its mouth. The remaining few other worms, seeing that their sibling had food, quickly followed back into the depths of the cave.

Janna ceased her chase, the worms, despite lacking legs, slithered easily twice as fast as she could run. Pursuit was pointless, so she returned to Marco.

"I think I owe you at least two there, Janna," Marco panted as the adrenaline of panic dissipated.

She tossed the still-live lightsaber back to him and he guided to him with the Force, easily catching it with his left hand. "At least two. Maybe three. And don't worry, I will be collecting on that. Now let's get you out of here before any more unpleasant guests show up."

Marco looked over at the slope he had tumbled down at the cave entrance. "How are we gonna get back up that? I can't even stand up."

"Maybe we can climb it together." She bent down and took Marco's right arm by the wrist. "Come on." She tried to to help Marco off the ground, but the Jedi wailed in pain as she tried to pull him upright. "What's wrong?"

"I think my shoulder is dislocated again."

Janna sighed in defeat. "Alright." She crouched down and took the lightsaber out of his hand, extinguished it, and set it down on a blood-free spot on the smooth cave floor.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Marco asked.

Janna ignored him and rolled the Padawan onto his left side.

"Janna..." Marco pleaded, realizing what she was about to do. "Please don't."

"Just relax, Diaz." She stood up, holding her left bicep tight to her side, her forearm in front of her.

"Janna, please...I'm begging you-"

"Gotta put it back in, Dude. We'll never get out of here with you being short two limbs."

And before Marco had a chance to say anything else, Janna jumped a few inches off the ground and then dove toward Marco's shoulder, leading with her upper arm. Marco wailed in pain as they collided and his shoulder popped back into its socket.

"Aaaahhhggg! That hurt even worse than when Star put it back in with the Force!"

Janna picked herself up from where she'd landed on the floor. "Yuck. I got your blood on me."

"Hey! I didn't tell you to jump on me!"

"What would you have preferred I do?"

"I-" Marco sighed in defeat. "I have no idea."

Janna picked up Marco's lightsaber and returned it to him, then held out her hand. "Then quit your belly-aching and let's get out of here."

Reluctantly, Marco took her hand and Janna pulled him into a sitting position. Then, after retrieving her hat from the floor where Marco's head had been and her flashlight from the ground, she crouched down on his left, putting her arm beneath his, and he did the same.

"Stand on three, ready?" Janna asked. Marco nodded. "One, two, three!" Janna slowly rose from the ground, dragging Marco up with her as he pushed himself vertical with his right leg as best he could. "You good?"

Marco's head was spinning. "Feelin' pretty woozy."

"Probably just the lack of blood to your brain. Just hang onto me, we're gonna get you out of here."


Climbing up the slope to escape the cave was a very slow and difficult process. The Padawan and the smuggler had to choreograph their movements in order to progress, which was not easy because they did not always have access to a reachable handhold at the same height.

When at last they reached the top, Janna and Marco collapsed onto the level ground, utterly exhausted.

After a long rest in silence, Janna spoke. "You good here for a bit while I go get our stuff and the speeder bike?"

Marco was in the process of shifting himself around to prop his back up against a large rock. "Yeah, sure. I'll be fine."

"Cool. I'll be back soon. Don't fall down that slope again."

Marco scooted slightly further away from the edge of the drop off. "I will make extra certain to not do that."

"Good. I'll be back." And Janna left.

Marco looked up, never in his life so happy to see the sky. Sure, it was overcast and dreary, but it was still the sky all the same, and it was a very welcome sight.

As the adrenaline of certain death wore off, Marco began to feel very weak from the blood loss again. Already exhausted from the climb up the slope, it was easy to close his eyes and drift off to sleep.


As Janna headed back toward the Sith tomb to collect the jump speeder, she pulled her commlink from her pocket and hailed Tom, wondering to herself how she was going to explain what had happened.

She didn't have to wonder very long, though. The transmission didn't go through.

"Huh. That's weird."

She tried several more times as she continued walking, but she could not manage to raise Tom. "There must be something interfering with the comm channel. Frack. Now I can't see if Tom and Star can come pick us up yet or not." She sighed. "We're gonna have to go back."


As he snoozed, Marco had another dream. Gone were the visions of Palpatine and the inquisitor, the gruesome deaths of his friends, and the revenge he took upon them.

Instead, all he saw was Star.

There was nothing surrounding, he could not even see himself. The only thing occupying the dreamscape was his best friend, warmly smiling at him, her long, blonde hair turned majestically golden, gently fluttering in some unseen breeze.

Presently, he gently awoke, the easiest and most peaceful rouse from slumber he'd had in what felt like forever. He found himself inexplicably smiling.

His smile faded, however, as his eyes drifted downward to what remained of his left leg. Now out of the cave and in the daylight, he was able to get a good look at it. He'd severed it just below the knee, the wound dark and burned, but bloodless, instantly cauterized. What remained of his trouser leg obscured part of it.

Marco's heart felt heavy. One would think his aching insides would be due to his inability to fight or even walk properly, or wondering how he would possibly be able to afford any kind of prosthetic while on the run from the Empire, but that was not the case. His injury was not what was on his mind.

Marco longed to see his best friend. After the nightmares and physical trauma he had endured and being separated from her for several long days, he missed Star dearly, and wanted to see her more than he could possibly want anything else in the galaxy. With Janna having not yet returned, Marco felt incredibly alone, and there was only being in the galaxy he wanted to be with.

He needed to see her. He needed to know she was safe. Of course she was. Watching her be impaled by the inquisitor's lightsaber had only been a dream...but...were they just dreams? They were so vivid and felt so real. He just needed to see with his own eyes that Star was okay. He needed to hug her. He wanted to hold her hand. It was the only thing that would erase this feeling of longing that he felt inside.

I want to tell her...

I need to tell her...

"Marco? You still alive?"

He heard Janna call out to him before he could see her. She appeared out from behind a rock outcropping, walking in his direction.

"I'm still here," he replied.

Captain Ordonia came up on his left side and crouched down, threading her arm beneath both of Marco's to support and balance the injured Jedi as she had before. They carefully stood up together and began the awkward walk back to where Janna had parked the speeder.

"Hey," Marco asked as they stumbled over a rise in the rock. "Did you call Star and Tom and tell them?"

"I called them to see if they could come pick us up, but I couldn't get the transmission to go through. There's some kind of weird interference. It's probably just as well, I really would not want to tell Star that you're missing a leg."

"Why not?"

Janna abruptly halted, causing Marco to nearly lose his balance. "I'm sorry, you have met Star Butterfly, right? She would flip out."

"Okay, yeah. She totally would."


The jump speeder ride back to the tomb was not long, and they soon returned to their campsite. Janna parked the speeder at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the tomb's entrance. She glanced up the steps, mentally sizing up how high it was, then looked at Marco.

"I am not helping you climb that."

"That's fine. I have no desire to go back up there, anyway."

Janna hopped off the bike and assisted Marco in sliding off, then helped him hop over to the bottom step and sit down.

"Man, it stinks not being able to walk."

"Eh. When we have time, Pony and I can make you a leg."

"You can do that?" Marco asked, impressed.

"Sure. It won't be glamorous, but it will work. Honestly, I'm kinda jealous."

"Um, jealous of what?" Marco rather indignity inquired.

"Of getting to have a robot leg! You're gonna be so much cooler than you are now." She held up the thumb and index finger of both hands, holding them together to form a square and looking at Marco through the center with one eye closed. "In fact, I think you're more attractive like this than you were before."

"...Missing a leg and covered in my own blood?"

"Mhm."

Marco leaned back, which was as far away as he could get from her, feeling rather uncomfortable. "Janna, you are very strange."

The look on Janna's face was one of pride. "Why, thank you, Marco."

She came and sat down beside him, and Marco scooted himself a bit further over on the step. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, since we can't call Tom and Star for a ride, I guess we'll just have to pack up and head back. We gotta do something ASAP about the burn where your leg was severed so it doesn't get infected and make sure the nerves heal properly so that they can work properly with cybernetics if we can ever manage to get you a real one." Janna sighed in frustration. "Not to mention the fact that we still didn't find what we need to repair theRaventalon's hull."

"Yeah..." Marco crossed his arms and leaned his back against the steps.

Janna groaned and stood up. "I'll go get our stuff and get it loaded on the bike. If we ride through the night, we should be back to theRaventalon by tomorrow before sundown."

"You can't go all night! You'll pass out from exhaustion!"

"Dude, I slept in a Sith tomb last night. It was probably the best night of sleep I've had since I was twelve. Trust me. I'll be fine."

Marco watched as she began to climb the steps up to their campsite. He gave a mock salute. "Well, okay then. Aye aye, Cap'n Janna."


Holding the throttle screwed on to full power, Janna guided the little jump speeder through the endless mountain peaks of Moraband. Twice they stopped for a break when Janna simply couldn't stand sitting on the hard seat any longer, but the reprieves were short, and the ride would continue yet again.

It was rather awkward, too, mostly for Marco, as his lack of one leg made balancing on the rear seat difficult. He was forced to put his arms around Janna's midsection to keep from tumbling off the speeder bike. Janna didn't really care. Marco found it extremely weird, which in turn gave Janna a satisfying sense of accomplishment from knowing that her friend was uncomfortable.

Afternoon turned to twilight, and twilight into dusk. The seemingly perpetually overcast sky obscured the stars, leaving only the jump speeder's headlamp to guide the pair on their way.

"Can you imagine the old days?" Janna asked as she and Marco took another break sometime in the middle of the night. "Thousands of years ago, when there were no electronics to navigate by?"

"You mean even before starships?" the Padawan wondered.

"Yup. When even just getting to the other side of the planet was an ordeal?"

"I guess you'd have to navigate by the stars," said Marco. "But-"

"How would you do it on a planet like this?" Janna already knew the question he would ask because she wanted to ask it, too.

"Because you rarely see the stars?"

"Yup."

Marco looked up at the blackness overhead. "I think I remember reading somewhere in the archives that ancient Force-users that came before the Jedi and the Sith could find their way anywhere by using the Force."

Janna looked at Marco quizzically. "How would they do that?"

Marco shrugged. "I guess if you were strong enough with the Force and were familiar with the essence of the place you were going, you could feel your way there. Maybe? I don't know. Something I definitely will never be able to do..."

Janna's eyes drifted back up to the sky and she sighed. A strange feeling was pricking at the back of her neck, and she couldn't figure out was it was. It was making her uncomfortable.

"Come on," she said, hoping back onto the bike where Marco already sat. "Let's keep going."

On through the night they went, until daylight flittered through the clouds.

"How much further?" Marco called over the wind rushing past.

"A few more hours," Janna answered as she checked the navigation screen. "We're making better time than I thought we would."

"Oh, that's good. Because...I haven't slept in like a week...except for being unconscious...and a little loth-cat nap...and I'm starting to have trouble staying awake."

Janna's eyelids were starting to feel heavy, too, but she was determined to get back to her ship, so she kept going.

Another hour passed, and then another. Janna staved off the beckoning of sleep, but it was becoming more and more difficult with every passing minute.

Finally, just as both smuggler and Padawan thought they could go no further, the silhouette of the YV-560 freighter appeared on the horizon.

"There she is," Janna said. "We made it."

I think I'm going to stop worrying about trying to keep up with the weekly update and focus more on making sure that each chapter is actually, you know, good. Updates might be a little bit less frequent, but they will be as often as I finish a chapter. In other words, whenever possible.

Don't forget to review, and I'll see you again soon!