Chapter 10

The crew had returned to their ship after the party had ended. There were no complications during the rest of the evening but Acina and Shmi noticed the strange looks the real banking clan representative was throwing them, the Muuns are skeptical by nature but this could be more, then again there was no need to worry as they would probably never see him again. The party itself was pleasant enough for Acina, after being stuck in a tomb for who knows how long, it was a breath of fresh air for the Sith. She had uncovered some interesting gossip about a few of the senators and political situations in some systems, the music, and the drinks only made their little outing better. Triz had done well on her part and kept to her role well enough, the girl is eager to learn, desperate actually, both Acina and Shmi could sense that. The former village girl was taken aback by the lavishness of everything and had spent a good amount of time on their ride back to the ship after constantly talking and asking questions about the upper class she wanted to understand further. Some answers Acina gave weren't to Trizs liking, the sith did not lie to the teen, she told her the truth of things, well her truth, which left the young acolyte with some things to think about. Once back on the ship the duo changed back from the fancy clothes they wore back to their usual attire. Acina returned control over the body back to Shmi and while Triz took some needed rest the two of them began planning the next course of action based on the information gathered from the zygerrian slaver.

"There are four locations designated as gathering locations, there are storage houses in the industrial areas on the planet and one a place in the wilds of the planet. There are also smaller sites which serve as outposts where people will be gathered before being taken to those locations and then shipped off world to be sold further," Acina explained the findings she was so generously given by the zygerrian.

Shmi held her chin with her right hand, thinking for a moment while looking at the designated locations on the projection of the planet. "So we strike each of the locations, kill the slavers and free the people."

"If it were only so simple my dear. We would need to strike at each location in quick succession, to make sure that the others have as little time to find out about the attacks as possible and if they do, to leave them with as little time to prepare. I also advise you to wait a bit, attacking now would be foolish, better to attack when the slavers have their cargo holds full and are ready to depart."

"What? Why? Shouldn't we try to dismantle the operation as quickly as possible, before it takes root, before people suffer," Shmi protested.

"As much as agree with you, you need to look at the bigger picture. If we attack now while the operations have barely started it will only cause the slavers temporary setbacks, they will regroup and continue their activities with a greater degree of cation next time. We need to cripple them, to make sure they don't return, to show the zygerrians that the cost of procuring slavers from this world is too great compared to the reward."

"So we let the slavers fall into a sense of security, they grow accustomed to the false sense of safety and once they are ready to send a shipment off world we make our move. Attacking the outposts would cut off the supply of slaves but it will also alert the bases of something going wrong so instead we attack the departure locations first and then move towards the outposts, taking them out one by one until none are left, all the slavers dead and people freed."

"Precisely my apprentice, all you have to do is take a moment to think. I sympathize with you when it comes to not wishing to let innocent men, women, and children suffer needlessly but this a course of action we must take If we are to succeed," As much as Shmi wanted to charge into those bases right now and destroy them before they could do much she opted to listen to her more experienced mentor. Shmi understood Acinas point but there was still one thing that bothered her.

"What about Greyshade?"

"The man is a greedy little man, influential, and well-connected but at the end of the day he is a coward," Acina said.

"And how do you know that?" Shmi asked.

"I know his type well, he will never make a move without having backing from someone. People like him are not as half-smart as they think they are. Bringing a zygerrian to the festivities was his first mistake. Once we deal with the slavers ring we will pay a visit to Grayshade and have a little talk, by then he will be too panicked and what little wits he was will be gone. The key is to cause as much destruction and chaos as you can so as to instill fear into the slavers. Zygerrians respect only a few things, might and power being the main ones," Acina said.

"What's the difference between those?"

"Power can be political, religious, social, or other types. One need not have physical strength. It is the ability to influence others to do your will or to get tasks accomplished. Might is associated with the ability to physically fight, either individually or as a nation through its military, to protect itself or force its choices on others," Acina explained.

"And if they send more troops as backup?"

"Some small amount of reprisal is possible but on a large scale it's doubtful, this operation is secret. Once this endeavor proves too costly they will simply abandon it and look for more profitable sources of slaves."

"What about reprisal, what are the chances of that?"

"High knowing the zygerrians but as long as they don't know who we are and where to find us we will be safe."

"So, all we do now is wait, give the bastards time to get comfortable," Shmi said.

"Yes, that we do. You can use that free time to continue your training and start the training of our new acolyte, she was done well last night, he has some potential," Acina said and Shmi yawned. "Maybe some rest is needed first, it's been a long day and you earned it even if it was me doing most of the work."

"Hey, listening to your royal majesty all day long is exhausting work, not to mention that I hadn't had much sleep in the last few days," Shmi said with a small smirk on her lips.

"Pardon me, listening to me is exhausting," Acina said slightly offended tone. "I'm the one who is teaching you how to survive, not to mention some much-needed etiquette. Go rest now, you get cranky when you are tired, once you are rested, we will continue with our training."

After having much-needed rest and a quick meal Shmi urged on by Acina went to the cargo cold to continue their lightsaber training. Training orbs flew around a blindfolded Shmi and shot low-powered yellow bolts at her. Using the force to detect where the orbs were positioned Shmi knew from where the plasma bolts were going to come and with her quick reflexes and her lightsaber Shmi redirected the bolts back from where they were fired and shot down the orbs, making them fall to the ground. Shmi took off the blind fall, she remembered for hard the initial beginning of her training was, she wasn't able to deal with one orb, let alone ten, and now she wasn't even winded when she was done with them.

"Ten out of ten, bravo my apprentice. I have to say I'm pleased with your improvement, you have made a lot of progress. Then again you have me as a master, so it should only be natural," Acina said.

"Talk about patting yourself on the back," Shmi said mirthfully. "You really like to take credit for things, don't you?"

"Taking credit for something that is my doing is a normal thing to do my apprentice. It was me who taught you how to wield a lightsaber after all, although your skills with it still need much refining."

"What, you don't think I could take a sith of a Jedi on?" Shmi asked jokingly.

Acina laughed. "Oh force no, you might be able to defeat thugs or none force sensitives but a full-fledged Sith or Jedi I'm afraid not. You might be able to hold your own against a gifted acolyte or a padawan but you are still far from a skill lever needed to defeat a well-trained Jedi or Sith."

"Then I guess I should continue training," Shmi said. "CD, training program six, difficulty level nine."

The training droid took several steps towards Shmi before grabbing the electrostaff from his back and getting into a fight stance. The two combatants stared at each other, Shmis brown eyes stared into the dark red of the combat droid until the artificial being made the first move by striking at Shmi with its staff. She quickly blocked the horizontal strike with her lightsaber, pushed it away, and went to offensive herself. The droid skillfully blocked, parried, or dodged the saber strikes while occasionally returning a strike of his own until he managed to break the pattern of attack and resume his own attempt to defeat his organic opponent. The fight between the two of them went on for a while, both tried to win, one being because she must and the other because its programming told him so. As time passed Shmi was pushed more and more on the defensive.

"Maybe you should have chosen a lesser level of difficulty my dear," Acina told her. "It seems you are still no match for him at this stage."

Shmi felt slight annoyance at her master's patronizing tone. She gritted her teeth and blocked an incoming strike that was stopped close to her head. At that moment a vision came to her, another memory but not hers but Acinas. Acina was fighting a red-skinned alien Shmi could not recognize, her master wielded a regular lightsaber while her opponent wielded a double-bladed one. A look of pure hate was etched on the red person's face as he continued to strike at Acina with his weapon. The dual was fierce, neither of the two Sith relenting for a moment, they fought until similarly to Shmi, Acina blocked a strike that was close to her head. She then threw a strike at her opponent's chest which he tried to block and would have if not for what Acina did next. In the last possible moment before the blades collided Acina deactivated her lightsaber, let it pass her opponents, and reactivated it, finishing her attack and ending her assailant, his lands words being "Coward."

The vision ended there and after a brief moment of gathering her thoughts, Shmi continued her deal with the combat droid. As the droid was about to block, Shmi used the move she had just seen and deactivated her saber before it could have been blocked and then reactivated it when it was in the right position and struck. The droid wobbled back slightly, the lightsaber was fixed on low power so no damage would be done to the machine. The droid looked at where he had been struck for a moment before lifting his head back and putting the staff on his back once more.

"Another instance of the bleeding effect," Acina said thoughtfully.

"It seems so," Shmi said. "Who was he?"

"Who?" Acina asked after a moment of thinking, finally registering that she had been asked something.

"The red-skinned man who was attacking you," Shmi answered.

"Oh, him, just someone who wanted to kill me but failed obviously," Acina replied, dodging giving a clear answer.

"I got that much but who was he?" Shmi said, not giving up, she wanted to know. After a moment Acina relented.

"He was a member of the council I was a part of. The two of us never really got along much, come to think of it, he hated me from the very start, something about me not being worthy as I remember it correctly. A situation arose in which we came to blows, literally and I was forced to defend myself and in the end, kill him."

"But why did he call you a coward?"

"Because I used a form of lightsaber combat called Tràkata. The Tràkata style was based around the unique ability of lightsabers to turn on and off, activating and deactivating the blade in the heat of combat to slip past enemy defenses, or trick them into over-extending themselves. Philosophically, Tràkata involved practical combat and deception, rather than the more traditional single-minded and determined tactics that were the hallmarks of the Jedi and Sith. Sith had difficulty applying this style, as their power came from passion and rage rather than level-headed tactical ingenuity, luckily for me I always had a level head on my shoulders. They also saw the form as cowardly, fools. The Jedi refrained from this style due to their unwillingness to rely on deception. Also, deactivating one's lightsaber during combat offered greater control over the Force due to the removed distraction. He called me a coward because he didn't see me as a real warrior, a real warrior uses every skill and trick up their sleeve to win. It is only the lesser who hold themselves to some false notion of rules in combat, you have to do this or that, pure foolishness. In a real fight, you either win or you die, there is no other alternative, "Acina explained. Shmi was about to throw her own view of things into the conversation but was prevented from doing so by Triz.

"That was awesome!" the teen zabrak shouted and quickly walked over to Shmi, wide eyes staring at the older woman. It seems that their acolyte had woken up and decided to watch their training session, Shmi being too preoccupied to notice her. "Can you teach me? Can you? Can you?"

"Wow, wow, calm damn little one," Shmi said in a leveled, almost motherly tone. "I can but it will take time as I myself am still getting the hang of it."

"I want to be able to swing a laser sword like you," Triz said with glee. Shmi deactivated her lightsaber and put it back on her belt.

"Lightsaber," Shmi corrected. "It's called a lightsaber."

"Sorry, lightsaber," Triz repeated quickly, looking slightly embraced.

"If you are to learn how to use a lightsaber properly you would need to learn some other things beforehand," Shmi said.

"Like what?"

"You would need to learn of the force, the basics of it, and then we would be able to move on to lightsaber training," Shmi said, opting to take the same route as Acina when she started training her.

"I am all ears teach," Triz said happily.

"Master," Acina mentally corrected, her tone chastising.

"Master, you will call me master from now on as that is what I am to you and you are my student," Shmi corrected the teen.

Triz blinked a few times in confusion before lowering her head slightly. "Yes master, forgive me."

"There's no need for that but that is what you will refer to me as from now on."

"Understood master," Triz said eagerly.

"Good now, I think I'm done with my practice for now so we will start your first official lesson on the force," Shmi said and Trizs eyes filled with glee and excitement.

"Oh, how will that excitement disappear soon," Acina said, her voice laced with humor. Shmi took the teen to the lounge where she started to explain with much help from Acina the basics of the force and how one sensitive to it like them could use it. She explained how the Force is what gives a Sith their power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together. The Force was viewed in many different aspects, including, but not limited to, the Light side of the Force, the Dark side of the Force, the Living Force, the Unifying Force, the Cosmic Force, and the Physical Force. The Sith, believed that the dark side of the Force was more powerful than the light, do to it letting the wielder channel their emotions, using them instead of ignoring them. Triz was at first eager to listen, then grew slightly bored as Shmi repeated what Acina was telling her about the force teachings until they began discussing the dark side. Triz would admit that something called the dark side would sound bad to anyone but after some explaining by Shmi understood what the dark side truly meant. Shmi recited the Sith code to Triz as Acina did to her and told Triz to learn it.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me," Triz repeated after her new master. They spent some time discussing it and Shmi spoke of the interpretation of the code taught to her by Acina.

"The Force is our servant and our master. Our teacher and our companion. A weapon and a tool. Know it and you know the universe. Master it and you master the universe. Strive for perfection and the Force shall reward you," Acina said and Shmi repeated.

The next week passed in relative peace, Shmi continued to train herself and her new student, visiting the city a few times, listening to lectures from Acina, and working on the ship, and the broken-down droid she had in the workshop. She had left on a mission to gather intel and plant surveillance devices to easily monitor the zygerrian bases of operation. From the outside one could never guess what was truly going on inside as zygerrians had little to no presents outside of the buildings, and the guards on duty were all humans, either Greyshade thugs or mercenaries. With the surveillance devices planted she was able to monitor the traffic going in and out of the building. During the week several small ships and speeders carrying cargo containers had made drop-offs at the locations. Shmis patience was running thin with each passing day until it finally snapped. She could not allow those people to suffer, to have their lives stolen just like her.

"I waited long enough, by now the holds should be full. It's time to my our move," Shmi said with determination. Acina wasn't exactly pleased with her apprentice's dissonance but could do little to stop her at the moment and words did little to persuade Shmi from her set course of action, on the contrary, they only fueled her further. Acina finally relented but still had some words to say to her apprentice.

"If you are going to go head first into a zygerrian compound, which will certainly be heavily guarded may I suggest putting some armor on. You might be decent with weaponry but some additional protection never hurt," the sith said.

"What do you have in mind?" Shmi said as she made a full stop.

"We have a full cargo hold of sith artifacts, among them some good quality armor, nothing but the best for the sith lords. So I suggest you take a look and pick something that fits you," Acina said. Shmi listened to her master's words and after some rummaging through the boxes she found an intact Dire Eliminator's Chestguard Armor Set. "Not the most elegant armor I had seen but it will do for now."

Shmi took the armor pieces and changed into from her regular clothes. She now wore a gray chest plate over a black undersuit with shoulder pauldrons over a red coat, red pants, and black boots. Her lightsabers were resting on her belt and she had a blaster holstered there as well in case she needs it. She gave herself on quick look over.

"Not bad, it will do the job," Shmi said.

"It looks great, you look intimidating," Triz said as she got inside the cargo hold with the droids keeping a close step behind her.

"That's what we are going for," Shmi said as he took one last opportunity to fix her left pauldron properly. "You will stay with the ship. Once I'm done with the site in this area we will have to move to the next location. I can feel your eagerness to prove yourself but you are still far too untrained and green to be let in a situation like this. But don't worry your time will come, be patient. There will be plenty of opportunities to prove yourself in the future."

"Yes master," Triz said diligently, lowering her head slightly. Shmi put a hand on the teen's shoulder, the acolyte looking up at her master, Shmi was offering a kind smile.

"This is just the beginning, there is plenty of time to learn and become what you want to be. As a master, it's my responsibility to not just train you but to guide you and take care of you until I deem you ready to set out on your own. You show promise Triz, I will do my best to show you the way as long as you wish," Shmi told her acolyte.

"Thank you," Triz said after a moment of silence and hugged Shmi. Shmi was slightly taken aback by the gesture but after a moment returned it not really knowing what else to do. The last few months have been hard on Triz, losing her family, being enslaved by pirates, and almost sold off. She had felt scared for a long while but the fear has lessened greatly since she joined Shmi. She still felt uncertain at times, she had chosen to join a random woman right after she saved her, to leave her home and world behind and travel the galaxy. That is not to say that she did not feel excited at the promise of seeing what the universe has to offer, what she can experience, and what she can learn from her new mentor. Attending an actual ball with the rich and powerful has never crossed her mind, not even in her wildest dream, seeing such lavishness and talking to actual senators, yes they might have crashed it but it still counted. The first week of training was mostly focused on the basics of the force, how to use it, how to focus, meditate and a few other lessons like the basics of flying a ship. Her days were filled with learning and watching Shmi practice, she wanted to be skilled with a lightsaber like Shmi. Shmi spoke about the many artifacts in the cargo hold, holocrons, tablets, lightsabers and more all of which had a force signature to a greater or lesser degree due to their nature or exposure to a force sensitive. Triz could not feel their presents the same way as her master due to her senses being less refined but she could still feel something, an odd sensation in the back of her mind whenever she looked in their direction. Triz broke the hug and stepped back. "Go get them."

Shmi smiled. "I will and remember stay on the ship."

The older woman put on a red hood over her head and walked down the ramp leaving the ship and disappearing into the night.

"What you said was very clever," Acina told her apprentice.

"I just told her the truth. She is an orphan, she is traumatized due to the ordeal she had suffered, we both could hear the sobbing the other night coming from her room. I'm still uncertain about the whole training her thing but as long as it gets her to focus on something else then I guess it's acceptable. She does need to deal with her grief but she must not let it consume her. Now that she is with us, she is our responsibility," Shmi told her ghostly mentor.

"She can use that grief to get stronger, accept it, and not push it away," Acina explained.

"Triz will deal with it on her own terms, when she wants to," Shmi told her master. "Now let's focus, we got slavers to kill."

Shmi stood on a rooftop looking straight at the building housing the slavering operation. It was a large warehouse at the edge of the industrial district of the capitol which allowed ships to dock and leave. On the outside, she counted at least a dozen or so human guards and droids and she could sense more beings on the inside, much more. Her anger began to rise at the thought of people suffering under the zygerrians boot, she will make the slavers pay for every life their ruined. She looked down and saw two of the guards standing right beneath her.

"Let the games begin," Acina said and Shmi jumped down igniting her sabers in the process. The two guards barely had the time to register the strange red glow above them before they had their heads cut off from their bodies. Shmi landed gracefully on in a kneeling position, her blades pointing backward as the bodies crumbled to the ground. She stood up, looking at the dead bodies and scoffing at them before voices caught her attention. Deactivating her blades she quickly returned to the shadows. Soon enough another pair of guards came and found the ones she had killed. Both sported a look of shock on their faces. One knelt down to inspect the bodies, looking at the cauterized necks.

"We have an intruder," the first one said.

"No shit genius, what gave it away, the bodies?" the second one said sarcastically.

"Just call in and report it," the first one said annoyed as he got up and pointed his blaster rifle in front of him. The second guard was about to reach for his communicator but was stopped when he suddenly felt something strangling him, not allowing him to breathe. He dropped his rifle which attracted the attention of the other. Both stared at each other with shock and fear until suddenly a red light came out of nowhere and ended them both with one single cut at the waist.

"Well done my apprentice but this is just the beginning, let us move on quickly," Acina said and Shmi did as told. She picked off the rest of the outdoor guards easily, cutting down or strangling each one of them. Once the coast was clear Shmi walked over to the back entrance to the warehouse and used the force on the lock, opening it and letting herself inside. Sneaking behind some containers Shmi took a look and proceeded to get the gist of the situation. The people were being held in cells that were once small storage areas, she could see that some of the people were being loaded onto a ship to be transported off world, hands bound with durasteel cuffs. She spotted much more guards inside than out, there were at least twenty she could see and could sense more. "They have the numerical advantage so be careful and remember watch out for the whips."

Shmi carefully thought about her next course of action. Taking out the guards outside was easy as they were divided and were not expecting her but even with the element of surprise here but they had the numbers. She was confident when it came to her fighting abilities but as her master said she had to be cautious. Looking up, she noticed a crane holding a large cargo container, and beneath it was standing a pair of zygerrians with blasters. Not enough she needed more of them to be beneath it. Close to them were some stacked crates.

"Perfect," she thought and used the force to knock some of them over. This attracted the attention of the zygerrians, five in total moved towards the crates with blasters at the ready. When all of them were under the container she used the force to release the clasps that held the container and made it fall on the unsuspecting slavers with a loud thud. The feline slavers were instantly crushed under the weight of the container and the fall attracted the attention of the rest.

"What the hell happened?" one of them, a tall, slender male zygerrian dressed in armor and a helmet asked loudly.

"T-the container, it just fell," one of the guards said. The tall zygerrian looked up to see the clasps that once held the container spread wide. He then looked back at the fallen object. "Hedo and some others were beneath it when..."

"Damn it all!" he shouted. This operation had so far run smoothly, they had little issues with the procuring of slaves and had no run-ins with local authorities due to their connection on the planet. The only issue he knew about was the death of the diplomat the queen sent to make a deal, he was found dead in the Grayshade palace sometime after the party he was last seen attending. There was some slight panic after that but with time the dust settled and no new inconveniences happened he just chugged it off to politics, he knew how these senators could get if you step on their toes, and that's why he never liked politics. Everything was running as planned and now this happens.

"What do we do?" one of his fellow zygerrians asked.

He sighed heavily. "Send someone to check the controls."

"Ser..." one of them started but was cut off them he noticed crates floating in the air. "What the..."

The other turned to look at the same thing as him and a moment later those same crates were flying toward them. Some jumped onto the ground in time while some weren't so lucky and ended up being hit by the flying crates. The officer in charge lifted his head from the floor and shouted.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

At that moment Shmi finally decided to leave her cover and run toward her targets. As she ran she activated one of her blades and jumped toward the group of downed zygerrians. The slavers watched in shock as a hooded figure dressed in black and red made its way toward them, lightsaber in hand.

"Jedi! Kill her!" the officer shouted as he got up and pulled his blaster to fire at the intruder. Shmi flew through the air blocking several blaster bolts until she landed right in front of two zygerrian guards who did not even have time to aim their blasters at her before they were cut down. She quickly got up and force-pushed the nearest group of assailants before redirecting a blaster bolt back at the guard who shot it, ending him. The commotion had attracted the attention of the remaining zygerrians in the building and they were making their way to the main storage area with all haste while the ones there had fully recovered from the shock and were now actively firing on Shmi. The people who had the misfortune to have been captured by the slavers heard the sound of something heavy falling and blasters, some started to be filled with hope at the possibility of rescue while others were all the more afraid at the goings on behind the doors of their cells.

Shmi continued to fight, blocking and redirecting back the blaster bolts while cutting down any who got near her with her lightsaber. She could feel the panic settling in the slaver's minds, it was mixed with anger and shock, as she continued to kill them one by one. She used force to lift one of them in the air and used him as a human shield to protect herself from several bolts that came from the side, the slaver going limp after the bolts impacted the body. Then one of them pulled out an electro-whip and swung it at her, she managed to block several strikes before she saw that more of the zygerrians were coming at her with those whips, they were surrounding her. Shmi fought, blocking the strikes that came from the whips while doing the same for the blasters. She used the force to launch one of the whip wielders into another but that took focus away from what was happening to her left as a blaster bolt hit her leg making her cry out in pain. This gave the slavers the opportunity they were waiting for, as one by one their whips impacted her body and bound themselves to one of her limbs and electricity surged through them causing Shmi to scream in pain. Her lightsaber fell from her hand and deactivated on the ground as she continued to scream. Her boy fell to the floor as it continued to spasm.

The officer moved closer to her, he had an irritated look on his face. "Damned Jedi," he growled. "How did you find us? Who told you? Tell me!"

Shmi did not reply too busy contorting due to the pain she was currently suffering. The officer looked at her for a moment, there were no clones or additional Jedi because if there were they would have been here by now. This intruder had killed half of his men and injured some more. The operation could be compromised still, he would need to deal with her before taking this up with the higher-ups.

"Such a pity," Acina said, her voice harsh. "And here I thought that you were made of stronger stuff, guess I was wrong. The zygerrians will kill you now if you are lucky and will proceed to do what they intended with the people they gathered here. Just think of those poor innocent people, men sold to die working in mines, women sold to become servants or whores and children, well who knows what will happen to the children. All because of you. Because you were too weak. They will be doomed because of you."

"No," Shmi whispered as the pain continued to wrack her body, every muscle, every fiber of her body was in pain but she can not let this be the end, this will not be her end. Then she had a sudden vision, a memory but not Acinas but hers this time. She saw herself as a teen being beaten by a master for some reason as he screamed at her, he continued to punch and kick her repeatedly as she cried on the floor and begged him to stop, then the memory ended. As the pain increased so did the hate and anger she felt for her attackers. "Through victory, my chains are broken," The officer leaned in close.

"What did you say?" he asked.

Shmi lifted her head suddenly to look at the slaver talking to her, their eyes met his silver and hers sickly yellow. She unleashed a scream and using the force sent a powerful burst in all directions, sending her assailants flying. She breathed heavily as she got up, removing the whip that was still bound to her right arm and tossing it away. Using the force she summed her lightsaber back into her right hand and took the other one in her left. Shmi was still learning how to properly wield two blades at the same time, this will serve as a good exercise. As the zygerrians were coming to after the force blast Shmi had started mercilessly cutting them down where they lay or stood, armed or unarmed.

She felt a sick sense of pleasure as she cut down each and every one of them, this was the payment for all the hurt and suffering they had caused, their lives. This was for every life ruined, every innocent life destroyed, every life taken, this was the price, death. Shmi had immersed herself so much in the killing that she barely managed to register that there was no one else to kill, she was completely surrounded by mutilated bodies. She took a look around, red blades in her hands making the only sound in the large area. The bodies were cut into pieces, places where she had cut them completely cauterized. She took a moment to gather herself, and her thoughts. She felt no remorse for what she had just done, no pity, nothing, although she was taken aback by the brutality.

"Pain and adrenaline can do that when combined with emotions, as a force sensitive your emotions are heightened. Don't worry yourself about it, dear, it's all normal in such a situation," Acina said. Before she could respond to her master's words, something caught Shmi's attention. Walking over to where the noise had come from, behind some crashed crates she found the officer who stared her down a few moments earlier. She used the force to lift him up and place him in front of her, the lightsaber positioned right in front of his face, his eyes staring at it with utter fear and dread.

"You are guilty of some heinous crimes, some much destruction, and for what? Money? You zygerrians are worthless wretches that should be exterminated from the face of the galaxy," Shmi practically growled out, her yellow eyes fixed on the slaver. The lightsaber moved closer to his face, the officer trying to move his head away but failing.

"T-the Jedi don't kill unarmed people," he said, his voice had lost all of its edge it once had, now all that was left was pleading. Shmi leaned in closer, their faces separated by the red blade of the lightsaber. The red light gave her face an ominous aura.

"I," she said in a sinister tone, "am no Jedi."

With those words, she leaned back and with one swift stroke cut the last zygerrian in half, from balls to brain. It was a quick death, something he did not deserve. She gave the body one last look before spitting on it. There were no more signatures of any opponents in the warehouse, the only ones left are those in the cells and a few on the ship. Shmi left the bodies where they lay and moved toward the cells where the people were being kept.

In one of the cells, a dozen people were being kept. Women and children were huddled in the back of the room with the few men there standing at the front with one of them with his ear pressed at the door, listening.

"Anything?" someone asked.

"No, it's all quiet," he said after a moment.

"It sounded like a war zone out there," another commented.

"Quiet, someones coming," the one listening at the door said and moved away from the entrance. Footsteps were heard coming from outside the cell and as they reached it they stopped. The innocent people that were captured by the slavers to be sold prepared for the worse as the doors opened and instead of a zygerrian in stepped a human woman dressed in red and black.

"You have nothing to fear from me, I'm here to rescue you," the woman said.