Chapter 8: Rampage
Disclaimer: Disney owns Star Wars, I only own my OCs.
Last Paragons
One week passed since the crew on the Forgotten Star captured the Imperial supply base on Anaxes. The inhabitants are thriving thanks to the crew's bravery, the mayor herself was grateful and impressed that some chose to rebel against the Galactic Empire.
For now the crew was busy occupying themselves.
Leliana steers the ship through the endless void of space and Leon sorting through the star map to find their next target.
Alexandra and her Sith Masters were in the back of the ship doing another training session. The Sith were pleased at how their student learned her lessons. She listens with intent and executes maneuvers with determination. Her skills with lightsaber combat were improving and mastery of the Force was too. The one thing that Kenta and Alec could sense is Alexandra was still emotionally conflicted since she never took lives until now.
They can sense that Alexandra is calm, focused and collected during their training sessions but when they enter real combat she changes. She struggles with her wish to do the right thing by stopping the Empire and her desire for revenge. After each mission, each attack they made against the Galactic Empire they could see the change in her, fear, hate, nearly too much for her to handle. They need to get that under control otherwise she'll break.
Kenta voiced that concern, "Why do you feel so conflicted when it comes to killing an enemy?"
Alexandra clenched the fist in her lap, "I...I just don't like taking lives. It's not how my parents raised me, Master. I...I don't like how it feels."
Kenta said, "In battle it's either you or the enemy, that's how it is."
Their pupil asked, "How can you be so calm about killing someone? Don't you regret it?"
Alec closed his eyes for a second thinking how to tell Alexandra then opened them, "We reacted the same way after our first battle with the Jedi during the final battle of Ruusan, apprentice. I couldn't eat for an entire week. It was only through Kenta that I was able to pull myself of that depression making me stronger in the process. We all have personal demons but the question is do you face them or do you let those demons haunt you forever? With each battle, I became less effected by the killing and eventually became second nature to me."
Alexandra's eyes widened in horror, "Murdering another person?"
The silver-haired Sith answered, "No. That part will haunt me for the rest of my life. I meant the psychological effect of killing became non-existent. I understand how you wish everyone could just get along but sadly it doesn't work that way, apprentice. Prejudice, jealousy, hatred of one's race, these issues have plagued civilizations for eons."
Kenta agreed, "Our friend does have a point. Racism is an ethical issue that's difficult to solve. We all have something we despise. Mine is how the Hutts treat others like they're lesser beings. At one point their empire was much bigger than the Sith's but like all empires, the Hutts' fell. Nowadays they are crime lords that amassed fortunes at the expense of others. The people who serve under them aren't treated fairly. In the Hutts' eye you earn your reputation. If they see you weak, you are cast aside or killed. Female Twi'leks are known for their beauty and usually seen as slaves to a Hutt. The Twi'lek had no saying. If you ask me the galaxy would be better off without the Hutts."
Yuna knows they need a change of subject.
She cautioned, "You must keep your emotions in check during battle. Even the most powerful Force user is susceptible to the pull of the dark side of the Force."
Alexandra said, "How can I stop my descent?"
Yuna replied, "Through meditation or calming techniques. Kenta, Alec and myself have lost control of our emotions at one point but we stopped before we let our rage consume us. You must remain calm at all times, when you're angry or enraged, you think irrationally and your mind becomes clouded." Just then Violet comes in.
The protocol droid said, "Pardon for the interruption but Leliana requested your presence, Lord Nova."
The Sith Warrior nodded, "Very well. And please, Violet call me Alec when not in battle."
Violet answered, "Understood, sir." Alec walks to the bridge where the smuggler finishes activating the holomap.
He asked, "Okay, what do you need me for?"
The smuggler looked at him, "Word's been spreading all over the holonet that Ryloth is being used for slavery purposes. Rumor is they're being forced to build some kind of weapon, a big one."
Alec's electric blue eyes narrowed slightly, "Do they know what kind?"
Leliana shook her head, "Nope. Whatever the weapon is, the Imperials are keeping it tight-lipped." She sees that despite showing a stoic expression, Alec was furious over the Empire enslaving his home world and using its inhabitants for labor. This won't be tolerated in Alec's mind.
He said, "Set course for Ryloth, please Leliana." The smuggler hops into the pilot seat and punches the coordinates, pulling the lever back to activate the hyperdrive propelling the Forgotten Star to light speed.
It doesn't take long for the ship to reach its destination and Leliana pushes the lever forward, bringing her vessel out of hyperspace. She next brings the Forgotten Star down to the planet's surface, landing on an open field. To speed up the investigation, the group splits up.
Walking down the ramp, Alec feels a sense of nostalgia run through.
'How strange. To stand on this world after over 1,000 years. The last time I walked on Ryloth was during the war between Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness and Lord Hoth's Army of Light.' He thought.
Leon crossed his arms, "Haven't been here in a while. Why is it every time I come here it's because something has gone wrong? This is my third visit to this world and each time I've had to put an end to something. First two times it was a war and now a potential slavery operation. I really don't like coming here."
Alec looked at the former Jedi, "Thank you for defending Ryloth."
Leon waved off his gratitude, "I didn't do it for you." He began to walk away from the group, "Well we are we waiting for? Let's find some Imperial to kill."
Alec felt a depressed feeling hover in the air causing the young man to ball his fist this planet was hurting under the Empire's tyranny. Venturing into a nearby town with his hood down and mask off, the Sith's electric blue eyes take in the citizens' state.
Some were painfully thin due to the shortage of food and water, others have lashes on their bodies no doubt from a whip. The nasty heat waves Ryloth sometimes experiences don't help. Despite this, the people were able to push forward.
Wandering into a flower shop, Alec looks at the variety of plants until he settles on a couple of roses. Walking to the reception desk, Alec rings the service bell.
A voice said, "Coming!" He watches a middle-aged Human male step into view wearing blue jeans, short-sleeved white shirt and a matching apron with dirt stains on it, indicating he took care of the plants inside the store.
The man tenses at the sight of Alec, not that the Sith could blame him. His stature and attire made him seem imposing, couple that with the Empire's treatment of Ryloth and Alec could understand why they would be wary of strangers.
He asked, "How can I help you?"
Alec answered, "I'd like to purchase these."
The middle-aged man warily nodded, hesitant to actually say anything for fear of angering such an intimidating looking off-worlder.
Alec told him, "You've no need to be nervous."
The shopkeeper apologized, "You'll have to forgive me. We're hesitant about off-worlders. Things haven't been too good lately."
Alec asked him, "Are you the owner of this store?"
The older man nodded cautiously, "Yes."
Alec turned around taking in the well-maintained shop, "It's a nice store. I see you tend to these yourself, very commendable." He paid the toll plus a little extra, "Here you go. Use these credits to improve your store." The store owner was shocked at this show of compassion.
He gave Alec a shaky smile, "T-thank you, off-worlder!"
The Sith Warrior said, "Call me Nova. Have a nice day, sir." Exiting the flower shop, Alec hops onto the speeder bike he borrowed from Leliana and ventures toward a millennium-old cemetery.
Reaching the place, Alec shuts off the engine and walks toward the center where a pair of tombstones lay next to each other. Alec was surprised the cemetery was still around, one would think after a thousand years it would have been excavated to make room for something else, regardless he was happy to see it still standing. He stares at the gray colored granite, here his parents were buried. Kneeling down he places the bouquet of flowers between them. The Sith Warrior lets his barriers down tears run down his cheeks.
He said, "Hey, mom and dad. It's been so long since I last visited. A lot has changed. The Galactic Empire holds the galaxy in an iron grip and crushes any who opposes it. I know you guys wouldn't be proud of the fact I joined the Sith Order but when you guys were caught in the crossfire during a battle between Jedi and Sith forces, I was so angry I wanted to make the Jedi pay. So I joined the Brotherhood of Darkness to exact my revenge. Dozens of Jedi fell before my blades making those hypocrites fear me. I kept telling myself what I was doing was right. That Order isn't what it's cranked up to be. They caused every bit of pain to the galaxy as the Sith. Now the Jedi Order is wiped out and the Sith rule the galaxy once again. Instead of restoring order like he promised to everyone, this man, Darth Sidious he calls himself is spreading tyranny and hardship on us all. I promise you this, mom and dad, The Dark Lord won't get away with this. He'll answer for his crimes." Elsewhere, Alexandra finds a male Twi'lek collapsed in an alley.
She asked, "Are you okay, sir?" The Sith apprentice runs to the Twi'lek hoping to get an answer but instead she gets nothing. His body was littered with lashes and burns. Directing her gaze at the deceased Twi'lek's neck she spots a heavy, thick steel collar.
Alexandra pulled out her holocommunicator, "Leliana, are you there?"
The smuggler answered, "Go ahead, Alex."
The 19 year-old said, "I found a Twi'lek in an alley. Unfortunately he's dead. He has a heavy steel collar around his neck."
Leliana replied, "He was one of the slaves. They're forced to wear those by their captors. If they disobey an order, they receive punishment in some terrible form or the other. The one you found must have somehow escaped but later died because of his injuries."
Alexandra said, "I'm going to investigate further, see if I can find the place they're working at." Ending the transmission Alexandra moves on eventually stumbling a cave.
Pulling a flashlight from her belt, the girl starts her descent experiencing a few run-ins with bats that made her skin crawl. She stumbles upon the pits the slaves are working in, but what they were working for Alexandra doesn't know, all she can tell is the slaves are being forced to work by Imperial officers to the point of exhaustion. Some even felt the strain it was putting on their bodies, their slow movements apparent. She next watches from her position on the catwalk a Human female slave collapse to her knees from utter exhaustion some of the other slaves move in to help her when the Human female is shot by one of the task masters saying she was slowing productivity.
Alexandra clenches her fist, remembering how she felt when her parents were gunned down, how so many people were gunned down in the past when the CIS invaded Corellia. She was powerless to help them back then but now she can help. She now has the power to help these people, she wasn't a weak, helpless girl anymore. These thoughts mixed with her anger and for a moment she holds herself together, remembering her Masters' teachings about the seduction of the dark side of the Force. But what happens next changed it.
The task masters have no idea Alexandra was using stealth tactics Leliana taught her a while back to stay hidden.
She watches a group of Imperials walk over to the corpse and pick it up, carrying the body over to a corner she didn't notice before, a corner filled with small piles of dead bodies. All of them were beaten and bruised, some scarred from whip marks and electrical burns, others scorch marks from a blaster. Alexandra feels control over her rising anger weaken as she watches the Imperials heave the executed slave onto the pile and causally turn their backs on the pile like it was mere garbage.
Alexandra snaps.
(Warning! Graphic violence ahead. Those under 18 or don't like violent acts turn away now).
White hot rage flows through the young Sith's veins and Alexandra leaps over the catwalk railing, landing silently. She extends her arm, grabbing the Imperial with the Force, strangling, cursing and damning them for their cruelty against the slaves. She sees his partner reaching for his blaster and slams the one she's suspended into him before snapping his neck with a loud crack. Directing her murderous gaze at the other Imperial she grabs him by the throat, throws him into the air, freezing him in place with the Force and ignites her lightsaber throwing it like a boomerang. Alexandra uses subtle waves of her hand to control her blade cutting the Imperial into pieces of cauterized flesh before one final gesture of her hand ends the violent execution and calls her lightsaber back, the dissected enemy falls to the ground.
The nearby slaves panic, some flee while others cower in fear the enraged Sith Warrior would turn her fury on them afterward. The Imperial task masters and Overseers order them to get back to work, unaware of the danger fast approaching. Angel lands on an Overseer's back and slams her boot against the man's skull, smashing it to pieces and staining her boot with gore and gray matter. She grabs the Imperial next to him with the Force and performs a ripping motion with her hands, tearing the Imperial officer in half blood and entrails stain the rocky floor. Alexandra watches a contagion of stormtroopers arrive. It won't matter in her mind.
She screamed, "NO MERCY!" Alexandra blasts them with Force lightning shocking them with insanely high voltage.
When the current stops, the stormtroopers fall to the ground charred beyond recognition. Footsteps reach her ears and she spots more Imperial troopers arrive and open fire on the Sith apprentice. Alexandra casually advances utilizing the Barrier of Blades to redirect the shots back at them, once she's close enough she rips the blasters out of their hands and viciously cuts them down with one trooper cut in half below the waist. Another gets cut diagonally, a red-hot line starting from his collar bone to his left hip.
An Imperial gathered enough courage to beg, "Please have mercy. This is a misunderstanding!"
Alexandra growled, "Do I look like a fucking idiot to you, Imperial?! Misunderstanding, my ass! You've pushed this slaves to the point of exhaustion! They haven't eaten in days or drank water! You don't deserve any mercy! The only thing you deserve is execution!" She snaps his neck with the Force then raises her arms, shovels rise behind her.
The Stormtroopers take a step back in fear of the vengeful goddess. Alexandra points her finger at them hurtling the shovels. The deadly projectiles punch through the troopers' armor causing the poor fools to choke on their own blood.
Kenta and Leliana regroup after a failed attempt of finding out what kind of weapon the Empire was building.
Kenta said, "You weren't kidding whatever this weapon is, it's very tight-lipped. Nobody will tell us."
Leliana rubbed her chin, "Perhaps they fear if they reveal it, they'll most likely be killed."
The Sith Warrior agreed, "That's the most logical reason. They..." He stopped and whipped around, "I feel a disturbance in the Force. Something murderous. No, it can't be."
Leliana asked, "What? What is it?"
Kenta said, "It's Alexandra. She's lost control! Quick, we have to reach her before she loses herself to the dark side!" From their respective locations Leon, Alec and Yuna sense it as well though Yuna felt it in more of a chill running down her spine.
Leon hummed, "So, she finally sees them for what they truly are."
The group starts converging on the source.
Meanwhile, Alexandra continues her bloody rampage. A pile of Imperial corpses litter the rocky floor, the sickening scent of burnt flesh and blood fills the air.
One Imperial officer hits the back of Alexandra's head prompting the enraged Sith to spin on the heel of her boot to glare at him for a second before grabbing him by the throat and with the Force enhancing her strength, lifts him off the ground as she chokes him to the point he begins coughing up blood. She drops the dead officer her hand back drenched with blood. Alexandra hears groaning behind her and turns around to see an Imperial clawing his way to freedom, one of his legs were severed below the knee. Alexandra walks up and with the Force calls for a steel rod, stepping onto his back she drives the steel rod into his leg pinning him to the ground before placing her boot on his back and grabbing his arms. She starts pulling until she rips them out of their sockets. Tossing them, she uses her foot to roll the Imperial onto his back to make him stare into her blue eyes.
She ignites her lightsaber with a snap-hiss and beheads the man. The Sith apprentice grabs an Overseer's head and smashes it against the rock wall, disintegrating it on impact. She cuts another vertically down and rips a third in half.
Alec, Yuna, Kenta and Leon reach the entrance to the cave when they see the panicked slaves run out screaming. The four descend. As they venture deeper in the smell of carnage grows stronger. They arrive at the pits, surveying the results of Alexandra's rampage. They see the girl ahead, her back towards them. They also spot an Imperial frozen in place as Alexandra conjures up an ethereal smoke of raw Force energy.
She said in a dead tone, "The galaxy would be better off without you Imperial bastards. Give the Emperor and Vader my regards when they join you in hell." After that, she thrusts the smoke forward the Imperial has enough to scream before the smoke hits, turning him into ash. The flames of her rage begin to die out.
(End of graphic violence).
Alec said, "Alexandra!" His student slowly turns at their direction, the group felt goosebumps form at the sight of blood staining the left side of her face, giving Alexandra a homicidal look. Leliana feels her whole body shake, her mind struggling to process what she's seeing.
Yuna whispered, "By the Force." She becomes a little woozy.
Alexandra asked, "What do you want?"
Kenta collected himself, "What is all this?"
Alexandra replied, "The Imperials were treating these people like dirt and I couldn't take it so I made them feel my wrath."
Yuna said, "You murdered them in cold blood, apprentice."
The black-haired girl responded, "You call it murder I call it poetic justice. They even begged me to spare them, I wouldn't give them it. I murdered them in many ways." Leliana knows this wasn't the girl she loves, it was a bloodthirsty monster.
Leon exclaimed, "Finally someone who gets it!" He gestured around at the pit of death, "It lacks finesse but at least she gets it. These people don't deserve mercy, they don't deserve a chance at redemption, they deserve pain and death and nothing more. Absolute eradication, the galaxy will be better off with them."
Yuna looked at Leon, "Even you can't truly believe that."
Leon whipped around and pointed at the pile of dead slaves, "Look at them, look at them. Seeing that do you honestly think the Empire deserves anything less than the most painful of ends? If you lack the resolve to put them down then you have no purpose being here."
Kenta shouted at them, "Enough!"
Leliana advances to Alexandra cautiously, when she is close enough Leliana pulls Alexandra into her arms wrapping around the slightly younger girl. Alexandra feels the dark side lose its grip on her and passes out. Kenta carries the Sith apprentice in his arms and the group leaves the site.
Later that day, the full gravity of her actions hit Alexandra. She was horrified of what she had done, she lost her composure and practically turned the pits into a bloodbath. To her shock a part of her justified even felt good to murder those Imperials.
Her companions can see the whirlwind of emotions in Alexandra's eyes.
Kenta said, "The dark side is not simply about giving in to anger to use your powers for destructive ends, this is only a pathway to the dark side. It grows stronger the more you draw on it, it begs you to unleash its malevolent power. Once you stop resisting, it's too late. It twists you into a dark shadow of your former self. What you experienced was a small taste of what that addictive power does. You need to keep your emotions under control, apprentice. The last thing we want is you become a slave to the dark side."
Alexandra shot him a glare, "You don't get it, do you? I'm not used to killing people like you four are. That wasn't me doing the bloodshed."
Leon said, "You did the right thing, Alex in dealing judgment on those Imperials though I disapprove how you went about it so recklessly."
Alexandra directed her glare at him, "You really think you have the right to judge me, Leon Solstice?! I'm not a seasoned warrior like you or my Masters! I was thrust into a situation I had no control over! A part of me enjoyed killing those Imperials."
Leon replied, "In war you expect to stain your hands with the blood of your enemies. I've done things I'm not proud of but everything I did was for ending the threat the CIS posed to the Republic. Something I came close to doing before Sidious revealed himself. Now my mission is kill Sidious and any Imperial that gets in my way. And you need to learn that lesson, it's you or them." Getting up, Alexandra leaves the commons and toward her room.
Alec suggested, "We need to up her training so this incident doesn't happen again."
Yuna nodded, "I agree. Those eyes she had when we confronted sent chills down my spine."
Leon scoffed, "If you call that training. Her stance in every form is off, her tactics are messy and she misses more strikes than she lands. Then again I can't blame her considering her teachers aren't that great either but I choose to believe that's because you're so far removed for your last real battle. Who knows, maybe you were actually really good in your time." He walked out of the room toward the cargo hold, "Not that it matters, I could take all three of you. It's time all of you wake up and realize what we're up against." After that, Leon returns to the cargo hold.
Inside her room, Alexandra lays on her bed staring at the ceiling.
She's so occupied she faintly hears the door to her room slide open, moving her gaze at the direction, she spots Leliana standing there, blue eyes meeting green. Without saying a word, the smuggler makes her way over to Alexandra's bed and climbs in, pulling the girl to her.
Leliana rubbed her back, "It's going to be okay, Alex. Everyone loses control of their emotions sometimes." Alexandra snuggles closer to her lover, wanting to forget the atrocity she committed.
Chapter 8 done.
Here Alexandra experienced a brush with the dark side upon seeing slaves being treated horribly, causing her to go on a bloody rampage murdering every Imperial that crossed her path.
Kenta told the dangers of negative emotions and how it leads to the dark side of the Force. This violent act caused he, Alec and Yuna to step up Alexandra's training to make sure there isn't a repeat.
Leliana comforted Alexandra.
Read and review.
Stay tuned for chapter 9.
Vader 23A