Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 87: Simple Traps

“What’s that?” Jen asked, reaching up from the back of the speeder too look at something on the horizon.

“What’s what?” Akan and Light asked in unison, both surveying the quickly moving ground for whatever it was Jen saw. Light caught it first, making an ‘oh’ noise. Akan had asked again what it was, and Jen responded by forcefully turning his head in the correct direction. With a panicked reflex, Akan immediately stopped the speeder, nearly splattering them all in the process.

After they recovered from the shock of the stop, Akan managed to look sheepish before peering across the horizon. There was something. No, that was a smell. A smell? Like what?

“I smell smoke,” Light said. Ah. Smoke. Wait. Smoke?! This was the middle of the desert. There shouldn’t be anything out here but sand. It’d only been ten minutes, and there was still a good distance to their destination. Akan ruled that out as the source.

Noticing that Akan was looking confused, Jen pointed again. In the moonless night, it was harder to spot the plume of smoke. But the stars hinted at its location. But if the stars were being distorted that much, and he could smell it all this way out...big. Why did he feel like stopping?! There was a job to be done.

“We should check it out,” Light said, completely surprising Akan at the statement.

Jen nodded in agreement, starting to climb out. Akan tried to think up a protest, but just couldn’t manage it. Realizing that the two others were already out and he was alone, Akan climbed out of the speeder and looked off to the smoke. It wasn’t thick where they were, but the smell was really bothering him. Obviously, a downside to strong senses. A serious downside. Again, Akan realized he was being left behind. Both Jen and Light were slowly walking towards the source of the smoke.

A small, flickering orange could be seen probably not too far off. Distance was hard to determine, as the lack of moonlight was causing even his Alraxian vision to be distorted. He could see well enough, but the horizon line simply blended into the sky. Catching up with the two others, Akan couldn’t help but get a bad feeling about all of this. Something was just very wrong about a fire in the middle of the uninhabited desert. Stopping to look was probably stupid. Too late, though. And anyway, it didn’t look like any of that would need to be mentioned to Light or Jen, as the two of them were at least looking cautious.

“What’s a fire like that doing out here?” Jen asked no one in particular after they got a little closer. The heat was an indicator of how close more than anything.

Akan just shrugged, looking over the dying flames and really not able to shake that feeling. He was smart enough to know a trap when he saw one, but this just confused him. It had the general feel of a trap...but seemed far too simple. And there was no other indication of trouble beyond that feeling. No matter how much Akan trusted in the Force and its warnings, he couldn’t believe everything. Sometimes it was just simple paranoia. Sometimes.

“Look,” Light pointed to general area of the ground. It took Akan’s eyes a few moments, but he soon realized that it was an object she was pointing at. Large. And...

“That’s not what I think it is,” he mumbled, slowly stepping towards the object.

Jen gave him a confused look, her eyes not able to distinguish anything through the still thickening smoke, “What you think what is?”

“It looks like one,” Light commented, following Akan and peering towards the thing that Jen couldn’t see.

“What looks like one what?!” Jen asked sounding more annoyed this time. Too much ambiguity was getting confusing. Giving up, she caught up with Akan and stopped dead in her tracks. Well, not dead, but quickly at least. Dead was what they were looking at.

“That’s what,” Akan said after motioning towards the burnt and horrible smelling thing.

Staring for a long moment, Jen finally realized what it was. Her eyes widened and she looked around, “Topsider.”

“There are more,” Light said, looking out across the sands. She was right. Akan looked around to see bodies everywhere. Most in many pieces, all severely burnt. He also noticed a few holes in the ground. More like tunnels, probably. Topsider settlement? It fit the description he’d heard from Landau. The flames were finally dying out now, though there were still scattered pockets of orange glow across the sand.

Kneeling down and looking more carefully at the Topsider’s body, Akan did his best to try to look closer, “Smells horrible,” that got a couple of agreeing noises from Jen and Light, but they were both surprised when he reached over to life up the arm of the corpse. He leaned in to look closer(covering his nose and whimpering slightly), then pulled back and looked around with a much more alert expression on his face. His ears were twitching around and his tail swished slightly.

“Couldn’t be,” Light mumbled, suddenly looking just as alert and obviously responding to some private conversation the two Alraxians were having.

“I know those marks as well as you do,” Akan mumbled, stepping towards another body and giving it the same look.

Light followed him closely, sounding slightly panicked when she spoke, “Coincidence!!”

Once he stood up again, Akan gave her a flat look. That got a sight out of Light, and she nodded, “I know...too good to be true...”

“What the hell is going on?!” Jen finally growled, getting far too annoyed with being left out. It was worse than hearing only one side of a comm conversation and knowing you were being talked about on the other end. Akan didn’t seem to hear her, as he was quickly walking past her, grabbing her arm and dragging her with him. Light was keeping up, and Akan eventually let go of Jen’s arm when she pulled away and found herself running along side him. Running to keep up with his fast walking.

“What is it, Akan?” she asked again, grabbing his arm to get some form of attention beyond being dragged off.

She was looking back to the corpse covered sand behind them when he just said, “I know a trap when I see one. I should just listen to my instincts and not stop. I knew there was something wrong here.”

“What are you talking about?!” this time, Jen grabbed him and forced him to stop. This had Light slam into him, as she was looking off in other directions and wasn’t paying attention. After an apology and some whimpering, Jen grabbed Akan’s shoulders and stared up straight into his eyes, “Tell me what the is going on!”

“The Darks were here,” he said, pulling away and looking nervous, “Recently. Very recently. Probably not far away, and probably on their way back now.”

“You catch on quick!” sounded a voice from back towards the flames. Akan knew his own voice when he heard it, and couldn’t help but sight at the idiotic cliche. So typical of himself. Turning and sending a bored look, Akan looked over towards his Dark.

With a bored tone to his voice, Akan said, “You realize that its much more effective to just sneak up and knock me out. Showing off only causes you problems.”

“Actually,” said a second voice, which Akan identified as Dark, from behind them. He turned to see her standing between them and the speeder, smirking, “This was your chance to show intelligence and surrender. The Topsiders were just there and we were bored.”

Light, Jen, and Akan took time to exchange a series of looks. It was more for effect, showing that they could look just as foolish if they tried. And somehow, it was funny. What surprised all of them was that Light was the one to step forward and speak up, “We’ve decided that we think you should surrender first.”

Not how Akan would have said it, but the general idea was right. Taunting. Revenge. Making fools of one self for no other reason than some strange feeling right before you knew you were likely to get killed. A sound behind them signaled them all to Akan’s Dark moving. In that quick instance, it seemed like a thousand things occurred at once. At hearing the movement, the three of them turned to react, all three drawing blasters and readying them. However, none of them were able to fire. By the time Akan had reached up with his weapon and started to squeeze the trigger, he realized the mistake of turning. The realization came in the form of a hard hit to the back of the head, sending him to the ground in a daze. A second later, Dark got her hands around Jen and yanked the blaster away while starting to drag the struggling woman off. It was a fight Jen knew she couldn’t win, but she fought it anyway. The fight resulted in her being knocked unconscious, of course. Last, Light’s blaster was torn from her hands by Akan’s Dark, who then jammed a fist into her face an picked her up in one swift and awkward motion.

By the time Akan sat up again, ready to fight again, he was alone. He must have been out for at least a few minutes...or at least close to being unconscious. More had happened...that was too quick. How could he have been so stupid? Simple traps are the best. And that one was so simple that it had been sprung and succeeded in a matter of seconds. Not even a fight. Getting to his feet, Akan looked towards where Sadrak’s facility was. Off towards where the Darks had to be going. He would have started that direction right away if Akan hadn’t found the drive system in the speeder was destroyed.

Typical. All that flash and cliched activity was just to distract them. Akan kicked himself for underestimating the Darks. Sighing, he started on that long walk that would have to be made towards the facility. Hopefully, he was going the right direction. There wasn’t much other choice. But then there was a sound. Behind and above him. Of course!

Turning around, Akan watched the old model airspeeder set down. Before it had even set down, Voort was climbing out of one side and marching over to the Alraxian. A look of anger in his eyes, he growled, “What happened?! Where’s Jen?!”

Akan then made the decision to never return to the planet ever again. In fact, sand was going to be off limits for the next few millennia also. This damn place drove everyone crazy one way or another.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 88: Punishments

When Jen opened her eyes to a blurry haze, she couldn’t help but notice the forceful pressure all around. It wasn’t a physical pressure, and that made it odd for the first few moments as her mind regained consciousness. Once her mind had slowly began its recovery, Jen found herself wishing the pressure was physical. Feeling it on the inside hurt in more than one way, and none of them were pleasant to think about. But her memories were catching up with her, and Jen was no longer worrying about the pressure and instead piecing together where she was.

Floor. Start simply. Her eyes focused and she took in the floor. Strange. She could see herself. It was a well polished golden-like color that reflected like a perfect mirror. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity(though it had barely been a week) she saw herself. Jen first noticed that her once-tidy blonde hair was currently a mess, and also much closer to the color of the sand. Probably because there was a good amount of sand in it. She’d given up on trying to pick it out days ago. A few more moments were spent as she look into her own eyes. The usual blue seemed paler. Or maybe that was because of the bruises and scratches. How that made sense, Jen didn’t know, but there sure were a large amount of marks across her face. Some very definitely more recent than others.

And then the pressure seemed to increase. Cringing, Jen found her mind tracing it to a source. Eyes following her brain’s orders, Jen slowly looked up. It did not take long before she was taking in the view of a large, black robe. Following it up all the way, Jen noticed that she couldn’t actually any face within the heavy black hood. All black. Typical. One day someone would have to teach these self proclaimed evil dictators that other colors might just conceal them better. Really, why not a light brown robe? It would blend perfectly with the sand, while that black would stick out like the orange flight suits that New Republic pilots wore. At least those were so bright because they were designed to assist in being seen. But really, shouldn’t these ‘evil’ people try not to be seen? One day, she’d ask Voort.

“Bring the child before me.”

The voice had definitely come from the hooded figure, though it was less a voice and more a sound. The distinction between the two Jen would never be able to explain, but for the first time she truly knew there was one. Hearing a short amount of movement and then an ‘oof’ noise to her left, Jen turned to look. There she saw Light, exhausted and beaten. It was a strange look on an Alraxian, and one that only could result from not having remorphed any wounds. Jen didn’t completely understand all of the details, but seeing a long scar across Light’s face was worrying enough. The young Alraxian just stared at the ground as a figure kicked her forward more.

After a short silence, the swishing of robes drew Jen’s attention back to the robed figure(who she assumed was Sadrak). The figure had half raised an arm, still concealed within the robe so that it only looked like a creature attempting to raise a small wing and failing. The signal was not wholly unnoticed, and Jen watched as two humanoid figures picked Light up and dragged her to her feet and in front of the robed figure. The two new creatures were humanoid enough, though there was one noticeable difference about them. They had four arms. The lower two arms looked misshapen in places, but were still strong enough to hold up Light.

The Alraxian slowly lifted her head, staring into the black and empty looking hood. Jen could not tell if Light discovered anything new, though, and found herself wondering if anyone cared she was even there. Though being ignored at this point was not altogether a bad thing. Without any warning, there was a sudden flash of movement. It was mixed with a cry of pain from Light, and the only way that Jen had any idea what had happened was from looking to Light. She no longer had a large portion of her right shoulder. Something had simply cut it off. This was morphed back instinctively, and got a short, although very disturbing, laugh from the robed figure.

Without a word or even a signal, Light was thrown back to the ground next to Jen. The two four-armed humanoids looked to the robed figure, and Jen noticed that one of them held a large piece of flesh in a hand. Light’s shoulder...Bowing, the two strange creatures turned and left the large chamber. It was the first time she’d looked across the huge domed room. Only the floor was reflective. The walls were an odd obsidian color, with the domed roof made of the same material. Whatever it was, it emitted an odd feeling.

“Get up.”

Somehow, Jen knew that those words were directed at her. She did not comply with the request, wanting to show any kind of defiance she could to him. But this didn’t matter, as a single strong hand grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her to her feet. By now, Jen knew that clawed grip. Dark. Jen had wondered if that thing was still around. Thing? No, it was part of Shadow...but still. So now forced to stand, though no closer to the robed figure, Jen stared at the black mass. No new insights.

“You were quiet adept in eluding capture.”

Somehow, that felt like a question. The kind of question that answering would likely get oneself killed. So, Jen simply kept her mouth shut and payed attention to the absolute lack of movement in that robe. Perhaps he wasn’t speaking at all? But no, her ears were definitely receiving those sounds from him. Had to be. At the same time, though, she wasn’t in the mood to accept more mystical answers. There were enough of those floating around everywhere on this planet for her liking.

The voice itself had seemed to pause at her thoughts, and continued on when her train of thought had slowed, “You will answer my questions. You are Jen Zaarin of Alderaan?”

At first, Jen decided not to answer and be difficult. This got her a tight squeeze from Dark, with the added effect of claws touching her neck in just that way to show they could easily go much much deeper without killing her. So, Jen gave in and spoke(as nodding would probably hurt), “Yes.”

The figure did not take any time to think on this, simply stating another question the second she’d finished with her answer, “You feel drawn to this place, do you not?”

A pause. A long one. Jen wasn’t sure what kind of question that was. Obviously, he was leading her to some point and just toying with her on the way. But still...she’d not thought about it before, and she did feel drawn to the desert. No one place in particular. Well, no...yes. Yes she did. Here. This was the right place. Why, though? That much did not make sense, though she was surprised to find herself answering already, “Yes.”

That’s when the robe moved slightly, and Jen felt like she was being looked...through. It lasted only a matter of seconds before Dark pulled her around and started taking her to a small opening off on the other side of the room. So this was over. Jen realized that it was not over once they reached the small door.

“You will return once they are placed within the cells. It is time to discuss your breeding.”

Breeding?! What was he talking about? When they exited the room to a long corridor, Jen heard a low growl from Dark. That got a smile from the woman. So he wasn’t speaking to Jen at all. But why was Dark so angry? Tension between them...interesting. As Dark forced her along the corridor, Jen was glad to see Light not far ahead. Light was being held tightly by Akan’s Dark, who stood there looking back with a curious expression. That looked odd on the face she had gotten used to seeing anger on.

No words were exchanged between anyone as Jen was dragged along for a long distance. But then, Akan’s Dark spoke up, speaking as if it was only he and Dark in the room, “What is it? I have done nothing to anger you.”

Dark stopped, tossed Jen against the wall hard and stepped over to her Akan. When Jen’s head stopped spinning, she looked over to see Dark holding up her pet Akan by the neck against the wall. She was growling and looking ready to murder. In a cold as ice voice, she spoke, “Your incompetence has brought its punishment. And it is not yours. I should kill you where you are.”

“But then you would be useless to him,” Akan’s Dark said simply, not even reacting to the tightening hand around his neck. After a moment, Dark simply let go of him, letting him drop.

As she stepped over to force Jen to her feet again, Dark said to her Akan, “I am not breeding stock for him to toy with.”

Interesting. Jen couldn’t help but notice a triumphant smile tugging at the face of Akan’s Dark as she was forced down the corridor again by a very angry Dark.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 89: Long Nights

“What is wrong with you?” Voort growled, pointing accusingly at Akan as Landau climbed out of the airspeeder with a worried look on his face, “Why did you let them take her?!”

“I didn’t let anyone take either of them!” Akan snapped back, not backing down at this point. The argument had only lasted a couple of minutes, but tempers had already risen dangerously high. Neither of them seemed to care about what was ‘right’ or ‘good’ to do, simply letting anger out in a way that both of them knew was not a good idea.

Voort took a strong step forward, closing the gap between the two of them even more, “You shouldn’t have stopped! Anyone could tell that was a trap!”

“Well, I’m sorry your great mind wasn’t with us,” commented Akan, almost offhand and not really even speaking to Voort at this point.

Landau was trying to get close enough to pull the two of tem apart, knowing in a second where it was going. He was, however, too late. Akan’s sarcastic comment was enough to get a curse out of Voort, followed by a strong punch. It wasn’t any trouble for Akan to catch Voort’s fist, grabbing the man’s wrist and gripping tightly, allowing the threat of claws digging in to be easily seen. Neither of them moved, and Akan said quietly, “I did what I could to protect both of them.”

“Its not your job to protect!” Voort growled, wrenching his hand out from Akan’s grip and swinging at the Alraxian again. Though neither of them were trained in the intricacies of hand-to-hand combat, it was obvious that Voort’s rudimentary training was the straightforward Imperial approach of ‘hit hard’. This was no trouble for Akan’s quick moving and still very strong Alraxian body to dodge, though this time he decided that Voort needed some sense knocked into him. Literally.

The sense came in the form of Akan’s leg, which he swept low to take Voort’s feet out from under him and drop the man to the ground. He may not have been trained for this kind of fighting, but Voort was no fool. He jumped over Akan’s leg, and upon landing(albeit roughly) swung another hard punch at the Alraxian’s face. Having not yet gotten to the point of actually wanting to injure Voort, Akan was not reacting as well as he could have been. The consequence of this was Voort’s fist finding his jaw, and sending the Alraxian to the ground on his backside. Alright. That was it. With a low and dangerous growl, Akan jumped to his feet and dove at that damn Imperial scum.

He did not, however, reach Voort. A blaster shot rang out suddenly, and the sand exploded in front of Akan, stopping him in his tracks. Both of them looked to the source, seeing Landau looking extremely annoyed. In an angry voice that was very unlike anything Akan had ever heard from Landau, the man snapped at the two of them, “Cut it out! You’re acting like a pair of children!”

Neither of them pointed out that at least one of them was a child. Landau knew this and nitpicking things like that was probably not a good idea when the man was aiming a blaster at both of them.

“Akan, you still have a job to do,” Landau continued, sounding more like an Imperial officer than ever before, “Get yourself together and go finish your task. You will simply have to bring Jen and Light back with you.”

Another technicality was not point out. This time, it was the fact that there was a very large chance that Jen and Light would not be at that facility. But again, this didn’t seem like a good idea.

Landau continued without missing a beat, his looking turning to a glare as he watched the young Alraxian, “Do you understand?”

A question. Answer it. Akan didn’t nod, but instead said in a voice he’d not used in a long time, “Yes, sir.”

Without another word, he ran off into the desert. No matter how stupid it seemed, there wasn’t much of another choice. He wasn’t going to get a lift on that airspeeder after that, and arguing was no longer an option. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long.

Landau then holstered his blaster and stepped over to Voort. His voice was only slightly calmer, “This is why relationships are discouraged among the military.”

Those words seemed to have a profound effect on Voort, and he found himself finally calming. He nodded, and looked off towards Akan who was already a good distance away, “He’s always provoking me.”

“Yes,” Landau just nodded as he started back to the airspeeder, “And he’s also young. You should know well enough by now that you should set an example for the younger troops and be above such actions.”

Again, Voort nodded, “I know. Too much just seems to be happening.”

“That’s not a good excuse,” Landau said flatly. He then stopped his walk and turned to stare straight into Voort’s grey eyes, “You think you’re the only one that cares about Jen? You think you’re the only one she cares about? We all care about her. In fact, we all care about you. Even Akan does, he’s just in a strange position to accept either of us as allies. Don’t you dare ever think that you’re the only one that cares about her. Look at her and Akan.”

Landau paused to let Voort think about it. In a way, this was not exactly a smart thing, as Voort could easily get the wrong idea of what his friend was saying. But Voort did stop to think about it, forcing his jealousy aside to think as rationally as was possible. It was only a few moments before Landau spoke up again, “They are very close. But not how you think they are. Don’t let that destroy your judgement, and don’t even think of acting like you just did again.”

As the two of them climbed back into the airspeeder, Voort found his mind was working things out without notifying him. He hadn’t wanted to get so angry with Akan, but something about how the kid acted just infuriated Voort sometimes. Akan was trying to provoke him, whether conscious or not. That boy still held some stupid resentment, and now Voort was letting it cloud his judgement, too. That was the moment that Voort joined the ranks of the many who had sworn to never return to this horrible planet. The desolation and emptiness seemed to pick at your every being whether you liked it or not.

* * * *​

It took Akan about half an hour to find the facility. Obviously, they’d been much closer than he’d originally expected. From what he could see, it was mostly under the sand. One large entrance arched up out of the ground like an oddly shaped dune, and that was where Akan started making his way towards. As he approached, it became obvious that the other dunes, in fact, likely all the sand, was just a thin layer in this place. The facility below ground probably spanned a large distance, and some of the dunes were too rounded to be natural. Even the ground felt harder, and Akan knew by now the difference between walking on durasteel and the sandy ground.

Entering the dimly lit entrance, Akan found it worrying that it was in fact, wide open. No hatch or door. Just an opening. That was a dangerous lack of security. Either he was expected(which wouldn’t be surprising) or they simply didn’t have to worry about people wandering in(which was also very likely). Probably both. Either way, it didn’t make him feel any better. After a short walk down some steep stairs, Akan found himself at a small hallway that extended for a long direction both to his left and right. When he reached out with the Force to try to find the ‘right’ way, he was met with a heavy pressure like a smack in the skull. Retreating back into his mind, Akan wondered if that was from the link or something else. Strange that he couldn’t tell at this point. Either way, if he was hidden before, something knew that he was here now. Damn.

Before deciding which direction to go, Akan heard a noise from the left corridor. Risking only a short glance before ducking back, he caught sight of a dirty robed humanoid figure. The robes covered most all of the figure except for the feet, which were in sandals. Hmm...only one person. It was just too perfect. So perfect that Akan worried for those long moments while the footsteps grew closer and closer. When they reached close enough, Akan spun around the corner, fist swinging hard. He connected with a nose, and got a loud ‘oof!’ noise out of the figure before it dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. The sound echoed for a second longer than Akan was comfortable with, and he quickly dragged the body up to the stairwell and disrobed it. To his surprise, he found that the figure was perfectly human looking except for the fact that it had four arms. Two of the arms didn’t look right, either. The color and shape were a bit...wrong. Somehow, that did not bode well.

No time for this, though. That was one thing to remember, though. He hid the body in a dark corner as best as was possible and then wrapped the horrible smelling robe around him. Pulling the hood up, Akan truly hoped that no one would pay any attention to his boots. Or, hopefully, sandals weren’t standard issue and this particular...thing, was an oddity. Doubtful, though. Happy with the simple disguise, Akan then slipped out into that main corridor. By process of elimination, Akan went the direction that the thing had not come from. How this process of elimination worked was anyone’s guess, but at least he’d made a decision. As he walked through a series of corridors, remembering the path perfectly so he wouldn’t get lost on the way out, Akan noticed that he was definitely following something.

A feeling. A...no, the link. That had to be it. Tracing it through the corridors as it got just slightly stronger with his approach. He did not know that this was also because Light was awakening from unconsciousness, but that didn’t matter. Rounding one more corner, Akan got a surprise. Right there, just a few paces away and getting ready to walk past him, were the two Darks. And even better, they were dragging Jen and Light along with them. Akan did have time to note that his Dark looked strangely happy, while Shadow’s had an extremely angered look on her face. The two(or rather, four) of them plowed past Akan without a word. Ah! He’d almost forgotten about the robe he was wearing. So it was working.

Then something in his mind clicked. Merge. Back to one. How again? Best when unconscious...simply step in. Like morphing. The bodies should accept each other as they’re from the same source. It isn’t difficult as long as the minds accepted each other as one. This only became a problem if too many decisions were made to make each mind independent. Light’s explanation passed through Akan’s mind in that quick second, and he reacted without realizing what he’d done.

He spun around as the Dark’s moved past him, and planted an extremely heavy blow to the back of his Dark’s head. A sound of pain was heard before he dropped Light and collapsed to the floor. Akan did his best to ignore the phantom pain on his own skull, and also tried to ignore the surprised Dark. She looked over her shoulder with a shocked expression in time to see it was already too late. No matter how strange and awkward it seemed, Akan fell into himself. A myriad of thoughts, feelings, and emotions ran through his body in that second, and for a short while he didn’t even realize where he was. Two different sets of memories collided with each other, with details filling themselves in. The minds did not fight one another, and in that short time it took for thing to mesh together, Akan managed a grin. No, a smile. He was whole again, literally.

Dark did nothing as he stood up and looked straight at her. The robe he’d warn had been discarded, and standing before her was the true Akan in his morphsuit. He managed a smile, and said simply, “You still like me now, don’t you?”

That got a reaction from Dark. She growled, dropped a very surprised Jen, and charged him. Akan easily dodged the two quick strikes. The third, though, caught him in the chest and knocked the wind out of him. Stumbling back, Akan instinctively reached for the lightsaber at his belt. Instead, he found nothing. Why had he left that behind?! So instead, he drew his blaster and fired off a shot at Dark. She smacked his hand hard, knocking the weapon off against the wall and then followed up with a strong kick to his face. As his jaw made a disturbingly loud crack, Akan found that he was soon staring straight up at the ceiling. He had expected to be reacting to a pounce from Dark. In fact, Dark had been expecting the same thing.

But something else happened. A strong pressure grew. All four of them knew what it was, and Jen was just getting to her feet only to fall back to her knees. It hurt so much! Almost like someone was squeezing their brains from the inside out...if that made any sense. It lasted long enough that all of them knew a presence had arrived. When the feeling faded, all of them were just feeling too weak to attempt any kind of retaliation against the fifth person to enter the corridor. The black robed figure seemed to watch them all silently for a long while, before speaking in that horrible non-voice.

“You have failed in a task as simple as escorting two captives, animal. Perhaps you are not even worthy of a continued line. I fear they would all be as weak as you.”

Dark managed a weak, but still angered, growl. Light, hearing this mention of breeding for the first time, seemed to react with a strange panic that all of them could see easily. None of them said anything, though. Not that they could have if they wanted to. Jen felt that the eyes within the robe(if there were any) had landed on her as the voice went on.

“It is time to test and see if you truly are what I believe you to be.”

A few moments later, a large group of those strange humanoids were all around, picking them up and holding them firmly to avoid any struggle. As they were dragged away to a distant room, they all heard the voice just as clearly as before.

“Now go and face your greatest fears. Perhaps afterwards, we will discuss your fates.”

 

[Hammerhead]

I just wanted to chime in and say your story hour is pretty cool. I'm really enjoying it; go Voort!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 90: Fear

It was dark. Very dark. So dark, in fact, that the word did not convey the level of darkness correctly. Akan could not even seen the fringe of hair over his face. He could feel the hair resting on his nose and cheek annoyingly, but could not actually see it. Such a negligible distance and he still couldn’t see anything but black. Not even fluctuations in the black like when one closed their eyes. Just black. It was mentally terrifying, yet the sound of movements was helpful. At least they lessened the lonely feelings.

Probably directly across from him, there was a constant, low growling noise. That would be Dark. One. Movement to his...left? Or was the right? Think! Eyes are still looking forward so that’s definitely right. But what is forward when everything’s black? Who cares! Its left for now. Or was it right...? The movement shuffled again. Left. Definitely left.

“Who is that?” he asked to nothing, not even hearing an echo. Instead, his voice sounded so flat that Akan barely recognized it.

“Akan? Where are you?” that was...Jen’s voice. Had to be. There was another sound from behind him, a slow and slightly shaking breathing. That had to be Light. Half of the way to identify this was through the link, though it was almost as strong as with Dark, making it strangely confusing. It had been enough to separate thoughts that were his Dark’s from his own, but at least that was finally settling into one telling of two events...or...two tellings of...no. No. Do not think of that again. Accept and ignore it.

Akan turned to look towards where he thought he heard Jen’s voice. Other than the sound of his feet moving, he couldn’t tell that he had moved at all. Sounding just as disoriented as he felt, Akan said, “Um...here. Not sure where that is but...I’m here.”

“I think I’ve found a wall,” Jen responded after a few moments.

That confused Akan a little more than he already was, “What do you mean, you think you’ve found a wall?”

“It means that I’m not going to walk along this until it stops being a wall and fall on my backside,” Jen said quickly.

That got a short laugh out of Akan, “Right,” he paused, spun around to look towards the quietly breathing noise ‘behind’ him, “Light? You alive?”

“...‘m here...” sounded her answer, which would have been barely audible if not for that awkward way that sounded traveled without traveling.

“Dark?” Akan asked, not needing to but deciding it was worth it anyway. The growling hadn’t stopped, but simply got a little louder. It was probably the best answer he’d get out of her for now. Alright. So from the sound of it, he was in the center of a room that just might have one wall. Great, “Jen, can you keep talking?”

“About what?” she asked idly.

Akan focused on the sound and carefully walked towards her, “Anything. Just don’t stop talking.”

“Um...well...” Jen continued to make sounds like that, but at least it was something. Akan was finding it slightly difficult to walk without seeing his feet, and nearly tripped a couple of times. By the time Jen had started babbling on about nothing in particular, Akan found a something. Walking with his hand out in front of him had been smart, mainly because it meant he didn’t slam into anything and surprise himself. But it soon because obvious that there might have been a better idea.

“...and it was a strange red color. I’m not really sure why it was — mmph! Nn! Mmphff!” Jen’s talking was cut off when Akan’s hand nearly plowed through her. He stopped in surprise at running into something, but for some reason didn’t move his hand from her face. So, muffled, Jen said, “Moo oor and.”

“What?” Akan was even more confused by that, but then his mind caught up and he quickly did as she ordered. Moving his hand. He took a careful step forward and to the left so as not to walk into her, and then reached out again. Akan was relieved when his hand found a cold metal instead of Jen again. There were worse places he could have put his hand than her face, and no matter the excuse about the dark, he knew it would never be something he’d live down.

“What is this?” Jen finally asked, her voice lower as if she was trying to hide her words from Dark.

Akan shrugged. It took him a moment to realize that even he could barely tell he’d done that, and found his voice again, “I don’t know...”

“Face your greatest fears,” Light’s voice surprised Akan, as she’d been so silent that he’d not expected her to say anything else. None of them responded to this, but it wasn’t that they didn’t try. Instead, something seemed to hit them. Not as much a literal hit as a mental one, though just as strong. Jen sank to the floor, her eyes closing but that doing nothing to stop the constant flow of images through her mind. Alderaan. Over and over she watched that holovid of the planet’s destruction. Repeating again and again and again. Endlessly intertwining with flashes of her family, all dead because of that one act. One order. Sometimes, other images would find their way in. Images she didn’t recognize, but equally disturbing. The most common was Landau, with a shocked look on his face. But it was gone as quickly as it had come, and she found that she was clinging to herself to try to shake off the images. Make them go away.

The others had similar experiences, though different enough in each case to be equally tormenting. Light saw the Darkwing, replaying the death of that young child in her hands. She saw what could happen if the Darkwing returned, images that were unimaginable in their grotesque and painful details. She also saw, interestingly enough, all of Dark’s deeds. Watching the slaughter of the hundreds of Topsiders. Dark saw the opposite, all of Light’s actions. It was odd that kindness could hurt someone in such a way, but Dark found herself impossibly trapped in hatred for the things she was seeing that it was impossibly horrible to watch them continue. The images that played through Akan’s mind were nothing new to him. He watched Mare die again and again, just as he replayed in his mind before falling asleep, and just as he dreamed of it nearly every single night. Yet despite all of this, it still haunted him. To make matters worse, he saw happier images of the two of them together, only to be torn apart by watching her X-Wing burst into flames.

How long this lasted, none of them could tell. It could have been only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When Akan’s view of the world around him returned to the pitch black nothing, he was amazed to find himself relieved. But this was a tactic of breaking that was simple. Allow a brief period for the subjects to recover, and then attack again. How long would they have? Or would he have? From the sounds of it, the others were still seeing things. Growls and curses from Dark’s direction and whimpering noises and soft cries of pain from Light. Next to him, Akan noticed that Jen had found his arm. Her arms clung to him tightly, and her nails dug into the morphsuit and his arm like claws as she wept and tried to force the images away. But Akan noticed that Jen seemed to calm slowly, her grip on his arm loosening but not going away.

It was a few careful moments before he felt something on his shoulder. When he felt his shoulder getting wet, Akan assumed it was Jen’s face. Not sure what to do, he simply sat there and tried to ignore the fact that he wished he had a shoulder to collapse on. When he spoke, he found himself saying words that he didn’t even believe, “Its alright...its over...don’t think about it...”

“Why do this to us?!” Jen asked into his shoulder. Well, more demanding than asking, but the idea was still there. He had been about to say something equally cliched, but there was a rather loud cry from Dark’s direction. That silenced all of them, especially that there was a scratching noise to accompany the newfound silence.

In a forced, and hate-filled voice, Dark said, “Damn you all...I don’t deserve to be with you weak fools!”

“You’re just as vulnerable,” Akan said, not realizing he’d opened his mouth until it was too late.

Surprisingly, Dark didn’t launch at this insult to kill him. Instead, she simply growled dangerously without another word. It was Jen who spoke next, whispering in hopes that only Akan would hear, “They...they should be like you, shouldn’t they?”

“Like me?” Akan asked, raising an eyebrow that no one could see. Distantly, he was still worrying about the lack of anything and wondering if more torture was waiting them in a few minutes or seconds.

“Whole,” Jen clarified. It then made sense to him, and he nodded. Though she couldn’t see it, Jen could feel the movement, so he figured that words were necessary at this point. Or at least, not to Jen.

He only allowed himself a couple of seconds to compose his thoughts before speaking out louder, “You two can’t keep this up.”

Interestingly enough, this got a growl from both Light and Dark, though Light’s was much less intimidating. He tried again, but this time recieved silence as a response. There wasn’t a chance to push the subject, as a moment later the images returned to all of them. This time though, they were more graphic, painful, and forceful. Akan did not handle them as well as he had before. It was not hard to break the mind of someone who was tearing themselves apart on their own. Though intensified for all of them, it seemed to end sooner than before. Seemed to, at least. Still, time was impossible to tell.

Akan found that he was shaking slightly, hating the images burned in his eyes from the back nothing. As they all slowly recovered from the second assault, Jen found herself feeling strange. It was impossible to describe what was strange, but there was something off. Wrong. Different. Still clinging to Akan, she mumbled a few words that didn’t really make any sense even to her.

Somehow, Akan composed himself and forced the shaking to stop. Inside, he was still losing it, but at least he was showing a stronger ‘side’ to help Jen. Quietly, and stuttering slightly while trying to keep his voice steady, Akan said to her, “It’ll be alright...we’ll get out of here...just hold on a little longer...we’ll get out...”

She didn’t respond. But again, there wasn’t much time before they lapsed into the past and the future and the present all at once. Again and again, seemingly endlessly the cycle continued. Each time, the short pause in the anguish took up seemingly less and less time. It was possible that it was the exact same length of time, only they continued to see the images afterwards for longer periods. Either way, it didn’t change the overall effect. How many times this cycle repeated, they didn’t know. Akan had lost count after seven. Jen lost count after nine. Light hadn’t even been counting, just trying to avoid the inevitable truth of needing to merge with her Dark. This fact was becoming even more torturous than the images. To willingly become one with everything that was wrong with her! And to have no choice! NO! There was a choice! She didn’t have to, and she wouldn’t! Light would not have found it ironic or even funny to know that Dark’s thoughts were similar. Dark, however, was only tempted by the power. Half a living being was just that. Half. Akan had proved to her that being whole was easily stronger. But still...that weak Light would only slow her down.

And then, a light appeared. It was from the center of the square room they sat in. Light was not far at all from Akan, and Dark was directly across from her. Jen clung tightly to him still, though she was looking up towards the newfound light. The room was a small box, probably no larger than fifteen by fifteen meters. On Dark’s side, there were deep claw marks along the walls and ground, along with slight hints at blue blood. Light’s side was more simple. She was curled up against the wall, tail flicking around with no traces of movement other than her tail and her shaking body. Akan and Jen were pretty much in similar shape to Light, though they had been lucky enough to have physical proof of not being alone in the room.

Slowly and carefully, they all stood up. Dark was the only one without shaking feet, but that was probably from force of will more than anything. And maybe the fact that her claws were dug into the wall still. Light inched her way closer to Akan and Jen, not liking how close she’d ended up to her Dark. Both Jen and Akan had managed to steady themselves on their feet without too much trouble. Images still flashed through all of their mind’s occasionally, but thankfully they did not have the same powerful effect as before. And then a door opened. The dark robed figure stood there blocking any exit, looking out from the empty looking hood at the mall.

“See...” Akan said shakily to Jen, “Told you we’d get out of here.”

Jen smiled weakly, and then surprised him. It took her a moment, but she stood up on her toes and kissed him gently on the lips. Setting back down on her feet, she said, “Thank you.”

Even if Akan had been given time to figure out what had just happened, he wouldn’t have succeeded. So perhaps it was a good thing that the dark figure stepped away and many of those four armed monstrosities plowed in to drag them off somewhere else. All of them were too weak to fight back, and were easy to pull down the corridors to wherever it was. And then they were dumped into a small, circular room. No. They all weren’t. Only the Alraxians were. Akan had tried to get to his feet to protest this, but the door had slid closed and he simply fell against it and sighed.

Jen was carried back to that large, domed room. When she was dropped to the floor in front of the robed figure, she looked up to try to see some kind of detail. Still none. It was driving her mad. The robes were as black as that room had been!

“You feel that...don’t you?”

Feel what?! Jen would have asked that if she could have found her voice. Somehow, she couldn’t speak, though. Her mouth would barely even open. So she was forced to think on those words. Feel that? Feel what...? Jen did notice that something was odd. Almost a split of sorts within her mind. No, not a split. That was more what Akan and Shadow had experienced. This was fundamentally different on a thousand levels. But there was something...something unique. Yes, unique was the best word for it.

“Soon you will be ready.”

And then, she finally saw into that robe. One arm reached out, and a strange hand extended out from the confines of the black. The hand was three fingered and clawed, with rotting greenish colored flesh covering it. The wrist and hand were so thing that it worried her, and she suddenly started wondering if this really was Sadrak. But if not him, then who was it they’d chased all the way out here?! What was it? She was left with this question when a heavy hand of the Force hit her like a wall, dropping her into the most peaceful black Jen had experienced in what seemed like an eternity.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I just wanted to chime in and say your story hour is pretty cool. I'm really enjoying it; go Voort!

Thanks!

But...

...Go Voort?! Bah, you people! What is it about Voort that makes so many people like him? Funny, I didn't like him that much at all during the game itself, but now I'm finding he's great. Not sure WHY though. Thinking about it, don't even know why I(or Akan for that matter) didn't like him in the first place...

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 91: Two as One

The three Alraxians were still recovering from the constant assaults they had endured for however long it had been. They all looked almost as bad as they felt. Dark was slumped back against one wall in the circular room, her eyes wide open and staring at the two others. She couldn’t seem to gather the strength to even glare at them anymore, and simply sat there, wings flattened and generally broken. How had that occurred so easily? Nothing had been done to her and yet her body was exhausted! That bastard! Her Akan...any Akan deserved punishment! Damn them all! She should have simply killed Him when she’d had the chance.

Sitting directly across from Dark was Light. It was slightly amusing to see them keeping as far from each other as possible. Or rather, it would have been if amusement was possible at this point. Light had found a comfortable spot against the wall and curled up tightly, tail flicking slightly every few moments. It wasn’t out of annoyance as much as fear. All of those things she’d been shown could have been easily ignored except for one. Just one stayed with her each time. It was that child. The small child in the Darkwing’s hands that she’d murdered. Somehow nothing else mattered except that child. Not far from Light, sitting off to her left, was Akan. He was sitting in a fairly casual way with his back to the wall, carefully watching these two Shadows. It was interesting how similar they were, yet so completely different. Right here in front of his eyes was that struggle that everyone held within themselves between right and wrong. Yet here, it was personified. It was unreal, but he allowed himself to focus on it anyway. It distracted his mind. Pulled the thoughts away from that avenue they kept trying to take.

Closing his eyes a moment, Akan knew that the fight was pointless. How was he supposed to let go? How was anyone expected to move on? Sure, you could bury it and hide away for years, but eventually it would catch up and you’d have to confront it. But how? When there’d been no chance to say goodbye. When, despite the risks that all knew were there, it was your own fault? Killing a faceless enemy was easy. He was the enemy. He was evil, cruel, horrible. He never should have lived and you were doing the galaxy a favor by killing him. But being responsible for the death of one on your own side? One of those people that you knew were good, righteous, and fighting for the right thing. These people doing everything they could to do what was right, and you were right there helping them. And then, they die because of you. Does that make you the enemy, too? The evil? There’s no grey area...you’re either one or the other. And the good would never kill their friends and allies.

When Akan’s eyes opened again, he looked to Dark again. She caught his eye, and they watched each other for a long time. It was strange to see Shadow in her, but he did. Only short flicks of her in the eyes. It was the way Dark was watching him. That cold, analyzing stare hiding behind it a thousand things that even she didn’t understand. It was amazing to see that Dark was even throwing out a heavy barrier to hide a confused interior. Even she didn’t understand who she was. And she never would. Not like that. Light wouldn’t either. Akan could see that more than anyone. And that’s why he found his voice and spoke.

“You two can’t go on like this.”

That was all he needed to say. It got both of the other’s attention, but not on him. On each other. Dark growled a weak ‘no’, but there was no sound from Light at all. Or at least, not until she looked to Akan and saw the serious look on his face. Something about that proved to her that no matter how much she feared her Dark, she was nothing without it.

“He’s right,” she said quietly, sitting up some and trying to look less afraid than she really was.

Dark managed a glare, pulling back and barring her teeth, “Never.”

This was going to go on for a long time. All of them knew it. Two of them, however, knew that there was a way to change the outcome. Light was the first one to recognize it, obviously knowing herself better than Akan did. In the same calm voice, she just said, “You need strength. You are weak now.”

Again, Dark glared, “You are weak!”

“Yes, I am,” Light said in that matter of fact tone that could drive anyone in the galaxy crazy, “I’m just as weak as you are. But that could be different...”

The way she trailed off was perfect. It was enough to catch Dark’s attention. The one thing she wanted. Power. Power to get out of this place. Power to kill Him. Power to live free of all these humans. Dark was not inherently evil, she simply wanted Power. She wanted the power to achieve what Shadow wanted. It was an odd way of doing things, and it was almost pitiable. But Light knew which buttons to push, and exactly what sequence to do it in.

It may have only been a tiny change in Dark’s expression, but it was easily noticeable. She said nothing, but Light got the message. So, Light continued talking, “You could have more power. You would have it.”

“But I would not be who I am!” Dark suddenly snapped, her entire body jumping forward suddenly. She barely moved, but it was almost as if she’d forced herself to stop the pounce halfway through.

Light did not smile. She wanted to, as that was exactly what needed to be pointed out, but it would only anger Dark more than she needed to be angered. Quietly, emotionlessly, Light responded, “But you are no one. I am no one. Half an Alraxian is not an Alraxian.”

Silence. Long silence. It dragged on until Dark finally spoke, “Do it.”

Light allowed herself a smile this time. Even Akan smiled. Slowly, Light got to her feet. She used the wall to brace herself, finding that her legs were still a bit shaky. Once her tail had assisted with the balancing(an action which Akan still didn’t completely understand), Light stepped over towards Dark. The winged Alraxian had gotten to her feet easily, forcing any signs of struggle back. It was a moment later before the two of them stood face to face. A moment Akan would burn into his memory as something one couldn’t forget. It was like all those old holodrama previews where evil confronted good. Except neither of them were wholly one or the other.

Carefully, both of the Alraxians raised their hands, pressing their palms together. Light took a short moment to look back to Akan, and she smiled. It was the first time he’d seen her happy. Akan couldn’t help a smile of his own, nodding to Dark so that she wouldn’t ruin this. Turning her attention back to Dark, Light started speaking, “Light and Dark. Together as one. Together again as–“

”Shut up!” Dark snapped, though she didn’t move, “Those damned rituals don’t matter! Just get on with it.”

Light didn’t say anything, she simply did what Dark had said. Akan tried to watch. Or rather, he told himself that he’d try. But he couldn’t. It was like seeing that morphing for the first time. Something was inherently wrong with it, and everything in Akan was disturbed by the first few seconds of watching the two bodies begin to melt into one. So, he’d closed his eyes. This was probably worse, as it left the rest up to his imagination, which got a few hints from the link.

And then he heard a voice. A voice so familiar he’d never need to think for half a second to identify it. It was Shadow. Not Light. Not Dark. Shadow. The real Shadow. The voice sounded confused, lost, and slightly annoyed because of this, “What’s going on?!”

Akan opened his eyes and laughed. He couldn’t help laughing. Shadow stood there, completely herself, looking around like she was lost. She had taken only a moment to stare at him, giving him that look that demanded an answer for what he was laughing at. Akan, however, couldn’t seem to stop his laughing.

So Shadow just glared and tried to figure things out on her own. Last thing she remembered they were out in the desert walking and...oh! Slowly, memories from both Light and Dark caught up to her. Shadow took a few minutes to absorb all of it and catch up. Once she’d done so, Shadow walked over and kicked Akan not-too-gently, “Shut up!”

“Ow!” Akan whimpered slightly and held his side, but started to get to his feet anyway, “Good to have you back.”

“Good to be back,” Shadow said, turning to look over the entire room, “So do we get out of here now?”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 92: An Hour Late

“Its been two hours,” Voort said anxiously, giving Landau a look that showed he wasn’t going to wait any longer. Both of them knew they should have gone in an hour earlier, but Landau was being cautious. Overly cautious in Voort’s opinion.

This time, though, Landau didn’t object. They had set the airspeeder down behind a series of dunes a fair distance off from the entrance to the facility. Whether there was any actual cover or not, neither of them knew. It was one of those things that was best not to think about. Even if they did know, there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. Without a word, Landau casually hit the switch to open the hatch, climbing out just before checking that he had everything he’d need. Voort was out just as quickly, and in a few seconds they were heading towards the only entrance they could see.

* * * *​

Jen slowly found the world returning, a blurred and dizzying experience. Being knocked out was bad enough normally(of which she’d only experienced a few times), but whatever had happened to cause this was much different. As she closed her eyes to try and ignore the blur, she found that her ears still functioned well enough. There was a good amount of movement around her, and the way the sound echoed hinted that she was still in that large, domed chamber. She could hear a rushed voice, though the exact words were indistinct. Well, the reply was clear enough.

“I have what he needs. Kill them both.”

That was Sadrak. Had to be. No other voice compared to that kind of quality. A quiet response was followed by the quick and echoing sounds of footsteps. Jen attempted opening her eyes, and as they focused she caught sight of one of those strange humanoids quickly exiting the chamber. Turning her head slowly, she could see the dark robed figure of Sadrak. He turned also, meeting her gaze with no eyes that she could see. But she could feel them. That was worse.

“It is time we had a talk,” there was a pause long enough for him to walk over towards her, though without seeing the feet under the robe it looked like he was gliding across the well polished floor, “You feel something within you, do you not?”

Jen didn’t answer. But her face betrayed the surprise at hearing that. So he’d caused it? How else would he know? She hadn’t felt anyone sifting through her thoughts, but then again, Jen still wasn’t completely sure what she’d be looking for. Or feeling for. Whatever. Yet again, she wished the Force was as concrete as science was. All this mystical stuff, no matter how true, only served to muddy the waters and confuse everyone.

“Yes, I know of it,” He said, picking up on her thoughts. That time, she did notice something odd. Like a small string finding its way through places it shouldn’t. She’d not felt that before...but maybe He’d sifted through her mind while she was unconscious? Somehow, Jen doubted that. Even though she couldn’t see anything through the heavy black hood, she knew He was smiling, “But unlike those animals, I did not cause this. This is of its own. An interesting turn of events. But I must ask you...why does she hide? Why will she not speak?”

Something about the way he said that sent strange shockwaves through Jen’s mind. She couldn’t explain it, but it almost felt like whatever else was ‘there’ was being pushed. Provoked even. Yet it hid, and Jen got the feeling whatever ‘it’ was, it was waiting on something. Something. What? What was even going on?! Jen then became the third of the group to swear the planet off. If they all put these experiences together, the only conclusion that could possibly be drawn is that the planet was cursed. Or they were. Or both. Probably both. Or maybe it was just Akan. Ever since she’d met him...on the inside, Jen couldn’t help a smile. She’d tease him about that later.

Strange. That feeling was out of place in this situation. Yet, it was growing. Jen felt good. Strong. Happy, even. Mentally, she tried to trace it, and found that it had its roots within that odd separation of sorts. So ‘it’ was comforting her? Helping her? And hiding at the same time. Why couldn’t the galaxy just make sense for a few minutes?!

A blaster shot rang out suddenly, breaking her out of the trance-like state Jen had fallen into. Her eyes snapped open, and she had just enough time to see a red blaster bolt shoot past Sadrak’s dark robes, singeing a few edges in the process. Rage sounded from beneath the hood in a violent growl of anger as the figure spun to look to the shooter. Standing there and already pulling the trigger for another shot was Voort. Sure, it would be the dramatic thing to wait that extra second for someone to say his name in the breathless way that so many holodramas always did. But there were no cameras on him to capture the moment, so why waste a perfectly good second?

The second shot was aimed perfectly, flying straight out at Sadrak’s midsection. With a quick hand wave(of which Jen got another short view of that strange, almost clawed hand), the blaster bolt collided with nothing. Before a third shot, Sadrak was ‘floating’ back, towards a set of steps on which there was a large almost throne-like chair. Typical egotist. But Sadrak reached it quickly, sitting quickly and pressing a switch. Voort was running forward, aiming another shot when he managed to catch sight of that claw-like finger. Was that really Sadrak?!

When the chair began to descend into the floor, Voort fired wildly, just hoping to hit something. Breaking the chair would have pleased him. No, hitting it would have. But he didn’t. Just before that robed head got down to below the floor, Voort caught sight of a strange glint. An eye. But silvery in the light and nothing like anything he’d ever seen before. The only way he’d seen it was from the careful movement that was caused by Sadrak speaking.

“Another day, Titus. Another day.”

Then he was gone. It was gone. Whatever that was. Voort stood and watched the floor for a long moment, and then turned to Jen. Quickly, he ran over and knelt down beside her, lifting her up and noticing a few new bruises and marks across her face. Jen had an almost forced smile on her face, but leaned into Voort some and said quietly, “You’re late.”

Voort couldn’t help a short laugh, wrapping his arms around her and carefully helping Jen to her feet, “You know I like to wait until the last second.”

Gaining her footing, Jen’s smile changed to a much more genuine one, “You missed that second this time. In fact, I think that second was about an hour ago.”

“I tried telling that to Landau,” Voort responded with a shrug, slowly and carefully helping her to walk towards the exit. He didn’t seem worried that they’d be ambushed for some reason.

“Speaking of Landau,” Jen said, finding the strength to walk on her own but not minding the help at all, “Where is he?”

“Finding the children,” Voort answered her quickly, almost a little too quickly. It was obvious to Jen that something else had happened between him and Akan. She hoped something could be done about that tension. It was not something she wanted to think about, seeing both of them fight. Yet, she still worried it was going to come to that. And Voort wasn’t as innocent as he tried to convince himself of. Jen knew all too well that having seen Akan as a rival of sorts(no matter how untrue that was), Voort had another reason to be angry with the idealistic kid. One day, Jen wondered if she could point out to Voort closely it seemed like he was trying to fight with his own younger self. And Akan seemed to be doing the same thing in reverse, fighting with a possible future self. So alike, they were. Deep down, it was obvious that fear was the motivating factor behind all of it.

The two of them then faded into small talk as Voort navigated the maze of corridors. Amazingly, it looked like he knew where he was going. Jen didn’t take long to figure out that he was following Landau’s comm signal as they’d done before. But why was no one else around? Where were guards? Something wasn’t right. No. Too many things weren’t right.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 93: Threads of Meaning

While Akan and Shadow had taken nearly ten minutes to find the door, they were having even less success in opening it. It wasn’t so much a door as a piece of the wall that could move. Or rather, would move if activated from the other side. It was one of those times that Akan would have liked a manual override to be more common. But then again, this was a cell of sorts, so why make it easy to get out of? That was about the time that Shadow grabbed him and threw him across the room. He would have yelled at her if the door hadn’t exploded a few seconds afterwards. A figure stood there, and the smoke cleared to reveal Landau, blaster raised.

“Finally!” he exclaimed, allowing his body to relax and lowing the weapon at seeing the two Alraxians getting to their feet.

“You could have knocked!” Akan grumbled, but had a smile on his face and did look thankful enough.

Landau grinned at that remark, shrugging innocently, “After the first five I just gave up and started blowing the doors open.”

“Yes, well thank you for nearly taking me with it,” commented Shadow after dusting herself off. It was then that Landau noticed that she was...herself again. He smiled warmly, but the look from Shadow told him to say nothing for now.

Landau soon started leading the two Alraxians back the way he’d came, which was littered with door pieces from other explosions. There were also a few bodies here and there. When asked about this, Landau couldn’t help a short laugh, “You yelled at me...they uh...shot at me.”

Following him around a corner, and stepping over about five or so bodies, Akan couldn’t help commenting, “Some people just aren’t good shots when they’re disturbed.”

Continuing to lead them through the maze of corridors, Landau was actually glad to have all these bodies. If anything, it was a good way to follow his path back out. And right now, out would be a very good thing. Those humanoids were disturbing to even look at, let alone watch them shoot at you with four blasters. Blasters. They didn’t have slugthrowers like the Narani. These people were well equipped.

It wasn’t long before they ran into Voort and Jen. After barely averting killing each other from surprise, they quickly exchanged greetings and got out. The whole recon mission was over now, even if it had gotten out of hand. Sadrak was gone anyway, and the three previous captives were exhausted(even if Shadow and Akan refused to show it). So they reached the airspeeder, crammed in, and left. The flight itself was silent and uneventful. Jen, Akan, and Shadow were the ones creating the silence in that they were too busy thinking to talk. Reflecting was probably the better word for it. Jen’s thoughts dwelled on Sadrak. Or whatever that thing was...Akan was still seeing those phantom images from that dark room, but at the same time was trying to analyze all that he’d seen within the facility. This had been a recon job, and it wasn’t going to be wasted. Shadow, though, was very divided in her thoughts. Not in the literal division from before, but more in that her mind was trying to be everywhere at once and not doing anything well. It all seemed to come down to one thing though. Humans. There was going to have to be a long talk with Akan, and he probably wasn’t going to like it. But through the link, she could see what he saw, and she knew that this talk was required. Even if he wasn’t Alraxian, someone would have to do it...but she felt that it was her responsibility now.

Upon arrival in Haladin, they were given worrying news. Three of the former Imperials had been killed in attempts to kill Hansen. Why they’d suddenly lashed out at her, no one knew, but everyone was in a state of heightened awareness. Paranoia was another, more accurate word for it that Hansen had refused to use. Upon meeting them, Hansen had started to press them all for some kind of information, but Akan had walked off without a word. Shadow wandered off after him, leaving Jen to tell Hansen that it would have to wait. No explanation was given, and then even Jen wandered off on her own. Voort exchanged looks with Hansen, but just shrugged, “Give them time.”

“We have time,” Landau pointed out, “Unless you’ve heard anything new from our Topsider friends.”

“Nothing,” Hansen said with a sigh as the three former Imperial soldiers walked to the garrison. It would be like old times to talk over a drink. Something none of them had really enjoyed since the war had ended. It was always so much more exciting to have a drink with your comrades right after the adrenaline rush of the battle. But after defeat, it never really could be the same. Thankfully, though, it could be close.

Shadow had followed Akan from a distance, realizing early on that he was trying to lose her. Ha! She was just as good, if not better, at tailing someone as he was. The link just added a cheating element to it, but she didn’t care. Finally, though, she found that he’d stopped diving in and out between alleys and streets. Akan was sitting next to one of the larger entrances to the city, leaning against the wall and looking across to the opposite wall. Shadow had a seat there, making a point to be right in front of his vision so he would have trouble ignoring her. That was not something Akan would miss, even in his moody state. She didn’t need to say that cliched ‘we need to talk’ line, Akan could see it and even feel it.

Because of this, Shadow got right to the point, “You cannot keep doing this.”

Watching her with a strangely neutral expression, Akan asked the stupid question, “Doing what?”

He knew the answer to that. He knew it because she got it from him. He knew it but refused to do anything about it. Somehow, Shadow remained calm only a slight swish of her tail against the sand betraying this outward appearance, “She is dead, Akan. You are alive. You cannot die anymore, because I refuse to die. You continue to act irrationally because of some pathetic hope that what you experienced did not happen. Akan. It happened. You can’t change that. No one can. But you have to move on. You insult the fallen acting like this.”

Akan said nothing. How was he supposed to respond to that, anyway? Well, he did find a way. He growled. It was low, angered, and genuine. When he realized that she wasn’t saying anything else, Akan found himself nearly going crazy. She’d started a lecture to provoke him! Violently, Akan snapped, “She shouldn’t have died!”

“And you shouldn’t have been fighting!” Shadow responded suddenly and sharply, no remorse or pity in her voice at all, “You were a child! You still are a child! Children don’t know how to deal with death! If you can’t deal with death, you have no right to be fighting!”

“I had no choice!” Akan yelled back at her, claws grating at the sand around him as he felt an anger growing.

Shadow did nothing but yell right back, “You refused to see any other choices! You worry so much about the past that you’re ignoring the present! Your actions now are going to get more people killed!”

“Shut up!” growled Akan as he got to his feet, looking like he was ready to storm off like a child who’d lost a fight. Like? No, it was the truth in this instance.

But Shadow was on her feet just as quickly, and the way she stood showed that she wasn’t going to let Akan go anywhere at all, “NO! You be quiet and listen to me! We have done this your way. We have done this the human way. But I am not human. And like it or not, you aren’t either. It is time for your to stop acting like an irrational human child and be an Alraxian like you are. You cannot simply take that body and live your old life! You will listen to ME, now. I gave you that body. It is mine. We do things, MY way now.”

Those words had froze Akan. The cold way she’d spoken them, and the way that each word seemed to allow her another step closer to him. By the time she’d finished speaking, all the anger seemed to be ready to explode as they stood face to face. Well, her nose to Akan’s chin, but he was not stupid enough to mention this discrepancy. Again, he knew she was waiting for some kind of response. Through the link, Akan knew that Shadow expected him to respond like he always had. To run away and hide. But he also knew that if he attempted that, she’d make sure things were worse.

In a cautious voice, Akan asked, “What must I do?”

Akan found it amazing to see all anger disappear from Shadow’s face. It changed to an acceptance and relief. That was what she’d wanted to hear. Shadow took a small step back to lessen the confrontational appearance, and spoke in a much calmer voice, “Mother was meant to ask for your oath to the Alraxian people. She did not, because of your age. But you will have to take this oath sooner than later. So that you don’t embarrass me, you should learn about your people.”

Even Akan was surprised to find himself nodding at this. He didn’t ask about the details of what she’d said, or even about this oath. It wasn’t the time, and Akan knew that he didn’t really have a choice. Part of him also knew that Shadow was right, and that he did need to move on. Hopefully, these would be the first steps that should have been taken three years ago.

“We can start simply,” continued Shadow, motioning out towards the sand and the sun that was starting to rise over the horizon, “Ritual. Come on, I’ll teach you the basics.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 94: Moments of Peace

It wasn’t until late that day that word finally came from Trker-Hon. A group of four Topsiders arrived at Haladin, and in broken and disjointed Basic, explained the situation. Trker-Hon was expected to return to the city within a week. So many of the nearby settlements had been ravaged by attacks(the Darks, but the Topsiders didn’t know this), that he was having to travel to farther out areas to rally support. Thankfully, though, things sounded like they were going well. There was not even a rough idea of how many Topsides would come, and that worried most of the people within Haladin. Especially because of the new reports from the desert.

The Narani were gathering to that facility. Hundreds had been seen traveling across the desert to that location, and the spies dared not get anywhere close because of the large amount of guards now set up at the base. It was also determined that the four armed humanoids were once Narani, but this was still just a guess. A good one, but a guess in the end. Recovering a body had only done so good, especially considering how bad of shape it had been in.

Akan and Shadow had spent the day on the outer edge of the city. She was teaching him many ancient rituals that reminded Akan of old stories he’d heard. Mostly of lesser developed races that worshiped the Force as magic or a divine entity. Yet, from all he knew about the Alraxians(of which, admittedly, was still very little), they were not a technologically inferior race at all. In fact, they could easily be seen as more advanced. It was just the methods that were different. According to Shadow, because of the danger that metal presented, organic technology was the focus of Alraxians. From the clothes they wore(morphsuits were a good example) to the ships themselves, everything was alive in some way. Some even intelligent species that the Alraxians simply tamed and worked with, like the Kanyak ships which were naturally herbivores that grazed on a planet in the same system as the Alraxian home planet. Yet this race still worshiped the Force in a way. Old ways did not die out like with many older cultures. It would take Akan some time to get used to it, but the principles were very similar to Jedi training. Except for one that worried him.

To the Alraxians, the Force was just the Force. It wasn’t Light, it wasn’t Dark, it just was. To any Jedi, this would have been a heretical thought, and would also cause great worry as it could be seen as leading down the Dark Path. But the Alraxians did not see it that way. It was a whole. You could not have one without the other, and both had their importance in life. Death was as much a part of life as birth, and to simply shun one without the other was unthinkable. When put that way, Akan did understand it, even though it still did feel so foreign. Shadow had tried to push him towards learning to balance the ‘sides’ of the Force, but that was the one thing Akan simply refused to do. He may not have been the best Jedi, but he wasn’t going to tempt himself with what he still saw as the Dark Side. So instead, Shadow taught him what young Alraxian children(of which his age was perfect for comparison) would learn about. Basics of history and daily rituals, along with a little morph technique added in. That was a resource she knew he should be using more than just a scratch-healer.

Jen had sat in the distance, watching them for a while, but eventually wandered back to the garrison to find the others. Akan did need to learn that he wasn’t human anymore, and her hanging around like that probably wouldn’t do anyone any good. She had found Voort with Hansen and Landau, drinking and laughing together. That wasn’t her place, either. So, without really having any problem with it, Jen went to find a place to sit by herself. Time to think was a good thing, as many things were going on that she wasn’t completely sure of.

‘In time...you will know.’

That wasn’t a voice. What was that?! Jen looked around to confirm the fact that she was alone in her room. But no, that voice had ignored her ears and gone straight to the brain. Or maybe it wasn’t from the outside anyway? Where did that thought come from?!

‘You must remain strong.’

There it was again. She sighed and flopped back on the bed, a hand over her face and wondering if she was losing her mind. No. No, that didn’t fit. But...what was that, then? A voice in her head? Didn’t that mean crazy? But no, this just felt different. From that part of her mind that had been giving her a sense of confusion for the last couple of days. It talked? What was it?

‘Who I was, does not matter now. Rest now. All will be answered in time. Remain strong.’

And then it was ‘gone’. Or as gone as a voice in one’s head could be. Jen sighed again and opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling. Somehow, she knew she wasn’t crazy. So that meant something odd was happening...again. After all of this was over, she was going to give both Akan and Voort a good yelling at. Somehow it was there fault. Had to be. Her problems didn’t start until she’d met Akan, and then Voort just added to it. She grinned. Alright, so it wasn’t all that bad.

“Mind if I come in?” Voort’s voice caused Jen’s heart to skip a beat. She’d not been paying attention, and suddenly hearing a real voice after the non-voice was almost too much.

Sitting up, she ran a hand through her sandy hair and shrugged, “You’re allowed, I guess. Thought you were enjoying a drink.”

“I was,” responded Voort, stepping into the room and having a seat on the bed next to her. For a moment, he looked over the small Imperial Insignia that was on the now closed door, then said, “But you think I’d turn in a few moments of peace with you for a drink?”

Jen laughed and poked him, “It wouldn’t surprise me! I remember how the old soldiers used to be.”

“Well, I’m not old yet,” he said with a grin on his face, wrapping an arm around her, “Though I feel it around those two kids.”

Leaning into him some, Jen laughed again, “Kids have a habit of doing that to you...but you know that Shadow’s older than you, right?”

“Sure, go and pick holes in everything I say,” said Voort, sounding defeated and mock sighing.

“Awww...” Jen allowed herself another grin and kissed his cheek, “You do that just fine on your own, you know. Shouldn’t need my help.”

Voort gave her a hurt look, but the smile tugging at his face didn’t do anything to help his case. However, he didn’t say anything to her. Instead, he just leaned in and kissed her. After a few moments, one of them(neither really did remember) called out ‘Lights’ and the room went black.