FicWad

-“You found him?” Alera asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

-“Down this alley and to the left, there’s a service entrance to a warehouse which is a front to hide the base.” Jex explained with a very self-satisfied look on his face.

-“How did you figure all that out?” Alera asked.

-Darkana made a sound of disgust and said, “He didn’t. I pointed it out to him just before we realized you were missing.” Darkana walked away down the alley. Alera looked from the Sith to Jex and gave him a hurt expression. It looked as though she were on the verge of tears.

-“Oh don’t pout,” Jex said. “What’s the point of having you along if I can’t tease you?” He smiled at her, and Alera’s expression lightened up a little. They followed after Darkana to the entrance of the warehouse. Jex and Darkana peered through the door’s windows. Jex spotted at least three men patrolling around. They were dressed in civilian clothes, but he wasn’t fooled. He could tell that they were carrying concealed weapons under their clothes.

-“Hiding in plain sight,” Jex said, almost to himself. “Clever.”

-“How do we get past them?” asked Alera. Jex and Darkana moved in synch as they pulled away form the window, looked at each other, and then at Alera. It was Darkana who answered her.

-“We kill them, of course.”

-“So,” Jex said. “Guns blazing or stealth, Darkana?”

-“My master has an entire garrison below ground.”

-“Stealth then,” Jex said. He looked up and spotted a window two stories up. It would have been inaccessible for any normal human. Fortunately, Jex was far from normal. He tapped into the force, felt it swirl around and through him, and jumped up to the window propelled by his invisible ally. He made a lifting motion with his hand, but did not make physical contact with anything. The window was raised by the force, and Jex slipped inside.

-“Won’t your master have felt that!” Alera said. Her voice was a hushed yell. Darkana answered while looking up at the open window, gauging the distance for herself.

-“My master was aware of our presence the moment we set foot on the planet. Wait out here until we open the door.”

-“What, why?” Alera asked. She put her hands on her hips and took a stubborn stance.

-“Because you’ll hesitate when it comes to killing people.” Darkana said. She turned to look Alera in the eye. “I won’t, and neither will Jex.” She looked back to the window and jumped through it before Alera could offer protest.

-Darkana dropped from the window to a catwalk that overlooked the ground floor where large crates were scattered about. Jex was nowhere in sight, but she knew that that was the point. She quickly darted into a shadow herself and reached out with her mind, searching her surroundings for enemies. She found one of them almost immediately.

-He was standing directly below her, and there was another one not much further who was slowly walking towards the first. She sensed a third man on the same level as herself for a moment, but then he was gone. Darkana frowned, not understanding. She focused all of her attention on where the man had been, and she felt someone else there. It was Jex.

-Darkana smiled in spite of herself. Jex was good at concealing his presence. Even when he was close enough to take the man out, Darkana hadn’t felt him until she had focused on that spot. She felt him move quickly to the far side of the building, leaving the nearby enemies to her. Darkana opened her eyes. It was her turn to have some fun.

-Darkana dropped down on top of the crates that the first man had been standing near. She got down on all fours and crawled to the edge where she looked down to see the man. He was casually looking around, sweeping the room with his eyes. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t think to look up. Darkana dropped down silently behind him. Her right hand covered the man’s mouth while her left grabbed and handful of his hair. One quick twist and a sickening snap later, the man’s body went limp in her arms.

-The second man Darkana had sensed stepped into view from around the end of the crate. Darkana tapped into the force almost without thinking. She stepped around her fresh cadaver, grabbed a hold of one limp wrist, and hurled the entire body at the second man with supernatural strength.

-The body flew through the air upside down and struck the second man. Both men collapsed to the ground, and neither one moved. Darkana heard someone yell and footsteps coming towards her. “So much for stealth,“ Darkana said to herself as she jumped up, grabbed the top edge of the crate, and flipped herself up and out of sight as two men jumped out at both ends with blaster rifles at the ready. Darkana watched and waited as the men scanned the area. Their blaster rifles pointed wherever their eyes were looking. They slowly approached each other, but before they could exchange words, Darkana dropped down between them. She activated her double-bladed light saber as she came down and it cut through both of the men, splitting them from the top of the head down to their waists.

-Darkana deactivated her weapon, and the two men collapsed to the ground with dull thuds. Four more men came out from all around Darkana and surrounded her, weapons at the ready. “Hands up!” one of them shouted. Darkana calmly looked them over, waiting for the first shot to be fired. They never got the chance. The lights in the building went out, and everything was engulfed in darkness.

-Darkana allowed herself a split second to smile. Jex’s timing was impeccable. She ducked down and dashed forward at one of the men. They all began firing blindly once they realized she was moving. Blaster bolts provided glimpses of the action, but in the confusion two of the men cried out, hit by friendly fire. Darkana raced at the man she was aiming for. He spotted her thanks to some of the blaster bolts and tried to shoot her, but she easily dodged around the shots. She reached the man and grabbed the front of his shirt. Using her momentum, she moved him around and used him as a shield as the last man fired several shots into his back. Darkana and the now deceased man dropped to the ground. Darkana rolled away as several more blaster bolts were fired into her the dead man.

-Darkana had no trouble seeing in the dark. She had spent years training herself to fight without the light. Her enemies had not. She could hear them bumping into crates and tripping over the bodies of their comrades. Darkana heard several shots, and she doubted that they had spotted Jex. They were firing blind at anything that moved. She quickly ascended to the top of a crate once again where she could survey the situation and pick them off at her leisure.

-She watched with the intense interest of a predator stalking prey as the men moved around blindly beneath her. They were frightened, panicked, and she felt a dark thrill in having them at her mercy. One of the men stumbled his way away from the others. Darkana watched, eager tension building in her body, as the man wandered over to the side of her crate which blocked him from the view of the others.

-Darkana wasn’t worried about the other men seeing her so much as she wanted something between her and their blasters once they heard her. She dropped down and drove her elbow into the back of the man’s neck as she landed, braking it. The man gave out a very short cry of pain as he fell forward. As Darkana expected, blaster bolts were soon flying in her general direction. The man landed with a thud and was riddled with blaster fire. Darkana watched it twist and shudder under the assault and was sobered with the knowledge that she was looking at herself should she make a mistake. It was life or death.

-She got back on top of the crate and saw that five men were standing in a loose circle. She spotted one of the corpses and reached out more than a hand to it. The felt his body with the force. It flowed around him, over him, and through him until Darkana found what she wanted. She lifted up the dead man’s blaster and brought it to float over the floor in the middle of the five living men. Darkana smiled, knowing what would happen, and then she let the blaster go.

-The moment it clattered to the ground, the five men wheeled around and opened fire. Blaster bolts flew in every direction, and Darkana had to duck her head to avoid getting hit by stray shots. She heard several screams of both pain and fear. When all was quiet again, emergency lights finally kicked in, and Darkana looked over the damage.

-Three of the men were dead, one was wounded, and the last and youngest of the group was visibly shaken. He turned and ran to a large button on the wall. Darkana guessed that it was an alarm to call reinforcements. She wasn’t about to let that happen. Darkana threw her light saber like a spear. Its blades activated in mid-flight and pierced the man through the hart from behind. He collapsed to the ground, and Darkana recalled her weapon to her hand.

-“She’s up there!” a voice called out. Darkana turned to see four more men looking up at her and aiming their riffles. Darkana activated her weapon and threw it as she did a cartwheel flip off of the crate. Her light saber flew in a spinning arc like a fan, guided by the force. It came in from the left and sliced through all of the men, cutting them in half just above the waist. The blades came back to Darkana’s hand as she landed on the ground level and they deactivated.

-Darkana looked around at her handy work and allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. There were bodies strewn all over the floor, and she hadn’t gotten a scratch. She wondered how her master would react to her having killed so many of his people. Surely he could not begrudge her for slaughtering such incompetent protectors. The smile vanished when she felt the barrel of a blaster rifle pressed into her back.

-“Drop your weapon.” It was a male voice, and it was very calm and steady. Darkana decided not to try any tricks. She did as directed. “Hands up and turn around very slowly.” Darkana turned to see the man training a riffle at the center of her chest. He did not have a happy look on his face. Darkana cursed herself for having let her guard down. She had gotten cocky and believed there to be no other guards. The only question now was whether the man was going to kill her, or take her for questioning.

-She never got an answer. The man let out a small noise as his body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground, revealing Jex standing a short distance behind him with his fingers outstretched. He looked at Darkana with a cocky grin, rubbing in the fact that he had just saved her life.

-Darkana looked down at the man on the ground and asked, “What did you do to him?”

-“Just a little trick I know,” Jex answered as he walked over to her. He looked around the room and gave an impressed whistle. “I don’t think you quite understand the concept of stealth.”

-“Things got a little out of hand,” Darkana said, trying to keep the embarrassment out of her voice. “Though I am surprised that no one got to an alarm during all the fighting.”

-“That’s because the first thing I did was disconnect the power supply to them, and the rest of the room,” Jex said with a very smug look on his face.

-Darkana held out her hand, and her weapon returned to her. She placed it back into the folds of her robes. She wanted to be angry at Jex for having saved her again, but what she felt was something softer, deeper. It was a feeling alien to her, and she did not like that at all. Before she could figure out what it was, Jex broke the silence.

-“You know, I can’t help but feel like we’re forgetting something.”

-Darkana looked at him for a moment before she realized he was talking about Alera. It was the mischievous smile that gave it away. It made Darkana smile in spite of herself. “Well if you forgot about it, then it must not have been worth remembering,” she said. “The entrance to the base is that way.” she pointed at a far wall.

-Jex chuckled and walked over to let Alera in. Darkana waited alone, giving her a moment to analyze the feelings that now nagged her. Jex had saved her life yet again. He made her smile and even feel safe. He showed her mercy and protected her. He displayed trust which she had done nothing to earn. Darkana realized that she was beginning to like Jex, and that was not a good thing. It would only make her mission that much harder. She tried to suppress those soft emotions. They had no place in the heart of a Sith.

-By the time Alera and Jex came back, Darkana greeted them with cold, calculating eyes. She led them to the secret entrance hidden inside of a crate which was built into the wall. Darkana input the code, and the door opened revealing a dark passageway. It brought them down into a series of tunnels which spread out beyond the building above. Darkana led them through the maze, and even after traveling for nearly ten minutes, they did not encounter a soul.

-“I don’t like this,” Alera said. She was looking suspiciously at every shadow, as if expecting an entire army to suddenly appear and attack them. Jex, however, was perfectly calm and said nothing the entire time. He simply walked behind Darkana, not even giving the empty rooms they passed an inspecting glance. Darkana stopped at an intersection. She spoke without turning to look at the others.

-“Jex, why are you doing this?”

-“Your master hurts innocent people. I won’t allow that.” Jex’s voice was calm and collected, as though he had been expecting the conversation.

-“You hate the Jedi; Frell is dead; why go this far?”

-“I don’t hate the Jedi,” Jex said. “I’m just angry with them. As for why I’m taking the fight to your master, he doesn’t seem the type to just let things go. He’ll keep coming after me and my friends until he gets the artifact.”

-Darkana swallowed so hard that the others heard it, but she spoke in a very controlled tone. “Jex, give me the artifact and leave this place. As long as you stay out of my master’s way, no harm will come to your or your friends.”

-“Sorry,” Jex said. “Can’t do that.”

-“Why not?” Darkana asked, losing her composer. “You’re a mercenary, you have no stake in who wins this conflict. If it’s payment you desire, why not join my master? In time you may be able to overthrow him. You have the potential!”

-“Enough!” Alera shouted. “I warned you that she would try to turn you.”

-“She isn’t trying to turn me,” Jex said calmly. “She is trying to save me.”

-“What?” Alera asked. She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

-“Alera, you really aren’t very observant,” Jex said. He spoke in the condescending tone parents use when explaining the obvious to children. “We were allowed to land without incident. We were not attacked or ambushed by a single Sith the entire time we were on the surface. We took out all of the security above ground yet no alarm has been raised. An instillation like this surely has regular check-ins, yet we have not encountered a single soul down here despite Darkana informing us that there should be an entire garrison of troops. The meaning of all of this is simple: Darth Malice knew we were coming, and Darkana is the one that told him.”

-Darkana felt a growing sense of dread as Jex spoke. She remembered what he had said back on Zaross. She considered explaining that she hadn’t actually told her master that she was coming. She couldn’t have since Jex had taken her transmitter, but she knew better. She had known that her master expected her to bring Jex to him if the attempt on Zaross failed. She desperately tried to think of a way out of the hole she had just dug herself, but could find none. If she had warned Jex before they set foot on the planet, or at least before entering the base, he might have been sympathetic, but not now. She slowly moved her hand towards her light saber.

-“Don’t.” that one word made Darkana freeze. She had never heard Jex speak in such a deep, threatening voice before, not even on Zaross. It frightened her.

Darkana had to swallow before she could say, “If I’m going to die, I would prefer to do it fighting.”

-“I’m not going to hurt you Darkana,” Jex said. His voice was back to its normal tone: casual and friendly, with a slight hint of teasing. It made Darkana turn to look at him at last.

-“You can’t possibly be willing to forgive me for betraying you again,” she said. All the surprise and disbelief plain on her face for all to see. “Not after what happened with your friend.”

-“You tried to warn me, and you didn’t have to,” Jex said. “That’s what counts, even if it was a little late.” He gave her a warm smile that caused her to feel ashamed rather than comforted. Darkana knew that her master would have killed her for far less, yet Jex was willing to forgive and forget, no questions asked. She just didn’t understand it.

-Jex saw something on Darkana’s face that made him ask, “Is he really that terrifying?”

-Darkana only nodded, her eyes weren’t seeing the room anymore. They looked at memories of her master’s brutal disciplinary measures which she had both witnessed and experienced first hand. She suddenly realized that if he found out what she had just done, he would kill her for it.

-“Darkana,” Jex said, snapping her out of her haunted daydream. There was something very sullen in his voice now. “You can make up for your betrayal by staying behind and keeping an eye on Alera for me.”

-“What?” Alera asked. She was clearly outraged at the thought of being left behind yet again. “You are not going to fight this Sith alone. You’ll need all the help you can get. Besides, I don’t need looking after, especially by a Sith!”

-“Quiet,” Jex said. He used the same tone he had used to silence Darkana, and it worked. Alera seemed to shrink in on herself. Jex turned back to Darkana, his eyes more serious than she had ever seen them, almost sad. “Go back to the Nomad. If you sense that I have failed, take the ship and leave this place. The two of you can decide what to do after that.”

-Jex walked past Darkana, brushing her shoulder as he passed. Darkana fought hard against the wave of emotions that were rushing to the surface, but in the end they won out. “Jex,” she said, turning around to see him walking away. He stopped but did not turn to look at her. “He’ll kill you…you know that.”

-Jex turned his head and smiled at her, but there was something very sad about his grin. “We’ll see,” he said. He turned and ran down the hallway. the last remnant of his cloak vanished around a corner, and he was gone.

-Darkana stared at down the empty hallway feeling helpless. Things were moving beyond her control. Jex was too strong for her to stop, but he was no match for her master. She knew that her master would not forgive her betrayal, but Jex had given her a way out. He had saved her life one last time.

-“Alright, time to go,” Darkana said. She turned around just in time to see Alera aiming her open palm at Darkana’s chest. Darkana was hit by an invisible fist which sent her flying backwards into a wall. She hit her head hard against the metal and collapsed to the floor. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Alera heading down the hallway in the direction Jex had gone.