Star Wars: Heroes of Another Kind

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 440: Rodian Encounters

For an assassin, quick thinking was a necessity. If one wasn’t able to make a fast decision, it meant a fast death instead. Because of this, Marix’s mind flew through her options. There was a Yuuzhan Vong probably at the base of the boarding ramp to the freighter she was in, and two dead Rodians along with her. That was it. The only thing she noted different was that the Rodian corpse with her, currently, did not have any strange, coral-like extrusions from its skin. What this meant, she didn’t know, but she could guess.

Quickly, she searched the Rodian’s body for anything out of the ordinary, both with her hands and through the Force. It was the Force that found something...or rather...nothing. An emptiness where she very well knew there should have been something because she was feeling nothing at all from close to the Rodian’s skull. Part of her was a bit worried about her next move, but the rest of her knew it might just be more important to keep inspecting rather than die at the hands of an army of Yuuzhan Vong.

With a grunt, as she was still human and not exactly the strongest one, either, she lifted up the Rodian’s frail body and leaned down. Carefully, she looked into the opening that was nearest the lack of feeling in the Force...the right ear. And, sure enough, there was something there. And it moved.

Marix jumped back slightly, expecting something to come flying at her. But when nothing did, she leaned in, more carefully this time, again. From what she could tell, there was a small...thing...in the Rodian’s ear. It was definitely still alive, and it definitely was not normally part of the Rodian ear. Not liking where this was going, but not seeing anywhere else to go with it, Marix carefully reached in with two gloved fingers.

She got a hold of a small, moving...thing...presumably the same thing she had seen, and gave it a small pull. There was no resistance like she had expected. Clearly, this was not like the coral she had seen on the face of the other Rodian...that was more a growth while this...was...

A little worm of some kind. Marix held the slightly moving thing up to her face and peered at it. Only her eyes and gloved-hands were telling her the thing was there. According to the Force, there was nothing at all in her hands.

There was another guttural yell that echoed up the ship and to her. There were definitely words attached to that, but Marix couldn’t even make them out this time. All she could tell was that it sounded angrier than before. Which meant she had to act faster than she was currently moving. Getting to her feet, Marix pocketed the small worm-thing and then quickly shed the topmost two layers of the clothes.

It only took another few moments, and where a human had been, a blue-skinned, female Rodian stood. Marix had only ever used this morph a few times, and always found it awkward...even compared to a human. She stretched slightly, getting used to the lighter limbs, then fell into stride and headed to the exit, looking as terrified as she could manage for this encounter.

When she rounded the corner to step down the boarding ramp, Marix nearly went straight into an amphistaff.

“Remaga corlat, migan yam?” the warrior in front of her bellowed the words before she even saw him.

For the moment, Marix’s two large eyes were squarely focused on the amphistaff, with its bladed edge just waiting to cut her into pieces. Slowly, her eyes shifted down the length of the weapon to the warrior...who was twice her size, both in height and bulk, with that usual crab-like armour and a heavily scarred and tattooed face. This one seemed to be missing most of his left ear in addition to all of the other scars.

In a nasally, annoying voice even to her Rodian ears, Marix spoke in Trade...Basic, “Wait!” her mind quickly ran through possible reasons for why the Vong had suddenly appeared, also trying to ignore the fact she had no idea what had been said to her, “Was fixing engine! Need repairs!”

The Vong warrior’s eyes narrowed, and Marix was currently unsure of whether he could understand her or not. In a swift motion, the warrior pulled back his amphistaff for a short moment. Marix knew what was coming next...she could see it in his muscles, the tension and the way he was preparing himself. Because she knew it was coming, it was even harder to play the part she needed to...but somehow, Marix did. When the warrior whipped around the other end of his amphistaff, she didn’t move, and simply allowed the blunt end to slam hard into the side of her face, sending her to the snow-covered deck with a grunt of pain and a thud.

“Kraasa ne,” the Vong growled under his breath before delivering a strong kick to her side, sending her completely to the ground and now, also, out of breath. Without another word, the warrior marched off back towards the line of others, only a few of which were looking her direction.

The pain was ignorable, despite the fact that she now had at least a few broken ribs. Had he done anything else, Marix would have been forced to retaliate, and that would likely have been bad. She knew she could have killed him...but...not with all of the others. But that had happened, and now she simply had to get back to Loki with whatever extra information she’d gathered on the datacard in addition to what the Rodian had told her...and what was also now stuffed into Jyren’s jacket pocket...

Marix got to her feet slowly, resisting the urge to remorph in the open like this, and then headed back into the ship. As she made her way back to where she’d left the other layers of clothes, Marix remorphed to the human body, glad for the fact that the clothes fit better like that anyway. The Rodian body was shorter and they were loose and...cold...Marix shuddered as she finally got back and began to add on the layers again, finally pulling the hood over her head again and getting the cloth around her face again.

After checking her pocket for the little worm-thing and finding it was, sadly, still there and still moving some, Marix gave one last look to the body before turning and heading back out. The plan was to leave the way she’d come in, and, hopefully, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Part of her wished she could get in closer to listen to whatever was going on in that gathering, but Marix knew that wasn’t possible. She was lucky to be alive right now.

So, after a careful glance down the ramp and then dropping her head down to look to the line of warriors, Marix focused on simply getting back to Loki as anything but an ice cube.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 441: Lessons

Master Ral watched Tobias silently as the young man walked to him from the entrance to the temple. There was something in the Omwati’s eyes that Tobias couldn’t pinpoint, and the Force didn’t help one bit. Sure, Tobias was no expert with the whole Force thing just yet, but Master Ral had a way of keeping his emotions extremely well hidden...or not there at all, he guessed. The lanky, blue humanoid was the epitome of a scholarly Jedi, Tobias realized.

Tobias did, however, feel the Jedi Master reach out and touch him with the Force, which was as uncomfortable as always. Something about that bothered him to know end and always had...even when it had been Jyren just teasing him. Something about getting into his head like that just felt...wrong. He hadn’t ever bothered with the why to that.

Despite the fact that the Omwati was standing calmly with his hands at his sides, Tobias felt like the stoic expression on that blue face made up for the lack of crossed arms. When he was within a few meters, the Jedi Master finally spoke up, “You are injured.”

Suddenly worried that he’s missed something, Tobias followed his Master’s gaze down to the hand that held the ancient, metal sword. It was then that he noticed the grip was covered in a deep red that was sliding down the rest of the weapon. Quickly, he switched the blade into his other hand and lifted his left to look at his palm. Two scars ran across his palm and there was a rather large bruise in between them, and while they weren’t that deep, they were still bleeding enough to be...disturbing. Tobias had the same aversion to red coloured blood that his mother did.

“I...” he trailed off, shaking his head then looked up to the Omwati’s face, “I don’t know how this happened.”

“You were careless,” Master Ral said simply while he reached out and placed his hand over Tobias’. In a moment, Tobias felt the Force flowing through the wounds and closing them...something that was completely unnecessary since he could morph...but then again, he wasn’t about to morph in front of anyone that didn’t know he could. Then, returning his hand to his side, Master Ral added, “You failed, Tobias.”

The young man looked worried and slightly panicked for only a few seconds before looking down to the sword in his right hand. He sighed and shook his head again, “I didn’t have time to find the right object...I just...”

“What you retrieved was not important, Toby,” the Omwati’s answer shocked him, causing Tobias to look up with wide eyes, “It is how you retrieved it.”

There was silence, then the Jedi Master seemed aware of the surprise that was emanating from Tobias. In the same calm voice, he expanded on the somewhat cryptic statement, “Before you entered that place, I told you that the only danger you would encounter in there was what you took with you. The only thing you took with you a glowrod I currently cannot see on you anymore. You return to me, barely ten minutes after you entered, drenched in sweat, your own blood from a wound you admit not realizing you had, and radiating a fear through the Force so strong that every animal anywhere near us has fled.”

Opening his ears first, and into the Force second, Tobias confirmed that this wasn’t an exaggeration. He could hear nothing nearby, and only feel himself and Master Ral...the wildlife that always populated the moon had all but vanished. Realization finally starting to hit him, Tobias jabbed the ancient sword down into the sand at the edge of the lake before letting himself fall down next to it and sigh heavily, “I’m sorry.”

In a much slower motion, Master Ral moved to sit in front of his young apprentice. He soon was also in the sand, cross-legged and as serene looking as ever...though, for once, Tobias could detect a hint of concern from the Omwati. After a few more moments of quiet, the Jedi Master asked, “Normally, an apprentice would be left to contemplate the events in that trial by themselves to come to an understanding of why they failed. You must understand...it is not an easy test. Most do fail when faced with it. But this...” the Jedi Master’s head tilted to the side very slightly, “I feel this situation is different. Tell me, Tobias...what happened in that place?”

For a moment, Tobias couldn’t help but feel those words sink in. But he shook it off more quickly than usual and spoke towards the ground, “I saw my...my father...” he shook his head then quickly corrected himself, “My biological father. I don’t remember him at all...I just know that he tried to kill billions out of some twisted wish for revenge and I was just a pawn in his plans.”

Reaching up, Tobias pushed some of his unruly hair out of his face and looked at the sword...while trying to ignore the red streaks all around the hilt, “He wasn’t...real. It was just a vision but...he taunted me...laughed. I don’t even remember his voice but I knew it the second I heard it. And he kept taunting until I...I grabbed whatever I could find a swung at him. But he stopped it,” finally, Tobias looked up to his Master, “He wasn’t real. He’s been dead for a decade but he...he had a sword and he stopped me. He tried to kill me. I just...I panicked. I threw my glowrod at him and...and I ran.”

“You have a strength in the Force that is not often seen, Tobias,” Master Ral said after Toby had finished, “It would not surprise me to learn that both of your natural parents were also strong in the Force. You must understand that while our bodies die, we join with the Force. We do live on...everything does. Those strong enough in the Force can, essentially, hang onto to this reality. But that does not mean they can regain their physical form.”

“But my hand and...he blocked the sword when I swung it at him...” Tobias was still trying to make sense of everything but, for obvious reasons, not succeeding.

Master Ral, who had obviously been going over what Tobias had told him, seemed to be working out everything. It didn’t take long before he asked, “Tobias, you said you threw your glowrod at him, correct?”

Not sure what that meant, Tobias just nodded. Though now he was looking at his Master with interest, wondering where this was going.

“Did you pick it back up?”

Stopping and thinking about this a moment before he answered, Tobias went over the events. It had shattered first...then he’d scrambled for it...and throw it after. He still didn’t understand where Master Ral was going with this train of thought, but said, “It...broke first. I fell and it shattered. I picked it up and ran to the room you told me to find and that’s when I uh...threw it.”

At that, the Omwati master simply nodded, “The cuts on your hand weren’t deep enough to be from a blade. Not only that, but you could not have received them while holding that sword. Could you have cut your hand while on the fragments of the glowrod when you tried to pick it up?”

A look of surprise washed over Tobias’ features and he replayed the events in his mind again. He had felt a pain in his hand, now that he thought about it, but it had been so minimal at the time...overshadowed by the fear that was gripping him. He didn’t even notice it...

“What about the sword?” Tobias asked after another moment.

Master Ral leaned in slightly and carefully placed his hand on the metal’s edge. After a quick inspection, he said, “If this blade hit another, it would have shattered. The metal isn’t strong at all and its thousands of years old,” he paused a moment, and then before Tobias asked the obvious question, Master Ral answered it, “The Dark Side is strong in that Temple. It was once a home to the ancient Sith. Illusions can become more real, especially when you let your fear grip you.”

It was hard not to nod at that. It was true, of course. Quietly, Tobias mumbled, “So I’m right back where I started.”

“No, Tobias, you aren’t,” as Master Ral spoke, he got to his feet again. Once up, he extended a hand down to help Toby up, “You must learn from what happened today. Do not pass it off as a simple failure...every failure teaches us something both about the Force and ourselves. Find that, and you can turn a failure into a success.”

Tobias took his Master’s hand and didn’t complain at all about being helped to his feet. Once he was up, the Omwati Jedi gave him a simple nod, then turned and started the walk back to the Great Temple. Tobias watched his Master walk off for a moment, going over what had been said.

Then his stomach rumbled.

Shaking his head, Toby reached down and grabbed the sword, seeing no reason to leave it behind, then headed after his Master. Not only was he exhausted from what had happened...but he was starving.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 442: Next Stop

[Part of me was hoping you’d get back with an army behind you so we could make a fun exit.] Loki commented idly as Marix calmly took a seat in her usual, currently freezing cold, chair.

She had taken the time to shed the extra layers of clothing and return to her Alraxian body...but it was still cold. As she placed the small datacard she had retrieved one of the organic consoles, she spared a glance at the glassy-white of the crystal spires that surrounded them. Looking back down and starting to dig around for the datapad that should be around somewhere, she said, “I decided that they didn’t need the exercise.”

[You’re no fun...but then again, you never were.] the feeling of a sigh passed through the Force from Loki. [Why you have to be all sneaky is beyond me. Its only fun when they see you.]

“You’re worse than Jyre—,” Marix ended that sentence quickly. Thankfully, it also coincided with her finding the datapad which meant the entire slip could be, and was, ignored...at least she ignored it.

Loki, on the other hand, was unsure of how to respond and instead sat there being...curious and concerned at the same time. She hadn’t said much since arriving, and though he’d been ready to leave, the general impression he was getting was they were in no rush at all. That, alone, was worrying. They were always in a rush to escape whatever chaos had been caused...well, no...not always. Decades ago, that had been the norm. But ever since Jyren had appeared it seemed like those days were gone, and it was something Loki didn’t mind. He loved the rush of an escape, and welcomed the change. Now, though, he was bored.

[What is that?] he finally asked, noting that the datapad’s screen was lit up for more than a minute so she had time to read whatever was there.

“Flight logs,” Marix said in a distracted voice. After a few more moments of quiet, she added, “Hutt Space.”

Loki gave it a moment to make sure she didn’t add anymore to clarify, and when she finally didn’t, decided it was alright to ask. [...what about Hutt Space?]

Setting down the datapad in the empty seat next to her, Marix sat up straight in the chair and look out the viewport again, “The ship has been traveling in and out of Hutt Space consistently for the past two weeks...different planets all along the border and then a few deeper. Each return trip is taking the ship back into Vong-occupied planets.”

[Scouts?] Loki asked, starting to get an idea for where they might be going.

“No, that doesn’t make sense,” she shook her head before reaching up to get a few of the black strands of her stripe out of her face then looked up towards. A look of concentration appeared on her features and then she said, obviously thinking out loud as she usually did, “It was a Rodian freighter. Smuggler types. They would know Hutt Space. It looks like the Vong are implanting...things into these smugglers. They’re using them. That would mean the Vong would know Hutt Space, too...or should.”

The thoughts trailed off into nothing. Loki was going over all of this, too, though with a definite lack of information as Marix was doing her usual thing and only speaking half of the information out loud. Working with what he had, though, he attempted to help. [They’re obviously looking at Hutt Space, though.]

Slowly, the lack of movement from Marix turned into a nod. A sigh escaped her and she leaned forward again, “Still too many pieces that don’t all fit together.”

That, at least, Loki could agree with. [Where to, then? Back home or...?]

“Not home yet,” she said rather quickly, then realized that Loki caught that and added, “There’s something...wrong about all of this, Loki. I can feel it. Its connected to us, too. To home. We have to follow this trail to the end and make sense of what the Vong are up to with the Empire.”

Again, Loki couldn’t help but agree. As he started to prepare himself to leave the icy and rather annoying to navigate planet of Mygeeto, he decide there was another important question. [Then where do we head?]

It didn’t take too long for Marix to think about that and her answer wasn’t a surprise to Loki at all, “Nar Shaada.”

It was the logical place to go in Hutt Space. The only thing was that Loki hadn’t been there in...well...years. He knew that Marix, too, hadn’t been there for a very long time. The last time he knew of was when the newly-merged Marix and Shadow had gone with Jyren and the Voorts...chasing after that damned Delta Nine and Halpak...who had captured Loki...

He didn’t like remembering those times.

As he was starting to get into the sky, carefully moving upwards and trying not to scrape against the crystals around them, Loki heard Marix make another comment to him, “Please try to get us out the way we came in. The less they see us the better.”

And then she started to get up and head out of the cockpit. [Awww...telling me not to have fun then you run off?]

She stopped and glanced up, a tendency he’d always noticed and was mildly curious about, “I need to rest and...figure out what’s going on.”

When she left the cockpit, she didn’t leave Loki’s ‘view’, but he let his focus shift to the task at hand. That was what had been bothering him so much lately. On the surface, it was just like the old days. Just him and Marix, sneaking around where they weren’t supposed to be and, somehow, not getting caught. Yet...that was the distant past now. The years in between had changed so much for the both of them that it just wasn’t possible to go back to that again.

They’d both lost friends before. They’d lost people that had hurt them both in ways it shouldn’t have, especially for Marix, the supposed emotionless Tam’Day’U. But, eventually, the pain had gone away and the loss accepted. Alraxians celebrated death as a return to the Force, though for some it took time to see that way. But now...now it wasn’t going away. It was affecting everything, even in small ways. Loki couldn’t help but worry about Marix. It was a situation she had never expected to be in, for obvious reasons.

If he could have sighed, he would have. Instead, Loki turned skyward, and headed to the atmosphere and away from this cold, out of the way planet. He had a bad feeling about Nar Shaada.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 443: Fear

“Were you ever afraid?”

That got him an interesting look, “That’s a pretty dumb question, little guy.”

He shook his head, sighing and hating that he’d brought that upon himself, “You never seem to be, though. I mean...its been quiet lately, and I was young back when all of the craziness was going on, but I remember it. You just...you ran in without any fear at all. How did you do that?”

“I told you it was a dumb question, Toby,” but that was followed by a shrug and a calming of the voice, “Of course I was afraid. Terrified, most of the time.”

Tobias sighed and looked at the back of the figure standing across the room from him, looking out a window, “But...it never showed and...and it never stopped you.”

“It nearly killed me,” that was whispered, almost to the point where Tobias couldn’t hear it. The head shook and the voice rose, “To be honest, little guy, I was so afraid of losing someone close to me again that I stopped caring. My fear drove me to push everyone away, and nearly drove me into a darkness I couldn’t have gotten out of.”

“But I thought there wasn’t a dark side...”

Another shrug, “Your mother believes that. I did...but now...I don’t know. Maybe the Force itself doesn’t have sides, but I know I do. In the end, it doesn’t matter which is true. I nearly fell into something I could never have gotten out of because I was so afraid.”

That had gone in a direction Tobias hadn’t expected, despite prompting the conversation. So it took him a moment to figure out what to say next. When it finally came, he looked down at the floor, not really able to ask it directly, “...how did you...what—. How did you get out of that?”

With a slight turn, Tobias could see a single, blueish eye giving him a curious look from over a shoulder, “Things started happening. I didn’t have a choice. If I’d sat around anymore, hiding from things, more people would have died. I thought I’d cut myself off from everyone, but I hadn’t. In a matter of days I was right back to where I’d been years before and I...I just couldn’t let it happen again, so I fought it.”

Truthfully, Tobias knew this story. He didn’t need it repeated and yet, here was an aspect completely new to him...and almost terrifying. This man was not a god or some perfect creature that Tobias had always made him out to be. He was...normal. It was frightening.

“But...”

It was all Tobias could say. He couldn’t finish that sentence. He could speak the names of the people he had no memories of his own of. He couldn’t speak the names because he worried what it would do to his father, now suddenly unsure how far across the line he’d gone.

This time, finally, Jyren turned around to face the young Alraxian. There was something close to sadness on his face but that wasn’t the word. In fact, Tobias didn’t have a word to describe it accurately. Slowly, Jyren walked over to have a seat in the chair that was across from Tobias and leaned forward to look him in the eyes. In a quiet, reflective voice, he said, “But I watched my friend become the first Darkwing in thousands of years. But I found out that even after I’d stopped that, not only was the man behind it still alive, but the friend I’d saved was going to die anyway because she was a clone. But I killed a man that was one of the strongest, most noble humans in the galaxy because I didn’t even think to talk him down...”

Jyren stopped, looking down at the floor and resting his face in his hand. Before the gesture, Tobias had seen tears on his face. Tobias wasn’t able to say anything, though, as Jyren continued, though his voice was a bit muffled and obviously struggling to stay even, “But I lost another friend that day and I could do nothing to stop it, despite her being the one who convinced me it was worth going on. But I saw a friend who I had fallen in love with tortured in front of my eyes...I felt it,” finally, Jyren looked back up to Tobias, “And with each time that something happened, I became more afraid...more terrified of what was next. But the fear drove me to protect what I had. And despite the fear of what could happen, it was all worth it. Do you know why?”

At this point, Tobias was sitting in shock, unsure of what he’d just gotten himself into. The best he could manage was to shake his head.

In response to that, Tobias received another surprise. Jyren smiled. A real smile, “Because I’m still alive right now thanks to Jen worrying about me. Because I met a man who I thought I hated...and after his death, I realized how good a man Titus Voort was. I learned what it was truly like to be honourable and noble from him. Because, thanks to Halpak, I met you. Because I met me real father, a man I’d thought dead and didn’t even know I needed him...and then found out about my mother, too. Because I fell in love again, after thinking I’d already had my chance at that and it had been taken from me. Because, even though Jen fell and did horrible things, in the end, she saved my life...because I told her I had a son and that brought her back. Because of Andrea and Saraan and the way they look at me with their big eyes like I haven’t seen since you first latched onto me.”

Jyren stopped then, and reached up to put an hand on Tobias’ shoulder, “The reason I told you all of that right now is because you need to understand that fear can only hold you back. If you let it, if you focus on that alone, you’ll forget about all the wonderful things that happen.. When something happens to you and you feel like you’ve lost everything, it can consume you...but you can’t let it. You have to be strong. You have to remember to take something away from each loss, each pain. Learn from it...” he sighed but managed to hold the smile on his face, which was almost worrying to Tobias, “No one’s life is easy, Toby, but you have to find a way to stand back up after each punch. You have to see the good, even if its just what you took from someone after they were gone. But don’t ever, ever let your fear stop you from living.”

Slowly, Tobias opened his eyes. It took him a moment to get his bearings, but as he sat up, he took in the boring view of the rather empty room that was ‘his’ inside the Great Temple. There was no window. There was a single chair, and a basic desk. No place for Jyren to have sat...no place for him to look out a window.

Sliding out of the surprisingly comfortable bed and still having trouble adjusting to being human, Tobias’ eyes adjusted to the relative darkness of his room and locked onto the chrono that was on his desk. It was the middle of the night...bordering on morning. That had been a very odd dream...so clear and vivid. He didn’t even remember, exactly, when that conversation had taken place. It had been...years ago.

“Halpaks don’t run.”

The voice of his biological father echoed through Tobias’ head suddenly and a cold fear gripped him. But this time, unlike when he’d been in that old Temple kilometers away, he fought it off. One thought pushed it away.

BlueIces don’t run, either.

There was a reason he’d dreamed that. There was a reason it was so clear. The Force was telling him something. For the first time in Tobias’ life, he heard the Force and understood what he needed to do. He could feel it...like never before.

As quickly as he could, Tobias got to his feet and got dressed. In a matter of minutes, he’d left the room. With him, he took nothing at all...even Jyren’s lightsaber...his lightsaber, remained at its place sitting at the desk. Master Ral had told him the truth before. He didn’t need the lightsaber.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 444: Information Gathering

[You’re going out like that?]

Marix rolled her eyes. Neither of her parents had ever said that to her, mainly because they wouldn’t have ever had to, but that was besides the point. Loki, on the other hand...that seemed to be his favourite question through the years. She looked up and said flatly, “Yes, thankyou.”

Loki only took a few seconds to consider this. [But you always say its best not to get noticed...]

“This is Nar Shaada,” Marix nearly snapped as she headed for the hatch, “People know to keep to themselves or they’re likely to be killed,” she waved a hand idly, “Besides, if I stay human any longer I may start to like it. I’m tired of being so short...”

The last part was muttered, but Loki still heard it. He help back the comment that immediately came to mind, mainly because it was that she was still short compared to Jyren...that would have been a bad idea, for obvious reasons, to say. So instead, he double checked the surrounding area, which was a rather dismal little hangar that he could barely fit in, and decided on another sentence. [Be careful out there.]

Now at the hatch, Marix actually stopped. She reached over and gently patted the bulkhead next to her and managed a smile, “I will be, Loki. Just make sure you’re here when I get back.”

[Right.] he would have grinned if he could have. [I’ll do my racing through the sky lanes when you aren’t looking and be back before you!]

Again, Marix rolled her eyes, and said quietly as she exited the ship, “I know you, Loki...you’d crash.”

If he said anything back, and he probably did, Marix didn’t hear it. She specifically blocked out any response, knowing it was time to get to business and focus. Nar Shaada was...the same as it always was. So much like Coruscant with its huge, towering buildings and endless canyons between them, but a thousand times dirtier and dingier than Coruscant could dream to be.

The polluted, grey sky above was dominated by the equally-horrid looking sphere that was the planet Nal Hutta. They were on the other side of the Smuggler’s Moon, no where near the tower that had once been Halpak’s. So now, instead of a simple view of space...the horizon just showed something no one wanted to see, and so everyone looked down at their feet and around them, just in case they were being followed.

Marix knew the streets fairly well. She’d spent enough time with smugglers to know where she needed to be to find out pretty much anything. Those kind of places didn’t disappear over the years. They were kept running, be they bars, cafes, or just beat-up looking buildings, by the people who used them more than the owners as a safe haven from whoever was trying to enforce the ‘law’. Of course, said ‘law’ rarely made it anywhere near Hutt Space, and when it did it was in the form of bounty hunters who knew where they could and couldn’t go. Most of them did, at least.

It took an hour of walking down the not-so-crowded walkways high above the surface of the moon, which couldn’t be seen from this elevation, before Marix found what she was looking for. It was a tavern without a name as far as she knew. Everyone always just called it Soff’s Place after the grungy looking, pale-skinned Trandoshan that ran the place.

Marix was forced to duck slightly to not hit her head on the entrance, but thankfully the ceiling to the dark tavern was higher once she was inside. It was, like most taverns, dark, compact, and smelling of a thousand different things that were best left unidentified. There were circular tables in a seemingly random placing across the bulk of the main room, with a bar against the left wall that dominated most of the side. Beyond tiny, very dim lamps at the tables, the bar itself had the only collection of lights.

Approaching the bar, Marix slipped a small amount of credits onto the counter and took a seat with her back to Soff. She gave him a careful look before ordering a Corellian Ale, then let her eyes scan over the occupants of the place without looking like she was actually paying attention to any of them at all. She’d handed the Trandoshan a good twenty extra credits than the drink cost, and he would have been smart enough to know why.

She didn’t want any questions or to be bothered. With the extra money, she could sit where she was and simply not be bothered at all. It also meant she could use her sensitive ears and skill in the Force to take in the various hushed conversations within the place...and Soff wouldn’t throw her out like he might someone who didn’t give him a generous tip.

A hard sound on the counter caused Marix to turn and see her ale there. Soff, a big, grey-scaled lized, essentially, simply gave her a nod before tapping the bar with a clawed finger and moving off to server others. He said nothing. She also kept quiet, not even offering a nod of thanks. Now satisfied that she wouldn’t be stabbed in the back, Marix turned around to face the bar, leaned forward and began to take slow sips of her ale while she focused on the sounds around her.

First, she let the Force guide her attention. Anxiety permeated the entire building...that wasn’t a surprise. Most everyone came here to hide out from something. There was fear, anger, hatred...all around in pockets here and there. It wasn’t long before she realized that it was going to take more than just feeling out the place. It was hard to get any information at all when she really didn’t know what she was looking for...so, she turned to her ears.

“I don’t trust that Varith! Slimy little Hutt will vape us in a second if we so much as turn our backs on—“ the voice was hushed but frantic, and it sounded to be in the back of the room.

”Twenty thousand or I walk,” this one was stronger, harder...definitely not human. There was an accent that Marix couldn’t pinpoint but she didn’t bother to turn around and look.

“Kee chai chai cun kuta?,” another was saying, in Huttese, this one more nasally but managing to keep at a quiet level so as not to be picked up by many others. Sadly, it was just idle questioning and nothing of interest.

“I hear they made a good deal...” that was a Corellian accent if she’d ever heard one.

“Hwen dorix bijunize?” someone speaking Bocce. Something about traveling...that was one of the few languages Marix didn’t have a firm grasp on. However, she had enough of a knowledge to pass it off as more idle conversation.

“...haven’t seen them in months. Probably lost to da Vong like da rest,” a quieter voice, but while it was closer to what she was listening for, Marix still passed it by and continued to listen to the mess of conversations around her.

Wait.

Marix quickly filtered through the voices she was hearing and latched onto one from before. It was the Corellian. Gruff sounding...and now quieter, but she could definitely hear it, “With the Vong. Somethin’ about lettin’ em go straight through ‘ere without a fight. Stayin’ neutral.”

There was a second voice nearest to this one, and it was definitely a response. This one was gravely, and it had a certain tone to it that told Marix the speaker’s vocal cords weren’t designed for Basic, “Like thee guud old dayz. But Vong are no Empiire.”

“Hutts are comfy with it, though,” the Corellian responded, “Old Gorla sounded like he got the advantage in the deal, even.”

“And you beeelieeeved hem?”

“Not a bit,” the Corellian lowered his voice, “But they’re sounding pretty smug. Sounds to me like there’s lots of money to be made from Gorla now that he’s playin’ both sides.”

That was all Marix needed.

By now, she’d finished the ale. She looked up to meet the eyes of Soff, who caught the look. Marix gave him a nod of thanks, then, as she placed the empty mug back onto the bar, dropped another pair of cred chips down with it. She then turned, glanced around in a way that anyone would have when leaving a place like Soff’s, and then was out.

She did not, however, walk far. Instead, Marix simply went across the walkway to a small alley, that looked like it had once been a cut-through to shorten pedestrian’s paths but was abandoned years ago, stopped in a sufficiently dark spot and waited, her sense alert and eyes focused on through the grey, misty air on Soff’s.

On the way out, Marix had identified the two speakers. A human and an insectoid Verpine. Now she just had to wait for them to leave, tail whichever one let their guard down first, and see where this trail let her go. Hopefully to this Gorla...though Marix knew she’d get to that Hutt one way or another before she was done digging.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 445: Father and Son Bonding

Night on Yavin IV could be very dangerous if one wasn’t careful. Even though Tobias had only been on the moon for a short time, he was well aware of the many native creatures. Some of the first lessons in the Force were learning to identify them, both for the practical purposes of honing one’s Force technique and knowing what the local creatures felt like. He was filled with a sense of unease the entire trek through the thick jungle, but kept his ears, eyes, and sense in the Force good and alert...and nothing approached beyond a distance to curiously watch him.

After the surprisingly short trek in the darkness of the moon, with the gas giant of Yavin not visible in the sky above during this night, Tobias stood looking at the Temple from the day before. There was much more of a haunting quality to it in the night air, with the blue-grey mist rising off of the nearby lake doing nothing to help. But he didn’t let this affect him...at least, not much.

He stood in front of the entrance again, that dark corridor that was blacker than black. A part of him felt it would have been a good idea to morph back to his Alraxian body. Not only could he have heard things better that way, but his eyes could see much, much better...especially in the darkness. But Tobias shook that off. He would do this as a human. The darkness was part of the test. Negating that, even though he was not technically human, was too close to running away for him. He came here as a human, and he would stay here that way.

A few deep breaths, and Tobias decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He clenched his fists at his sides, then let out a last breath and relaxed his body and mind as best he could. Then, calmly, he started in. Remembering the place fairly easily, Tobias simply started walking forward in the blackness, unable to see his hand when he put it up in front of his face. Since it rendered him completely blind, he turned to his other senses.

As Marix had taught him, he let his ears focus on his own footsteps. The echo helped to determine what he was walking on and how close the walls were...and, if he was careful enough, if there were side corridors. With his nose, even the weaker human nose, he could pick up a smell that wasn’t the dank disgustingness of the Temple’s interior...a clearer smell might hint at hidden passages or other openings...or dangers. A trick Jyren taught him he also quickly adapted, reaching out to his right side until he found the stone wall. Tobias kept his hand there as he walked, making sure was he going the same direction as best he could.

But most importantly, he opened himself up to the Force. The second he did that, the oppressive, heavy and cold feeling that permeated the Temple bore down on him. At first he had trouble breathing, and had to stop and take time to force himself to keep calm, knowing that it was the strength of the Dark Side, or something like that if there wasn’t actually a Dark Side, that was doing this. After a good half minute, Tobias started walking again.

It took fifty four steps before he felt something different. It was not in the Force, but under his boot. Instead of the usual stone flecks and pebbles, something crushed under his foot and he heard a cracking noise. Tobias stopped and tried to place himself...it didn’t take long. That was where the glowrod had first shattered. That meant he was close to the open chamber.

He started walking again, making sure to count his steps the entire way if only to keep him focused as he had no other markers. With each step, he felt the Force bearing down on him more and more, something prodding at his mind like a predator testing its prey. He did his best to defend against these, but found out it was much harder to do that and keep track of how far he’d walked to get where he was.

Thirty eight steps later and the wall left his hand. Tobias stopped then, moving to his right and feeling that the wall moved out at a sharp angle. He’d found the room...but there was no change in the smell of the place or the light...though he did note his footsteps were sounding slightly different.

Okay. Now the hard part.

There were steps in the room. Small, and only a few from what he remembered, but they led down to the center area where the pillars were. It would be very easy to simply fall down them in this darkness. Not only that, but he’d have to leave the wall and could get easily lost in this place if that happened.

Now it was time to trust the Force.

Doing his best to push through the natural weight of the Temple’s presence in the Force, Tobias opened himself up to it even more to attempt to actually see through it. As he did so, his hand left the wall. The Force tried to tighten the air around him, but he still pushed against it, forcing it to let him see like he knew it could...

His eyes opened, or at least, he was fairly sure they opened, to see a blue-white view of the room. Maybe his eyes were closed. All that mattered was that, while concentrating strongly, Tobias could see. He could see the blurry, somewhat indistinct pillars and the objects on them...three swords in the middle, a single empty pillar there, too, then the other three looked to hold simple, odd-looking pyramid-like objects.

And in front of them all, arms crossed across a large torso and a neutral look on his dangerous features, was Ket Halpak, “You’ve come back.”

The words weren’t spoken. Or, at least, Tobias was almost sure his ears didn’t hear them. He also didn’t see Halpak’s mouth move.

“You’re still dead,” Tobias said back, speaking out loud and part of him still wondering if he was seeing all of this with his eyes or not.

The figure of Ket Halpak shook slightly in what could have been a slight laugh, but Tobias heard nothing. Halpak did not move, and again, neither did his mouth, but Tobias heard him, “I am proud you listened to me, my son. It does not do well for you, a Halpak, to run from a fight.”

“I did not come back here for a fight, Halpak,” the last word was spoken like the curse it really was, “And I came back because a BlueIce does not leave a task undone.”

“Really?” a look of amusement was on Halpak’s face now, though again he wasn’t actually speaking and not even moving really, “BlueIces are political idiots. They are the ones who enslaved us. They disown any children with eyes like ours and enslave them, too.”

It was then that Tobias noted Halpak’s eyes were a sold, slightly-glowing silver that strongly contrasted against the blue-grey tone of everything else he was seeing. But he didn’t let this intimidate him, and shook his head, “They took me in when you threw me out. They let me make my own choices where you enslaved me just as you claim they did to you. Times have changes since you’re death, Halpak.”

Finally, Halpak moved. He took one step forward, unfolded his arms, and pointed a single, accusing finger across the chamber to Tobias, “Do not use your own name as a curse.”

“It is not my name,” Tobias ground the words out as calmly as he could manage considering the situation, “And it is a curse. You were a curse.”

“And you are a disgrace to my legacy!” when Halpak yelled this, Tobias was sure his ears weren’t hearing it because they were the only part of him that didn’t hurt. A shockwave of the Force slammed into him with the words, nearly sending him into the wall however far behind him it was.

But Tobias held his ground, digging his feet in as best one could do with stone under them, and growled back, “Your legacy deserves nothing less!”

And that was it.

“Enough!” Halpak’s yell was as powerful as before, but Tobias had been ready for it and just felt the strong push of it against him, “This was your chance, child. I told you before that I am not as dead as you think. I am very much here, and if you will not accept who you are then you will be dealt with as who you wish to be. Accept your heritage, my son, or I will have no choice but to end my line.”

Tobias took two steps foward, standing at the edge of the steps and actually able to look down at Halpak despite their height difference. He planted his feet again, stood as tall as he could, and spoke firmly, “My father is dead. He died protecting his people, his family...not trying to murder them. He did not betray his people. My father, my real father, is a stronger man than you could have ever hoped to be, Halpak...and he killed you.”

The words echoed through the chamber and then it faded into silence. The silver slits of Ket Halpak’s eyes narrowed as he examined Tobias, and there was a strong sense of probing through the Force...but Tobias fended it off with all of his strength while still focusing on the Force to help his sight.

Slowly, and without a real sound, still, Ket Halpak drew a long, metal blade from his side. He held it in front of him, then looked through its blurry form and straight into Tobias’ very core. The words he ‘spoke’, Tobias only felt.

So be it, BlueIce.

And then the image took a single step forward before bounding straight for Tobias withe a push of the Force...but the one footstep sent a sudden tremor of fear through Tobias because it was like nothing else. It wasn’t soundless. It didn’t just appear in his mind. He heard it. He heard the echo. It was real.

In the seconds as Ket Halpak dove towards the young human, Tobias realized he could see the figure with his own eyes, and not through the distorted image of the Force.

He was real.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 446: Back to the War

The war, and it was a true war now, was not going well. For a time, Rulae Nok wondered if it wasn’t just a series of defeats. But now, after a few major defeats, the New Republic government seemed willing to accept the threat was real and not only declare it to be a war, but to actually dedicate the entire might of the military to the effort. For the moment, it was defense after defense, losing planets and falling back...

Through it, Rulae had spent his time working to rebuild his squadron and train the new recruits as best as was possible. But the Vong did not stop to let the Zephyrs catch their breath. It was just a month ago that Ord Mantell came under attack. Since the beginning of the war, the planet had become a place where refugees from lost words had gathered...and then the Vong took it. Rulae had wished he had been there to fight, but it hadn’t been possible.

Instead, he’d been sitting in an officer on Coruscant looking at potential recruits and, even worse, reports. A month since the loss of Ord Mantell and still, the Zephyrs weren’t back together. Rea’tin Lor, who had been Jyren’s wingmate, had not yet returned from wherever it is she had gone to. Rulae had pretty much put her up to it, but he had at least expected some kind of contact but...three months now and no word. The thought that she was dead did not escape him, as with the way things were going in the galaxy, it would not have surprised him.

Those who had remained were doing their best to assist Rulae when he would let them. They weren’t green recruits anymore. They were pilots who had survived three heavy engagements, which was saying something considering the life expectancy of most starfighter pilots. So now they were learning about the possible recruits, and even helping to select some of them.

But that came to and end before they’d managed to get a full roster together. With Ord Mantell lost to the Vong, even more refugees had been displaced. The government of Gyndine decided to accept refugees to assist in the effort of relocating so many millions. And with that, came the fear of the planet being taken by the Vong like Ord Mantell. The already stretched forces of the New Republic military were pushed to their limits even more to protect the planet and its refugees...and someone, somewhere up in Starfighter Command volunteered Rulae to oversee the organization of the defense squadrons that were on the planet.

Which meant that now, Rulae was not at a desk. That was about the only positive thing he could currently come up with.

Gyndine might once have been a beautiful planet, but it was hard to tell now. There were forests, lakes, oceans, and fairly large cities all over, but now it was crowded with millions of refugees displaced by the Vong invasion. He’d arrived two standard days earlier, alone, and wondering if the Zephyrs back on Coruscant could manage to not get dragged around like he had been.

He let out a short sigh before looking out the window he was standing next to. Rulae was on the third level of small building in one of the cities near the planet’s equator. He didn’t remember the name of the place, and, honestly, wasn’t sure if he’d even been told it when the shuttle had taken him down. The fleet hadn’t come with him. The Admiral and his ships were still docked at Fondor, repairing and getting a short rest while technically being a part of the local defense force.

Rulae’s red eyes scanned the streets he could see. Gyndine had been a rather industrial planet from the looks of things, not at all as backwater as some worlds were that weren’t in the Core. It was then that he heard a voice. Looking down, Rulae saw a small crowed gathered in a nearby square, centered around a pair of humanoid figures that were shouting about...something.

It was hard to hear them.

The reports he’d been handed on the shuttle flight down talked about the local population being in a tense state due to the influx of refugees, and from the animated way the two humanoids were going on with, Rulae had a feeling it wasn’t a very positive gathering. The marines that were now on the ground with the other defense forces that had been shifted to sorting out the refugees could probably have dealt with this without trouble...if there were any around. But the planet was so overloaded now that everyone was overworked and overstretched.

A part of him felt like he should do something, but the rest of him knew the reality of the situation. If he went down there, alone and in uniform, and tried to break that up...he’d be killed if he was lucky. That wouldn’t be because he was a Duros, as it would have been back in the Empire’s days, or because he was in uniform, but just because groups like that had a way of turning into angry mobs far too easily. Provoking it wouldn’t help...and so, maybe, that’s why it was left there. Someone was probably watching it...at least, someone else.

A muffled been sounded from the single desk within the small office that he’d been assigned to. Rulae closed his eyes a moment, not wanting to be bothered. But then the beep sounded again and he gave up, opened his eyes, and walked over to the desk. It took a moment to push off the piles of datafilm that were strewn across the desk to reveal the built-in comlink, but when he did clear it, he hit the small switch to its side and said, “This is Commodore Nok.”

“Commodore,” it was a strong, very deep voice that Rulae knew immediately to be Commander Ilkana, the man in charge of Gyndine’s Defense Fleet, “A group of unidentified vessels has just exited hyperspace at the edge of the star system.”

Rulae’s blood went cold. They knew it had been coming. It was logical. But...why they came for refugee planets was just beyond everyone’s comprehension.

“I’ll get the squadrons in the air, sir,” the Duros spoke in his level, official voice.

“Good,” a nod could somehow be heard in the man’s deep voice, even through the comlink, “I need everything we have in orbit in a matter of minutes.”

“Already on it, sir,” and he was. There was another switch on the desk near the comm, it was the building’s general alarm. It was also the general alarm for the hangar, which was connected to this building. The pilots would be hearing it and should be scrambling to their ships immediately.

And then Rulae hesitated. The expression he had on his face couldn’t be read by the Commander, as there was no holo to go along with it. So, uneasily, Rulae realized he had to speak what usually didn’t need to be said, “Sir...if you’ll excuse me.”

“Of course, Commodore,” the deep voice sounded apologetic, which meant the man would have been able to read Rulae’s look if he’d seen it. That was always a good thing for a commander, in Rulae’s eyes. So many didn’t understand things like that. And then Ilkana added something that nearly made the Duros smile, “Good hunting out there, Nok. Ilkana out.”

Then the line went dead.

Rulae stood there for a moment, please to have that kind of man in charge of the defense forces despite the fact that they were now under attack. Then, the alarm seemed to finally get hold of him, and he tapped the desk before grabbing his personal comlink and starting at a run out of his office, through the corridors, and to the nearby hangar where his starfighter was waiting.

All the way, he was reporting what he knew to the commanders of the other squadrons.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 447: Disjointed Trail

Nar Shaada was practically designed for tailing people without them noticing. The high buildings, narrow walkways, and large amounts of people, along with the speeders providing a distraction via noise and movement made it extremely difficult to keep a focused attention all around oneself.

While an Alraxian would tower over most sentients that were walking the narrow skypaths, a human didn’t. The planet was crowded with humans, Rodians, Trandoshans, Duros, Bothans, Nikto, and a hundred other species...but there were no Alraxians.

Quietly, even in her mind, Marix was glad that her human body wasn’t tall. It meant she was good and hidden while she trailed the Verpine that had left Soff’s tavern. She had gone after the Verpine because he was easier to keep track of...and the Corellian moved much faster, meaning she lost sight of him early on. This Verpine wasn’t tall, but his pair of antennae were enough to let her keep a good eye on him from about twenty meters back.

He was walking slowly, taking his time, through the main skypaths that crossed some of the airspeeder lanes near the upper levels of the city. Here, the air wasn’t as grey or stench-filled as around Soff’s, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t pleasant. This was, roughly, the same level that Halpak’s tower was on...high enough that one could see the tops of the giant buildings and actually see the system’s lone star.

When the Verpine turned to a large building and entered, Marix waited to go in. Instead, she walked past it, then found a back alley and wrapped around to make sure it didn’t look suspicious and to check that she wasn’t being followed. Through the Force, she tried to lock onto the Verpine. He’d been a constant feeling of unease, making it hard to keep up with him in the flood of that emotion that seemed to permeate from Nar Shaada itself.

Five minutes later, she, too, entered the building. It was an apartment complex from the looks of things. The main entranceway was probably once an elegant lobby, but now more of a rundown, faded looking collection of old furniture and Hutt carvings. The hallways branched out into a large circle on both ends, with rooms on either side and a trio of turbolift tubes directly in front of her.

Marix didn’t stop moving, but slowed down. Though there was no one around, she would look suspicious just stopping and staring. So, she let the Force and her natural instincts guide her...and ended up heading right, down the circular corridor. As she walked down the corridor, her eyes scanned the area and she reached out with the Force...and found a familiar feeling. Relatively familiar, at least.

She stopped in front of a small door a good distance from where she’d started walking. It was nondescript, with nothing to identify it beyond a simple number on a box next to the doorway...12. Quickly, she checked herself.

Marix was wearing, over her standard morphsuit, a simple pair of black trousers and a jumper that matched it. She had left Jyren’s old jacket aboard Loki and wished, now, that she’d taken it with her. It had a way of really helping one look a mess. And, right now, if she was going to try looking like she worked for a Hutt, it would have helped...but, hopefully, this would do. After putting on the right expression of neutral anger, she banged on the door hard.

It took a bit, but the box with the number on it made a crackling sound and the odd voice scratched through it, “Wha...whooo is it?”

Marix turned and looked down at the thing, then noticed a small button next to the box. She reached down and pressed it and said in an angry voice, “Gorla sent me.”

Hopefully that was enough. She could only use generic phrases before so long, and it was going to be difficult to reach out to the Verpine and pick his brain for help...something about those insect species’ brains made them impossible for her to make heads or tails of. Not to mention that, if she could see a face, she couldn’t read it one bit. This was going to be purely based on her natural instincts...

The voice returned to the comm panel at the door, “What does heeee wants from me?”

Now time for another guess, and it was going to be pushing things but she knew how most people would react to it and hoped this Verpine would do the same, “Your last payment was short. This is your one chance to fix that.”

This time, there wasn’t a long wait before the Verpine responded, “I paid Gorla double what we first negotiated!” that was, admittedly, a bit loud for what Marix was used to hearing from people being accused by a Hutt agent. She wondered if he even cared about what his neighbors thought...or heard.

“And the account you gave was bogus,” Marix growled, pushing her luck even more and just hoping it would get the right reaction. Just to make sure, she added, “If you don’t open that door I will break that and more.”

There was a pause, then the door slid open. Marix could see a small entrance way that led into a barely-furnished room...and nothing else. Before she walked in, she said, “Step out where I can see you.”

Slowly, the thin, insectoid Verpine stepped out from a place behind a small wall near the far end of the room. There was nothing in his hands, which he was making a point to show. Good. He was afraid.

Keeping aware of everything around her, Marix slowly stepped in and walked towards the Verpine. His two large, alien eyes were watching her carefully, and it was hard to tell exactly how he was reacting beyond the fact that he’d been hiding when the door had opened. She stopped before entering the large, main room he was in, and instead stood in the small hallway where she could see everything around her, “Because Gorla values your services, he does not wish for me to harm you unless you are difficult...do you understand?”

Slowly, the Verpine nodded his oversized head. He didn’t say anything though...another good sign she had the upper hand.

“Now,” she spoke in an almost conversationally dangerous tone that most Hutt thugs liked to use, “Why the account you gave Gorla didn’t clear doesn’t matter to me, so don’t bother with that. I’m here to get the money you owe him. If you don’t have, we will go, together, and get it. So, now, what you need to do is to tell me whether you are going to hand me the credits right now...or if we have to take a walk.”

“I-I...” the high-pitched voice stuttered, then the Verpine waved his long arms, “I have it...”

Thankfully, Marix knew that most Hutt contacts had a way of cheating their bosses. It wasn’t too hard to guess about it and sound truthful to scare them into thinking someone knew something. When the Verpine moved to get something, turning away and heading towards a small desk, Marix called to him, “Move slowly, and if you do anything that makes me nervous I will kill you before you can do a thing.”

The Verpine slowed down. He took a long time to make sure she could see what he was doing, digging through a desk drawer. In a moment, he withdrew a small credit chip. When he turned around, he was still, intelligently, unarmed and slowly walked to her and extended his hand with the chip, “This...this...has iiit all...”

“Thank you,” she reached out, took the credit chip calmly, then, with her other hand, snapped out and grabbed his hand. With a strength helped by the Force, she crushed the small, long-fingered hand with all of her strength, which got a disturbingly high pitched screen from the Verpine.

When he reached out to get her to let go or attack in some way, he got no where. Marix spun him around by his arm, snapped it back behind his spine, which would have broken it if he’d been any other species that wasn’t so flexible, then threw the small-framed alien down to the ground on his face. She was on his back the second he hit, withdrawing a vibroblade from a sheath at the small of her back and carefully placing it up against the long neck of the Verpine...who stopped struggling immediately.

Leaning down slightly to put more of her weight on him, she said quietly, “Thank you for the money. Now you’re going to tell me everything you know about the Hutt dealings with the Vong.”

“Wha...Iii thought you were-“ the protest meant that Marix dug her knee into his small back, getting another screech as his hard exoskeleton was crushed slightly, “Iii know nothings!”

“Lie to me and again and I will kill you,” she snapped, pressing the blade, with its vibration to help cutting actually off, right up to the exoskeleton covering his neck, “That Corellian told you about it!”

At hearing that, the Verpine seemed to give up. He obviously wasn’t a fighter, as he’d not put up a single fight this entire time. She was glad it was going easily. In a defeated voice, the Verpine said, “Theey...make deeeal with Yuuzhan Vongs....Hutts not fight. Hutts stay out of wars...let Vong through to kill New Republic. Vong not fight Hutts...Vong leave Hutts alone and go to Core.”

Marix sighed inwardly. Nothing she hadn’t heard. From the sound and feel of it, that was all he knew. So, another tactic, “Where is your Corellian friend?”

“Iii...don’t knows!” the Verpine struggled against the pain he was having to deal with in addition to the threat to his life, “Harent goes alls over. Never tells meeee whereee. Heee not trust meee enoughs to tells me whereee hees live.”

It sounded truthful. Again, nothing useful. So...one more chance, “Where is this Gorla?”

“Heee’ll kills meee if I tell!”

The Hutt probably would. Especially considering what Marix was going to do when she found him.

But...

“He’ll kill you if he finds out,” Marix stated flatly, “I’ll kill you right now if you don’t tell me.”

A few beeping-like sounds escaped the Verpine that Marix took as a kind of stuttering. After a few of them, Marix dug her knee in deeper to get a long screech which slowly turned into words, “Stop! Iii tells! Gorla...Gorla on Ryloth...”

Ryloth?! The Twi’leks would lose their minds if a Hutt was on their planet. He would be competition right there under this noses, not to mention that the Twi’leks were fully supporting the New Republic during the war...suddenly it made sense why the Verpine had been so hesitant to speak it.

Without another word, she reached down with her free hand and, right after slipping the knife away, slammed the Verpine’s head hard into the ground. He stopped moving.

Marix quickly got to her feet and pocketed the credit chip while putting the knife back in its place and heading out. Now she had another destination on a trail that she wasn’t sure why she was following...or where it was going.

As she left the apartment building and started the long trek back to Loki, she went over it all.

A ship left the Gateway to Mygeeto...the Vong were there with Peace Brigaders, who all seemed to be the kind of people normally found under the Hutts...so then she went to Nar Shaada. After listening around, she found that the Hutts were making deals of neutrality with the Vong...

Did that mean the Hutts and the Peace Brigade were connected?

No.

No...the Peace Brigade seemed to be actively working for the Vong...then what was going on here? She’d followed a trail to protect her people and now was getting caught up in some kind of political mess within this war. And yet...while the obvious thing to do was to duck out and only make sure the trails to the Empire were cut, something told her it was important to keep following this. And if there was one thing Marix had learned over the years, it was to truth her instincts.

Currently, they were telling her that this was very important...and she needed to figure it out as quickly as possible.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 448: Dark to Light

Immediately, reflexes that Marix had drilled into Tobias from a young age reacted. Despite his body’s best efforts to freeze in place through fear, his reflexes took control and threw him to the side. Tobias rolled across the hard, stone floor of the ancient temple, coming up to a knee and looking up through the darkness. He could not longer hold his concentration to use the Force to see, and so was looking at a pitch blackness...with the faintest image of a figure moving.

There was a glint of metal for a half second through the black and something in the Force screamed at Tobias. He did not resist it, and dropped to the floor in a forward roll. At the end of it, he pushed himself up to his feet...coming into contact with something solid. He hit the object, which felt like the body he expected it to be, a full second before he was close enough to see that it was, in fact, Ket Halpak. The much taller Alraxian was glaring down at him with a look of surprise, and in another second, he was on his back with Tobias on top of him, pinning him down as best he could manage.

To the side, a clang of metal...the sword that Halpak had held as it dropped to the stone and, hopefully, out of reach. It was a struggle to hold an Alraxian adult down, especially for a human, but somehow, Tobias was managing it. His knee was dug into the larger being’s stomach, pushing hard enough that too much movement was likely causing a great deal of pain, making it that much easier for him to hold Halpak’s arms down.

“Finish it,” the words were spoken by Halpak. They were no longer just in Tobias’ head and possibly not real. They echoed in the room. Tobias could feel them...the air that was moved by them...something had happened here important and he’d missed it.

Or had he?

It was then that Tobias finally seemed to hear the words that were spoken rather than the sound, itself.

Finish it.

Yes.

That was what he came here to do...to finish it.

When Tobias released Halpak’s left arm to put a hand around the man’s throat...he didn’t notice the struggling had stopped. But when he place his hand around the neck of this evil person who should have already been dead...seconds away from letting his hand morph to form long claws that would end his life...Tobias stopped.

He stared down at the face of this man...seeing the biological evidence of his paternity...in the face shape...things he’d seen in a mirror here in front of him, and now, smiling.

And then, slowly, Tobias stood up. He let out a few long, deep breaths, calming himself from a rage that had been building almost out of no where, then looked down into the darkness to where he knew Ket Halpak was, “I don’t have to finish this the way you want me to. My father finished that a decade ago when you were killed. I can do nothing to harm you now...except for this.”

Tobias took a very short moment to get his bearings, then turned, and walked in the darkness to the corridor that would lead to the exit of the temple. He should have been afraid...terrified, even, but he felt...felt...there wasn’t a word for it. Not in Basic or Alraxian.

Admittedly, it took a great deal of effort for the walk to not become a run. There was still a heavy presence bearing down on him in all directions. A sense of danger...distant but watching. Waiting, even.

“Have they taught you nothing?!”

The voice echoed down the corridor at Tobias, or rather, past him. It took a moment for him to realize just how close the words had been. He spun around, looking into the darkness and, of course, not being able to make out anything. But even in the black, his eyes could detect movement. The slight hint of grey that darted across his vision was accompanied by an almost screaming feeling in the Force.

The air moved next to him, but not before Tobias’ reflexes took a hold of him again and he ducked low. The strike came close enough to him that he was able to see, very clearly, a sharp-clawed hand pass over him. Still crouched low, Tobias naturally looked upwards...and saw two bright silver eyes glaring down at him.

The Force screamed in his head again, and Tobias didn’t fight it, finding himself rising up some and stepping to the side as another claw struck at him. But then, to his surprise, something caught him in the back...hard. He cried out in both shock and pain that was cut off when his face hit the stone wall on the other side of the corridor. Tobias’ head felt light and he had a feeling that, if it wasn’t so black around him, his vision had gone blurry, too.

He managed to stumble back a couple of steps as he reeled from the sudden pain. Tobias lost his footing, then hit the ground hard, his head snapping back and adding another sharp pain to it all. Before his head could stop spinning, a large, very powerful hand wrapped around Tobias’ neck and, through the darkness, a face appeared...Halpak’s face...

“Never turn your back on your enemy,” Halpak hissed at Tobias through sharp fangs.

Tobias could feel the hand being tightened around his neck. He couldn’t even cough, but through the pressure, somehow managed to cry out, “You are...not...my...enemy!”

The pressure stopped.

Ket Halpak stared down at Tobias with a look of shock on his features, but he seemed unable to say anything, or even move. Still not moving, either, Tobias found himself speaking anyway, “You...used me...manipulated me...you killed...thousands...but...but you are dead. You...died before I even knew who you were,” slowly, Tobias found that he was having less and less trouble speaking, “No matter what you do...I am not afraid of you.”

And then he was alone.

Tobias lay there, staring up through the darkness as he lay on his back, head still hurting on both ends. For a few minutes, he didn’t move, unsure of...of...everything. But slowly, as he decided he wasn’t in the best place to sit and think, Tobias crawled up to his feet. His head was spinning still, but with a hand on the wall as before, he started the slow walk to the small light at the end of the corridor.

When he finally stepped out of the Temple, the both Yavin and its star were high in the sky above him. He looked up to the huge gas giant and its star, then back down to the jungle and lake in front of him. It was all slightly out of focus and he couldn’t help but notice that none of it was sitting very still, either.

“Tobias.”

For a very short moment, Tobias thought it was Halpak again. But then he managed to identify both the voice and its direction, and slowly turned to see the blurry form of Master Ral standing only a few paces away. But the movement made Tobias’ head spin even more, and he finally lost his balance completely. He failed at an attempt to catch himself but, by the time he hit the ground, the blood loss had been too much for him and Tobias finally blacked out.


((Well, you guys beat me. I've been working on a series of sketches for all of you who keep reading this...headshots of every single cast member through this story. The plan was to have them done by the time this thread reached 20k views...and...well...you beat me.

So now that you guys were too fast for me, I guess I'll have to work even faster. So far, three pages are sketched, with about 20 people on them so far. Another page is half done, and one is completely finished, even with colour. Soon...I shall post them. Will try to get an order of appearance thing going, but they are a bit random in the groupings.))

 

[Angcuru]

That sounds great, I'm looking forward to it.