Lorash felt like she was going to be sick as she followed the sith up the stairs to an overlook on the temple's crumbling main hall. "We can't fight this many," she whispered. "I see more than a dozen, not counting those killed."
Did your master truly fail to teach you that all things are possible through the Force? Seia's voice again surrounded her, pulsing in her thoughts. The sith warrior narrowed her eyes as she looked over the group. One of these is not like the other. A brief gesture of her hand signaled for Lorash to look.
The man she had indicated was almost entirely out of place among the group of mercenaries. His only armament was a blaster pistol and he dressed in an adventurer's clothes rather than durasteel armor. Currently, he had picked up the abandoned datapad left by Master Vori and busied himself with cracking into it.
Lorash felt a cold sweat break out across her body. "If he opens that datapad, the Empire will know about us. I have to stop him." She wasn't afraid for herself, but the twins had already been through so much. The idea of anything happening to them or to Master Vori terrified her.
As soon as her heart started to race, she calmed it. There could be no fear, only peace and determination. No attachment, only serenity. She was imperfect and not yet fully trained, but she could do better.
The sith smirked. And here I thought you said we could not fight them. It seems to me that the jedi has a spine after all.
Lorash went to move, but Seia grabbed her first. She glared at the sith in answer. "We don't have time."
If I assist you in stopping him, I expect a favor in return.
That chilled Lorash to the bone. Her fear was going to lead her to trust the Dark Side if she didn't control it. She couldn't afford to give a sith any kind of advantage. "No." She pulled in a deep breath, centered herself, and jumped with the staff placed to knock the datapad from the man's hands.
It worked beautifully. She hit the man from above, heels striking his shoulders as the staff drove the datapad onto the floor with enough force to dash it to pieces just as he sliced past the passphrase. She barely managed to twist and roll to land without breaking one of her own bones, coming up on her feet with her staff in her hands.
She was surrounded and going to die, but the others would be safe.
The portable lights exploded a split second after she'd landed, plunging most of the temple's main hall back into darkness with only a few little islands of murky light. The sky above was heavily overcast, surrounding the hall's occupants with a sudden gloom. Even Lorash struggled to see in the sudden darkness.
Crimson light exploded out of the darkness, sweeping through two men as if their armor meant nothing. Durasteel was not enough to stop the sith's lightsaber.
Lorash had no intention of wasting the advantage, even unexpected as it was. She closed her eyes and attuned to her surroundings in an instant before striking out with her staff. The metal rod slammed into the side of a man's helmet, then swept the legs from beneath another in one seamless continuation of a move, high with one end and then low with the other.
Blaster fire flashed in the darkness, destroying everyone's vision even further, but Lorash no longer needed her eyes. Instead, she flowed from strike to strike with her beskar staff. She focused on the places between the firing blasters, out of the paths of their furious assaults. For all her inexperience, Lorash knew how to move her weapon and herself with a dancer's grace.
Behind her, she heard the roar of the lightsaber suddenly disappear. The crimson light and its attached wielder vanished, the area where they had been now peppered by panicked shots.
Lorash's senses stayed attuned and she felt the shadow circle past her, brushing close enough to touch as it prepared to strike again from an unexpected angle. She almost swung at the sith, but stopped herself. There would be time to deal with that problem after their current one was resolved.
You have potential, Seia's voice whispered in her thoughts, low and approving.
Before Lorash could lose her nerve amidst the chaos of shouting and struggling, the lightsaber's glowing blade reappeared through a man's chest with a lethal hiss. The young woman dove to the floor at the sound of an automatic blaster rifle opening up, suppressing fire sprayed in the direction of her and the sith. Making herself flat and not a target was the best Lorash could do.
The lightsaber's glow vanished again and Lorash sensed the darkness move anew, taking evasive action just as she had. The moment the blaster fire ended, the darkness grabbed Lorash by her shirt and dragged her out of the room, leaving the men scrambling to sort out what was going on as they fired randomly in any direction that seemed dangerous, frequently clipping each other.
Before she could ask where they were going, the sith's hand clamped over her mouth as if anticipating the cry. In a few moments, they were outside. The sith dropped her beside the nearest speeder, one of the mercenary's covered vehicles.
Lorash slung her staff and scrambled up the outside, narrowly managing to wriggle into the pilot's seat before the first blaster fire from the temple hit them. The sith was already inside, but taking up the gunner's position. Get us out of here.
"To where?"
They came from a ship. We will be taking it.
"I'm not going with you."
Seia reached past her and switched the engines on before firing a shot from the cannon back in the direction of the door. She didn't seem like the best shot, perhaps unfamiliar with the controls, but she only had to be close to be threatening. Do you have a better option, jedi?
Lorash's comm buzzed at her side.
Ah.
She went to grab at the same moment the sith did, but she had gone for the comm. The sith went for her hand instead, grabbing her by the wrist and twisting until the comm dropped from agonized fingers.
It seems your friend Merga is about to make the jump to hyperspace without you. There is an Imperial ship moving into orbit and they cannot stay without risking the lives of the twins. The sith warrior smiled and released her hand. Our way out will be ours to find.
Lorash gasped in pain and hit the controls with one hand, sending a flood of power into the speeder's engines. She could steer well enough one-handed to get them out of immediate danger. At least her left hand was only throbbing, not broken.
Seia laughed, firing a parting shot at the mercenaries' other speeder. That wide target was much easier to hit and she blew apart one of the engines. There would be no large, organized pursuit from whatever mercs remained at the temple. There was only the speeder that Lorash had come with.
Lorash closed her eyes and tried to refocus on centering herself. It had always been so easy with Master Vori, but she could do it in his absence too. She needed to, if she was to survive the sith and embody her code. "I don't know how to even fly a starship."
Then let us hope that they were wise enough to leave their pilot behind.
"Really? Hijacking?"
The sith smiled at her, a dark and dangerous edge under the surface of the expression. I have no intention of remaining on this planet. One way or another, I will leave it, and as I recall, I did assist you in surviving.
"And I released you," Lorash said more calmly, settling down as the speeder zipped away from danger. A few moments of fiddling with the little navigation system allowed her to locate the ship, though they were still quite a distance from it.
Indeed you did. There was something altogether too close in Seia's voice. The restless power of the Dark Side seemed to almost melt into Lorash's calm, disturbing the waters.
Lorash didn't understand the danger, but she knew she needed distance to sort everything out. "Talk like a normal person. I don't like it when you touch my thoughts."
Seia watched her intently from under hooded lids, clearly measuring the jedi padawan's resolve. When she spoke, the rasp of her voice was far more obvious and painful than when she connected using the Force. "As you wish."
Consideration wasn't what Lorash expected. She barely stopped herself from swerving the speeder as she turned to look at the sith. "I—"
A strong, almost crushing hand covered her own, keeping her on the right path. "Pay attention to what you do." Seia's hand was mangled, missing a few joints of different fingers. The scars of intentional harm were obvious, though not who inflicted them. "I want to live."
Lorash sucked in a deep breath and nodded. "Right."
Seia released her, leaning back in her seat to make herself more comfortable. There was something catlike about the way she moved and lounged. She made no effort to bridge the silence, however. Lorash suspected that speaking pained her, which sent a pang of guilt through the jedi padawan.
"How did you end up trapped?" Lorash asked.
The sith's lips twitched, though the young jedi couldn't tell if it was amusement or irritation. "A friend in your order agreed to conceal me."
"A sith has a jedi friend?"
"Had."
Lorash was not a complete fool. She knew she had touched a nerve and that the wrath of the sith warrior was destructive enough to kill them both. "I can't just let you leave this planet. You could do no shortage of harm to the galaxy."
Seia's lip curled into a slight sneer. "Do you know me so well, jedi?"
Lorash's hands tightened on the controls. "I know about the Sith."
That seemed to release some of the tension in the warrior beside Lorash. Seia leaned back, lacing her fingers behind her head as she stretched. "Oh?" The amusement sounded sincere, but Lorash hated the context. It and the throbbing in her wrist were a painful reminder of how much danger she was in. There hadn't been a shred of hesitation in Seia's movements in that fight or when she'd stolen the comm.
"All your kind do is conquer and destroy." The jedi padawan had many memories of such intervention, though from Imperial stormtroopers rather than the Sith themselves. She couldn't afford to show the little currents of anger that remained in such memories, not in front of someone who would leverage that to their amusement. "You corrupt and twist things."
Seia laughed. "How little you know, jedi. There is so much more."
Leaving the controls for a moment, Lorash leveled a glare at her current companion. "I am not here to be lectured by a monster."
"As you wish." Seia's hand moved to her lightsaber, a move that sent another wave of fear through Lorash. This time, however, she did not ignite it. Instead, she turned it over in her hands with her eyes closed, fingers acquainting themselves again with every groove and ridge. It seemed like she was checking to be certain everything was in working order, just in case.
Silence stretched on for a long moment. It gave Lorash time enough to fully calm herself. Once she felt steady, she could approach a conversation with more confidence. "What happened to your voice?"
"An old wound from an old friend." Seia moved the fabric over her throat, revealing a wicked scar carved across her throat. "The last taste I had of beskar."
"Does it hurt you?" Creeping curiosity reared its head quickly. Lorash knew it was a weakness to be so inquisitive, even if Master Vori had always praised it. In times like these, it seemed liable to get her killed.
Seia's lips curved into another smile. "So thoughtful. Yes, it pains me."
"A friend did that to you?"
The sith touched the scar thoughtfully, almost lovingly. "A great betrayal. The mandalorian who cut me killed my apprentice. He did not survive his treachery."
Lorash had no idea how to respond to that gracefully. "I'm sorry."
Seia shrugged. "It is the nature of things, jedi. Someday you will understand." She stretched again, shifting her weight as she shook out each leg. "We should go to Republic space. The Dark Council will not be able to reach us there with such ease. I know how to pass."
"Republic?" Lorash blinked at her. "The Republic has been dead for years."
The sith went absolutely still. "What do you mean?" she said harshly.
"There's only the Empire now, consuming everything in the galaxy. My master told stories of some rebellions, but they are doomed to failure. Your Dark Side won."
Seia was silent for a long moment, processing that. She crossed her legs, smoothing out the fabric covering her thighs. "And what of the jedi?"
"There are a few hidden. The order itself is destroyed." Lorash couldn't help the edge of bitterness in her voice. She knew the anger was unhealthy, something to be carefully healed, but some wounds ran deeper than others.
"Then Nabeila is dead." The sith leaned back again, tucking her hands behind her head. "Then once we have a ship, there is a task I must complete."
Lorash narrowed her eyes slightly. "And what task is that?"
Seia shifted in her seat, producing a silver orb about the size of a fist from the satchel she wore. "This holocron must be returned from whence it came, to the shrine on Naboo."
The jedi padawan's jaw almost dropped. She'd heard stories of ancient holocrons, but not once had she ever imagined seeing one. The secrets locked inside could restore much that had been lost. "Can I see it?"
"Once we have a ship, we can discuss it. Until then, no." Seia tucked the holocron back and smiled almost wickedly at Lorash. "Temptation is a beautiful thing, isn't it?"