CHAPTER 2

"Hey, back off! Now." Zidayne bellowed out to the gang of seven that were cornering him and Lara in the alley. He stared them down and thought they'd back down, but they didn't. He could feel that same bubbling taste of bile brewing in his belly and rising up his throat onto his tongue. Whenever he had that taste, things would always get bad and wild, real fast. He ignited his lightsaber and aimed the burning, humming green bar of plasma at the gang.

"Last chance. Scare off, or I'll cut you into a thousand pieces!"

He saw them drawing their pistols, some blasters, some slug throwers. He wasn't going to wait and get shot. Zidayne flashed between them taking the hands off the front two. Extending his left hand out pushing the other two assailants headfirst into the hard, concrete wall with a loud, groaning crunch of bone on stone.

"Ah! I surrender! I surrender! Stop! PLEASE!" one of them begged a hand short.

Zidayne raised his saber overhead, gripped firmly and tightly. He wanted to bring it down and saw the nerfherder in half. But, that would be too far. A step he couldn't walk back from. He retracted and scared them all away. All of them ran off, but one lingered behind. Tall and strong, pale skinned human male, scars all over his arms and a jagged gash on his left cheek.

"You hard of hearing? Clear off!" Zidayne pointed hard at him. The man just stood there, silently staring at him. Unmoving and unbothered. Zidayne didn't anticipate it soon enough but the fist came at him hard and fast burying into his core, the air brought clean out of his lungs. The roundhouse kick from the right came into his face and sent headfirst into the wall nearby. Zidayne hadn't pulled his head out of the hole it made when he heard the sharp hiss of a saber. He turned and saw the man clutching a bar of blood red plasma.

"I figure I should've introduced myself before beating you as I just have. Names Garek Taas. You won't know who I am, guess it's been too long since you've seen me last. You were barely up to my knee, still sucking the life out Aayla's nipples," his yellow eyes scanned Zidayne for some sign of recognition, "Guess not. Dagon wants to know where you are on a power standpoint, so I got sent to test that theory."

Zidayne, with an almost animal growl:" Fine. OK. You want a fight, then let's fight!"

The two clashed and crossed sabers in the middle. Zidayne deflected left and made a straight stab to the face, that Garek dodged and pushed himself back one step. He followed with a flurry of slashes, stabs and strikes. A green-red blur. Zidayne could feel his focus being destroyed the longer this blitz kept up. I need a break in his stance. He isn't stopping. Garek feigned a right slash, then switched to a savage downward thrust. There! His body's open!

Time slowed down, the saber went in a hard, straight punch and he heard the unforgettable, squelch and sizzle of plasma on flesh. Garek gasped and tossed back, his hand zipping to the now cauterized scorch on his side. The smell of burnt flesh and the rich iron stink of boiling blood now dripping in thick, black clumps to the floor and a thin trickle running out the corner of Garek's mouth.

Garek chuckled hoarsely, "Damn, that was…a good strike boy. Dagon will be happy to see that you've been trained properly by that sour old bit Aayla."

He turned and started his launch up the grimy walls to make an escape.

"HEY! Get back here now! I'm gonna kill you!" Zidayne roared causing the walls to shake and tremble. He was about to race after, to keep the fight going, until he saw a terrified Lara. He tried reaching out to help her on her feet but she shot her hand away as if he were poisonous.

"What? What's wrong with you? Come on, let's go." He tried to say.

But she wouldn't relent. "Ah! Stop it! Get away! You…you're crazy and insane and…and…just GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Zidayne stares blankly at her. His eyebrow furrowed and a confused look stapled on his face. Why was she freaking out like a madwoman? I just freaking saved her life and this is how she reacts? He was so angry at her, at how she was staring at him as if he were a hungry Rancor. He didn't even notice the hand gripping his shoulder, spinning him round and nailing him to the ground.

"What have you done, Zidayne! You, you have completely gone insane! What is wrong with you!"

He couldn't really make out the face in the dim alley light but a flash passed over and he could see that it was Master Aayla. The veins in her neck bulging and sweat stippling on her brow, her eyes boring into him like laser drills. He tried to wriggle out of her grasp, but it was hard and tight. The next moment he felt the breath get squeezed out of his lungs and things slowly went black.

Somewhere dark, in a ramshackle building on the outskirts of the city. Garek lay on a metal slab getting his stab wound tended to by a MedDroid.

" kid you sent me to test. He's way stronger than you think, he almost killed me Dagon, almost killed some of the punks that tried to press him and that girl he was with."

Dagon stood in the corner, watching the scene closely. "Good, at least I know he isn't weak, that he's got the killer instinct. He's going to need that for what's coming. But that chain holding him down kept him from finishing you, Garek."

Gareks face screwed as if he swallowed puke. "So what, I was supposed to get killed in that alley?"

"No, you were meant to test and you've done your job well. We're only getting started Garek, that boy needs to grow up, get weaned off the teat."