|
|
|
The Dark is getting closer . . .
Chapter Eight
“My Dearest Friend, My Bitter Rival”
Now that Loki had explained it all to the rest of them, Rio didn’t want to beat Luke as badly as he did before. It seemed, also, that Roki was more Roki and less evil. But there were still questions that were yet to be answered. Like, for instance, what was Revan’s plan on the large scale.
“This disk isn’t compatible with my computer on board,” Mara said, examining the thin rectangular disk in her hand. “In fact, it might only be compatible with one of Revan’s PCs.”
“Well, then this is a bust,” Rio said, taking the disk and looking at it too. “How do we know what’s on it if we can’t read the sucker?”
“What’s on it is plans,” Aliea said. “Invasion plans. The most complex I’ve ever seen. Revan was planning on hitting some planet and hitting it hard. The page after the battle plans and formations is one about . . . murders.”
“Murders?” Loki and Roki said in unison.
“Whose murders?” Luke asked.
“Little kids,” Aliea said. “There were names and ages. I think the youngest was just over three and a half years old. She had a code name for them. ‘The Spring Lambs.’”
They all exchanged glances. Loki and Roki had used that term while they were in their trances hardly an hour before.
“Who’re the spring lambs?” Rio wondered aloud.
“Young children,” Loki put in. “But, I remember very little of what I said in the trance or what Lillabeth was thinking as she said those things.”
“Did any names pop out at you while you scanned through them, Aliea?” Luke asked. Aliea squinted thinking.
“A few,” she said. “Mostly last names. Uh, Donahue was one. Habichi, Tigermaw . . . You okay, Luke?”
Luke’s eyes were wide.
“Those are names of younglings at the Academy,” he said. Loki’s jaw dropped.
“No way,” she said.
“Yes, I remember Tigermaw; Meromy’s a tiny, little thing. Very strong in the Force for her age,” Luke said. He sat at the computer and brought up a list of names. Loki glanced at them. A few were people she knew in just that quick glance. Luke covered his mouth with his hand. “I gave Revan a list of students when she came for her ‘inspection.’”
“Oh no,” Roki moaned.
“I just remembered it,” Luke muttered.
“Wait, whoa, pause it, hold up, time out,” Rio said making a T with his hands. “Even Revan wouldn’t stoop so low as to kill off little kids.”
“You wanna bet?” Loki said, bitterly.
“But why?” Aliea asked. “How could she possibly benefit from killing Force Sensitive children?” Loki looked up.
“The fame,” she said. “No, the infamy. Mara, didn’t you say that the Chiss were looking for the Sith Lord? Duh! She wants the power associated with being the one and only Sith Lord.”
“The Sith Lord who destroyed the Jedi Academy,” Roki said. They began to finish each other sentences with their creepy twin thing. The other four couldn’t get a word in edge wise.
“And once she brings about the fall of the Jedi — ”
“She’ll rise to power just as Palpatine did — ”
“And once again be a tyrannical super-force in the Galaxy — ”
“Meaning the beginning of the second Empire — ”
“To hell with her if she thinks she’ll get away with that — ”
“But look at what Palpatine did. He was able to — ”
“Fool the Senate with lies about the Jedi!”
Luke’s eyes widened.
“She really planned all this out, didn’t she?” He asked. Loki and Roki nodded. “She’ll tell the Senate we’re raising terrorists or something and then . . .”
“Bye-bye, Yavin IV,” Rio said. Mara stood.
“We’ve got to inform the Senate of what Revan is up to!” She said.
“I’ll get Leia on it,” Rio said, heading for the comm. station.
“But how is she was she even going to pull the last part off?” Aliea asked. “I mean, it’s not like someone can just waltz into the Academy and start slaughtering younglings, can they?” Roki’s eyes darkened.
“It’s been done before,” Luke said, quietly, taking the words out of his mouth, digging up ancient history. “I don’t think Revan has the skill to murder those padawans as he did, though.”
“Plus, we’ve got, like, twenty Jedi Masters back on Yavin,” Mara said. “How could she ever pull it off?”
“Those invasion plans,” Loki said. “She’s going to send an armada to swoop down and massacre Forcies.” Luke shook his head.
“We’ve got too many shields and defenses for that,” he said.
“You took Revan on a tour of the Academy, Luke,” Roki said. “She might’ve seen something, a gap or something, in our defenses. Revan is quite thorough.”
“Thorough or not,” Mara said. “There is no way I’m going to let that b***h and her flunky kill any of the younglings.” Rio ran back in.
“Leia’s got the Rogue and Wraith Squadron looking for Revan and whatever fleet she may have with her,” he said.
“We should still haul a** to get back to Yavin,” Loki said. “Boost the defenses there just in case Wedge and Dash and their Squads can’t stop Revan.” Mara nodded. She strapped herself into the pilots chair.
“Farmboy,” she called. “Get your crippled-a** over here and get ready for the jump to hyper-space.” They had been stationary for about thirty minutes now, the nav comp awaiting coordinates. Luke sat in the co-pilot’s chair while Loki sat behind him and Rio behind Mara. Roki and Aliea went to the lounge and strapped themselves in on the couch.
“Boosters and hyperdrive ready,” Luke said, reading the scopes.
“Back-up thrusters and drag fins operative,” Mara said, checking the emergency settings.
“Fuel cells at maximum,” Luke said, reading the fuel level screen.
“Engaging hyperdrive in three, two, one,” Mara flipped the switch and pulled back on the throttles. “Nav comp, set the fastest course to Yavin IV, Yavin sector, in the Naguri Nebula.” The nav comp beeped it was ready.
“Hyperdrive power coming up on ready to fire,” Luke said.
“One more thing left now,” Mara said. “The Take Off KFL.”
“The Take Off KF-who now?” Loki asked.
“Take Off Kiss For Luck,” Luke said, leaning over and kissing Mara as she did the same. “Check. Ready to enter hyperspace.”
“Get a room,” Rio grumbled.
Mara hit the throttles. The little white pin pricks of stars raced at them, becoming white threads of light, before they were only able to see black with the occasional white streak of a sun or gas giant zooming past at unimaginable speeds.
2
Yavin IV was a welcomed sight for the Jedi as they landed. Those on Yavin were happy to see them as well. As Luke, Mara, Aliea, and Rio got out of the ship, the remainder of the Sweet Sixteen and a few of Luke’s fellow Jedi Masters (Corran Horn, Kam and Tionne Solsar, Kirana Ti, Streen, Kyp Durran, and Soara Antana) and Han and Leia held their breath.
Luke rolled his eyes. It’s always so dramatic with those two, he thought.
Loki and Roki stepped from the dark of the ship in perfect sync with each other. They grasped hands and bowed as would two thespians who had just finished a play.
The Sweet Sixteen cheered. As Rio, Aliea, Roki, and Loki were swarmed by their friends, Luke and Mara lead the adults into the Council Chambers and told them of the impending danger to the Academy.
“We must do something,” the Dathamorian female human Kirana Ti said. “We can not let this dark woman hurt the younglings.”
“That much,” Soara Antana said, somewhat stiffly, “is obvious.” Soara was a strict elderly woman with a tight bun of blonde hair at the back of her head. Even Luke felt like a child when it came to her. Her lightsaber skills were legend, but she had yet to face off against Loki.
“I don’t like the look of all that invasion plan junk either,” Corran Horn said. A former Corrillian Fighter pilot, Corran knew his flight patterns. “She’s spent years on this, it looks like.”
“Dur,” Tionne Solsar said, a younger Master with very white hair and frost colored eyes. She collected Jedi folklore. “But how do we stop it? She’s thought of everything!”
“Not everything,” Kyp Durran said. He was young as well and was semi-experienced in the Dark Side. “She never saw Loki coming back to life, right?”
“But she might have,” Streen said. Streen was an old miner who had used the Force to do his labor for him. “I mean, how do we know?”
“We don’t,” Leia said. “But, Wedge and Dash are on her tail.”
“Or so we think,” Han said.
“For now, we must keep the students inside as much as possible,” Luke said. “We need to make sure the shield is in perfect working order and at maximum capacity. Until Revan does decide to attack, there is really nothing we can do until then.”
“So we stand adjourned,” Mara said. The other Masters stood and filed out, and were assigned tasks such as rebooting the shield generator and running drills with the little younglings and making sure that the curfew was enforced. Mara left Luke to think. She thought she was leaving him alone.
Soara Antana remained, arms folded and looking at Luke appraisingly, almost as Loki did when she first came to the Academy. She was elderly, but sharp. She had taken Aliea as her apprentice just before Aliea left with Rio and Loki to save Roki. Luke hoped that Soara did not want to withdraw Aliea Moonbeam’s apprenticeship.
“Master Antana,” Luke said. Antana said nothing. Luke was reminded that she was one of the few Jedi to survive the purges. She was around when his father was.
“Luke,” she said. “I can understand you being the only Jedi around for a few years while you rallied the few of us left after your father’s demise, but I can not understand how you could be so — dim-witted, so ignorant as to allow something as powerful as your apprentice run a muck about the galaxy.”
Luke blinked. That was quite a tongue lashing.
“Soara, Lokina is not dangerous,” Luke said. “She was only trying to save her brother.”
“She is a danger to herself,” Soara said. “And besides, that brother turned to the Dark Side. I do not know who taught you the Jedi Code, but once a Jedi is a Sith, he can not about face on that path.”
Luke blinked again.
“Soara, I really don’t know where you get off!” He said, voice raised. The woman blinked herself. “Loki is not dangerous and she did the right thing. Did you know she died on this last mission? But she’s back, so, I say we appreciate her just a little bit more, huh? Becuase I learned that one day, she might not be there when we need her.”
Soara regained her composure.
“In any event, there is a way to track Revan,” she said. Luke made a gesture that said go on. “Have your apprentice track her in the Force.”
“How?” Luke asked. “We’ve tried to pinpoint Revan, but we have yet to even feel her.”
“She has special gifts, doesn’t she?” Soara asked before turning and leaving without another word. Luke sighed.
Why was there always women with attitude in his life?
4
It was an all-out rave in Party Cove that night, mostly to welcome back everyone’s favorite Tag Team Twins. With the music blaring and the students mosh pitting, it was the most perfect welcome-home-party Loki had ever been to. Rio and her were grinding when Jaken Crane approached them.
“Loki,” he yelled over the noise. “I need to talk to you. Now.” Loki looked at him, trying to read his lips.
“Your seeds to walk in goo? Cow? What are you saying?” She yelled at him. Jaken rolled his eyes and gabbed her by the wrist and led her to Make-Out Tree, a hollowed out tree that was the size of a small house on the inside, and the bottom also served as a hiding place with its entangled roots making it look like stained glass cuttings.
“What do you want, Jaken?” Loki demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
“I want to know what you were thinking? Running after Roki like that?” Jaken demanded back at her. Loki blinked.
The two had never been friends. It was more of a loose alliance between the two warring Monarchs and their homeworlds. Jaken’s Draconia saw Loki as a threat as Loki’s Jenovia saw Jaken. Neither had much of a deep caring for the other either. Not one they would admit to.
“I didn’t want Roki to die, okay? You would have done the same if Riku fell.” Loki said.
“I would have done as the Jedi Code commanded and left him to the Dark Side,” Jaken said, turning his back on her. He was too proud to admit to her how he worried about her while she was gone. Nuh-uh, no way, absolutely not, no sir, never ever!
“Just turn your back on him? Disown him like that?” Loki asked, sounding hurt.
“What else could I do?”
Loki’s eyes bored into the back of his head.
“So you would’ve done as Kon did?” She asked, with more harshness and hurt.
Jaken tensed. Kon ‘El was his father. Was, past tense. Kon had banished him and erased his memory and left him for dead. Now he had his memories and had a mad hate for his ‘father.’ Draconia had regained respect for him, now that Alfonso, his brother, was dead, and a dragon ruled in Jaken’s place as Jaken finished up his Jedi teachings.
“Don’t compare me to him,” he said, quietly. “You know what I meant.” Loki crossed her arms over her chest.
“No, Jaken, I don’t know what you mean,” she said. “I can’t just turn my back on my flesh and blood just because of some twenty-five thousand year old laws that we’ve broken twenty-five thousand times already!”
Jaken whirled on her.
“You turned your back on all of us once when you became Vader’s apprentice!” He snapped. Loki’s jaw dropped.
“You idiot!” She yelled. “I did that to save my planet from being destroyed, either by the Empire or by the Rebels. In fact, I brought peace and exclusion from the War to the entire nebula. That included your family’s world, Gaby’s world, and Constantine’s world.”
“You killed seven people in your service to the Empire, Lokina!” Jaken said. Loki’s back straightened and her lips pursed. Jaken was one of the few people who could call her Lokina without getting slapped around. And her will power was growing thin. It would have felt so good to just sock Jaken in the face. But . . . would Anakin have done that? she asked herself.
“If a handful of crooked, dark people had to die to ensure the safety of billions of good people and beings, then so be it,” Loki said, calmly. “Now, I’d like to get back to the party. If you have nothing else to say, have a good life.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Jaken asked. Loki grew impatient.
“You wanted to talk to me about Roki, we talked. I couldn’t just let him throw away his life like that, now if you please — ”
“Now who sounds like their father?” Jaken yelled over her. They were vaguely aware of the scene they were causing and the fact that the party was listening to the two fight.
Loki slapped Jaken across the face. His head snapped around, his cheek feeling as if it were on fire. He turned to look at her again slowly.
Loki’s head snapped to the side in a similar fashion as Jaken’s did. Those who were watching gasped. Jaken had slapped Loki back. Loki put her hand on her cheek as she looked back to Jaken.
“I’d never slap you unless you crossed the line and you know that,” Jaken said quietly.
“I said that if you ever slapped me again, I would kill you,” Loki said, equally as quiet.
Jaken’s eyes widened as Loki tackled him. It turned into an all out brawl, complete with punches, hair pulling, and trying-to-scratch-eyes-out.
Bitter tears ran down Loki’s face as she tore at Jaken’s clothes and he hit her in the ribs. Jaken and Loki went way back. The more they fought, the more bitterness grew between them. Jaken had a handful of Loki’s black hair was trying to pull it out and Loki off of him. Loki’s teeth had left several bloody imprints of his shoulders and arms. Cuts and bruises were exchanged like gifts. It was hard to believe that these two once had a relationship.
“Oh Force above!” Someone feminine said. It sounded like Trilian, who was Loki’s best friend and Jaken’s girlfriend. “What the hell are you two doing?!”
She slid down the small hill that separated the two brawling teenagers from the party. Someone had already sprinted to the Academy looking for Kyp Durran and Luke Skywalker, the two’s Masters. Jaken threw Loki off of him and stood.
“What is your problem?!” He snarled at her. “Stupid, crazy b***h!” She ran at him again, raking red lines down his face with her Force Fire engulfed hands. Jaken cried out and swung his hand forward. She ducked under the blow and sent one into his clavicle. There was a snap that sickened most who was near enough to hear it. Jaken staggered.
He looked up at her, eyes blazing. He threw the arm that wasn’t holding his chest in pain and a fire ball hurtled at Loki. The impact made her scream. The momentum made her flip backwards and skid on her front, scrapping the skin from her breasts and stomach. Loki got to her feet again, using her wings as a boost and glared at her opponent. Those eyes turned red . . .
“Hey!” Someone yelled. Her arms were seized and pinned to her body. Her eyes drained back to purple and she still struggled to get at Jaken, who was being tackled to the ground by her own Master. Kyp Durran was holding her gently, careful of her other injuries and her wings. Kyp was gentle with her because he knew what kind of damage Jaken could cause if he wanted to. The Draconic Prince had broken three of Kyp’s ribs during their first sparring match. Also, Kyp favored the girls he helped train, as he did Loki, even if it was hardly necessary. She was so much like his younger sister, Wyn.
Luke was on top of Jaken, laying face down in the dirt. An elbow flew up and caught Luke in the mouth, cutting his lip. Jaken was on his feet again. This time Han stepped in, putting the Prince in a full nelson and slamming him into a tree. Jaken moaned, screwed up his eyes, and swore in Draconic as blood leaked from a cut above his right eyebrow.
“Cool it!” Han snarled. “Kid, you okay?” Luke was on his feet, bottom lip split and oozing blood. He nodded. The party had dispersed and only the Sweet Sixteen remained.
“What happened?” Kyp asked Loki.
“He slapped me!” She lunged but was held fast.
“Lying Jenovian whore!” Jaken snapped. “You hit me first. I defended myself, then you went biserk.” Han tightened his grip. Jaken moaned again. “My clavicle is broken, Han!”
Luke stood in between the two.
“Let them go,” he said, barely above a whisper.
“You sure you want to do that?” Han asked. Kyp was thinking the same thing. Luke only nodded. “All right,” Han sighed and released Jaken. The boy stumbled first then ran, full bore, at Loki who was still at arm’s reach of Kyp. Luke held up a hand and Jaken ran into the Force Wall he had set up. He fell back on his elbows, adding insult to injury.
“Now,” Luke said, calmly. “I don’t know how or why this fight started, and I don’t really care.” Jaken glared up at him, while Loki just stared vibro-blades at her former friend. “But it is obvious you two had an argument about something. Whatever it was, let it go. You two were friends before this. Let this be an example, then, of what, exactly, the Dark Side can do.” Luke looked at Loki. She looked disheveled and her wings had small patches where the smooth white feathers had been bent and ruffled. “Both of you, on your feet. Next to me, now.” Jaken stood, begrudgingly while Loki limped over, eyes averted. She looked genuinely sorry, ashamed maybe. “Make up with each other. Why don’t you hug?”
“Oh, hell no!” Jaken said. Loki glared at Luke, but her eyes softened. She was mad at Jaken, not Luke.
“Now,” Luke said, firmly.
Loki stepped into Jaken’s embrace, but neither had anything to say. They turned and left after barely three seconds in each other’s arms. Luke exhaled.
The fight was going to take a long time to heal.
5
Revan brought her fists down on the table. The china tea cup shattered, spilling tea in a shallow puddle. She swept her arm around and the pieces flew into the adjacent wall.
“She stole the plans!” She snarled. Xinix stood behind her. “The Rose’s friend stole the plans! Argh!” She broke something else. That sounded expensive, Xinix thought.
“No matter, Mother,” he said, trying to comfort the woman. “We can still proceed with the plans. Even if she stole the plans, it may take a while for them to realize the scale of it. I mean, they might have a few X-wing squadrons, but nothing more. Nothing to compete with us.”
Revan said nothing, only brooded. He was right, but, there was always the smallest of chances and odds that the Meridean girl would again foil her plots. Like she did before.
“You are right, my son,” she said, thoughtfully. “But, we must be sure that nothing else passes under our observation. When the Azerathian stole the plans, we were side tracked with the Meridean Twins. We can not let this happen again. We must focus on that entire group of theirs. You said she had an extraordinary group of friends with powers to match?”
“Yes, fourteen besides the twins,” Xinix said. “Why?”
Revan smiled, a plan already in the works.
“One of them is a Draconic?”
“Four of them, actually.”
“Even better. It will only take so long then. The two most powerful breeds of para-humans will eventually kill each other off in such close quarters as the little moon.” Revan said. “We simply wait now.”
“How long?” Xinix asked, never very patient.
“I’d give them a week, maybe two at the very most.” Revan said. “But, we must see to this.” She leaned forward and hit a button that engaged the comm.device built into the table. “So, I’ve contacted a bit of a plan B. Or, dare I say, they contacted me.”
Grand Admiral Thrawn appeared in a small hologram form.
“Greetings, Dark Lady Revan,” he said, bowing. “The Chiss are at your absolute command.” Revan smiled.
“Excellent,” she said.
6
Loki and Jaken had healed their bodies but not their friendship. No, that would take much longer. Neither even looked at each other. They instead avoided even the rarest encounter. Perhaps it was for the best. If they were to go head to head, they would no doubt be hurt much worse than a fractured clavicle and cuts and bruises.
It was lucky, then, that Soara Antana had mentioned Loki’s other Soul Art powers that Luke had yet to see in action. So now, as Loki sat before him in the gym, on her knees on the matted floor, Luke walked in front of her, lecturing on the importance on self-improvement and using one’s gifts . . . for the first two and a half hours. After he reached the three hour mark he turned back to Loki, face flushed and looking very pleased with himself.
His smile fell when he saw her. She was laying on her side, head propped up by one arm as the other traced circles in the floor. His apprentice looked utterly bored. Luke was tempted to get cross, but somehow, over the past few days, he found it increasingly hard to stay mad at her. He put his hands on his hips and cleared his throat. She looked up.
“Oh, you’re done?”
Luke rolled his eyes. He sat cross-legged in front of her, and held his head up with his hands. “What?” Loki asked, raising herself to a seated position.
“Did you gain anything out of that lecture besides an opportune moment to daydream?” He asked, bluntly. Loki answered, just as bluntly, with a shrug.
“Seemed stupid to me, if you want my honest opinion,” Loki said. “It was also horribly masked suggestions at me showing you a few of my powers.” Luke blinked, then grinned.
“Very observant,” he said. “I had thought I masked those pretty well.” Loki tapped her temple.
“You’re mind is like Pandora’s Box, Luke,” she said. “Once I’m in, it’s hard to shut it again. By the way, you should go with the Moonglow blossoms and totally skip the whole Hapan Vine idea.” Luke blinked again. She had seen right into his past thoughts of what he and Mara were speaking about in the morning: which flower to use most often in the wedding.
“Very impressive,” Luke muttered. Loki shrugged.
“Not really,” she said. “The Hapan Vine is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. It only flowers in the right conditions.”
“No, not that,” Luke said, laughing. “I mean, your ability to read thoughts, your ability to read the thoughts that had occurred in the past.”
“What can I say?” She said. “I’m gifted.” Luke took a breath.
“Loki,” he said, walking on eggshells. “What exactly was said in your fight with Jaken?” Loki’s eyes met his, and he got the feeling she was searing her will into his flesh. “Just . . . tell me.” For the first and perhaps the last time, Loki looked away first.
“He asked me why I went back for Roki,” she said. “He asked me why I joined the Empire. He asked me why I . . .”
Loki caught herself just before she had said ‘why I killed those people.’
“He asked me why I was talking like an Imperialist,” she said, saving herself. Loki wasn’t sure if Luke noticed the blip in her defenses, but she thought she saw realization in his icy blue eyes. If he did, he moved on.
“Why did this one argument cause so much violence between you two?” He asked, almost to himself. “What made such a short fuse spark like that? You were always such good friends.”
“We were never friends,” Loki snapped. Luke’s gaze never left her. “We were merely friends with mutual friends who could never choose between the two of us. But we do go way back.” Now she looked sad. Seeing someone like Loki sad would break Vader’s heart.
“How far back?” asked Luke.
Loki exhaled.
“I knew him when he was still considered Prince Jaken Crane by his father, before the war,” Loki said. Luke nodded, though he already knew this from Mara. “Even then we were never close. My mother wanted peace so she forged a friendship for us. But it was never there. Jaken was nearly 12 when I was hardly 8. Hey, I was mature, yeah, but it just didn’t happen.” Loki shuddered. “Kon was more interested in me than Jaken was. He always called me the Rose Blossom of his Court when I came to visit. I never understood that. I wasn’t part of his court . . . but he wanted me to be his concubine, I guess. His . . . second wife when Kara was old and could no longer produce children.” Luke kept nodding, unsure of what to say.
“But Jaken . . . he never really wronged you,” Luke finally blurted out. Loki shook her head. “What did he do?” Loki’s eyes met his and this time, they never let go.
“He broke my heart,” she said. Luke blinked. “When the war was started, I was nine. Kon put Jaken in charge of a large portion of the Armada. He called me, from where I was on Jenovia. He said that they would give us a seven hour window, he could only delay them that long and that I should command our defenses to focus on the northwest side of the planet. I was a fool. I trusted him. It was a trap. Many people died on the northeast side of the planet.”
“Perhaps it was an accident,” Luke suggested. Loki shook her head.
“He was a coward,” she said. “A coward who fled after he realized what he had gotten himself into. He was no hero. Jaken was my best friend, and yet my rival, but after that little fiasco and what he said, what he did . . . Never again. Trusting a Draconic and an older man at that is just like begging to have your little heart broken. I . . . I think I may have loved him.”
Loki stopped.
What happened next was odd.
Luke had enveloped her in a hug. After a moment, she pushed him back.
“Put your hormones back in their box, Casanova,” she said, scathingly. “I don’t do the huggy-feely thing.” Luke kept studying her even after she stopped talking. Her eyes met his. One eyebrow arched. “See something you like?”
“I was just wondering . . .” Luke said. What was he thinking about? Would a relationship with Loki ever work? No, of course not, a voice told him. You’re going to marry Mara in four months. Get your head out of the gutter.
“Complete sentences would rock, Skywalker.” Loki said.
“Did you ever kill anyone as Vader’s Apprentice?” Luke blurted out.
Loki sat thoughtfully for a moment.
“Seven actually,” she said. Luke stared at her. Loki’s iced-purple eyes met his icy blue ones. “I want to show you something.” She reached out and before Luke could stop her, her right hand was on the right side of his face. Luke froze. He fell onto his back, his eyes wide.
He saw the powder blue entity of Loki’s Soul Exchange before he saw the darkness.
7
Jaken sat and stared moodily at the starscape as he laid on his back on the roof of the Academy. Tril was miffed at him for reasons he thought were frivolous. So she was one of Meridean’s best friends. So what? She should know what a b***h she was sometimes!
Jaken sighed. He remembered when he and Tril were inseparable. They would come up here on clear nights and try to count the stars. Trilian was the bright star in his dark night. Back when he had no idea who he was, she was there. Jaken smiled at the memory.
There she was, sitting at the bar of a refueling cantina on a large meteor. She was wearing little more than what she had escaped with: a brown halter top and a kind of long rectangle of a cloth front and back to serve as a skirt attached to a chain belt. Her hair was pulled up in elaborate braids that did not suit her. Around her wrists and neck were thick iron bands that still had a few links of chains attached to them. She was wearing what looked like dancing shoes as well. She seemed out of place in the pub. She looked sleezy, but her natural elegance shined through. At least Jaken fit in, even if he didn’t know anything about himself but his name.
But he had saved her. Saved her from some pirates. Though, he thought that maybe she could have taken care of herself, given the chance.
“Damn it, Trilian,” he breathed. “Why do you always have to be so . . .”
He closed his eyes and envisioned her. She was not too tall, but not too short. She had gentle curves to her. Her hair was brownish gold. Her eyes were amber. She was damn powerful. And he didn’t deserve her. Jaken sighed again and stood. “So perfect?”
That was when he felt the twinge in the Force. Like a twitch.
Something was wrong.
He whirled around on the roof.
Four Chiss were approaching him, various weapons in hand. One had a blaster, one had a tazer gun, one had a Force pike, and one had what looked like a net.
“Jedi,” one said, the one with the blaster. “Come with us and we will not harm you.”
Jaken cocked an eyebrow, his hands already moving for his sabers, attached to either sides of his belt.
“Let’s not and say we did,” he said. “Besides, don’t you have something better to do on a Saturday night besides kidnap people?” The one with the Force pike raised his weapon and motioned for Tazer to get ready. Jaken’s grey-blue eyes darkened. “I’ll give you a ten seconds to get out of here before I get angry.”
Blaster raised his firing arm. “Have it your way,” Jaken breathed, pulling his sabers. The right was an opaque white and the left was onyx. He put them in front of him in an X. Then he lunged. He flipped around the first two and slashed at Tazer. Force pike blocked.
Jaken parried and brought his leg up in a kick. It connected with the Chiss’s nose. Jaken swung his sabers around, sensing them coming up on his back. He clipped his sabers to his belt.
Time to have some fun.
He called two blazing fire balls to his hands and throws them like baseballs. While he was mastering (and would master) all four of the elements thanks to his First Born Powers, his primary Element was fire.
These Chiss were no Aristocras. They were trained assassins. Jaken dodged and fired again. He grazed Net and Force pike, but he had yet to make a real kill.
“Come on, boys,” he taunted. “I’m just a kid. What? Ya can’t catch a teen on a roof all by yourself?” He smiled, so sure of his imminent victory.
That was when he realized his mistake.
He had lost track of Tazer.
Jaken spun around, but not fast enough.
s**t.
Electricity coursed through his slim frame. Not enough to kill, only enough to stun. Jaken fell to his knees, wincing in pain. His vision was going fuzzy.
“Hit him again,” Blaster said. “Just to be sure.”
Jaken, in one last act to save himself, whipped his leg around, kicking the tazer from Tazer’s hand and landing heavily on his back. Not only the Chiss’s tazer, but a good chunk of his hand had gone flying.
That was it.
No more energy. He laid there and gazed up at the stars that were slowly fading. He was aware they had placed the net around him.
“Will Lady Revan be pleased?” One of them asked. Jaken could not discern who.
“I think she will be,” another replied. He was being dragged towards a ship, he supposed. “This will assure that Meridean and Skywalker get called away again. Perfect window of opportunity.” Jaken felt the Force for one last time before they hit his forehead with the butt of the blaster to assure his incapacitation.
o.0 uh oh . . .
 Omni.
Author.
Someone Loved Me. Blakaize · Fri May 02, 2008 @ 03:38pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
